A mild meandering on two wheels

    A few days ago I ranted somewhat about our society being one which values what we have more than what we do.  I should be proud of myself for anticipating the latest Lexus commercial campaign ("Life is full of missed opportunities")

 which implies that owning one of their cars is consolation for not accomplishing many things(writing the great american novel among them).  While we'd all like to think we have our finger on the pulse, I'm not comfortable being that right.
    Today I went to a meeting at the Road Commission where a state policeman politely covered the rules of the road.

I went because the members of the local bike club were encouraged to come because something of some importance about traffic laws and bicycles was going to be discussed.  We were mislead.  Nothing was mentioned about cycling until a club member asked.  The officer fumbled around with his notes and assured them he had something, went on talking and eventually opened the floor for questions concerning cycling.
      We listened to public complaints about bikes riding side by side and groups being too large to pass in autos.  Strangely enough, I thought they must be Lexus owners, because we had anticipated that also.  The night before at a bike club meeting we had discussed how to better manage the groups at club rides which were literally unsafe for people to pass.  The members there at the meeting seemed relieved that we had addressed the possibly of them being inconvenienced.
     They were polite enough to listen as we asked for procedures to report and prosecute attempts which had been made on our lives while riding bikes. The one valuable thing I took from the meeting was the fact that prosecution after a road rage incident was difficult because identifying the driver can be.  In the case of  drive by incidents with school buses the law is specific that the owner of a car is always responsible, but in other instances the driver is responsible and, unless there is a viable witness, it can be impossible to determine who that was.

     So the meeting and the road commission's attempt were not a complete waste of time, I have a bit of information to pass on to the League of Michigan Bicyclists so they can lobby to get the law articulated.
Beyond that I can say they make lousy coffee.