[Jeff Higgins]

As an avid motorcyclist, these do rate pretty high on my list of things to watch for. Certainly not the only thing on that list, but well up towards the top. My last close encounter with the classic stereotype had her in a Suburban, holding the phone between her left shoulder and ear, two occupied child seats in the back, and juggling a cup of Starbucks between the cup holder and her right hand. I had lots of time to observe all of this, as I was right outside her driver's window. I was riding sweep on a club ride with about 20 some odd bikes in front of me that had just passed her; we were in the carpool lane and she was in the fast lane. Thank God those things have the blinkers in the mirrors now; I saw it come on, and also saw she never looked outside, in her mirror, or anywhere else but straight out the windshield. There was a car on my butt and the rest of the club in front of me, with the jersy barrier right on the fog line on my left. Nowhere to go. I laid on the horn, kicked her door, and screamed at the top of my lungs. She damn near jumped through her sunroof as she dropped the phone, spilled the coffee, grabbed the wheel (finally! - how the hell was she steering!??) and swerved two lanes right, again without even looking. It's a miracle no one else was over there to hit. Her reaction when she gathered herself up? She honked and flipped me off. Kinda hurt my feelings.