Recently I rode my bike to my girlfriend's coffee shop, as I often do.
There is a nice hill for the last 4 blocks to the coffee shop, so I take the lane and go with traffic down it.
The road is a little bumpy, with cobblestone sections and indented manhole covers, so some mild 'hopping' is required to keep things smooth.
This time when I went down, I was behind some hatchback, and had a minivan behind me.
I guess a woman who was going to the shop was in the minivan, because as I stood by the bar, (and my girlfriend) she came in from the parking lot and said:
"You were riding like a maniac down that hill!"
My girlfriend looked at me with an eyebrow raised..
So I had to counter with "Why, because I assertively took the lane while riding the speed of traffic? That seems about the safest way to get down that hill to me."
The woman kinda half smiled like she still thought I was nuts, but didn't have anything else to say.
My girlfriend knows that I bike the same way I drive (ie according to the BCMVA), and she's quite comfortable with my driving.. but she still worries, and asks me to check in if I'm going out for longer than 2 hours.