Thanking drivers: sometimes it's a bit hard

Catherine Porter of the Star has a bunch of the "Thank You" cards for drivers, a campaign by the Toronto Cyclists Union, but she's having a hard time giving them out. It seems like she's more determined that I. I will, however, wave when a driver allows me to turn or cross, or I say thank-you when a driver decides to wait before opening their car door to step in (usually after a flurry of bell ringing, and, yes, I do give myself enough space but streets are a bit tighter than others).

A stack of these has been poking out of my backpack for a week now.

I haven't given out a single one.

I almost did, to a guy in a powder blue sports car who had stopped on Yonge St. while I passed. Then the light turned red and he drove through it.

Turns out he had been working his BlackBerry.

The cards are the Toronto Cyclists Union's make-up notes to drivers – its way of reaching across the bed to rub a cold shoulder. The blow-up being the tragic encounter between Michael Bryant and Darcy Allan Sheppard and its aftermath.

Thank you for not killing me. Thank you for not maiming me. That's what I think the cards should say.

"It's the butter-side-down toast thing," says Ryan Thomas, the graphic designer who whipped up the cards and is handing them out to drivers like Halloween candy. "We don't remember the million positive things that happen when we ride. We fixate on the terrible ones."

The next day Porter decides to give it another try.

It takes less than a minute for my first heart-seizing encounter with a driver who's whizzed past a stop sign and confronted my terror-stricken eyes though the windshield. I swerve out of the way. Thank God there isn't a car right behind me.

You think cyclists break the law? When was the last time you jaywalked or drove the speed limit along Mortimer Rd.? We all bend the rules. The problem is, most of us are driving. The rest of us don't carry airbags.

My wheels crunch over leaves as I enter the sanctuary of a residential street. But it's not safe here either. A cement truck driver swings open his door as I pass. This is what cyclists ironically call the door prize. It's among the top three causes of what police term "cyclist-involved collisions." So far this year, 951 have been reported.

This should be an no-brainer for re-enforcing. All drivers should go into re-education simply so they can learn to wait. Just hold their horses and wait for a cyclist to pass, and learn not to look perplexed when a cyclist yells at them for opening their doors directly in front. This is why it can be hard to thank drivers, though I really do try some times.

Has anyone else given out Thank You cards?