jimmuller 

Speaking of the Minuteman...

In Arlington Center the Minuteman Bikeway crosses Mass Ave. To continue east on the MM you have to cross Mass Ave and turn left. Arlington recently put up new traffic lights and painted bike lanes, very well-thought out too and effective. So now you wait for a stoplight, then follow a bike lane 2/3rds of the way across Mass Ave to a large green rectangle with a white bike symbol and left-turning arrow painted on the road, then wait for the cars' go-straight traffic light. Kinda' hard for even brain-dead drivers to misinterpret. But it's out in front of the stopped traffic. I figure that as a courtesy to the drivers whom I just pulled in front of I should move off promptly when the stoplight changes to pull over to the bike lane on the shoulder. It's all about watching the light and being ready. A bike can outrun most drivers to 5mph and stay even to 10mph, so with that head start if the cyclists are ready the cars are never inconvenienced.

Well, yesterday I pulled up to the first stoplight and waited alone for a few seconds. Then another cyclist younger and bigger than I (Dare I insult an entire decade and call him a millennial?) pulled up to my right and inched slightly ahead, then a few more fell in behind us. When the light changed the millennial to my right cut me off as we left the sidewalk but then idled through the intersection, veering left as if I wasn't there at all. Okay...

So I took a place in the big green square and waited. But now I'm thinkin', what do I do when the light changes? Let this guy go first as he apparently wants to do? But if he goes slowly like he just did I'll be stuck in front of a bunch of possibly impatient drivers, and being discourteous too. Better him alone than both of us. So I decided to jump on it. I knew the light pattern, I was in a good gear, and I can ride.

Now I may seem like just a 5'9", 160lbs gray-beard riding an old skinny-tube steel bike with DT shifters and toe clips/straps. Okay, I really am a 5'9", 160lbs gray-beard, but the bike was an Italian racer, hand-made with Columbus SL tubing, wearing high-performance wheels and tires. And I can usually slip my feet into the straps faster than most modern riders can clip in. When the light changed I checked that no driver was running the red, then I jumped on it.

The rider to my left fell in behind me quickly and I think that irritating millennial fell into third. I picked up my left pedal easily and seconds later heard the clicks of clipless pedals clipping in. I hammered the 80 yards to the right turn at the Kickstand Cafe then the left back onto the MM. The second place rider was quick too and stayed right on my tail. I couldn't see further back with my mirror. I didn't back down then because it's discourteous to cut in front of another rider then slow down. After maybe another hundred yards when the MM finally cleared enough for safe passing I pulled over, slowed a little, and waved the guy behind me around. As he went by he called back "You jumped all of us back there at the light. Good job!" About fiften second later as I was cruising comfortably that millennial guy shot past me.

He! I may seem like just a 5'9", 160 lbs gray-beard on an old steel bike. But things aren't always what they seem.