turbo1889

Where I live if you bicycle on the road, especially a narrow two lane road that is like totally not anywhere near a town you are like a total freak beyond belief and need to be dealt with accordingly. At least that is the cultural norm I have to deal with. Even more so if its not Summer weather. (Like right now, just got back from a 40-mile supply run by cargo bike in total winter weather conditions, near sub-zero temperatures, snow, ice, snow plows, the whole nine yards people honking at me and screaming stuff out their windows at least three times both coming and going and all but about three or four miles I was able to ride on the shoulder edge and wasn't even in the main traffic lane and when I was in the main traffic lane that was on the little private road that goes up to my place and a few of my neighbors only and in-town where it was low speed traffic and I was keeping up just fine. Basically at no time was I ever a hindrance to them on this run because its a good one as far as road conditions for a cyclist and still they honk and yell at me. Anymore I'm just glad that is all they do for the most part and its only the really nutty ones that go further and thankfully they don't seem to be nearly as common as to ones who don't have the guts to actually do anything really nasty.)

Chris516

Both to the point and it gave me a laugh.

Very good point. My congenital health problems' would probably 'do me in', before any motorist. Since I am not on the road 24/7/365.

The DC-Metro region is just as bad, if not worse. Around here, there is a car-centric ideology, and anyone impinging on that ideology, has to watch their step, literally.

That is sort of what it is like around here.

Astrozombie

Good lord didn't the "Zen Master" Phil Jackson retreat to Montana in the off-season to meditate and stuff?? That place seems bonkers

They just take shots at terrible bikers and say "I hope you don't ride like that", even though they're big jerks i think it has actually made them more conscious of cyclists on the streets.

turbo1889

The place itself isn't bonkers, unfortunately quite a few people in it are. If you minimize your contact with other people that don't like people doing different stuff then them and maximize your contact with the land itself its absolutely great. Do it the other way around and it ain't much fun.

Don't quite understand that part, are you saying that is how it is where you live (assuming verbal "shots")? Or are you saying the crazies in Montana take shots at each other (in which case the meaning would be more likely to be literal). It is true that sometimes up here people do actually go that far and across the whole state there are multiple incidents every year where people shoot each other over stupid dumb arguments and who is sleeping with who's significant other and stuff like that (and it ain't just the guys on that one) but at least so far I've never been shot at for being a cyclist and I've lived quite a few decades in this state in different spots around it. But as I understand it same thing happens in other places around the U.S. as well, heck same is true of the world at large. The human species always seems to be having occasional spurts of internal violence where some people just can't seem to settle things with words or even just their fists and try to use significantly more lethal devices against others they have a strong disagreement with. Heck in a lot of places were they have instigated really strict gun control like some places in Europe people just go back to killing each other with knives instead.

Don't get me wrong I believe in self defense but that is only if someone comes after you and you are forced into that kind of situation. I'm talking about offensively attacking other people as the instigator with lethal weapons or cases of "mutual combat" where a couple idiots both are just as willing to settle a stupid argument with lethal instruments. For some reason there always seems to be a portion of humans who just can't seem to keep from attacking others as the instigator or when two or more of them run into each other it being a case of mutual combat.

The human species is just kind of got a little bit of crazy built into it. Heck I read somewhere that worldwide at least 2% of the entire population are clinical psychopaths that have absolutely zero empathy and if they weren't afraid of punishment would do anything to others (just as soon kill you as look at you) and have absolute zero remorse for it and the only reason they don't is because they are afraid of punishment for doing so. Take away the possibility of punishment or at least retaliation and guess what happens with that that many of those kind running around loose in society.

Long story short the root base problem I don't think it is any kind of unique to my area or any other but I do think that in some areas it is a lot more socially acceptable even encouraged to have hate towards and commit acts against certain groups with little if any chance of significant consequences for doing so. The groups change from place to place but in some areas such targeted minority groups do include cyclists and I'm sad to say that my experience has taught me that cyclists who ride on the road with cars regardless of where on the road they ride (as apposed to like off road mountain bikers where there is like zero issues with up here) are such a group where hate against them is not only tolerated but even encouraged.

Believe me I wish this wasn't true and the fact that it is makes me ashamed of my state. But it isn't like I'm not doing my part to challenge the issue. In some other areas around the world its other groups but that same base hatred towards other people that aren't like you even though what they are doing isn't significantly causing you any real harm is unfortionalty wired into the human species it seems. Yah, that's a pretty cynical point of view but I'm convinced its an accurate one. Heck if you are truly honest with yourself you will find at least a tinge of it within yourself and only by acknowledging that and choosing to rise above it and to be better then that is it possible to overcome it. Most people on the other hand never ask themselves those deep questions and they just go along with the crowd and join in while subconsciously hiding from themselves what they are doing.

spivonious

Well, if you're riding 40 miles with a cargo bike in Montana in December, you really are a freak!

turbo1889

40 miles round trip, not one way. But, yah, still makes me very unusual (AKA = freak). Point is that so long as someone isn't doing something that is doing significant harm to others if they want to be a freak that is their business and they shouldn't be harassed, persecuted, or attacked for it.

I also just love the ignorance of the "Get that contraption off the road !!!" cat calls its like they never heard of a front loading cargo bike and they don't even call it a bike although it clearly is with the handlebars and pedals and all that.

ItsJustMe

My riding is 90% rural, middle of nowhere, 2 lane no shoulder 60 MPH, and I've never had a problem. Only 9.5 years / 31,000 miles so far though.

My biggest "problem" is people who are too nice and hold up traffic on my account even when I'm riding in one of the places where there is a shoulder and I'm well off the road yet they still won't pass.

Keith99

Never had issues with my relatives.

But perhaps that is because I was at least smart enough when I was younger, fitter and a bit more aggressive to NOT tell them that a few times I tried to chase down cars. (It is fun to see drivers freak because that nut on a bike may catch them).

I've not had the problems others here recount. Perhaps being a Prop first and a cyclist second helps.

The only catcalls I remember is a car of teenage girls. Wolf whistles and propositioning one guy in our group who did have great legs.

Keith99

My 2 with nice drivers both involve left turns. Drivers going straight who stop to let you turn (forgetting there is another lane to their right). And ones who don't want to get too close behind in a left turn lane, when we desperately want them to move forward because bikes won't trip the sensor. (That one usually ends well, enough waving them forward and pointing to the sensor grid usually gets the idea across).

Ramona_W

Come to Washington and Oregon. We love freaks of all varieties. (As long as you're not trying to sell mistletoe without a permit so you can help your parents pay for your braces. But that's another story for another day.)