If You Could Not Kill Me, That Would Be Great

As the weather improves in CNY, runners, bicyclists, and walkers who have been confined to the gym are able to take to the roads. If you could not kill us, that would be just super.

There isn't an athlete - casual or otherwise - in Central New York that doesn't have a near-death experience to relate, caused by a distracted driver. Let me share my own first hand experience (I could actually share experienceS, but I'll be brief).

Yesterday, I was running along Oxford Road - the section similar to many roads in New Hartford, and elsewhere in CNY: no sidewalks. Fortunately, I was facing traffic and looking up so I could actually watch the person behind the wheel of an SUV turn her head toward the empty passenger seat, and slowly veer (as slowly as one veers when you're driving about 40MPH) right at me onto the shoulder. I was at the moment where I either dove off the shoulder when she looked up and swerved back onto the roadway. Had I been looking down, or been running a little more quickly, I could be writing this from a hospital bed.

Those of us that recreate on the roadways are mostly drivers, too. We get that it can be irritating when you're in a hurry and you have to slow down to give a bicyclist or runner or walker a wide berth...but...suck it up, buttercup. We're talking about seconds out of your day.

And to the guy in the big silver pick-up truck who felt compelled to nearly run me over and then circle back to tell me - no, SCREAM at me - that I should "get out of the road" - you're a jerk. Your vehicle is equipped with both a brake pedal and a steering wheel - either of which you could have employed rather than forcing me off the shoulder of the road.

On behalf of everyone who uses the road not in a car - it'll take you a few seconds to slow down, and swing a little wider around us - we would appreciate it.