A friend said it was a time for her to go home. She lives in Downtown Dallas and I thought giving her a ride on my trike would be the safest option for getting both home tonight. I can drop her off, hop over to the Katy Trail, and hightail it home. Well, it wasn't that easy...

I pull up to the corner of North Field Street and the access road of Woodall Rodgers.

I am in the right hand lane thinking I am safe because the lane is actually closed to traffic.

I am waiting on the light to change from Red and a cabbie pulls up along side me.  My front tire is about 2 feet ahead of his bumper.  I have 5 flashy lights on the trike, 2 about 6 feet in the air, 2 about 1.5 feet off the ground, and 1 in front.  The intersection is well lit and my torso is at the same height as the typical driver.

What most people don't realize is that I am on a trike.  This is not small like a bike.  I take up over half a lane.  If you are an avid rider around White Rock, you've seen me out getting exercise.  If you ride on one of Dallas' many fun group rides, you've seen me maneuver my trike through a crowd.  If you've attended a parade in the past 3 years, you've seen me with a 4 seater version.  What I'm trying to say is, my trike is NOT SMALL.  People see it and because it is not typical, I often get comments no matter the day or night.

Back to my story...

I'm sitting a Red light, obviously not turning right.  When the light changes, I proceed into the intersection.  The cabbie does too.  Instead of giving me the right of way, he proceeds to inch closer to me so get can enter the Woodall Rodgers freeway.  Maybe he thought he could out run me.  Maybe he didn't see me although we spent over 45 seconds next to each other at the intersection.  What ever the case, he chose to cut me off coming with in an inch of my trike intentionally taking a path onto the freeway entrance that implies he cut me off.

Would it have been detrimental for him to hit me? problably not.  The trike is made of aircraft aluminum.  (But that is not the point of the post.)

It's been about 1 month since Dallas painted bike lanes no the streets.  In that time, I've had one friend run off the road and another run over.  Fortunately, we all are fine but Dallas drivers aren't getting the message.  You would think cabbies would be the most aware because all they do is sit behind the wheel of a car and navigate traffic.  Well... not this cabbie.

Notes to self: I did not get the cab company name.  The cab license plate number is BDF6954.  Public Data does not have a record on this cab.  Their records seem to only go to 6 digits even though Texas license digits go to 7.