Three Times And You're Lucky

This morning on my way to work I had three close calls. All of them apparently deliberate from homicidal drivers.

When only a km from home, riding on the paved shoulder, I had a ute drive past me with horn blaring. The driver then veered onto the shoulder and braked heavily. Not sufficient to cause me to be in danger of hitting him but enough to make me brake heavily and to act as a threat.

When traveling along the emergency lane on the Hume Freeway a large truck passed, again air horn blaring. This isn't so strange so I ignored it. I then noticed the truck pulling over into the emergency lane some distance ahead and the hazard lights came on. Call me paranoid but this made me take notice. I waited for a decent break in the traffic to pass, as I needed to ride out onto the Freeway proper. As I drew level I gave him plenty of room. This was lucky because with perfect timing, his drivers door flew open at head height just as I reached the cab. Missed me. My suspicion was heightened when he passed me again only a minute or so later.

Thirdly, I had another ute pull out from a left hand intersection directly in front of me. He was facing a STOP sign, and rolled through, trying to beat me. There was no way he didn't realise I was there. It was dark, but I had two really decent headlights and made eye-contact with him. This was lucky because I was able to anticipate what he was going to do and was on the brakes early. I was doing around 45kph at the time. Fortunately I guessed right and swerved left. That gets really messy if the driver pulls out and stops in front of you. I very narrowly missed the back corner of the ute and then the concrete crash barrier on the far side of the intersection.

The thing that annoys me is that the only rego number I got is that of the truck and it's pretty hard to prove any kind of intent on door opening. Think I'll just buy a lottery ticket, or that RPG launcher I've had my eye on.

All in all I had a really great ride. I sang a few songs, got a good workout, it wasn't too cold, there was no wind and the loonies all missed me. Somehow I can't even get all wound up over drivers trying to kill me.

I wonder what tonight holds in store? The forecast is for gale force, damaging winds. I'll bet you can't guess which direction they're going to be blowing. I love cycling!