A Vicious Cycle

(I’m biking up the final, steepest hill on my route home from work. I spot ahead of me a huge SUV, stopped and blocking half the bike lane, so I decide to use my voice to let them know that I’m approaching.)

Me: “Get out of the bike lane!”

(I hear a voice from a car going the opposite direction:)

Voice: “You get out of the bike lane!”

(I decide to ignore the childish taunt and focus on the real problem ahead of me.)

Me: “Get out of the bike lane, please!”

(The car ahead finally starts to roll forward and vacates their illegal stop, but not before this little tidbit comes from the window of the car that is now slowly inching forward:)

Driver: “You could have just stopped, you know!”

(My mind nearly blue-screens at the audacity of someone who had been illegally parked across a marked bike lane, but I keep chugging uphill as I yell back:)

Me: “It’s a BIKE LANE!”

(Since this occurred one block from my apartment, when I got home my husband asked if I knew what all that yelling was about.)