Dear Akron

I don't get it.

I don't wear offensive clothing (whatever that would be), I don't attack people, I don't run over children or pets, I don't break the law, I don't gesture at people, and I don't berate motorists.

Nevertheless, more and more of your drivers are treating me as if I did these things.

For the past three weeks I've been either buzzed, flicked off, or screamed at every single day on the way home.  I'm just minding my own business pedaling along Exchange St., well within my rights, usually going about 18mph, when all of a sudden I get attacked.  Last year, the only trouble I had came from individuals you would expect it from, like crazy people and teenagers.  This year the anger knows no bounds.  Sometimes its from a rusted out Chevy, or a cop, or an SUV with giant chrome rims, or an old bald guy in his BMW convertible (with the little lady) on his way to the country club.  Yesterday it was a woman in a Chrysler 300 on her way to the salon.  I never know who its going to be.  The hatred crosses all cultural and economic lines.

My presence doesn't slow you down one bit.  You have plenty of room to pass me on Exchange and to top it off, the whole road is lined with cycling awareness signs.  Even if you don't think bicycles have a right to road, you have to agree that me being there doesn't really affect you.  Yet, you act like my presence is so offensive that you have to threaten my life or insult me in the most hurtful ways possible.

People of Akron, what the heck is your problem?  Are you taught in the home that people on bicycles are a lower form of life?  Do you think that because I'm on one, I'm a degenerate and therefore deserve no respect?  Or is it that I'm a female?  Is this a city of bigots?  I'd like to know what the problem is.  You don't scream and carry on when a pedestrian steps out in the middle of the street or when someone stops their car in the middle of the road to talk to someone, completely oblivious to the fact that they're holding up traffic.  Its just people on bicycles that get the full force of your wrath.

I feel sorry for you, I really do.  For some reason you get your kicks from berating some chick on a bicycle.  I'm sorry your life is so pathetic that your only option is to torment someone who's just trying to get somewhere.  And, I'm sorry my existence upsets you so much.

But, here's the thing:  I don't like the insults or the aggression.  I don't like leaving the office knowing one of you is going to physically or verbally attack me in the next 10 minutes.  It kinda puts a cloud on my afternoon.

I am a cyclist. Hath not a cyclist eyes? Hath not a cyclist hands,

organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same

food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,

heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter

and summer, as a motorist is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If

you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?

And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the

rest, we will resemble you in that.

Ok, I'm not going to take revenge, as tempting as it is, but I will send angry thoughts your way.  

Anyway, in all seriousness, you people need to cool it.  I do have a right to ride on the road, it is where bicycles belong actually.  No, I should not get off the road.  No, I do not belong on the sidewalk.  If you try to sneak up to scare me, its not going to work- your engine gives you away.  You should not ride my wheel, it will not make me go faster.  One of these days your attempts at buzzing is going to get someone killed.  That will ruin your day, trust me.  Just because a woman rides a bicycle doesn't make her a prostitute, really.  Slowing down for split second will not make you late.  If it does, you should have left earlier.  Also, using that kind of language really isn't necessary, and you look like a jackass.  

Finally, all this aggression isn't going to make me stop riding, so just save it.

And just because I care, here is a list of Akron area therapists, because you clearly need treatment.