share the road.

There was a hit and run on Empire Grade in Santa Cruz today, right up there beside the college. It was a 25-year-old. The vehicle managed to break their mirror off on this bicyclist and send him soaring 20 feet, but did not pull over. Two things piss me off about that - the drivers on Empire grade and hit-and-runners. How the fuck do you sleep at night?

I realize the curves are fun, and everyone is in a hurry to drive the whopping 12-15 mile drive from that little hill to your place of employment. Even if you're commuting, there is never an excuse to be going so quickly you kill a human being. So what do you do if you (oops!) just happen to stumble (?) into murder?

News Flash: If you hit someone or something with your car, it's good policy to pull over. Not only that, but it might save you some good, quality jail time, a few restless nights, and the possibility of having an angry, torch wielding mob at your doorstep/place of employment. Yeah, they will find you, Red/Maroon Nissan with a missing mirror and/or additional damage (think car with bicycle bounce-marks) - you left pieces of yourself behind. Fucking shame on you, asshole. You're the reason things suck a lot of the time. You're the reason your kids are going to grow up in a world full of people like you.

That said... Those of you who take the risk of bicycling up Empire Grade: Not all of you are bad, but those of you who are ruin it for those of you who might go unnoticed doing the right thing. You guys are fucking pricks, and you ride in little clique-d rows and you trail slowly into the middle of the road and peddle a nice, steady too-fucking-slow.

Get your fucking whiny asses into your little bike lane, and quit your bitching. If you want to talk about equality, get your ass down to the dmv, stand in line, take a test, register, fill out paperwork, and purchase some insurance to pay for the damage you do running into OUR CARS.

Ahem.

Also: They're Lights and Turn Signals. Each of the aforementioned groups may participate from learning from them. If you want people to see you, use lights. If you want people to not run into your dumb ass, use your turn signal.