When I was a
young fry my
mother forbid me from playing in the street. She forbid me from even crossing the
street, she said it was far too
dangerous. Only when I got older did she give me permission to go out in the
neighborhood and ride around on my
bike. I was told to always get out of the street when I saw cars coming, though. She drilled it into my consciousness that cars were dangerous and you would ABSOLUTELY DIE if you got hit by one.
Fast forward about twenty years later, I drive through my neighborhood and kids are riding their bikes around, but it's different. Either these kids have the amazing mutant power of being able to ride a bicycle while deaf and blind, or their parents don't give a flying fuck about their safety. They don't get out of the way. The pedal along RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY GOD DAMN CAR. They don't acknowledge that I'm there. They weave around in the middle of the street, careless. They is no getting over to the side of the road, waiting until the car has passed. It's kind of turned into the Activision game freeway except the chickens are now kids ... and the whole business of possible fatalities.
Has our society become so litigious that parents are now teaching their children to try to get struck by cars? Because the kids where I live are making a dedicated effort. I stand on the horn to get these kids to sit up and notice. They'll slowly get out of the way. Many times I lower the window and say "get out of the road!" but they just look at me as if to say, "Hey, can't you see I'm RIDING HERE?".
Those bicycles would look great as a twisted pile of scrap metal in the dumpster behind my office.