My name is Jason Crane. I’m a union organizer and jazz writer/podcaster living in Rochester, NY, an upstate city on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. I started commuting by bicycle a few weeks ago.
Tonight I was riding home after teaching a class in broadcast techniques to a group of Unitarians. Huzzah! As I turned from Monroe Ave — one of the busy main thoroughfares — onto the much smaller Field Street, a car turned right with me and then tried to immediately pass me on the left. There wasn’t room for the car to safely pass, so I kept to the middle of the single lane. I stopped at a stop sign, crossed the intersection, and continued up Field Street, which at this point becomes two directions with no center line. There were cars parked on the right side of the street, so it was difficult for the car behind me to get around and pass.
The Erie Canal locks near Monroe Ave in 1918
To demonstrate how difficult it was, the driver started beeping his horn over … and over … and over. I finally had space to move over, so I did and the two 20-something men sped by. They pulled into a street on the right-hand side a few hundred yards up and stopped, putting the car in reverse but waiting for me to pass.
As I passed them, they backed out into the street and sped up behind me, laying on the horn in one long, loud honk. Then they sped past me again very close.
When Planet Bike comes out with the handlebar-mounted rocket launcher, I’ll be first in line.
