Road Rights… Road Rage on a Scooter
June 9, 2010 | 
Author I’m fortunate to live in an area where 2-wheel vehicles abound… both the motorized variety and the foot-powered variety. Boise, Idaho is usually a dry, fairly temperate climate at least 8 months out of the year… and there’s lots of beautiful country to explore, from high prairie/desert to rolling foothills to bona fide mountains.
So, despite the dire warnings in the motorcycle manual I studied to get my endorsement on my license, I have never found riding my scooter in this area to be particularly hazardous due to rude drivers. Quite the contrary… people have waved, admired my scoot, and been generally pleasant in every way.
Yesterday, that all changed.
I’m riding down one of our suburban streets, where I ride all the time, which has a middle turning lane. As I passed the library driveway exit on my left, a big luxury car comes roaring out towards me. As I was just preparing to move into the middle lane (which was about to turn into a left turn lane at the light), the car coming out when I was right there quite startled me. I didn’t swerve or anything, but he roared up behind me and then swerved into the right lane at a fairly high rate of speed, considering we were approaching a red light with traffic in front of us.
I have a temper; I admit it. And so I yelled something like, “Slow down, you a***hole!” (So now you know, I’m not as sweet as I might sound on the pages of my site… at least not if you get my dander up!) Well, as luck would have it, we ended up side by side at the light. His rear window had been down and he apparently heard me yelling, because he then rolled his driver’s side window down, looks at me mockingly with a smirk and says, “You should be riding that thing on the sidewalk, girlie…”
Girlie, really? In 2010? He thought he was really hot stuff in his luxury gas guzzler with his fancy business clothes on. I wasn’t impressed. I just spat back, “I have as much right to the road as you do, a**hole.” What a jerk! And then we went our separate ways.
I have to admit, I continued to sputter and mutter for quite some minutes, but in the end, I was grateful that he didn’t do anything more dangerous.
What about my readers? Have you ever encountered behavior like this while out on the road, scooting? Feel free to leave me some comments!
Written by Kathi MacNaughton - Visit Website
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Tags: 4 Responses to “Road Rights… Road Rage on a Scooter”
Ah, road rage…it’s like a rite of passage that every drivers in New York must go through. Some of their driving skills are insane. Many of them think scooters do not have the right to share the road with them. If I steer my scooter slightly off the center of the road, than immediately they will see it as an invitation to overtake me. At times like these, the only way to communicate my thoughts to those idiots is through foul language and the New York salute.
You need to know the rules on the roads for your safety and keep in mind to drive safely and have safety gears when riding your scooters.
I’m sorry that you experienced some road rage. That’s not good for your day. Fortunately, we get to ride our scooter (which always brings a smile on my face) while they’re stuck in their cage. I’m still new to scooters, but I have had people throw pop cans at me while I’ve been bicycling. Portland is a lot more bicycle-friendly than most places, and the traffic is so slow that my scooter is never holding-up any motorist back from going as fast as they would like. Still, I’m too fearful a rider that I’m always trying to get out of the way.
Having a temper doesn’t mean that you have to use it. After 65 years of living the best advice I can give you concerrning your temper is to CONTROL it. Let the other person (cager) lose their temper. In the long run you will feel much better about it. Please try to remember that the next time you feel your blood pressure rising! Losing your temper will only get you into trouble.