Blogcycle

So with the sunshine and nicer weather come the bicycles, and yahoo for anyone making the most of our too-short summer season.  It's all shapes and sizes on wheels... and one official language.  All the signals that indicate what the cyclist is doing, or going to do.  Quite a bit more than the tap on a flicker to indicate changing lanes that licensed drivers learned how to do in driver's ed, but rarely put into practice... but I digress.  (I'm good at digressing...) 

Now, if you're on a bike you should know a few of these signals.  There's the 'bent arm' that says 'Ill be turning soon.' There's the 'arm sticking out' that says 'I'll be turning soon, just in the opposite direction.'  And so many more that are unfamiliar to me.  I was a couple of cars away from a cyclist on Sherbrooke in Westmount the other day... during rush hour... busy times.  Anyway, this fellow's signals seemed more like gestures.  Like his arm-down-hand-open move that said, 'I will be going that way, don't rush me.'  His bent arm gesture seemed to say, 'how 'bout these pipes?' (but it was windy so I may have heard that one wrong.)  Finally, there was the one not exclusive to the cycling world.  I guess after all his signaling he was feeling rushed, and his pipes didn't impress anybody else, so he shot off his one-finger salute to the guy in the car who turned seemingly at the last minute.  I'd bet he knew all along that he'd turn just didn't have the time or muscle to use his flicker. 

I'd also bet that if we had to do our driver's ed. test again that there would be a lot more bicycle traffic during rush hour.  =)  (I guess I wasn't digressing after all...)