This morning’s trip down Evelyn was an obstacle course for some reason. An Aramark truck, a guy backing out who couldn’t see because of the Aramark truck, a person coming out forward who was just being careless, a guy walking his bike right into the lane as I was coming (even though there is no crosswalk there and he would have been jaywalking even if there had been), a confused person stopping for no apparent reason in the bike lane, the same Aramark truck backing up, and finally, construction blocking off an entire lane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Evelyn that bad before; it’s usually pretty peaceful minus the people who aren’t paying attention while making right turns.

The adrenaline involved in the experience reminded me of a thought I had last night about the people who shoot through every intersection with little regard for the law. Obviously some of the stuff they do is pretty stupid, but on the other hand, I’ve gotten in two bike-related accidents despite the fact that I’m usually behaving pretty ‘safely’. What if those people are actually safer than I am because they don’t start from the base assumption that they can travel safely along their legal path? I’m in the habit of anticipating potential danger (which has saved me from almost certain collision at least once, probably more like three times), but I do start from this sort of belief that if I try to behave safely and anticipate issues, I should be okay. Whereas these other people tend to start from the base assumption that if they can figure out a path through somewhere that avoids all the obstacles, they should take it. Avoiding obstacles is their key goal all the time, and that’s also how you don’t get in accidents.