A spot of bother

Most people know me as a free and easy kinda person, there's not much that bothers me. But (OLD) PEOPLE THAT CAN'T FUCKING DRIVE, do. Ready, set, rant!

< rant >
Right. I'm riding along in my usual kinda way; wasn't speeding or really weaving, filtered some lanes, took off reasonably, hugged some corners and generally enjoyed the 20 mins that I have to myself on my ride home from work.

After taking a nice left hander (thanks to Main Roads WA for resurfacing that one, nice job boys!) off Tonkin Hwy onto Morley drive, it was the home straight. Nothing too taxing from there, so I was just on my merry way.

I actually saw a fellow rider without a helmet on. Man, he looked wired. I could see how massive his pupils were through his sunglasses. Weird. Aaaaaaanyway....

So I'm riding along down a hill, at the correct speed mind you, where any normal person in a car would go "oh, there's a bike, won't pull out yet", but NO, not one, but TWO fucking cars pull out in front of me. Now, they're coming in from my right, and I'm in the left of two lanes. Again, the logical choice would be to pull into the lane with no traffic ie: the lane without ME in it; ie: the right lane. Car 1 pulls in, which I've seen and slowed down, and Car 2 then pulls out and I'm like "oh, they'll stay in that lane" and then they keep going! I nearly collected myself into the arse-end of a Ford Explorer!

10 points for an excellent emergency brake; no smoke or locking up at all, very controlled and changed down gears at the end AND even gave her the old 12V horn... but then the adrenalin kicked in and ZOMG did I go fucking mental! I sped up to this old wench who luckily had her window down where I proceeded to serve about 100 profanities and gave her the regulation "what the fuck is wrong with your head?" sign language.

By then I was rattled. I was starting to shake a little. The reality had just kicked in. If I had been doing 80 in that 70 zone, I would have collected myself. Fair call. But, if she had looked for 1 second rather than half a second, she may not have pulled out on me. What if I had my high beams on rather than normal light? What about a high visibility vest? What if I was in a car with small children? Seriously, if everyone, and I mean everyone from cars, trucks, taxis to scooters and motorbikes looked where they were going and weren't so complacent, there wouldn't be close calls like this. And I bet you right now, they happen every day.

Now, I read a statistic today, that motorcyclists have made up 27 of 166 road fatalities in WA this year so far. Twenty-seven (that's about 16%). Regardless of who's fault, there's people out there dying in vehicle accidents. So please, look out for yourself, and the girl on the bike next to you, or the dude in the van behind you. I do however want to conclude by thanking those people that DO do the right thing and look where they're going and are courteous on the roads. I know you're out there... somewhere...
< /rant >