I live in the world’s capital of this breed of idiots. Western Boston Suburbs. Un-friggin’ real. Martha’s Vineyard is actually worse, but any place you have a lot of folks who only get on a bike two weeks in year, you’ll have problems.
Guy at work has been in numerous car-bike accidents - never, ever his fault! He’s about 60 and all busted up but he still goes out and asks for more. The odd thing is, he’s overweight and out of shape from all that down time. There’s plenty of stationary bikes in the gym, ya know.
No... sadly, that would be me, I'm afraid. USA Cycling, the national governing body for the sport is based here in Colorado Springs. Between that and the Olympic Training Center, also based here, everyone and their dog thinks they are Lance Armstrong, and are convinced that they own the roads.
They will all be out in force come rush hour, furiously trying to force their scrawny little legs up the steep hills in town, backing up traffic for miles.
You must be referring to the Concord/Carlisle/Westford area. I live right in the middle of all that and this time of year, the bicycles outnumber the cars, especially on weekends.
Annoying as they are, I have never come close to hitting one of them. Although I have had close calls with cars coming in the other direction because I have to steer to the center of the road to go by them. So if I'm coming up on a curve (such as Monument Street in Concord), I have to slow down to a crawl behind them because it is too risky to drive past them in case a car is coming up around the bend.
I can sort of identify with the bicyclists because when I walk my dog, I have to walk in the streets because there are no sidewalks in my residential neighborhood. So I am always concerned about being hit from behind - like Stephen King, especially at night. I don't understand why they don't put sidewalks in residential neighborhoods around here. No wonder people are so fat, they have to get in their cars to drive everywhere, or risk their lives by walking on the street.