Revelations and Robotics

*HONK* “Welcome to the 20th century asshole!”
No, my blog has not been hijacked by hax0rs, that was the pointed shouting of a random 20-something male in a large SUV as he and his friend whizzed by me on my eGo. It made me stop (not really, I kept riding) and ponder why it is that so many people feel it necessary/acceptable to shout things from their car at a random stranger riding an it’s-not-a-car-or-bicycle vehicle. Maybe it’s the perceived safety in that isolated bubble of steel and plastic? Maybe it’s just an “easy” form of aggression? I still find it odd though. In my 1-year jaunt with my eGo as my primary source of transportation, I’ve been honked, yelled, and sworn at at least a couple dozen times. For you naysayers out there, this scoffing isn’t due to rude riding behavior or any law-breaking. Most commonly, it happens when I’m peacefully clipping along in the bike lane at my steady 39KPH (24MPH for those who haven’t converted yet ;-). I’m aware that I stand out. I’m aware that what I’m riding is radically different from what people would consider “normal”. But where is that line in peoples’ minds when “different” becomes acceptable to openly, /publicly/ mock? I can easily see it on teh webs, but IRL…? Maybe I just have a tinted view of reality, but I thought that such taudry bullying got left on the playground in high school.

In any case, I’m glad that I’ve at least caused someone to question their paradigms, even if it’s just on a subconscious level. We’ll never make any progress as a society if we just sit on what we know and don’t expand our mental boxes.

To finish the story out, I continued on my merry way (it /is/ almost Christmas) and continued to ponder humanity and instinct. I didn’t come to any solid conclusions, so I decided to write it out here. I do remember grinning though when they pulled away, knowing that when they floored their SUV, they’d just used more energy than that of my entire trip home. But hey, at least they had 2 people in the vehicle…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under humanity, transportation, musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.