Old 02-11-14, 03:16 PM
  #14  
noglider 
aka Tom Reingold
 
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA
Posts: 40,503

Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem

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I live by a motto: You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. Complaining with anger and a loud voice are likely to get the other person loud or angry or defensive or aggressive. At the least, he is likely to ignore you or think you're full of spit.

If you can stay calm and word your complaint as a request in a polite voice, and that is a very tall order, it's worth a try. My favorite approach is to refer to a hypothetical "next time" and request that the other person do things differently. "Could you please be more careful?" or "Please wait for me to pass before making your turn?"

It might help instead to say what happened. "You moved into my lane, and I had to brake to avoid your hitting me with your car."

Also, it's very important for you to know that just because a driver looked directly in your direction, she might not have seen you at all. Drivers are not trained to look for bicycle-shaped hazards. They are taking in lots of scenes with their eyes and processing them very fast. Something directly in the center of their vision is sometimes completely invisible to them.
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Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog

“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author

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