Old 12-04-19, 07:00 AM
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Jim from Boston
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Enforcement - How to deal with harassment from people driving cars?
Originally Posted by Hypno Toad
I'm interested in this topic from a community advocacy angle. I'm heading up a bike/walk advocacy group in my town and I'm interested to see if there is any success stories about dealing with hostile behavior from people in cars….

Our town is growing because it is one of a very small number of places that is exceptionally bike/walk friendly. I want to make sure that the intimidating actions of a small number of people driving doesn't make our town a scary place to get around on foot or by bike.
FYA, see also this similar thread from August:“How Do You Deal With Harassment?”
Originally Posted by berner
Where I live and ride motorists are courteous and share the road. I don't know why the cycling environment here is different than other areas.

I've given this some thought to this but have no clear conclusion. One possibility is that the local bike club, Narragansett Bay Wheelmen has been around for over 100 years and has been advocating for cyclists for most of that time. The club has a very good relationship with local law enforcement as well as state highway departments in Rhode Island and nearby southern Massachusetts…
and @berner posted to this current thread:
Originally Posted by berner
don't know what to do about harassment but there are some good suggestion from CB HI…

There was a sense of community which is lacking in many places today so there is little connection to others. The frenetic pace of our society leaves little time or inclination to build those connections and the situation seems to be getting worst.

Several years ago I read an article in which psychologists or ethnologists created situations for experimental animals where they were put under pressure of over-crowding and or limited food supply. What they found was that pressure produced aggression and fighting in those animals with and mistreatment of their own young.


Human animals react in just the same way. We can find, weekly, news reports where a parent has killed their own child so these are not isolated incidents. We can find, almost daily, reports a pointless mass shootings. The aggression we may experience as cyclists is a further expression of that pressure.

I live in a small town where there are still many common links so I don't experience harassment. I have in the past lived in a very busy area where I liked the work but not the environment in that part of the world. My solution was to move to a small town.
As another explanation for the stresses that motorists endure:
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
Besides sitting in front of TV sets and computers, an ultimate sedentary activity is sitting restrained in a car.

I once attended a lecture by a noted psychiatrist that in animal studies, the most potent stressor is restraint. For humans, being in a car is probably the most common occurrence of restraint, not just by a seatbelt, but because you cannot leave a car while moving, particularly on a freeway.

While driving itself may not be that stressful, it’s easy to see that the stress of driving in hazardous conditions may be amplified, because there is no escape.

Furthermore in my experience, the most uncomfortable time on the road is being stuck in traffic, where there is no danger, but unrelenting immobilization. So if stress (specifically distress) is inimical to good health, driving is an added risk exposure, as if we didn’t know that
Originally Posted by gerv
Considering that the confinement of car and couch are pretty recent developments in human evolution, it's easy to see how anything that keeps you active and healthy is also going to keep you happy as well.
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
The difference though is that the car is immobilizing whereas the couch promotes inactivity and one is free to move away, especially facilitated by recording devices freeing up the restraint of waiting for the commercials.

Of course, the true Couch Potato only leaves to answer the “call of nature,” or seek out sustenance from the four food groups (sugar, salt, grease, and alcohol).
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