Originally Posted by
bpcyclist
I just spent 2 1/2 hours riding in town in the rain, half of it during rush hour. I had no fewer than five vehicles pause to let me go, defer to me at a stop/light when they had the right of way, or just completely stop in the middle of the road to let me cross a busy street with no light for me. That's the flip side of the harassment story. All the drivers, personal and commercial, who go out of their way to be cautious around cyclists and to help us when they can. There are a lot of them and we ought not forget them.
I try to wave or salute or whatever when someone does this, and I definitely try to remember it so I don't get all bent out of shape the next time someone is nasty to me. I think there's about 10 nice guys to every jerk, but the jerks really do tend to stick in my mind if I'm not careful. I had a guy the other day roll down his window to thank me for moving over to the left a few inches at a red light to let him take the right turn in his car. Courtesy makes riding and driving a lot more pleasant.
Of course, just a few hours later, when I took the center lane on a road that divided left and right, the center lane going to the left, some jerk from behind honks at me, goes into the left lane, zooms ahead of me, then pops into the right lane. He just couldn't stand the thought of passing me on the right for some reason even though I was several feet to the left, and decided it was better to cross my lane twice. No one else around, either. Rocket scientist, I guess.