Snow Day and thoughts

Today is a snow day, hurray! I'm warm at home with some tea and a little extra time to ramble on a blog.

Over the holidays, due to elaborate circumstances I won't get in to, I ended up driving to work for several days in a row. That was surprisingly an enormous gift I won't soon forget, and something I'd like to urge every cyclist to do from time to time. (Boston Biker did the same, but I can't find his post. Boo.)

There are lots of complaints about how poorly cyclists are treated by drivers of cars. I was driving during a low traffic period (between Christmas and New Year's) and let me tell you, between cars the lack of civility was much worse. I was thrilled to get back on my bike and the relative civility of the bike-car interaction. In a car the hostility, the jockeying for position, the never-ending competition of it all was exhausting.

In addition to showing me how uncivil drivers are to each other, my few days driving was a wonderful reminder of what it's like to share the road with a cyclist. I saw the same spots where I feel pinched each day from the driver's perspective and it helped me understand how the conflicts can arise.

I'm sure I'll complain about rude drivers again, but I hope to remember this surprise Christmas gift and to maintain a more expansive view of sharing the roads in Boston.