Road Rules

The other day I decided to take the ferry home instead of the bus, and while this isn't a bus or ferry story, it's what happened on the way to the ferry.

I had just left my office building and was waiting to cross the street during rush hour. There is no crosswalk at this intersection but there is a law that says any intersection, whether it is a marked crosswalk or not, it is still considered a crosswalk and traffic must stop and let pedestrians cross. So myself along with 2 other people were standing on the corner waiting for traffic to stop so we could cross, which they did. We did not just walk out in traffic, we waited patiently. We were more than half way across the street approaching the opposite curb when a middle aged lady on her bike comes flying up the bike lane, along side the stopped cars. Clearly this lady had no intentions of stopping for us. One of the people crossing the street with me could sense this and they stopped so that they wouldn't get hit, but not me. How I see it is that I am a pedestrian that waited for traffic to stop and then crossed the street not doing anything wrong, and if this lady on her bike wants to ride her bike in the bike lane and consider herself a vehicle like that rest of the cars on the road, then she will obey all laws like the rest of the cars! Why should I stop when I am doing nothing wrong? I kept walking and the lady saw me, made eye contact with me, but kept biking! She really does not give a F that she was going to hit us, or what the rules of the road are! Again I am not stopping just because one person feels they are above everyone else. Finally when the lady was about 3 feet away from me she slammed on the brakes and stopped. One of the other people crossing with me hesitated and stopped so when bike lady saw this she decided to keep on biking. However i was still walking so the lady had to slam on her brakes again! She muttered something like "jesus christ" and gave all 3 of us real nasty looks like we were in the wrong. We finally got to the sidewalk and before we even had both of our feet on the ground the lady took off on her bike muttering to herself. All 3 of us looked at each other completely bewildered and even a man in one of the stopped cars shrugged his shoulders in confusion. None of us could believe how rude this bike lady was! I yelled down the street to the biker something like "you're supposed to stop for pedestrians too you know!" out of anger. I know it was silly, but just had to say it to feel better.

The rest of the walk to the fery I was fuming mad at the lady's ignorance and how she really could think she did not have to stop for us! So I get to the ferry terminal and as I approach the waiting area, who do I see? A middle aged lady standing and waiting with her bike! Of all the space I had to stand and wait, I decided to walk right over to the lady, about a meter away and wait for my ferry. I slowly turned my head, looked over at her and smiled. I held my gaze for at least 10 seconds before slowly turning away to grab my phone to tell my friend I almsot just got run over by a cyclist. The lady said nothing, turned her head and just looked straight ahead for the rest of our wait for the ferry. I could have easily told her off right there but decided not too since there is a good chance I will see her again. There will be many more chances for me to tell her off.