This is the story of why me, a 30 year old man had to "fought" with some teenagers.
It's a story that is pretty common on a day to day basis but it's only made possible because of 1 very "brave" kid. My wife was driving and these 3 kids were cycling dangerously, meaning slow speed, taking the middle of the lane and blocking the road. My wife, a very safe driver had the courtesy to horned (tap) them to warn them about it. The last two kids quickly shifted to the side of the road but not the 1st kid. In view of him still blocking the road, my wife tap the horn the 2nd time. To our horror, the kid turn his back and pointed his middle finger.
That doesn't work well for me AT ALL. Me sitting on the left decided to hold the horn for my wife and my wife stopped me almost immediately. The kid turn around and continued to point his middle finger. I wind down the window, took my phone up and snap a picture of him. To be honest, we have the in-car camera but I just want to do it with my phone to show him I've snapped a pic of him. He shouted at us "Why, what's your problem" And with my camera on my hand I challenged him to do it again so I could snap more picture of him.
My wife couldn't care less and overtook them and what happened next completes the story. The kids speed up as fast as they could, hogging in the middle of the lane trying to catch up with our car.
Upon reaching the carpark, the kids went "eh Uncle, what you want. What is your problem. We cycling only right"
I went (paraphrasing) "young man, what was your finger about? Do you know it's against the law to point your middle finger while on the road? Do you have a license? Do you know the meaning of a horn? We horned you is to warn you about road safety. Not to scold you. Why did you get so agitated? I am a cyclist too and it is important for us to share the road safely. What you did ain't safe AT ALL. You were hogging the lane and the way you cut the lane from left to right was very very dangerous. Do you know you could have endangered all of us?"
The wife added "The way you chased after us was very dangerous. Your action confused drivers on the road and it's very difficult for us (drivers) to anticipate your movement. You guys if decides to be on the road need to be on the most left lane and side of it. This is endangering everyone on the road"
I finish the conversation with "I love cycling too but you have to do it safe. Do you stay around here? You better ride safely you get it? Don't get into trouble, you know you pointing middle finger on the road already makes you the one who is in the wrong regardless of even if you are right to begin with?"
The 2 kids (1 didn't catch up) nodded, looks apologetic and went off. Although he didn't apologise but I could feel that he felt sorry thus I am not going to upload images of him nor the footage. But, I seriously do not understand what was their plan of chasing after me? They didn't seem to have anything in his mind nor does he look like he wanted to pick up a fight. Maybe he wanted his images back, maybe he did want to pick a fight until the point he saw how "beng" (with tattoo and blonde hair)and big I was. Surely he didn't came to say sorry cause he didn't or maybe he just wanted to call me uncle. (LIKE WHAT?)
I guess at the end of the day when our gahment is giving out summon for people without helmet and/or people who cycle on the pathment, why not let's put some effort into educating people the right way to share the road? Bicycle should stick to their own lane, give proper signal while changing lanes, horning is not a challenge to go into road rage, high beam is not a weapon and middle finger doesn't solve problem.
Gahment might not be doing that but as a responsible member of the public, family, parents and friends please remember to remind one another the importance of road safety especially the young ones.
It's a story that is pretty common on a day to day basis but it's only made possible because of 1 very "brave" kid. My wife was driving and these 3 kids were cycling dangerously, meaning slow speed, taking the middle of the lane and blocking the road. My wife, a very safe driver had the courtesy to horned (tap) them to warn them about it. The last two kids quickly shifted to the side of the road but not the 1st kid. In view of him still blocking the road, my wife tap the horn the 2nd time. To our horror, the kid turn his back and pointed his middle finger.
That doesn't work well for me AT ALL. Me sitting on the left decided to hold the horn for my wife and my wife stopped me almost immediately. The kid turn around and continued to point his middle finger. I wind down the window, took my phone up and snap a picture of him. To be honest, we have the in-car camera but I just want to do it with my phone to show him I've snapped a pic of him. He shouted at us "Why, what's your problem" And with my camera on my hand I challenged him to do it again so I could snap more picture of him.
My wife couldn't care less and overtook them and what happened next completes the story. The kids speed up as fast as they could, hogging in the middle of the lane trying to catch up with our car.
Upon reaching the carpark, the kids went "eh Uncle, what you want. What is your problem. We cycling only right"
I went (paraphrasing) "young man, what was your finger about? Do you know it's against the law to point your middle finger while on the road? Do you have a license? Do you know the meaning of a horn? We horned you is to warn you about road safety. Not to scold you. Why did you get so agitated? I am a cyclist too and it is important for us to share the road safely. What you did ain't safe AT ALL. You were hogging the lane and the way you cut the lane from left to right was very very dangerous. Do you know you could have endangered all of us?"
The wife added "The way you chased after us was very dangerous. Your action confused drivers on the road and it's very difficult for us (drivers) to anticipate your movement. You guys if decides to be on the road need to be on the most left lane and side of it. This is endangering everyone on the road"
I finish the conversation with "I love cycling too but you have to do it safe. Do you stay around here? You better ride safely you get it? Don't get into trouble, you know you pointing middle finger on the road already makes you the one who is in the wrong regardless of even if you are right to begin with?"
The 2 kids (1 didn't catch up) nodded, looks apologetic and went off. Although he didn't apologise but I could feel that he felt sorry thus I am not going to upload images of him nor the footage. But, I seriously do not understand what was their plan of chasing after me? They didn't seem to have anything in his mind nor does he look like he wanted to pick up a fight. Maybe he wanted his images back, maybe he did want to pick a fight until the point he saw how "beng" (with tattoo and blonde hair)and big I was. Surely he didn't came to say sorry cause he didn't or maybe he just wanted to call me uncle. (LIKE WHAT?)
I guess at the end of the day when our gahment is giving out summon for people without helmet and/or people who cycle on the pathment, why not let's put some effort into educating people the right way to share the road? Bicycle should stick to their own lane, give proper signal while changing lanes, horning is not a challenge to go into road rage, high beam is not a weapon and middle finger doesn't solve problem.
Gahment might not be doing that but as a responsible member of the public, family, parents and friends please remember to remind one another the importance of road safety especially the young ones.
