That cyclist's one comment about my light still bugs me

I was stopped at the 4th and Market intersection last Tuesday, sitting in the bike lane behind a delivery truck that had no business being there. This older guy on a commuter bike pulls up next to me and goes, "You know, you can just go around him, the painted line doesn't have magic powers." I laughed it off but it stuck with me because I've been treating bike lanes like they're sacred zones, even when they're blocked or useless. I mean, he wasn't wrong, I sat there for a full light cycle instead of just moving over to the car lane for 10 seconds. Has anyone else had a moment where another rider called out your own overthinking and you couldn't stop thinking about it?

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1 Comment

amy_murphy151d ago

Ha, man, that comment is gonna live rent free in your head for years lol. But like, what's the actual difference between sitting behind that truck and just making a safe move into the car lane? Are we really that scared of being yelled at, or is it more about feeling like we're breaking some unwritten rule? The way I see it, the line is a tool, not a cage. So my question is, after he said that, did you catch yourself looking for other spots where you're being overly rigid, or was it just that one specific moment that stuck? Because I bet you're the type to follow the rules to the letter even when they make zero sense, and that's gotta be exhausting. Maybe we all need a random stranger to tell us to chill out every once in a while.