Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - here's to good drivers!

you know, we talk enough about awful drivers and kicking ass, or what do do when your life is endangered by a hippo in a denali (gotta keep that going)....

but let's hear it for drivers who are good. the people who take the long way around you. people who wave you past them at stop signs/lights. people who smile at you from their cars or who roll their windows down and compliment your bike or whatever.

i can't recall a specific instance, but i know i've encountered such drivers. and i've been around them at times i haven't realized, cyclists who were driving and took care around me, even if i didn't know it.

They're the ones that I'll do a little loop for when they are trying to make a right turn, if I get a wave, I'm content that humans aren't all @55holes

once i was waiting to make the left off of a busy street and a cop actually stopped traffic in the opposite direction with his car so i could make the turn. needless to say, i was pleasantly suprised.

A double decker bus did that for me on wednesday jan 25 2006 at around 8pm when he had the right of way and even gave me a wave and a smile as i went passed. That man made my night.

this morning i was just playing in traffic, and i was on the yellow line and wanted to duck into a parking lot on the right. i sort of leaned to look behind me, though i straightened out to let the car behind me pass, they braked, smiled, and waved me thru, despite getting honked at. that was sweet.

but let's hear it for drivers who are good. the people who take the long way around you. people who wave you past them at stop signs/lights. people who smile at you from their cars or who roll their windows down and compliment your bike or whatever.

Maybe they react that way because their cyclists too or they have a cyclist in the family!

i know, that's what i love about it. i just thought with all this talk of bad drivers--who are out there, we all know it the hard way--we might as well talk about good drivers, too.

yep, I did have a cop stop traffic once cause I was causing a commotion trying to put back my #$#! clipless shoe on it's pedal! grrrrrrrrr

Maybe they react that way because their cyclists too or they have a cyclist in the family!

That's why I drive the way I do when I encounter cyclists.

some nice old couple in a jeep stopped traffic for us on the busiest street in downtown savannah so that our critical mass could make a left onto the street since we were at a stop sign not a light, that was really nice of them.

i'm also greatful to all the pickup trucks and work trucks in the city that allow me to skitch off of their vehicles and don't get angry.

couple stopped for me last night after I got knocked over by a truck full of highschool students

Sometimes motor vehicles obey the rules of the road and this is very nice. When this happens I wave at them and sometimes they even wave back!

I've encountered a bunch of nice drivers in the past week, very happy to know that there are good people out there. :beer:

couple stopped for me last night after I got knocked over by a truck full of highschool students

my pepper spray comes today, thanks nashbar.

that couple stopping for matthavener reminds me of a funny story...car that didn't signal turned right in front of me very suddenly...even squeezing the hell out of my brakes (it was on a road bike), i slammed into the side.

but the dude got out, this mexican (i'm assuming, given the high mexican population in that area) asking me if i'm okay in broken english, picking me up, checking my bike out, apologizing over and over, hugs me and says "i'm so sorry, i'm glad you're okay".

so...little of both there.

I encounter lots of good drivers. They're the ones not driving like a$$holes. The ones driving like a$$holes are menaces not just to cyclists, but to other drivers and peds as well. All drivers may have a cage surrounding them, but they don't want that caged smashed into and sent careening into a crowded sidewalk.

Some of the a$$hole drivers I encounter would also be a$$hole cyclists, riding the wrong way, right at you and challenging your position on their unlit bike.

the thing that upsets me is that I drive quite well, and as a cyclist I'm obviously well aware of their presence when one is around.. But we all occasionally fsck things up! I got totally yelled at by someone a few years ago because I was making a right turn and when I was moving into the right turn lane at an intersection started to squeeze a cyclist next to me.. I simply hadn't seen them! I felt super bad, but to them I was just another ******* driver. In all honesty though I think we were both in the wrong.. I should have shoulder checked (which I do 99% of the time), but she shouldn't have been cruising along in my blind spot nor tried to pass me on the right when I had my turn signal on.

That's part of the reason that I've realized I shouldn't freak out at drivers on the road moreso than just calmly let them know that they made a mistake, in case they didn't even notice me (which is more common than it should be)