is this guy for real?

Yesterday something very unusual happened at lunch. We (Ben, Eric and I) were on our way to Chipotle walking east on Pratt Street. We approached Calvert Street, a one way northbound road, and were about to cross. I noticed to my left (in the direction of traffic) that there were those labor union protesters chanting something. I remember thinking that if I were one of them I would have moved like 5 feet to the side to be out of the shadow of the building. I was thinking that they would probably be much warmer if they got into the sun. Anyways, I turned my head about 180 degrees and looked at the oncoming traffic. It turns out there wasn’t any so I started crossing the street. Ben had the same idea, but Eric was frightened and did not cross. In Eric’s defense there were cars about 250 yards away and they were traveling almost 25 mph so he was just playing it safe. Ben was furthest to our left, followed by Eric (always in the middle) and then I was the closest to the oncoming traffic. A few steps into the 4 lane road I admit I slightly accelerated. The cars were a bit closer than I thought but I was still in no danger. If anything I think it was my desire to eat a burrito that caused me to accelerate. In any case, I hear something coming from the area of the protesters. I think it was “look out buddy.” I could barely hear this voice and knew I wasn’t in any trouble because I was staring at the oncoming traffic. It was at this point that the collision happened. Some guy on his bike, riding the wrong way on a perfectly straight portion of a one way street that was 48 feet wide, crashed right into me. Yes, he was unable to redirect the position of his wheeled vehicle to avoid me. I guess during the 15 seconds he had as he approached me he was unable to predict my next move, which just so happened to be to continue walking across the street as I had been doing. Go figure.

Then he had the audacity to act like it was my fault. I do wish I had of said something better. I think he said something like “what are you doing?” and I responded “what, me? you are going the wrong way on a one way street?” That was pretty much the end of the conversation as he picked his bike up (yes, the collision caused him to fall off his bike although he did get his leg down in time so it wasn’t a major fall.) I admit we were all kind of thinking, did this really just happen? And then we laughed about it. I probably could have said something funny or been angry at him or something.

After the fact I put all the pieces together. I think what happened was he saw Ben crossing the street and Eric lagging behind. Then he tried to make it in front of Ben, which he barely did, at which point I was passing Ben. He probably didn’t even know I was there. But that doesn’t explain why he was cutting it so close. There are 4 lanes of pavement in that area, not to mention a sidewalk on both sides of the street.

I can’t stop thinking about the thought process of the rider. Imagine you are riding your bike into traffic on a 4 lane road. There are no cars approaching and you have the entire road. Due to the risk of hitting pedestrians, you decide to ride in the road. You are approaching an intersection, and it looks like 2 guys are crossing the street from your right. You are in the right lane. You decide to maintain your path and call out “watch out buddy” when you are 5 seconds from reaching them. They don’t appear to be moving, but you still pedal straight for them.