It’s Time to Learn to Drive

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Dear Driver of CX3004,

You are a lucky person. You rammed your car right into me when I had a green light, breaking my bike gears and throwing me off balance onto the oncoming traffic. I could have died. I was carrying no identification documents on me and I currently have no medical or life insurance. My family lives in California and they wouldn’t have known what happened to me for a very long time.

I was riding at a snail pace of 5 miles an hour uphill on Massachusetts Avenue.  There’s no way you could not see me unless you are blind. I get that you are elderly. You are probably someone’s mom and grandmom, just like I’m someone’s daughter and grand-daughter. That’s probably why I didn’t report you. You are probably traumatized that you hit me. I’m traumatized too. I’m tired of illegal drivers hitting me and driving away or taking advantage of the fact that I never call the police on them. The last time I inadvertently reported something to the cops, they came home to take my father away. But I digress.

Just do us all a favor and get off the road before you kill someone.

P.S. I’m glad that my gears left giant scrapes on your front bender and hope it costs you more to fix it than it costs me to repair my bike.

P.P.S. As a public service announcement, I’d just like to tell everyone to stop honking at cyclists. It’s against the law in many jurisdictions because you can actually cause an accident by startling the cyclist.