Opinionated Blogger Friday: Things That Make You Go, "#@*%!"

Bicycle commuting is wonderful, and on a beautiful spring day, when everyone in a car is stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you know you've made the best decision ever. But every now and then, biking opens you up to some very particular indignities, like:

• The Right Hook (when a car passes you and makes a right turn directly in front of/into you, when waiting for about .75 seconds for you to pass the intersection would have been safer)
• Getting a faceful of hot cigarette ash from a driver who can't be bothered to use their ashtray
• Traffic lights that won't change for something as small as a bicycle. The worst are the ones where the "Don't Walk" sign starts to flash on the street you want to cross, and you think the light will change in a couple seconds, but then the pedestrian light goes back to "Walk." 
• Drivers who scream obscenities at you as they pass for no good reason
• Drivers who throw stuff at you
• Cyclists who ride on the sidewalk and nearly hit you at cross streets
• Cyclists who ride the wrong way on busy roads
• Cyclists who blow through red lights/stop signs and almost hit you
• Bike Ninjas
• Your main route being resurfaced in chip-seal
• Dogs on those retractable leashes
• F***ing Canada Geese
• Drivers who will run you off the road so they can stop you and ask you for directions
• NJ Transit's ever-changing bike-on-train policies
• Helmet hair
• Wearing out the seats of your pants
• Muddy streaks up the back of your pants and shirt front hitting a wet spot with no fenders
• Hail
• People who refer to you as a "Lance Armstrong Wannabee"
• Racing snobs
• Having to change a flat in your nice clothes
• Hills