This scene almost played out twice on my bike ride today — well, aside from the whole hipster fixed gear skidding competition.
But what do parents tell their kids these days? As I was cruising down the Springbrook Prairie Preserve path, there was a group of high school kids walking and talking, taking up the entire width of the path. Most of them heard me coming and moved over to the left, but one kid kept jawing and had his back turned to me, and as I went to move further to my right, off the trail and into the grass, he stepped right in front of me and I had to swerve.
Then near the end of my ride there was a group of kids riding their bikes three across near a school. I was about 18 inches off the curb when one of them — riding up the wrong side of the road — turned his head around to yell back to more friends down the street. He drifted into my path and even though I yelled “Heads up!” we missed by a little more than a foot.
I think a kid needs to get hit by a car in Naperville so that parents can reiterate the rule of thumb about looking both ways before you cross the street.
Srsly. Almost ruined a couple of kids’ days today.
