A few days ago I was biking to work in the back neighborhoods behind my office building, when I came to a stop sign. Meanwhile, a woman was driving a minivan down the other street, the one without a stop sign. I always dread these moments because most drivers don’t know what to do (and most cyclist don’t either). Being a good law-abiding operator, I always stop at stop signs, whether I see a car or not. Knowing this would be awkward, I put my foot down to make it clear I had stopped.
The woman noticed me and slowed down. Then she began making vigorous waving motions with her hand, the gesture that means “go ahead”. I responded by extending my left elbow straight out to my side, and my left hand straight down, the hand signal recognized around the world to mean “I am stopping”. After another moment of awkward gesticulating, the woman drove on. As she passed in front of me she made yet another hand signal: the middle finger.
Both waving me on and making the obscene gesture meant exactly the same thing, differing only in intensity. They said, “I do not respect you enough to follow the driving code, and I do not trust you will follow it either.” The obscene gesture meant, quite literally, “F*** you for not agreeing with my decision, for wasting my time by forcing me to follow the code.”
What’s the moral of this story? Perhaps if I were a wiser man, I would simply bike on and not try to cure people of their driving stupidity. It can be a dangerous proposition, especially in Albuquerque where so many people are off their meds.
Comments
2 responses to “Hand signals”
Is it possible that being ignorant of the rules of driving in that situation, she was trying to be nice rather than disrespectful? Admittedly, her frustration at your reluctance to follow her request and then the subsequent “hand signal” was much less than respectful. I know that when I find myself in an unknown situation in a car, I default to, “Let the more fragile one go first.” I figure if a mistake is made and the bike hits my car it won’t be nearly as bad as if my car hits your bike.
That’s the most generous interpretation, and the one I usually take. However, the obscene gesture revealed the true depth of her respect for me.
An underlying issue here is that most motorist who are not also cyclists are unaware of how the traffic laws apply. In most states, bicycles must act like regular vehicles on the road, to the extent practical. This means always coming to a full stop at stop signs. Admittedly, many of my fellow cyclists don’t do this, which creates a problem for all of us.
However, I did stop, and the woman should have shown respect for my effort by also following normal traffic patterns, rather than trying to baby me.