Give Way to the Concrete Neck

I was doing maybe 45 km/h in the left lane when a rider came out of an alley without looking. No signal, no pause, no nothing. Just straight into my lane. I had two choices: brake hard, or move right into a lane I wasn't planning to use. I picked one. I don't even remember which, because the only thing I could think about was how casually he did it.

I call this rider the concrete neck because his neck seems physically unable to turn. The head never moves. It just points straight ahead, even when the rest of him is already halfway into the road.

After a while I started paying attention. It wasn't just that one guy. It happens everywhere, every day. Same move, different face. I have stopped being surprised. Now I just wait for it.

The rule is simple. If you come from a smaller road, you yield. Slow down, stop if you need to, look right, left, right. Driving on the left means the first look goes right, because that's where the closest danger is coming from. Three glances, maybe three seconds. Apparently that's too much to ask.

What gets me is the confidence. No indicator, no head turn, no stop. Some don't even stop behind the line. They stop with the nose already in the road, like the decision is final and the checking is just a formality. I have seen people do this while also looking at their phone. I honestly don't know how they're still alive.

In racing, this has a name: the unsafe rejoin. You leave your line, then come back without checking your mirrors and take out whoever was already there. In a game, the stewards give you a penalty. Out here, there are no stewards. There is just me, already in the lane, with half a second to react.

I don't think it's malice. Malice takes planning. This is more like a habit built on never being wrong. From inside the alley, the main road is just a shape. You see the empty space, not the speed of whatever is coming through it. By the time you realize the space was never empty, someone else is already braking for you. And somehow, if something happens, it will be our fault for being there.

That's what I can't accept. His two-second decision becomes my five-second problem. Mine, the vehicle behind me, anyone else nearby. Nobody agreed to that. But the left lane isn't safe anymore, so I have to brake hard or take the right lane whether I like it or not. He decided for all of us, and none of us got a say.

I just want to get home without having to guess what someone else will do. That doesn't feel like a lot to ask.

I don't expect perfect roads. I don't expect every rider to be good. I just expect the bare minimum: stop, look, and let the road decide if you're allowed in. That's not a hard rule. It's the same rule that keeps all of us alive.

The neck doesn't need to be flexible. It just needs to move.

Until then, give way to the concrete neck. He will not give way to you.

Idea by me. Assisted by AI.