Cynical exploitation

The three-day weekend is a great Australian Tradition. It's a well known fact that attendance at many workplaces is significantly diminished on Fridays and Mondays. For a cycle commuter such as myself, the practical upshot of this is that on these days, roads are less likely to be gridlocked, unless there is some "assistance".

On this particular Friday, I was approaching a multi-lane roundabout (traffic circle for those on the other side of the Pacific), expecting a wait because the lack of gridlock meant that the traffic on Ashmore road would probably be passing through in a consistent stream. All of a sudden one idiot about two cars in front of me decides to charge out into the roundabout anyway, then suddenly realise how stupid he just was, and look for a way to beat even that outburst of stupidity. Inevitably, this meant that his next move was to actually stop in the middle of the roundabout.

When I was younger and perhaps a little more idealistic, I would have immediately thought "what an idiot, why didn't he just go and have done with it?". However, after the best part of 12 years cycling on the Gold Coast, my idealism has given way to pragmatism (some would say cynicism), meaning that this incident didn't particularly surprise me.

In fact, my only reaction was to look for an opportunity. Seeing one, and knowing it would be there for long enough because this guy was so bloody stupid, I accelerated, passed the idiot, picked my way through the clogged roundabout, noting that this guy had singlehandedly clogged three of the four exits (probably would have clogged the fourth had it carried any traffic), and forget all about it, I was gone! All up, that idiot probably managed to knock 5-10 minutes off my commute time.

Just another day in paradise.