skye

wtf. You think cyclists own that? Hell, every interest group in the history of humanity thinks they are better than everybody else.

Equinox

I think it's jealousy. Motorcyclists refer to drivers as "cagers". I think they are jealous of seeing bicyclists having fun and being healthy.

enigmaT120

It is also a good way to get an idea of which cyclist visibility techniques work better.

CliffordK

Move over a bit to the right and chill out. Did you actually intentionally swerve left when the pickup was trying to pass?

Speed wasn't bad.
You weren't hit.
You probably couldn't have reached out and touched the vehicle.

Hypno Toad

Ummmm, really?! There is no where to the right, except gutter. I could have flicked my left elbow and hit his wing mirror. The camera is mounted on my left wrist, take that into consideration when you watch again.

As somebody that ride 5,000 to 6,000 miles per year, with the vast majority on the roads, I have a good idea of a dangerous pass and a safe pass. This was a very dangerous pass.

Lastly, you have shockingly low standards, "not being hit" is not the definition of a safe pass.

CliffordK

There are a few odd drivers, but I don't consider that I observe "hatred", at least not very much.

I wonder if there are some drivers that just don't have adequate training to deal with other road users.

Many people use the car to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, and see bikes as just being in the way. But, some of them eventually realize that we're just doing the same thing.

I did have a bus that was following me yesterday. I could hear the air brakes hit as I would pass a bus stop as it pulled over just behind me. Then, same thing happened at the next stop. I wasn't looking back enough, but it was nice that it didn't try to pass and stop right in front of me, or get halfway past, then discover it couldn't get over to its stop.

noisebeam

I don't quite get why you moved over to encourage a pass if there were multiple vehicles behind and a curve ahead. Or why after the white car passed as there was an oncoming car approaching you didn't signal to discourage the next vehicle from passing.

CliffordK

I put on several thousand miles a year, and haven't been hit in over 40 years of riding. I had more than my fair share of close passes and a few serious near misses. I wouldn't have even blinked at that one, certainly not yelled, screamed, or gestured about it.

The dangerous pass was the first car that passed you.

Hypno Toad

I'm a fair bit overwhelmed today. I'm not getting stuck in this rabbit hole with you.

In short, local PD agreed with me, this was a dangerous pass. I'm glad you trust random strangers placing 2 tons of steel that close to you, I don't have the level of trust.

My track record matches yours, well over 30 years of road riding with only one collision with a motor vehicle (short story, my fault).

Dave Cutter

Oh sure I've heard many motorist yelling inside their cars as they drove by. I've also heard them yelling over their music while sitting at traffic lights. Drivers yelling at kids and/or dogs in the back seat. Husbands and wife's yelling at each other. People that can't sing (or rap) singing along with the music.

I've only experienced ONE genuine yelling motorist (that I actually know was yelling at me). He saw me as an obstruction and thought I should move to the sidewalk. I have no stats... but I feel it might be a common feeling among some motorist that bicycles shouldn't be using "their" roads/space.

genec

I've hear motorists yelling... at various times and places... and always in a foolish manner... the funniest was the motorist that yelled for me to get in a bike lane, where there were no bike lanes and as he was driving the opposite direction.

Actually I am 100% sure of what he said, due to the typical mumble that results when someone shouts from a car... all I really heard was "mumble grunt in bike lane grumble grunt."

But indeed, over the years I have heard enough commentary from motorists to know that they really don't care for me, regardless of how utterly harmless I am.

genec

True... that is how I developed the notion that high and low blinkies are vastly more noticeable... It's not just "more blinkies," but the high / low placement that really seems to stand out.

CliffordK

I usually can't make out their garbled drunk speech either. Just hoping it is just the passengers that are inebriated.

I did, however, hear one driver yelling at me to GET OFF the sidewalk when I was on a rails to trails bike path.

There's no winning.

hooCycles

This is very good advice. You can learn a lot about driver behavior by sitting in traffic. I find it all very fascinating in the same sort of way I find non-vehicular people-watching entertaining.

When driving, I also often find myself entering that nasty state of mind that many drivers fall into, the one where you hate everyone else on the road in your anonymous rush to get somewhere unimportant. It is scary how quickly Mr. Nice Guy can flip the switch to Mr. Jerk in rush hour traffic, myself included.

A car commuting the same route every day at the same time every day is still anonymous on all but the smallest roads. As a cyclocommuter I feel that drivers will remember how I treated them in the past since we tend to have much less anonymity. As a result, I end up being more polite, which causes me to feel better, and ultimately, be happier. Perhaps if drivers felt the same accountability they would behave much better and maybe even enjoy themselves.

Rollfast

I'm a fat slob WITH diabetes for 20 years and you're just being somewhat ridiculous.

JoeyBike

A good start might be referring to our group as " PEOPLE on bicycles" instead of "cyclists".

crankythunder

Personally, I think that the majority of hatred we see from drivers is from the annoyance they experience when they need to slow down and follow behind us while they wait for a opportunity to pass. They see a sidewalk and ignorantly ask themselves why the bicyclists is not using that, why is he out in the road slowing traffic down.

Then they go to the gas station and see that they are paying up to 50 cents a gallon in taxes, and again, being ignorant, wonder why they are subsidizing the road for non motorists who do not purchase fuel and pay the gasoline taxes.

Anytime they see a bicyclist flaunt traffic laws, or reciprocate angry emotions is just fuel to the fire.

I get in this discussion with a lot of my non bicyclist friends all the time. It usually ends up with me telling them that they could get real intelligent and purchase a bicycle and enjoy all the "free" infrastructure they wanted to just like I do.

For what it is worth, I use a variety of transportation methods, Bicycle, Motorcycle, pedestrian, Bus, and my own personal vehicle. I have seen the animosity between all the transportation users and some people just are not happy unless they got something to complain about.

Regards,
Crankster

Trakhak

Drivers see bicyclists as nothing more than rolling road furniture.

Chris0516

Well said.

Rollfast

I disagree. If you don't roll WITH them, then why wouldn't you expect to unnerve and surprise them?

Ten years ago there weren't so many phone jockeys and you could keep their attention better.

On top of that, this American species has grown angry and messed up in many other ways that have nothing to do with you as a cyclist, in addition to those that do.

But you still cannot generalize some us vs. them war from it. That is completely the opposite of what Advocacy and Safety is about.

CO-EXISTANCE. If you can't get it any other way you have to get it here.

Mankind has two downfalls: We often don't like others that don't act or look as we do. Politics, race/ethnicity and religion are the extremes of that lunacy. Cars are not Satan, and cyclists are not rabble-rousers. Feminism is not the invalidity of males nor is macho the repudiation of womanhood.

The few that don't fit in there are not the whole of them. You also aren't going to change the world, the world has to want to change. Change is one person at a time and what I just said.

Our goal is to help people see for themselves and change themselves. You can't really do that on the other side of a vehicle. Punishment and rehabilitation are the province of those we place in charge. We have the ability to question that as everyone proscribed in the laws and ethical codes we devised.

/soapbox, I'm too heavy and they're not wooden anymore.

Rollfast

Or just broke, just either way.

Remember 'Vehicular Cycling'. People ride a bike for transportation, not just because it's fun.

If it were all FUN, A&S wouldn't be here...it wasn't just created to chew fat and post traffic laws all day.

noisebeam

If a cyclist is saying that exclusively about motorists then it is unnecessarily condescending to them, self centered and unproductive as far as sharing the road goes.

All drivers and pedestrians must deal with both static and moving obstacles and hazards, be they cars, bicycles, red lights, curbs, pedestrians, debris, etc.. That is the nature of driving & walking.

genec

Sounds about right... pretty much what I too have heard when one does talk to motorists... coupled with the notion that any particular driver doesn't want to hit a person and that encountering a cyclist now means that the motorist has to pay special attention to that cyclist, thus causing stress to the motorist.

Chris0516

If he had been in the 'gutter', would that have been good enough for you? How about if he had been in the grass? Aren't you basically saying, a 'close pass' doesn't exist?

I certainly would have been able to touch the vehicle, had I been passed that close.

This is Minnesota's bike laws for 2015: Minnesota Bicycle Laws - Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota

The same as when I lived there. He was already on the right side of the road.
And/or, the 'entitlement' issue.

Todzilla

Having read this thread, I am reminded at fortunate I am to live in a relatively bike friendly area. It's Hillsborough, NC, just 15 miles north of Chapel Hill, NC. We have official bike routes all around the County, and my commutes are 80% on the posted bike routes. Sure, I get put in occasional dangerous situations, but it feels like Newtonian ignorance more than hatred.