“Dear PoPville,
I was walking my dog home from the dog park in Eckington on the MBT tonight (Tuesday) at about 6:30pm. She’s a slow walker, so we were moseying, but she and I were both fully encapsulated within the northbound lane walking very straight, no unpredictable turns, stops, or straying into the other lane. It was packed and there were tons of people in the southbound lane coming toward us. So out of nowhere, a guy on his bike comes busting up on my left and yells
“fuck you lady!” at me and then speeds off. He didn’t use a bell, he didn’t say anything until he was next to me. I truly heard nothing coming up behind me. I didn’t deviate from my path. I didn’t have headphones on or anything. The worst thing I did was read a quick slack from my boss, but I remained very aware of my surroundings. Everyone around me was astonished. I was so confused, and offended, all I could say was “what? It’s a pedestrian path! And you didn’t use a bell!” But he was already so far away he didn’t hear me or any of the other people on the path who said “what the fuck? Yeah he should not have done that.” He didn’t even screech to a stop, he just slowed to a reasonable speed and had to navigate the obstacles, aka human beings and dogs, around him.
As someone who also bikes in this city, I know how annoying and dangerous it is when pedestrians walk in the bike lane. But that’s not what happened here. Look, I get that it’s annoying to have to slow down to weave around pedestrians, but this is a shared resource for multiple modes of transportation. When runners or bikers come up behind me and signal with an “on your left,” or a bell, I always move to the side. I would have done so if he had given me any warning. But, at 6:30pm on a beautiful evening on a work night, the MBT is so packed that no one is (or should be) moving that fast. I’ve biked on the MBT at this time and you just gotta slow down and weave your way around. It is, after all, a shared pedestrian and bike path. A few other bikers later passed us without incident, slowing down to weave between me and many other pedestrians in my lane and the oncoming pedestrian traffic.
So, I don’t know why this guy feels so entitled. Why he thinks the MBT exists solely for him, that everyone else are just NPCs and he should be allowed to ride his bike at any speed and on any specific line without deviation, and why he feels like he has a right to say “fuck you lady” to random strangers doing absolutely nothing wrong. Maybe he had a bad day. Maybe he was just getting frustrated. But why single me out? Did it make him feel like a big man? Did it make him feel powerful? Did it make him feel better? Because from where I sit, as well as everyone other person around us, he looked at best like a petulant child, and at worse like a deeply self absorbed individual with serious anger issues. It’s people like him that give DC bikers a bad reputation, and that’s a damn shame. I hope he takes a breath and looks inward, and then looks around him at the gorgeous day and abundance of happy and considerate people enjoying our shared space without being dicks to each other, next time.”