Tom Menino’s Bike Fights Car, Loses

As anyone who’s ever pedaled a bike around Boston can testify, getting hit by a car is a rite of passage. It’s not so much a matter of if you’ll get hit by a careless or aggressive driver, but when some jerk on a cell phone knocks your Schwinn out from under you.

It was recently Mayor Tom Menino’s turn to take a digger while riding his bike.

We’re surprised it wasn’t the billowing pants on his blue bike suit that took him out. (Also, thank you, Globe, for taking the opportunity to run that brilliant picture again.) Instead, it was a driver who knocked him down.

The woman was driving on River Street May 26 when she crested a hill and struck Menino, said Dorothy Joyce, the mayor’s spokeswoman. He fell off his bike and suffered a small cut to his ankle, but told the flustered motorist to “just get going, and don’t be late for work,” Joyce said.

Who could have done this horrible thing? Or was Menino wobbling unsteadily on his bike, crossing into the path of the oncoming car? The mayor’s spokeswoman isn’t telling.

“I really don’t know much about it,” Joyce said. “He keeps his rides private. That’s his private time.”

Huh. Menino struck us as more of a Calgon, take me away kind of guy.