Indicate, Asshole!!!

The Scilly Isles Roundabout on the A307 is the most idiotic piece of road engineering ever constructed. It's a double roundabout and is quite tricky. When Matt and I were dating and would go into work together, I was privy to a stream of early morning cussing every time we drove through it. The first time I drove in England, my friend, Kyle who was showing me the ropes, had me go through the Sicily Isles Roundabout. At that time some jerk cut me off on the second portion of this engineering fiasco. I slammed on the break and said, 'Fuck!' This jerk continued on his merry way as my heart jumped to my throat. Kyle assured me that it wasn't my fault and told me that breaking and swearing was exactly what I was meant to do. He added that he would have been worried if I hadn't cursed.

These days I cycle, yes that’s right cycle, through that scary roundabout every morning. It’s that time of year where the sun is rising at about 8AM and setting at about 4PM. It’s dark when I go to work and when I go home. Therefore, I have taken necessary precautions and made myself highly visible. I wear a neon yellow jacket and my bike is equipped with a bright white light on the front and a blinking red light on the back. In addition I am hyper aware of where cars are. There were two points in my distant past where I have been hit by cars and one of them was while I was on a bike. In both those instances, I wasn’t paying attention, and I don’t want to chance getting hit a third time.

So this morning there I was biking in the cold, wet weather. I watched the cars carefully as I approached the ominous traffic junction. The cars that would pass in front of me, which had the right of away, were stopped since there was a car going the opposite direction of me and would pass in front of them. Thus, it had the right of way. Since the car appeared to be going straight and was in the lane to do so, I entered the roundabout. However, at the last moment IT TURNED RIGHT ON THE ROUNDABOUT WITHOUT INDICATING IT WOULD DO THIS! I was too far into the lane to do anything but speed up to avoid being hit. The driver of this car who didn’t know how to use his turn signals did in fact know how to use his horn. After hearing it, I turned my head and shouted, ‘Indicate, asshole!’ Unfortunately, I don’t think he heard me. I do, however, think that Kyle would agree that this was the most appropriate response.