pec

Given a normal distribution of population, for the half of the population that is above normal in intelligence, there is the other half that is below normal. I simply assume the malcontent is soundly vested in the lower half. Helps to put things in perspective.

dynodonn 

It depends on the size and speed differential of the vehicle, and no I will not smile and wave, pedal on yes I will, all the while I'll be thinking of whether to report the motorist or not.

buzzman

41 years of bike riding as an adult on the road tells me that it NEVER pays to engage with drivers who are raging.

However, I do not always take my own advice and sometimes I do engage and, once again, I relearn the lesson that it NEVER pays to engage with a raging driver.

WPeabody 

On the facetious side, there are pen flares. Used by the military to warn people away from convoys in "hot zones" when they ignore verbal warning. Lightweight, easy to use, and the launcher can be carried on a keychain.

That said, I have had a chronic problem with road rage, and know some aspects of the road rager's viewpoint. It goes without saying they are already dealing with some significant stress or unhappiness, and are looking to take it out on someone who likely cannot get back at them. Hence cyclists are an easy target, because you can bully them and get away from them in your vehicle. Most times after an encounter, the road rager does feel ashamed after they cool off, but then try to justify themselves in some way. "He would'nt get out of my way, the little upstart."
But if the cyclist reacts with hostility by arguing, cussing or hitting the car, then it blossoms into "righteous" (in their eyes) anger on the rager's side. It escalates, unless the cyclist can prove that the rager is going to suffer the consequences of getting into a physical fight. There is no rational thought going on, it's a visceral reaction, or rather a product of the more base emotions. This is where human behavior resembles that of animals.

Yes, I had a lot of therapy... at least now I know how to de-escalate (for the most part, I still struggle with this) before it gets out of hand. Trust me, it is far, far better to get away than to argue with irrational people. I'd rather get away with a bit of wounded pride than be wounded, or worse... they have the heavier vehicle, and I had to concede to the irrational driver behind the wheel. Ugh...

And as many have said in this forum, if drivers are acting dangerously and breaking the law, they should be reported. You never know when they will do it again, and if so, there will be previous complaints against them to help in the case of a collision, just like the doctor in L.A. who deliberately caused a near fatal accident with two cyclists. If it had not been for the previous complaints, he would likely have gotten away with it.

dynodonn 

My last act of just physically writing down a motorist's vehicle license number while the motorist was in close proximity did not go well. My current set of video cams have been immensely helpful in being more discreet at getting info on problem motorists.

genec

Agreed... fortunately raging drivers or those that hate cyclists are few and far between... inattentive drivers however, are another issue.

Commodus

I try really hard to ignore them. Sometimes it's harder than others and I don't always succeed.

CB HI

The LA doctor did get away with it several times before; including the previous reported incident.

Digital_Cowboy

DD,

I've had a few motorists who even though I was riding in the bike lane have felt the need to not just honk their horn, but to lay on it while passing.

Like you, I'd like to know what I did to "knowingly provoke" those motorists.

Sadly, of course there is that small minority of drivers who seem to think that they and they alone "own" the road and anyone who isn't using a gas guzzling mode of transportation is just in the way. And no matter where we ride on "their" road we're in their "way."

Digital_Cowboy

Agreed, and as the saying goes "it" rolls downhill. Someone probably before they encountered the cyclist had cut them off, or tailgated them, or was driving too slowly, or whatever real or imagined "crime." And then as you said they encounter a cyclist (or possibly a pedestrian) and they feel the "need" to "pay" someone back for what had happened to him.

Daves_Not_Here

I'm not suggesting taking the blame for what other people do; however, I now feel that we have a lot more to do with how others interact with us than we may think.

I used to have road rage directed at me, now there is none. I didn't move or start driving less. The only thing that changed was me.

Daves_Not_Here

I agree that Southern California and Long Beach in particular are very accommodating to cyclists. Aside from the facilities, I find the motorists are more calm than in other parts of the country. We don't have the problem that motorists are offended by the mere presence of cyclists.

I also agree that motorists will tend to pass closer to experienced cyclists riding a straight line; however, I don't think this usually has anything to do with anger or animosity -- I think the motorists trust that the experienced cyclists will not swerve at the last minute and this trust leads to closer passes (at least it does for me when I'm driving and passing cyclists).

I do however occasionally observe motorists rage at other cyclists. And in some of those cases, my observation was that the cyclist provoked the response. To paraphrase the late Sam Kinison, I don't justify it but I understand it.

jolly_ross

If you want to annoy them back, then show no reaction at all, not a flinch, ice cold, eyes ahead, keep pedalling calmly.
They want you to be angry and shout, or to do something, anything - but if nothing happens then they are completely dis-empowered, this peeves them beyond words.

On the whole it's probably better to smile and wave, then they'll go away and shout at someone else.

These people are always shouting - life hasn't turned out so well for them.

aztimm

I think I've had more rage from other cyclists than from people driving

ItsJustMe

Smile and wave not only keep my blood pressure down, it can actually provoke the other driver. I once had someone lay on the horn while passing and flip me off while staring at me in his mirror. I smiled and waved. He flipped me off very energetically. I smiled and waved again. This went about 3 or 4 rounds. By the end he was so flipped out that he was swerving on the road while waving his middle finger around like an enraged chimp.

I was honestly laughing so hard I should probably have pulled over.

dynodonn 

Further provoking/enraging the motorist is no longer my goal, but now to gather as much information on the motorist as possible, all the while putting as much distance between myself and the enraged motorist.

With the purchase of two video cameras, my frustration level with problem motorists has been lowered immensely.

ItsJustMe

It's not my GOAL to provoke the driver, but if he gets upset by being treated politely, I can only laugh.

I've got one camera rolling now, the 2nd is on its way.

Daves_Not_Here

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Much of the sentiment I've read here seems to reflect the desire to further provoke and anger ragers (smile in the face of their anger, spray them with smelly stuff, etc.). The desire to physically or emotionally hurt those who are different from us ("cagers") or who we feel have wronged us (ragers, close passers) is a natural human reaction. The difficulty is that base emotion fuels both sides of the road rage interaction: both motorist and cyclist feel aggrieved and justified in their anger.

So my opinion is that tweaking road ragers and showing them how powerless they are may make us feel good and preserve our own egos, but we shouldn't be surprised when there is occasional violent blowback.

Digital_Cowboy

Understanding it is one thing, but we should still do everything reasonable to ensure that it doesn't keep happening. Last night I had an elderly woman (I'd guess north of 70 years old) cut me off as I was riding my bike to the Pinellas Park Performing Arts Center to meet my girlfriend for the final concert of the season of the Pinellas Park Orchestra.

I could have very easily laid on my newly installed Airzounds air horn and scared her out of her wits. I choose not to do so as it wouldn't have done anyone any good. The only thing that I did do was to look at the guy who was on the cross street to my right and say "I guess I'm invisible." Which sadly most of us here know to be the case with a lot of drivers out on the road.

Had she been younger I might have given her a short blast to wake her up, as it were. But in this case I didn't see any "benefit" to doing so. As it could have scared her enough to have caused her to loose control of her car and to end up hitting the other car at the intersection.

Digital_Cowboy

While I'll admit that I don't always take the "smile and wave (whole hand)" advice even though I'd like to. I think that that is a good approach to the situation. And who knows seeing such a "positive" response to their anger may be just what the road rager needs to calm down and realize that they're venting their anger at the wrong person.

Daves_Not_Here

I realize this is a threadjack, but you bring up a very good point as to the elevated risk that elderly drivers pose to cyclists. I think I've read that elderly drivers have the highest accident rate per mile driven of all age groups including teenagers. Many older drivers have a deadly combination of diminished capabilities -- (1) limited peripheral vision due to cataracts (you may have been invisible to her for all practical purposes), and (2) reduced short-term memory (she may have seen you before she passed and then literally forgotten 5 seconds later you were there). These together seem to be a recipe for right-hooks.

My impression is that Florida has a relatively high cycling fatality rate due to the prevalence of older motorists. Sounds like you responded about as gracefully as anyone could expect in the situation.

contango 

What I've found is that when a driver can see I'm holding a straight line they may pass closer but only in the sense that it is safe to pass closer. A cyclist wobbling all over the place needs more space as they are just as likely to wobble and cause a crash.

I've had the odd jackass try and edge past me although usually if it's not safe to pass me I hold a position out in the lane so it's not possible to pass. Personally I've found the vast majority of motorists (in the UK, never cycled in other countries) are willing to share the road just as much as I am.

Keith99

Why? Gernades are so impersonal. I prefer teeth!

There are advantages to being way to big to climb decently. I have the power to sprint and have once or twice actually tried to chase down jerks, at elast once they hit the gas to get away.

The only time I remember yelling a proganity worked out rather well. A car coming off the freeway made an illegal right turn against the red forcing me across 2 lanes of traffic. I bellowed out what teh F*** are you doing loud enough that one of the motor officers working something on the other side of the street saw enough to take off after them. Even more fun seeing a motorcycle officer chasing a car than doing it myself.

Keith99

Bolding mine.

That would not surprise me in the least, but it may be a bit unfair as a goodly part may be self selection. At leat in my experience there almost seems to be an inverse correlation between those who are fit to drive and how fit they think they are.

My mom is in her 80s and fit to drive. She hates driving after dark. Honestly I think her night vision is good enough that she is far above average even after dark. But she is well aware her night vision is not as good as it was 30 years ago and she dislikes driving at night knowing that.

But the ones who think they are still as good as they ever were, or at least seem to are real dangers and put on more miles because of their misplaced confidence.

Digital_Cowboy

I apologize if you think that I was attempting to hijack the thread. That was not my intent. I was simply relaying an incident that could have turned south in the following manners:

a) she could have hit me (and as you pointed out) probably would have told the LEO(s) responding "But, I didn't see him"
b) I could have ended up in a "ditch" on the side of the road nursing my wounds
c) I could have laid on my air horn and scared the crap out of her, which could have caused her to possibly hit the other car on the road with us or have caused said car to take evasive actions causing it to hit me
d) in trying to avoid said car I could have ended up running into the second car

Agreed, given that Florida is the retirement capital of the nation we do have "more than our fair share" of them out on the roads. As they do present a very real, very clear danger on the roads. Yes, I know that this could have very easily turned into a road rage incident. And sadly as I am sure we know there are those here who would have escalated it to a road rage incident.

And that is why like so many others here I whole heartedly support re-testing the elderly more often than the general public. And so that no one can claim discrimination everyone should be re-tested more often then they currently are.

And hell as you said someone up the road may have cut her off before she made her turn and this was her way of "balancing the books."

Again, I apologize if you perceived this as an attempted "threadjacking," that wasn't my intent.