To the rude and ignorant MAMIL (male cyclist) on Coolamon Scenic Drive and Coorabell Road, between 16:30 and 17:00 on Monday March 23:
I twice gave you half the road by (a) stopping well behind you to allow an opposite-travelling vehicle to pass without putting you at risk (Coolamon Scenic lookout), and (b) drove slowly well behind you through the turns (Coorabell Rd) until there was adequate room to safely overtake you. That demonstrated my usual consideration around bicyclists.
Between those two events I stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. There was a wide grassy verge on our side of the road, but nowhere off-road to stop as the ground was very obviously a lake and quagmire; there were no other vehicles in sight – yet as you passed you yelled aggressively at me, ‘Get off the road!’
How dare you, whose vehicle contributes no money to the roads system while you demand equal access, demand that I ‘get off the road’! It’s cyclists like you, with your anti-car attitude, that give fellow cyclists a poor name among motorists.
You’ve lost any sympathy I might have had for you and your kind. Now, please, you get off the road until you learn some acceptable attitude and manners.
Gordon Haynes, (small red Mercedes), Federal
Hey Gordy. Wow, you must be upset. You hung onto your road rage for all this time,and bothered to spend hours compiling this letter detailing your experience to the letter, in the hope the whole shire will side with you and learn to hate all cyclists, universally, also. What about this, instead – “This was a great experience for me to be patient and forgiving, not appreciating the perspective (head space) of the cyclist, acknowledging we all make mistakes, and that this rider was in no way representative of the collective cyclist community around the planet. Also realising he may have been upset with the hitch hiker not me. And acknowledging I too have been reactive at in appopriate times, and wished for the patience of others at those times.” Or, I guess, you could just feel really pissed off, righteous, adamant, and make yourself sick over it. And others. Dig ?
WTF?! I held onto my anger for less than the 10 minutes it took me to get home. I spent a whole five minutes writing the letter. I did not condemn all cyclists, just the rude and ignorant ones. Don’t read into my letter what isn’t there.
I got over it then and there; I suggest you do so do.