So much to say but so little time. I rode through the back roads again to Cobourg and stayed overnight in a guest room at my mother’s residence. I walked in with my KLIM mesh outfit and boots and all of the women who were at least 20-30 years older than me were giving me the once over. The guest room included supper and breakfast and during supper more than one of these women came up to greet me with my mother and tried very hard to strike up a conversation.  My room was by itself next to the hair stylist’s store on the third floor. As I went up to call it a night there were more than one of these women watching me take the elevator up.  I was a bit worried that I would get some knocks on my door that evening but thankfully I did not.

Well, back to the New Kind of A-Hole. Riding along highway # 2 towards Cobourg you go through a few towns that have parking at 45 degree angles in front of the stores. I guess it makes it easier to pull in but getting out is a bit of a challenge when there is traffic.

Now for the A-hole. I was riding slowly through Colborne scanning back and forth, left and right watching the cars parked and in front of me when suddenly a black van with no windows just started to back-up right into my bike at a 45 degree angle. Luckily I noticed to the left that there were no car in the parking spot so I accelerated quickly to the left cutting in front of the ongoing traffic and jammed the brakes so I wouldn’t ride my bike through a store window. The oncoming car slammed the brakes while the van kept navigating backwards onto the road and then just drove away.

My first reaction was to hunt him down but my better judgement said to take a deep breath and focus back onto the trip to visit my mother.

But here’s the thing; a van parked at 45 degrees in that manner with no side windows other than a passenger window can not see oncoming traffic at all no matter how hard they try to stretch their necks. So what exactly is their approach to exiting such a parking spot and why would they park there in the first place?

I think they just slowly back up waiting to hear a horn honk to tell them that there is traffic in the way.

Take a good loot at my terrible sketch at the line of sight of the driver in the van to oncoming traffic in his lane.

As you may all know from previous posts, I am a defensive driver but this type of last-minute big black back-end of a van in your face had never occurred to me. Basically the birth of a new type of A-hole in my book of motorcycle riders.

Preventive action? I will honk like hell the next time I am faced with a windowless van parked in such a manner so as to notify them that I am riding by. Odds are that for the rest of my life if this ever happens again, the van will be parked and empty. But perhaps not for you (food for thought).