It’s an endless debate these days over what happened to cycling camaraderie, when passing bike riders acknowledged each other either with gestures like a wave or nod of the head, or even saying “Hi” or “Hello” or “How ya doin’?”
Motorcycle riders still support each other, and I’ve learned that Jeep drivers do, too.
But cyclists? Not so much these days.
While I’ve grown accustomed to this lack of return of my offerings and it doesn’t bother me most days, well, there are some days it just pisses the hell out of me.
Hey! You’re riding your bike for crying out loud! You should be happy, not a grump.
On my annual kick off summer ride formerly known as the ride that celebrates I’ve completed another trip around the sun, I spent nearly six hours on my favorite rail trail.
You can imagine how many cyclists I passed. It’s a special ride for me, probably the longest I’ll do all year. I start early. I’m amped. I’m pumped. I’m thrilled to be on my bike.
So when my greetings are returned with silence, well, I start snapping back under my breath after they’ve gone.
My responses typically follow a middle school volley as eventually they escalate to adult rage as they range from Asshole to Dumbass to Dildo to Dumbass to Shithead to F—wad, F—head and such.
Today’s question, does this bother you too, and what are your favorite under your breath responses to folks who tick you off?
I feel both ways about this. On one hand, I don’t love when I greet someone, and they blank me. On the other hand, I get it. I don’t know what’s going on in their day (or their head). Maybe they’re deeply depressed and just trying to keep going. The interaction is more than they can manage. Or they have some deep social anxiety. I can’t know. I confess I trend toward the former view, like, just display some basic courtesy, but anytime I get annoyed I try to keep the latter view in mind.
Patrick O’Grady wrote an essay on camaraderie a bit ago, titled “Wave Dynamics”, lamenting the loss of social skills among bicyclists. Wish I could find it. That loss of camaraderie does seem to increasingly be the rule rather than the exception. I see the same thing at the dog park, especially with younger folks. I guess they are so used to only seeing or communicating with people through a two inch screen that seeing real people greet them is too much to deal with. I just shake my head in disappointment. With the big picture, it seems to be part of that whole issue of people not being able to deal with the world and retreating to their safe zones.
Motorcyclists still by and large wave at each other. At least that is my experience. And if you run into another motorcyclist at a parking lot, it is an excuse to shoot the shit rather than flee in terror of another human interaction.
Disclaimer: I drive a Jeep Wrangler (rust bucket) and it’s true, we all wave.
In my area most casual bike riders smile and wave but a curious thing has been happening with my interaction with “serious” cyclists lately. When I wave, most don’t wave back, they just smile proudly as if I just confirmed that they are “doing it right”. With this thought in my head I have to suppress my laughter as I ride away. We are a curious lot.
Hat tip to the Mad Dog, who sent me the link to Wave Dynamics.
https://maddogmedia.com/2013/06/18/wave-dynamics-redux/