Brocephus

Which just reminded me, I had another incident with another jerk-off in a big monster truck, just yesterday !!! I was riding a moderately trafficked stretch (but still in a rural county) on my usual road ride, where I'm riding just outside the white line, not holding up any traffic or anything, when just to my left (like, real close!) this guy simultaneously blares the horn, and stomps on the gas ! It scared the living shinola outa me, causing me to involuntarily jerk the wheel to the right, away from the loud presence just off my left elbow. Fortunately, I was just getting to a bridge, where there was extra width in the road, so it went about as well as could be expected.
The truck was all-shiny-black, jacked-up, with dark tinted windows, extra wide tires and the big roll-bar front bumper.... so this clown really seemed to think he was Darth Vader or a ninja or something.

phillman5

I have here in Albuquerque. I was east of town on old 66 that runs parallel to I-40. I heard the whiz of a bullet (so it must have been close), then a gun shot. All I can think is someone on their back porch using me for target practice.

phillman5

1) Thanks buegelfrei for the text of the Berkley law, I sent that to each of my city councilors!


2) I think one way to defuse drivers is not give them anything to steam about. How many of us run stop signs? Don't do it, it gives them something to fume about (and chastise others that do, as drivers may take it out on you).


3) Further to gain favor with drivers obey all the laws and be polite, don't weave in and out of traffic or get in drivers way if easily avoidable. On some mountain road climbs I have stopped and pulled over to let cars pass.


4) I also try to help drivers. At an intersection, I get out of the right turn lane so drivers can turn right. Often a car will be a car length back, and especially if I notice they have the right blinker on, will motion for them to come on up and make their turn. I believe this builds good will.


5) If you do get into a conversation about not being on the street, and should be on the sidewalk, I point out at least here in New Mexico, metropolitan roads maintenance does NOT come from gas taxes, but property taxes, and I do pay my share of those. I ask how much they pay in property taxes (most low lifes are probably renters (spam me for making assumptions if you want) and I didn't say renters were low lifes). I remind drivers of that, and ask where is it posted no bicycles on this stretch.


One of my most confusing incidents was with a motorcycle. I thought motorcyclist and cyclist were in this together against idiotic car drivers. But once the passenger on a motocycle held out his right hand and thumped the back of my head real hard.


Stay safe my friends, we're no match to a car.

BoBodyJones

We just had a huge ride here in Denver, maybe 250 people in protest to the recent deaths. A lot of cars got to see so many cyclists and I think it helped a lot.

Maybe try riding in groups on the weekends or whatever to get more visibility for cyclists?

stephr1

"Smile and wave" isn't a bad suggestion. I would say just take a deep breadth and ride on. Assume the individual has a low IQ, smile to yourself at that realization and continue as you would normally. Need reason to let some ******* take away from the enjoyment of your ride (unless he/she is a real a**hole and continues to harass you. Then you find an alternate route ASAP).

Be smart. Be safe. Always have a plan b, c, d, etc.....

anon06

So far, my camera seems to help: no harassment from drivers at all, today. Several decided to use their signals, slow down, pass with enough space and one decided to wait for me to pass before turning (when plenty of drivers usually make a turn right in front of me)--all things that they usually only do when the police are around.

Daniel4

Excellent. Hope the bad drivers get used to the good driving habits.

hf35

l have been riding bikes for 53 years, and drove professionally for 39 years. l follow all the rules of the road. l believe that safety should be everyone's focus. Sidewalks should be for pedestrians, and maybe little children on bikes. When l ride my bike, l keep right so l don't obstruct traffic. lf l choose to use a road where the right side has pot holes, and unsafe cracks. l use a bike with beefier tires. Guess what, l never get harassed. But l might be on this forum.

Simplex

I have cycled in and around London for 7 years. In that time I've learned that being beeped hurts less than being shunted. There isn't much use in hugging the pavement whilst on the road and trying to give driver's as much space as possible. I have found that if you do that, you are inviting a close-pass and encouraging the idea that cyclists do not belong on the road. If cycle-paths were better designed, this would not be a problem.

livedarklions

I ride on plenty of roads where the right margin is entirely unsuited to riding with any bike tire, beefy or vegan. I ride primarily in 2 states. One of them doesn't even have a FRAP law, the other explicitly exempts that situation from FRAP rules. Guess what, I almost never get honked at or harassed when I cut into the lane to avoid those margins. I have been swerved at, screamed at by passengers (basically right into my ear), rolled coal on, and blasted by airhorns while riding perfectly legally in the breakdown lane. This is harassment occurring when I have not inconvenienced the driver in any way, and has nothing to do with whether I cautiously rolled a stop sign at an empty intersection 10 miles up the road.

I absolutely believe that the people doing this aren't reacting to anything the bicyclists are actually doing, they're just trying to make biking intimidating so they don't have to deal with it. I'm not humoring a "blame the cyclists" approach to this issue, which I deal with regularly.


I trust you can tell the difference between being disagreed with and being harassed, btw.

jon c. 

I follow the rules of the road as well. I ride in the lane position that is safest and best under the circumstances, as the rules of the road allow. I don't obstruct traffic, I am traffic.

bakerjw

Very well said. I often do these same things especially on my morning commutes and for the most part people seem to be appreciative. I've also seen things that @livedarklions has mentioned. i.e. People trying to build their own self esteem by harassing people for no reason at all. There will always be dooshbags out there.

FWIW. Rolling coal is purposefully exposing another person to a known carcinogen. IMHO it is more hazardous than a person spitting in your face and should be treated as assault.

Lemond1985

A side benefit to using a camera is to be able to review incidents after they happen. Doing this made me realize that probably 50-75% of the times when I felt threatened by drivers, it was nowhere near as serious as it felt at the time. Whether the perceived threat felt more serious or less serious, depended mainly on my mood, not the objective threat as preserved by the video footage.


I realized how incredibly subjective my sense of being "wronged" is, how easily it can be set off (often mistakenly) and how often my sense of being "wronged", is simply "wrong". I also saw how many dumb things I do, and how forgiving I am of my own mistakes, when it happens to suit me. And how quick to blame and vengeful I can be. When I imagine everyone on the road with this mindset, it's amazing there aren't far more crashes, and far more lawsuits.


So I wound up becoming a lot more tolerant of drivers (gets squished by a big rig later today ) and learning a little bit about myself.

Brocephus

Now that is friggin' scary !!! I live in a very pro-firearm county/state, and routinely hear (and occasionally even see) people people shooting, not far from the road. I even hear it sitting here at my computer, regularly.
It doesn't concern me, it's "the sound (and cost) of freedom", as far as I'm concerned , but I must admit, when I'm way out in the boonies cruising along, all alone, and I hear a nearby single rifle shot, my ears do perk up for that tell-tale 'whizzing' sound you referenced.

livedarklions

Well, just for future reference, when you pull a quote out of context to make a point that has nothing to do with the post the quote came from, you confuse the person you're quoting. You also force him/her to disavow your post if they disagree with it.

I disavow your post about guns pointed at "foreigners". I want nothing to do with it, serious or joking.

livedarklions

Jeez! I've never had that happen here in NH, but I generally avoid the trails in NH during deer hunting season, and if I do ride on them, I'm absolutely certain to wear lots of yellow and nothing white. I've been told that can look like a white-tail deer from a blind. NH basically lets you hunt anywhere that isn't posted otherwise. From experience, I can tell you that riding past a bunch of guys lying in ambush is pretty unnerving even when you know they have no ill intent.

I'd wear bells, but I really don't want to deal with hunters mad at me for scaring off the critters.

MattTheHat 

How do you know the bank owns their gas-guzzling money pits?


-Matt

Korina

I don't; it was an assumption. I'm sure some cagers own their gas-guzzling money pits. My husband does.

MattTheHat 

I must admit I do as well.


-Matt

downhillmaster

While riding this past Sunday a young kid and his gf buzzed by me blaring their horn and shouting at me to get off the road. About a 1/4 mile up they had to wait at a stop sign so I caught up to them. I switched lanes and as I slowly rolled past his open driver side window I told him his gf is a skank.
The gutless punk didn’t even pull over.
The youth of today is in pretty bad shape

Brocephus

To borrow an old quote, "I don't care who ya are, that's ^ funny, right there !"

hf35

All l am saying is, taking up more of the road then necessary to stay safe, causes road rage. lt is no different then driving in the left lane at the speed limit. Or people walking side by side, from one side of the bike path to the other, believing it is their right.

More has been accomplished in the world with cooperation than with conflict.

Lemond1985

Hey, we're all in this commute together (to wherever we're going) so why not be "team players" and stay the &$#@ out of each other's way? We do it at work, why not on the road on the way to work?

Being delayed by someone else's selfishness and stupidity frustrates some of us beyond belief (myself definitely included). The last thing I wanna do is anger someone in a 4000 pound metal cage who could crush me with the stomp of a foot. I sense lots of impatience out there, especially when people make such a production out of passing me (slowing down to a ridiculous crawl for hundreds of feet, then flooring the accelerator needlessly, when there's not another car for miles around) as if to demonstrate what a burden I am to them just being there out on the road.

I think my own extreme impatience with other drivers, shows me exactly what the angry pickup truck guys are feeling when they see me on the road doing something that might potentially delay them a millisecond or two. The inability (and outright refusal) of some cyclists to put themselves in the position of a frustrated driver, I feel, puts them at greater risk for road rage incidents. YMMV.

BadGrandma

Yes, I also want to know where you live, so I can avoid it.

livedarklions

The problem I have is that I don't take up more than I believe I need to be safe, yet I'm getting screamed at, honked at, close-passed and coal-rolled. And I can't tell you how many times I've been yelled at to go to the right of a right-hand turn lane. I'm not going to do something that stupid just to appease some malinformed bully.