Yesterday I’m headed to Golden Gate Park on my motor scooter, cruising up Pine Street in moderate traffic. I’m traveling in pace with the other cars around me, and maintaining a good amount of distance from cars around me, cause I’m not an idiot.
I turn on to Masonic Boulevard and notice this in my rearview mirrors….
A massive SUV is right on my ass, just a few feet away. And the driver is honking and yelling about something.
As we get closer to an intersection, I hear him scream, “Fuck you!”
I’m curious who he is yelling at. So I turn to look back and shrug my shoulders.
“Hey fuck you, if you don’t know to drive!” he yells, apparently at me.
“Dude, I have no idea what you are talking about,” I yell back, as calmly as I can.
“Learn to fucking drive!” he yells.
I have no idea what he is talking about. I suspect he resented the fact that I was in the leftmost lane on Pine, going slower than he wanted to go. To be fair, I was going just 37 MPH in a 35 MPH zone.
He continues to ride my bumper and honk for another few blocks. Fortunately I’m able to lane split and lose him soon afterwards. I wonder if he is going to stalk me and I’m going to have to call the police on him. But he disappears from sight soon afterwards.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had someone not like the way I was driving and try to punish me by tailgating or swerving into my lane. I wonder if they realize that they are putting my life at risk? Or are just in the midst of some kind of blinding rage that they don’t care?
Fortunately nothing came of this incident. But it does remind me why humans and cars can be such a dangerous combination, given our sometimes irrational, emotional, and even violent tendencies.