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Morning commute
Oct. 21st, 2009 05:34 pmThis morning on the way to work as I was about to turn onto a nice little
road, a cop turned onto the road just ahead of me. Not like "cut me off",
he just happened to get there first. I followed him at a respectful, safe
distance, matching his speed. It was just about the speed limit.
Then he pulls over to the side of the road.
...
So I slowly pass him, and continue down the road, right at the speed limit
(or a little under, my speedo reads high.)
Then he pulls out behind me. No lights, no tailgating, nothing weird other
than the fact that he pulled over, let me pass, and now is behind me.
A couple turns later I'm still crawling along at the absurdly low speed
limit, and he's still behind me, keeping his distance, but not turning off,
or anxious to get anywhere.
After about a half mile or so of this I think, "fuck this. If he's looking
to find some reason to give me a ticket, he'll have to be blatant about it."
I turn on my turn signals and pull over. I figure he'll either pass me, or
try to give me a ticket.
He pulled over behind me, but didn't turn on his lights or get out of his
car.
...
So I turned off the bike, dismounted, and went to ask, "hey, what's going
on?"
As I'm walking back to his car his lights go on.
Fuck...
I get to his window and ask, "so, is there something wrong? you pulled over
and let me pass, followed me, and now you're stopped behind me."
"... um... I just wanted to look at something on the side of the road."
".... Uh... ok... so nothing to do with me?"
"Nope. " By this time he's out of his car. "I stopped for the traffic
monitoring equipment" and pointed at a Pelican case like thing attached to a
telephone pole. He then got another box out of the back seat that had a
bunch of techno-stuff in it, clearly stuff used in downloading/recharging
the box on the pole.
We had a very brief, not very informative discussion about traffic
monitoring equipment (he wasn't very forthcoming, and I wasn't pushing) and
then I left.
What're the chances I'd choose to pull over to let him pass *exactly* where
he was going to stop anyway?
Empirical evidence suggests 1:1.
Weird.
road, a cop turned onto the road just ahead of me. Not like "cut me off",
he just happened to get there first. I followed him at a respectful, safe
distance, matching his speed. It was just about the speed limit.
Then he pulls over to the side of the road.
...
So I slowly pass him, and continue down the road, right at the speed limit
(or a little under, my speedo reads high.)
Then he pulls out behind me. No lights, no tailgating, nothing weird other
than the fact that he pulled over, let me pass, and now is behind me.
A couple turns later I'm still crawling along at the absurdly low speed
limit, and he's still behind me, keeping his distance, but not turning off,
or anxious to get anywhere.
After about a half mile or so of this I think, "fuck this. If he's looking
to find some reason to give me a ticket, he'll have to be blatant about it."
I turn on my turn signals and pull over. I figure he'll either pass me, or
try to give me a ticket.
He pulled over behind me, but didn't turn on his lights or get out of his
car.
...
So I turned off the bike, dismounted, and went to ask, "hey, what's going
on?"
As I'm walking back to his car his lights go on.
Fuck...
I get to his window and ask, "so, is there something wrong? you pulled over
and let me pass, followed me, and now you're stopped behind me."
"... um... I just wanted to look at something on the side of the road."
".... Uh... ok... so nothing to do with me?"
"Nope. " By this time he's out of his car. "I stopped for the traffic
monitoring equipment" and pointed at a Pelican case like thing attached to a
telephone pole. He then got another box out of the back seat that had a
bunch of techno-stuff in it, clearly stuff used in downloading/recharging
the box on the pole.
We had a very brief, not very informative discussion about traffic
monitoring equipment (he wasn't very forthcoming, and I wasn't pushing) and
then I left.
What're the chances I'd choose to pull over to let him pass *exactly* where
he was going to stop anyway?
Empirical evidence suggests 1:1.
Weird.
