tg1896

I don't know, but I decided to find out.

I've seen several threads recently that carried the sentiment that "all cagers hate us no matter what". "They will forget the 99 cyclists that obey all the rules and remember the one knucklehead." Heck - I've even thought this stuff myself at times. But then I started wondering - am I doing the same thing when it comes to motorists? Hmmmmm.... I immediately decided to do an informal survey on the ride home today. I counted all cars traveling in my direction (don't ask why - it's MY survey - I get to make up the rules as I go along). I divided them into three categories - 1. Those that did something obvious to make the ride safer around me - slow down, edge out, etc. 2. Those that basically kept driving exactly the same - but did not make me feel uncomfortable in any way. 3. Anyone that did anything to make me feel uncomfortable.

I wasn't totally surprised by the results, but it did give me pause. I have a ten mile commute on surface connector streets in metro Atlanta. I was passed by a total of 68 cars. Of those - 61 did something obvious to help me out - 7 just kept on rolling - and (you guessed it) not even one did something stupid or aggressive. There was one lady that was waiting to pull into the street that put it into reverse, backed up to give me more room and then waved.

My experience could very well be the exception to the rule, but I'm going to recalibrate my opinion of motorists.

CastIron

9 out of 10 are sub-human heathens. Here, at least.

MyPC8MyBrain

I'm a cager...I think most of us likely are.
I drive around in my big ol SUV.
I drive it like I'm Invincible. {well, not really}
I talk on my cell phone sometimes when I'm driving.
I drive past people riding their bikes. {but give 'em 1/2 a lane}
Heck, I even roll up the windows and run the AC sometimes

I just don't do it as often as I used to. Sometimes the Jeep will sit for a couple of weeks without being driven. Sometimes I drive it to the bike store.

We're all on the road together... there are bad drivers, just as there are bad cyclists. The trick is keeping the two from running over each other. It takes action on both sides to keep that from happening.

CBBaron

My experience is probably pretty similar but I think I have probably 3-4% that make me uncomfortable even if they do not actually endanger me. It has been the fairly rare case that a vehicle endangers me but not rare enough given the possible outcomes.

However I don't want to think about a similar review of cyclists that I see. The vast majority are running stop signs and lights, going the wrong way, riding on the side walk, or just generally treating the street as a playground. Motorist in Cleveland really have no idea what to expect from cyclists.

I try to ride as a vehicle but even being predictable is unexpected.

Craig

TeflonJohn

+1 I see more cyclist ignoring the rules than I do motorists. On my commute today I was almost hit by a cager who was simply trying to avoid another cyclist who failed to yeild when he was supposed to. It makes all cyclists look bad

CigTech

I have about 200 cars that pass by me on the way home. This week only one did a sputid thing. He come on to the shoulder of the road and was tring to pass every one that was waiting at the light, so he could make the right turn at the light. So I just stoped and made him wait till he could get back in the lane. I did tick him off a little. But he needs to learn the hard way that's my lane.

LilSprocket

+1
Sorry to chime on the neg, but here in this 'bicycle friendly community' A LOT of, but certainly not all, cagers are totally oblivious to the rules of the road... Including cyclists! A lOT of fully kitted Roadies (often sans helmets) on spiffy carbon bikes totally blowin' off red lights, stops, passing on the right and without a word (what IS that???). I've been nearly run off the road several times by cagers with bikes on the back of their cars or the FL "share the road" license plates... it's totally bizarre

I haven't been commuting of late, in heal mode, but I notice it just as much driving..
I'm sure I notice it more so overall since I started commuting back in November.

I will Always give credit where credit is due and extend a smile and nod to courteous cagers and those that actually do what they are supposed to... like coming to full and complete stops before making a right on red, allowing me my 3', not riding for extended periods in the bike lane, take their turn at the 4 way stops rather than waving me through even if it's their turn (thanks anyway)...etc...

odd though, being thankful when folks do the right thing... I'm naive, I figure doin' the right thing should be the norm...

Frankly, I've begun to think the pace of our society is makin' people kinda loopy

chephy

Part of the problem is that cagers just don't know the rules of the road... the basic principles.

Just today I was riding on a small residential street. A big car passes me just to stop at a stop sign right away, right in front of me. Rude but... whatever... And then the driver turns on her right turn signal and starts waving at me (I can see it in her right-hand mirror), telling me to pass her on the right! I think she was trying to be nice too...

I could understand it if she passed me just to beat me to the stop sign. Ticks me off, extremely selfish - but at least I can see a reason behind it, however bad, rude and inconsiderate it might be. But what is the point of going into the oncoming lane to pass a cyclist only to invite him to pass you a quarter of a second later??? It slows EVERYBODY down, it's a lose-lose...

ryanparrish

Before I discovered BikeForums 2 cagers a week would yell out at me or honk now it is flip flopped 1 cager every two weeks and it wasn't myfault before BikeForums it was my fault. Thanks BikeForums, and I think now that I learned proper edicit and technique people can see me and I wont get hurt so I think cager troubles are region to region cyclist to cyclist diffrent times diffrent days roads etc I

DataJunkie

I think ryan's post hurt my head.

Most are fine. It's the aholes that ruin it for everyone else.

Anyhow, I will be driving the car tomorrow. Feel free to browbeat me for joining the unwashed masses driving to work once a week. bleh
4 days of 45 miles is enough for me. I need my little break to properly appreciate cyclocommuting. Otherwise, I tend to resent it and burnout. Consequently, I drive to work on Fridays.

mrkott3r

Yes they are human. Like most things some jerks make it bad for everyone.

I think a lot of it comes down to poor driver training as well. Ive had many drivers not spot me at all, it wasnt like they were intentionally trying to run me down.

Datajunkie take the pain! Keep riding! I find the more I ride even in poor conditions and even if its the 20th day straight of doing the same boring ride, the more I love riding.

DataJunkie

I need a day off to prepare for the weekend's fun rides.
That and I use fridays to pick up items for my bathroom remodel. I would prefer to use a vehicle to haul a toilet than a bike
Anyhow, the bathroom will be finished soon. yay

HardyWeinberg

I remember my wife thinking that stopping off at the parts store on her bike to pick up a starter for the mustang ('66) would be no problem, until she actually saw the part and put it in her shoulder bag. Battle to avoid tipping over the rest of the way home...

dbg

I agree that more bicyclists seem to be jerks than cagers. I am appalled at how many times I see bicyclists blow through 4-way stops right in front of cars. Two examples: I saw a family (dad on bike, mom on bike pulling burley with kid inside). Dad blows through 4-way with cars at all positions. Mom following 30 yards behind AND ON SIDEWALK doesn't even hesitate, but continues on through as if no one was there. Other example: Me in car stopped at 4-way with two roadies approaching from left. They were a ways off but riding fast. Knowing they had to stop also, I continued on. I wasn't even in their way (they didn't really even have to slow down), but both raised up and gave me the finger (waved their IQ at me). Who are all these morons, and when will natural selection get rid of them?

JohnBrooking

The image of cagers as presented on this forum is vastly more negative than reality. Especially if you are riding properly. I think all of us get mad easily when someone does something wrong, so if you do something wrong, of course people are going to be mad at you.

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I noticed a cager intentionally acting negatively towards me. I was riding between 15-20 mph in the middle of the mall perimeter road (where most cars don't go much faster, if any, and don't need to follow for long anyway), and a car gunned his motor behind me. A few seconds later, he roared out and passed me. He was a 20-something male with college plates (sorry to stereotype). Sad to say, I did get very angry at him.

What's actually most annoying to me are the ones who are too nice and insist on giving away their right of way to you. To me, it feels really condescending and patronizing. A control issue on their part, really. I think they feel like they're being nice and taking care of you, like you need it, when in reality it just confuses everyone!

CliftonGK1

I'm a one-day-per-week cager. I have an off-site meeting 9 miles away every Friday, so I use that day to drive and bring in a locker full of clean clothes for the next week.
I've run into few problems with cars while riding. Mostly because I'm on a bike trail for 6 out of 7 miles, but the last mile I have goes through a really busy intersection with a freeway on/off ramp and many 18-wheelers and commercial trucks etc. There's only been one time that someone was wheel-hugging me because I was taking up the entire right lane coming up to an intersection. (He wanted to make a right turn, and didn't have enough time to go around me in the left lane. At least he didn't try it and cut me off, but he could have given me some breathing room coming down the hill.)
I've encountered more problems with other cyclists while riding, and one very close call with one while driving. Lots of people don't look when they merge onto the bike trail when coming in from one of the many entrances. I've been cut-off more times than I can count in that situation. I had a couple of kids jet across the street in front of me against the light while I was at full speed coming through a green light at the bottom of the only hill on my route. Last Friday when I was driving in, a cyclist almost broadsided me as I was turning into a parking lot. I had a left-turn arrow (meaning the traffic coming the opposite direction had a red light.) When I made the left onto the cross street, I had to make an immediate right into the parking lot. Halfway through the intersection I flipped my signal from the left turn I was in, to the right turn I was going to make. Some dude blew through and made a right on red just after I made my left, and swung up into the parking lot to avoid running into me as I was halfway into the lot. I saw the guy riding up to the light, don't get me wrong and think that I totally didn't see him. I just made an incorrect assumption that he was going to actually stop at the red light, considering that there was a large line of cars making a left in front of him. Luckily, there was little more than some rattled nerves over the entire situation.
Following the laws goes both ways. Don't drive like an a$$hat when you have to be in your car, and don't ride like an a$$hat when you're on your bike. We're more likely to get some slack from drivers if we act like the traffic laws apply to us, too (since they do.)

knucklesandwich

At the very end of my commute home, I walk my bike on the sidewalk over Route 66 on an overpass that's one-way in the opposite direction. It's a left veering turn off a main road to get onto the overpass as a car, with going straight sending you onto 66-W. 75% of people do not use their blinkers, despite the fact that most of the volume on that road is heading onto the highway and gearing up towards 55+ MPH when you make the left over the highway.

There's at least one accident a week at that on-ramp, and I'm willing to bet most are caused by lack of blinkers as people slow down and get rear-ended. Sucks hard for the guy going straight because they probably get found at fault despite the fact that the person in front is a complete ***in idiot.

Also last night, coming to a 3 way stop where I go straight thru, some stupid soccer mom in her big wagon sits at the stop for like 3 cars, then decides to go left, sans blinker, right in front of me. On phone, kids in car, etc. Unbelievable.

I'm gonna start a foundation called P.A.I.D. (parents against idiotic driving) where moms and dads who have killed their own kids or others because of stupid driving habits talk at soccer games and PTA meetings across the country. SUddenly chatting with the nighbor on the celly doesn't seem so important when you get t-boned at a busy intersection because you were to busy to put your blinker on before turning left, and junior's dead.

krazygluon

I haven't so much counted the cars on the way home/to work as I kinda keep a running ratio of nice people to ignorant people to obnoxious people. the nice people (those that obviously try to keep things safe) seem to be the majority (which isn't a surprise, lots of people in this town are bloody paranoid about their cars, there's a surprising amount of newer ones, and as such they almost give me too much room.) I think i've run into 2 obnoxious people in the last month. the state does have a generous section about sharing the road, and it made up about 25% of the written test I had to take before getting my license, so I'm not too surprised if that doesn't help, but I'd rack it up less to people being nice and more to them being paranoid about getting a scratch on their car.

tadley62

I'm constantly amazed at the percentage of clueless cyclists on the road. Blowing thru stoplights and stopsigns, riding straight thru a right turn only lane, no signals, etc. It is no wonder some of the cagers get pissed off.

Local newspaper just printed the rules for cycling in our community. Hope some of those riders learn something from it.

I find the vast majority of cagers here to be at least reasonable toward cyclists, however there are a few that seem to have chip in their shoulder. I do see way too many distracted cagers and consider myself lucky to have avoided some dope on a cell crushing me thus far.

mrkott3r

The minority giving the rest a bad name! I think when mixing vehicles (especially the >2 tonne monsters) with things that weigh a whole heap less, it isnt exactly going to work out, ever.

Printing the rules in the paper is going to have a neglible impact on the problem. It took 20 odd years to stamp out drink driving in my country and how long has it taken to get smoking down to where it is now. When something is ingrained in someones mind it takes a couple generations to weed it out. If we instituted new licensing regimes for both car and bicycle it would probably take >15 years for it to change. Thats a lot of money and time, and you're still gonna have bicycle-car confrontations.