Discrimination of a Cyclist

This Thursday night I had what I experienced as clear and very real encounter with discriminatory treatment. I had spent the majority of my working day confined to the hell of an automobile and spent most of the day driving to various parts of the North Alabama, when I finally returned to home I made the decision to ride bike to dinner partly because I had spent so much time in a car already, and partly to get in a bike ride which I attempt to make each and every night, but mostly because of the fact I have recently enjoyed every opportunity to commute by bike when my car is not necessary. When I arrived at Nothing But Noodles at Airport and Whitesburg drive I must have given the employees working a bad vibe. Was the fact I arrived on my bike with its brightly colored yellow tires wheels, or maybe it was the odd bag I came in wearing strapped from my shoulder across my chest with my yellow helmet and flashing light. Maybe it was my three quarter length pants or my messy disheveled hair I got from the Seven-mile ride. As I sat outside with my bike waiting on my food I begin to noticed more time than usual had passed without receiving my food and many people who had came in after me where receiving the food they had ordered, but I was patent thinking that maybe my particular order took longer than they other orders placed after mine so to pass the time I made a phone call to a friend and finally the owner of the restaurant came out to ask me if everything was OK or if I needed anything; I replied “Everything is OK except I have been waiting on my food for fifteen minutes” , I was not sure if it had actually been that long since I had been engaged in my phone conversation but approximately a minute later I received my food and then realized the time on my phone was twenty minutes from the time my receipt showed I placed my order. As I began to eat my food I noticed people who had arrived three to five minutes after me and where now leaving because that had already received their meals and where now finished.

If not for my negative experience with dinner my ride home involved an experience with a total asshole, which had no attention with sharing the road with me aggressively attempting to intimidate me and force me to the sidewalk. I was on the last stretch of my ride down a section Whitesburg where no alternative route through neighborhood streets was available. I was wearing a light that was brightly flashing to make myself clearly visible to motorist and I was as far right in the right lane as I could be. Most cars passed to the left with no consequence, but this dick head decided to ride at a few tens of feet behind with the high beams of his oversized Dodge Pick up truck with its obnoxiously loud and foul smelling Cummins Turbo Diesel engine; sure his truck is appropriate when there is need to tow 20,000 Lbs., but as transportation to dinner give me a fucking break! After a quarter mile of this attempt to show some kind a male dominance in his oversize truck as if we where two competing dogs this fuck finally passed me on the left side revving his beastly automobile while giving me a stare down as if I where the one with a problem.

So maybe people don’t discriminate against bikers or have clear agendas to fuck with them on the road in attempts to scare them and hinder their use of the road to ride their bicycles. Maybe I am just an asshole who went looking for problems, but it was hard not to notice the many stares I received from other costumers in the restaurant and the lack of service that I received as a customer. I felt as if all the other people perceived me as some degenerate; unworthy to enter the restaurant as if I had bummed or panhandled the money I was using to purchase my meal. Maybe it was coincidence, but I feel certain that many people do walk around with such a mentality about people on bicycles. To any of theses ignorant fucks who think such; there are many highly educated people with college and post graduate degrees who ride bicycles regularly not every person on a bike is some crack addicted convict running around on a bicycle because they can’t afford to sport around in an all-wheel drive Lexus SUV with a estimated gas mileage of 13 miles per gallon. These stupid people need to realize the facts and benefits of the cyclist on the road; as an example the next time the forecasted air quality is fair as opposed to poor they can say thanks to all of the cyclist commuting to work and school every day instead driving cars or they can be thankful that the use of bicycles as transportation slight lowers the demand of gasoline making it slightly less expensive than it could be. On that note of gasoline prices might be some what understandable; if not for the high price theses assholes would really use a lot of it if it where any cheaper, but the fact is the current situation and our consumption of gas is doing nothing more than destroying our environment and making billionaire oil owner even more fucking rich than ever. In conclusion get off my fucking case about riding a bike, stop burning so much fucking gas, kill your fucking SUVs, and get on a fucking bike you ignorant close-minded assholes.

posted by tyler