When I moved out to the rural America, I entered a new world of sorts. There is a vastness of nothing in many places. Nothing is defined as farms, open wire fences, trees, and farm animals blended together. A city slicker would feel as if they couldn’t function with the lack of buildings, noise and people around here. This world also eliminates the most common suburban staple I know, traffic lights. Instead of traffic lights, we have stop signs. To top off stop signs, we also have numerous railroad crossings.
I changed jobs shortly after moving out here, to make my commute easier and leave the hassle of Montgomery County. I found on my daily commute that I rarely used my horn. At least once a month I get stuck behind a tractor, pulling some sort of farm associated product, or even empty. I always patiently ride behind the farmer traveling about 10 mph until the farmer turns off or decides to let me pass. I never motion I need to get ahead, after all, I moved to rural America, I should be patient.
I notice things in rural American that I never noticed before being an hour away. People don’t always need to be in a hurry to get somewhere. People take the time to be friendly and give people things, like plants, firewood, or cookies. Then I discovered bicycle riders. Bicycle riders love rural roads. Even though there is only one lane in each direction, they like seeing the nothing I moved up to live with.
Sometimes there are bike races that pass right in front of my home. These bikes are not just the normal two wheeler type, some have multiple wheels, right out of a Dr. Seuss book! Others have pedals where the hands belong. Some are bright and colorful. Some creep along at the end of the whole charade with a police motorcycle cruiser riding their butt to push them along.
When leaving my home to get to work, or any other type of civilization, I drive through a few specific four way stops. This means when you come to the stop sign, you stop completely, let anyone else go who was already there, and the proceed in the direction you plan on going. I noticed that occasionally a bike rider, or a group of bike riders, would come upon the stop sign and just cruise on through. They wouldn’t even slow down, or glance at me, who would give them an evil look from my car. This really bugged me. I called the police. The police said that unless they witnessed this act, there was nothing that could be done. I started a new tactic with the bicycle riders who rode through that stop sign. I honk my horn at them, and really annoy them. Then I roll down my window and yell that they forgot to stop and the sign. They ignore me, of course, but still they heard my opinion whether they liked it or not.
This leads to the second issue with bicycle riders in rural areas. The bicycle riders are not required to have rear view mirrors on their bicycles. When I come upon a single rider or a group of riders, no one knows I am approaching them. They can’t see behind them. Sometimes this happens at a dangerous place, where a turn in the road comes up, or just past a peak in a hill so I have to slam on my brakes.
Which ever way I choose to go to work or to civilization, I must cross at least one railroad crossing. That’s the way it is out here. Some railroad crossings are nice and smooth, others you know you have to practically stop to drive over them otherwise it would cause major damage to your car. I was coming home from civilization one day and I had just made it across the train tracks when the red lights starting blinking to signal a train was coming. Now coming toward me was a group of three bicycle riders. I slowed down, just curious because they were still going fast despite the crossing gate coming down across the road. These three bicycle riders sped up to the crossing, jumped off of their bicycles, crawled under the crossing gates and ran across the train tracks. The last one across had about ten seconds before he would have been hit by a train.
These bicycle riders still aggravate me, but during the last few years, some bad situations have happened to the bicycle riders. A few years ago one of them hit a groundhog in the road and it killed the rider, not sure about the groundhog. On another road a rider was side swiped on the road and had to go to the hospital, the driver never even stopped. The last was a slight connection of mine, the bicycle rider made a turn on a busy two lane road, and because I know the area, I know he had difficulty seeing around the tall cornstalks. He got hit by a car and missed several months of work. That car that hit him stayed and helped him as they could until the police and emergency services arrived.
To conclude: Bicycle riders, I love your carefree style, but please obey the rules of the road, buy a rear view mirror, and beware that sometimes the nothingness you love about my rural area can be dangerous, nothingness is just an illusion.