Originally Posted by
caloso
Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.
Over 52 years of cycling and over 35 years of daily commuting... smile and wave is about the best I have come up with too.
I've tried everything from the one finger salute, to offering cards printed with cycling laws to chasing someone down and confronting them. The response is pretty much the same. "The road belongs to cars." That mentality is pervasive throughout the land... and there is little a cyclist is gonna do to break that notion. Even some cops have it...and judges. That attitude, and the threat of the bigger, faster, heavier potential weapon, should a motorist choose to cross that line, have convinced me that smile and wave are about all we can do.
Motorists are convinced they are right, and even to another motorist, people will lie and rationalize their wrong actions.
Get an Airzound, so at least you can wake up one or two of them... but don't bother trying to teach 'em... it's like trying to teach a pig to sing... it ain't gonna happen, and you both get annoyed.
This harassment thing has, over the decades caused me to step away from cycling for a a few months, from time to time... only to return because the pleasure and reward are greater than the anguish. And golly, every now and then, a motorist does smile, does wave, and does exclaim administration for the lifestyle or my road manners. That's about all I can expect.