Today I was sitting on the bike lane on southbound 17-92, watching four cars make a left across my bow. Once the green arrow dropped, the thru-lanes would roll.

Facing me were two lines of northbound cars, idling. And as the fourth left turner cleared the intersection and the arrow grew stale, way, way down there, I saw an FUV racing down the center turn lane, trying to get to the intersection and dive into his left (likely on a red, likely on my green). I didn’t think he could make it, but I idly watched him.

And then from a side business I saw a casual biker (no reflective gear, no helmet, peddling like a circus bear) coming out of a parking lot, aiming for a gap between two lines of idling cars, without a clue of the guy shooting down the center lane.

All I could do was sit there and watch it unfold.

The cyclist shot the gap, coming out right in front of the speeding vehicle. I think the guy must have seen him through someone’s glass (or, from his elevated driver’s throne, perhaps he saw him over the top of a car). But he punched his brakes and the cycle passed right across his bumper.

And amazingly, the cyclist pivoted in his seat and tossed an Italian “Ay, wotta matter you?” gesture.

Pretty cocky, since the fault was mostly his and the death would have certainly been.

I’m seeing this a lot of Oburg, this right-regardless attitude of cyclists. Was in a cycle lane the other day and had a bike swing out in front of me, another Walmart-special. Didn’t look, didn’t see my yellow shirt or orange vest. I had a few seconds and looked over my shoulder, picked a break in traffic, tossed out an arm and eased out. Meanwhile, he spots a girl on a bus bench he knows and slows to say something. She sees me, shouts a warning. He glances, catches my yellow-comet blur, and duck-walks his bike against the curb as I blow past (fully in the driving lane now).

“Hey, buddy! Slow down!”

Everyone’s the star of their own movie, I suppose. Even writer/bike-commuters.