Bike Fright

I can’t be the only cycluter (bicycle commuter) to have been made sport of by the motoring public. Please tell me there are other riders out there who have experienced the following juvenile attempt at humor.

I’m pedaling along peaceably, with nothing but the occasional crescendo of an internal-combustion engine approaching from behind ... and waning as it passes me by. Every so often, though, just as a car pulls up by my side, the passenger screams out his window with the intent to scare the sneakers off me.

No, I’ve never had a female do it. Only young males who think it’s the funniest thing since cow-tipping.

I hate to admit this, but it works. Yup, it spooks me every time and leaves my heart racing. I’d love to say I have some tips for minimizing the fright, but I don’t.

What I do have, however, is a fond recollection of one warm spring afternoon when a couple of guys passed me in a car. The passenger stuck his head out the rolled-down window and screamed. My heart jumped, but I regained my composure by the time I approached them a little later as they sat, unsuspecting, at a red light.

Just as I pedaled up beside the car, I turned my head and screamed at the passenger, who jolted in his seat like he’d been struck by lightening. I rolled on as the light changed and they remained stuck in traffic. Sweet revenge.

OK, so I don’t recommend such retaliatory action, but I just couldn’t help myself that time. I did it for every cycluter who’s ever been screamed at by a car passenger. That has happened to you, hasn’t it?