whew, what a day
February 27th, 2006 by Lawrence David
such an eventful day today. funny, considering that i thought it would be rather tame. i woke up this morning still not having finished my homework for my computational biology class (7.91); i was unprepared for the amount of busywork in the assignment. in any case, i was forced to stay home (and miss a day of labwork) to finish it.
so around 8 am this morning, as i dutifully started working out the problem set, i got a call that i’ve always dreaded getting. it was christina crying; that instantly freaked me out because she had just left on her bike to go to work. turns out some bastard in a toyota corolla doored her on her way to work this morning. (for those of you who aren’t too familiar with urban biking, getting doored means getting into an accident because an idiot driver didn’t check their sideview mirror as they opened their door.) poor thing – she got a little banged up and her bike suffered a little damage. she was super lucky though … she was tossed into traffic and thankfully, the driver behind her was paying enough attention not to run her over. hear about it in her own words here.
being the boyfriend and a commuter-cyclist myself, i was super-pissed. it’s scary to consider how unprotected you are on your bike. all it takes is one attention lapse by a driver, and boom – you’re wheelchair bound. it really gets me how few motorists seem to understand this.
in any case, my anger abated within a couple of hours. it helped that google told us that christina would at least be able to claim a day’s lost wages from the driver’s insurance agency (she was too shaken to go to work today). in order for the insurers to take our claim though, we had to notify the cops of what happened – christina had the presence of mind after the accident to get the guy’s plate number. ultimately, we figured the guy was gonna get his due; cambridge levies a $500 or so fine on reckless driver-side door openings. in addition, the dude’s insurance premiums will probably go up as well (massachusetts car insurance gets a bit ugly if you’ve got a spotty driving record).
after christina and i reflected on what would happen to this guy, we actually felt really bad about all the fees he’d have to pay. nevertheless, it was hard justifying not following our course of action. this guy made a bonehead move and christina hit the pavement – she shouldn’t also be forced to sacrifice a day’s wages. at the very least, this hopefully means that one more cambridge motorist will be less reckless around cyclists
so that was plenty of excitement for one day. yet, there was still more to come later in the evening. this excitement was the good kind though. chris and i crossed the charles tonight and saw the new pornographers and belle & sebastian play. the new pornographers were awesome; strangely, it didn’t seem like too many people in the crowd were getting into it though. belle & sebastian were fun – more fun than i had antipicated, given the sleepy factor of their cds. they played a bunch of jazzy, upbeat songs that helped us forget the morning’s nastiness.
zest lah vye!
I have yet to be doored, but it’s a constant fear. Don’t feel too bad for the guy. I hope Christina isn’t too shaken and keeps riding. It’s the best way to get around and the more people that do it the more attention it will get from city planners and the like.
I’m glad to hear you liked the New Pornographers too. I’ve got my tickets for the show in Philly tomorrow!