20 July 2005

New heights of idiocy

Well, today I saw someone riding a bike and talking on a cell phone. This in itself seems to be a bad idea, since both hands are sometimes needed to control the handlebars and, unlike in a car, if she just drops the thing it will likely smash on the concrete.

But wait, it gets better!
She was on Meadowbrook Lane, a very narrow, winding road. If people park on either side of the street, there's only enough room for one car to get through at a time. It's a two-way road. Also, there are no sidewalks. Most residents tend to park their cars halfway onto the curb so that traffic can get by, but not all of them do.

And that's still not all!
The main road through the area (Hiline) is currently closed due to construction. Meadowbrook is the nearest detour. So it's getting about fifty times as much traffic as usual. Well, ten times as much anyway.

So what do we have?
A biker who is not paying attention and has one hand trapped away from the handlebars riding unconcernedly down a winding, narrow, heavily traversed road. Sounds like a future candidate for the Darwin Awards.

3 comments:

Fibonacci said...

If people want to remove themselves from the gene pool, they could just not reproduce. They don't *have* to get killed.

Qalmlea said...

True. But it's more interesting when they destroy themselves in spectacular fashion. Plus, it gives the Mythbusters something to do. ;-)

Matt said...

I love the Darwin awards. I must admit I've never seen someone use a cell phone on a bike. *shakes head*