Originally Posted by
big john
I've been riding in the L.A. area for nearly 40 years, but mostly in the suburbs and outlying areas. This is car central but it seems to me drivers are a lot more accommodating to us than they were, say, 25 years ago. Sure, there are still dufuses and drunks and distracted drivers, but drivers in general seem kinder, even with large groups of riders who don't mind pissing off drivers.
It's almost as if they understand we are human beings.
A very weird phenomenon I've seemed to start to believe is the faster the rider the more leeway they give you. If you're tooling along a busy area at 10 to 15mph on the flat and downhill, you don't get as much pity as if you're going 20+ mph. It's almost like the drivers equate your speed to your sense of urgency or something.
When going uphill I'll look for a driveway if cars are behind and wave folks for a few seconds then proceed. Downhill I don't do the whole freewheel at 25mph thing. I put power into the pedals until I hit like 110rpm in the 53/11 on the roadie or the 56/11 on the TT..........which isn't very often. Haha.