Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, here comes belligerent bike boy.
Belligerent bike boy is this college-student-looking dude who cruises around the neighborhood “at a high rate of speed” with his dog leashed to his bicycle. He’s always out at prime dog walking time when I’m out with Sawyer and Phoebe and other dogs and owners are strolling around our midtown neighborhood.
Even though biking with a dog seems incredibly hazardous – especially since belligerent boy is way too cool to wear a helmet and his bicycle and dog combo drives Sawyer wild – we usually don’t really care about bike boy.
We cared, however, when bike boy came barreling right at us.
Sawyer, Phoebe and I were on the sidewalk when bike boy came bolting out of a pathway, saw us on the sidewalk, then turned directly into us.
We were too stupefied by the stupidity to do much more than just stand there.
Of course, bike boy’s dog and Sawyer went at it.
Of course, this made bike boy fall off his bike.
We wonder what bike boy was thinking, or if he were thinking at all.
Once he got up, bike boy began to yell at us. He said we were in his way on the sidewalk every day. We were in the wrong, said he, because he was biking in the same direction as traffic, even though he was on the sidewalk. We were supposed to cross the street and use the sidewalk on the other side to “go with the traffic flow,” he said. Besides, he added, it’s easier for us to go into the street and out of his way, letting him have full reign of the sidewalk, since he’s on a bicycle.
We bring up bike boy because he illustrates so much of what is wrong with society:
1. Some people don’t give a dang about the laws.
2. Some people don’t give a dang about their neighbors (bike boy lives down the street from us and we’re also convinced he’s the one who left a bag of dog poo in our yard the last time we had a bike boy run-in).
3. Some people are pocked by false sense of entitlement.
4. Some people pick on women (bike boy NEVER pulls this stuff when I’m out walking the dogs with my beau).
5. Some people stink.
Have a nice day.
[tnipoll]
What do you think?
What would you do about belligerent bike boy?
Have you had similar encounters with folks who just don’t care?
Should we give bike boy the right of way even though the law is clearly on our side?
