Greetings to the 30ish man in the speedy black car with the Wilderness sticker who almost ran my bicycle off the road on Madison Avenue by the Fire Station this morning.

You scared me with the near-miss, and the honk as you passed, and my excitement certainly was clear to you when I caught up with you at the light.

Rolling up your window after responding, “It goes both ways, buddy,” precluded our finishing the conversation.

It certainly does go both ways, and I (and the majority of other regular bicyclists) try hard to follow both the rules of the road and the rules of common courtesy.

In the place we met this morning, the City of Bainbridge Island has not seen fit to provide any shoulder for bicycles to travel on, so bikes occupy the same lane as automobiles.

If you had taken the extra two seconds necessary to slow for oncoming traffic and pass me with some elbow room, I hope I would have accosted you at the stop light to say, “Thanks.”

As the overtaking vehicle, you had the legal responsibility to pass me safely. More to the point, you wouldn’t want to spend the rest of your hopefully long life remembering that old body you put in the ditch. At least, I sure hope you wouldn’t.

Val Tollefson

Gordon Drive