I Do Not Like Mondays

It was almost like something out of a Mad Max movie. We were driving on the infamously dangerous Interstate-95 highway yesterday afternoon just as the 2026 World Cup final was ending, with Spain having scored in extra time and Argentina trying desperately to equalize.

Then suddenly, a swarm of motorcycle, scooter, trike, and even some all-terrain vehicle riders — including some that were definitely not street legal — started buzzing through the cars amid a slowdown on the highway, with traffic bunching up as it typically does on a weekend day driving I-95.

Some of the riders repeatedly popped huge wheelies, almost tipping over backwards and riding that rear tire only at significant speed. Some cruised in front of us with arms off their handlebars. Some cut in front of us so narrowly between traffic that they were almost banging into us or trading paint.

If any of those riders took a spill, they’d have been run over for sure, I thought to myself. Most that I saw were wearing little or no protective gear, meaning you become a smear on the road if you go down.

As a driver in that situation, this was bad. It felt like someone could easily get into a fatal accident doing this. I was trying to keep with the flow of four-wheeled traffic, which was already very stop-and-go and uneven, and simultaneously trying not to hit these riders cutting through from behind.  

We saw a policeman off at the side of an off-ramp pulling over a car, even as this multitude of motorcycles and others was driving so obviously recklessly. The policeman seemed to be doing nothing to address the much bigger problem at hand.

All the riders got off at the next exit, crowding the exit’s traffic capacity. As we got just a little farther down I-95, an ambulance went by with its sirens on, and we figured it almost had to be because of an injury among the riders.

This is the kind of thing that gives bikers a bad reputation and makes it riskier for everyone traveling America’s roads. The whole incident was like a flash mob, just on wheels and with a death wish.

Whatever could go wrong?