Yesterday morning I had the most bizarre experience with a driver. Bizarre in a GOOD way. I was riding north on Washington from Roslindale Square toward Forest Hills Station. The bike lane ends at the light at Ukraine, so I generally move left into the car lane to avoid right turning cars and cars going straight ahead that will zoom full speed ahead when the light is green, and try to push me off the road if I’m not taking the lane.

There was a lot of car traffic, so I signaled left in advance and a car let me in. That was odd enough, but it does happen sometimes. I got into the lane, and the car that let me in pulled over to my right, half in the bike lane and half in the car lane.

The driver’s window was open, and this man in a yellow fleece said, “Excuse me. Why did you signal left when you could go straight ahead in the bike lane?”

“The bike lane ends here,” I explained. “So I move left so no one runs me over.”

“Ah,” he said, clearly needing time to think about this. With a thoughtful expression on his face, he rolled away and made a right turn onto Ukraine.

How funny is that! I can’t believe this guy was so polite! I hope he tells people, “Yeah, sometimes those bikers do things that actually make sense even though you can’t think of why the hell they would do that. If you ask them it actually does make sense. I asked one!”