In Passing

I’m looking for thoughts, again.

Here’s a road. It could be any road, but I have selected this one as I know it pretty well.

In case you are hard of seeing, let me explain. It is long. It is straight. It is devoid of vehicles. Perfect for cycling, or so you’d think.

Here’s a virtual me, doing what I do on this road, and countless other roads, here and in the UK. Quite a lot.

It’s not the real me. I would never wear black socks, obviously.

It’s clear ahead, as you can see. Trust me when I tell you that it’s completely clear behind as well, apart from this chap who’s coming to pass me, any second…

…now.

Perhaps he just wants to be friends. Perhaps he could have thought about it.

This would have been nicer. You know? More, erm… thoughtful.

This would have been even nicer. Brain fully engaged.

Essentially, I am wondering why the fuck you would pass someone with inches to spare, when the whole of the road is otherwise empty? Trust me. This happens on every ride I do. Scooters, cars, vans, lorries. Here in Taiwan, there is no malice aforethought. Drivers are invariably just stupid, careless and thoughtless. Back home, the same is true in most cases I am sure, but I have also been subject to any number of what is known as ‘punishment passes’, because drivers are stupid, careless, thoughtless and just plain nasty. Oh, and usually in cars, vans, buses and lorries, since scooters are more of a rarity.

Yes, yes, yes. I get it, if it is busy and there is a load of traffic delaying your daily commute and you’re going to be late because you had that extra five minutes in the sack and you had a second bacon sarnie and you couldn’t find your car keys and child two decided to eat his homework just as it was time to leave for school and the dog shat on the doormat and the postman asked you to take a parcel for Mrs Dalrymple at number 37. I can’t condone it, but I can understand why someone may decide to pass rather too closely for comfort. My specific beef is with this particular type of scenario. If there is plenty of room, why not use it? It makes no sense. It really doesn’t.

Please circulate this among friends and family. Everyone knows at least one person who drives. I assume so, any way. Correct me if I’m wrong. Ta.

Slightly off topic, and very specific to Taiwan, when looking for a suitable screen-grab, the very first selection I made gave me this classic example of everyday Taiwanese stupidity.

Just your average old lady, riding down the wrong side of the road, oblivious to the Goooooooogle Streetview camera car heading her way. (All the lanes you can see here are for traffic heading away from you, the viewer, or rather the camera car.) Since it would clearly be too much effort to cross the road and use the correct lanes, old lady could quite easily use the pavement (to the right of the image), as there certainly will not be any pedestrians thereon. Nope. She thought this would be the better option.

I fucking despair of the mindset that accepts this as perfectly okay.