Originally Posted by
damnable
Now, how to react to these honkers? I have to admit, that my first knee jerk reaction is to simply yell out 'F... you' which I have done a couple of times, other times I have just held it in...just and stayed silent.
Here's what to do.
The cyclist doesn't know the chaos he's creating behind him. Effective cycling states to maintain position no matter what for it's up the motorist to make a safe pass. However this often leads to honks and road rage. Here's my solution.
You need to buy a Take A Look Mirror. With this mirror, you'll be able to see the traffic behind you for about 1 1/2 blocks easily and this will give you maybe 10 or 15 seconds to determine how to handle the upcoming situation. Once the cars reach me, I'll hug the curb or sometimes pull to a side. If there's parked cars on the side, I'll rush to a spot where there aren't any vehicles and ride slowly in that location until the traffic passes me. In a few times, I'll get on the sidewalk for a brief moment until the cars pass.
I can often see where there are going to be problems and find solutions ahead of time that will enable traffic to flow ahead of me. But I can only do this with a mirror.
The only way I can determine how much traffic has accumulated behind is to buy this mirror. I found using the tehnique above eliminates the majority of those dreaded honks and it enables me to ride for miles, taking the lane with impunity since I can clearly see what's behind me at all times.
Once you buy this mirror, you'll exactly the problems you're creating for the motorist. Other on the forum will say who cares what the motorist thinks, it's his problem to make a safe pass. However, if you want to avoid those dreaded honks, you'll use my technique.