City Questions
We’re all familiar with drivers getting frustrated sharing the road with cyclists. However, sometimes the frustration gives way to another frustrating behavior. That of asking questions. When I’m on my bike, drivers seem to find me very approachable when they need help with something.
Apparently, I am the person to ask. I don’t know why but they assume I am in the know and can help them navigate their troubled city life… I guess urban cyclist means urban expert?
However, I’m sometimes uncomfortable thrown into the role of city guide. And that’s when I start messing with them.
Which is entertaining. But sometimes I wish they’d ask me a question I can actually answer.
Huh. I thought giving directions was part of the social contract. At the very least, some time you might be in the same position.
Im nice enough to give directions as often as possible. I like to hope it makes a contribution to resolving the conflict between annoying drivers and bicyclers. But I find it fascinating that some drivers assume that all bicyclers know their way EVERYWHERE in the city.
I get it too, the funniest is when I’m miles from home and have to tell them “I don’t actually know this area very well,” gets them very confused.
It doesn’t bother me much on a casual ride or commute, but people do it when I’m running as well, maybe they assume that just because I’m moving so slowly I’m not actually in the middle of a workout 😉
I second (third, etc.) the fact that they assume you must be a local. But actually, I range further than they probably assume I do, so I’m not always sure where that little residential street they’re asking about is. (This would be doubly true in Boston!)
I also think the fact that we and pedestrians are so approachable by motorists is just the flip side of how UNapproachable their fellow motorists are to them, with everyone cocooned in their own world of steel. This speaks to how alienating the use of cars is, and how much that has broken down the social fabric of streets in the last 100 years.
This happens to me in London – and, yes, people are resistant to the idea that my only detailed knowledge of an area might be the path of London Cycle Network route 23. They assume one’s a walking streetmap.
It’s sometimes nice. I once even gave a confused motorist a battered old London cycling map to help her to find her way. But it can be a problem if the questioners don’t sense that I’m carefully watching for a red light to change so that I can get away fast and not get crushed by the following traffic.
When riding around San Jose, people kept asking me directions to the interstates. All I could think was, oh, there was an obstacle I had to get around, but beats me how you’d get on it.