On Sunday, which is yesterday today, we rode the tandem out to Concord. Had a nice picnic and stroll around the North Bridge. 45.25 miles on a very nice day.
On the way back we experienced an unusual experience, a triple courtesy. We were about to pass a pedestrian on the MM when we heard a woman's voice behind us "On your left." Then she (actually they) pulled back and waited. When we were all clear of the pedestrian they came around and she apologized for starting the first time, said she hadn't seen the pedestrian at first. Wow, that doesn't happen every day.
Today I commuted again. I saw several examples of exactly the opposite kind of behavior. This morning I was passed by a guy loafing along on an ebike, doing about double my speed. No call out, no nuthin', just blowing on by. That happens at least once every commute. I passed a pedestrian staring at his phone who turned slowly to the center of the bikeway, started back, stood there. When I called out "Heads up behind you!" he sort of lifted his head and gave every appearance of not being sure what planet he was on. On my return commute on the Fitchburg Cutoff two young women popped straight out of a totally blind side trail about 15ft in front of me. No warning, no nuthin'. I slammed on brakes, yelled Woah! Fortunately my brakes and reflexes are good and the lead rider had time to jump out of the way. For about 10msec I was sure I was going to t-bone her and then her friend would have run into us both. (That's the second time in two years a pair of non-thinking cyclists have done that to me on the F.C.) She called out Sorry! I called out You almost killed all three of us!
Between the crazy MM riders and the new road construction (still not fixing the badly patched areas) and the condo projects and the mad traffic my commute is getting quite stressful. Here's the choice, either ride my bike(s) to work or drive my one year old Porsche. Can you guess which way I'm leaning?