Road Cycling - Toronto - home of the driving impaired

In the past few days, the temperature in Toronto broke above 0C for what seems like the first time in four months. It's like a different world...we're finally thawing out. Not surprisingly, I've been going out for good long solo rides.

Unfortunately, I live mid town...meaning to go anywhere, I have to choose between two busy streets, both of which have 6 lanes of traffic!

For the past 4 or 5 rides, I can't believe the amount of abuse that I've received from disrespectful drivers - I ride at a decent pace and I'm in pretty good shape for a 18 yr old... but I am not an automobile and I can't accelerate like one either. Just to list some:

1) I've had annoyed drivers drive behind me for a while...and then honk repeatedly out of frustration and then floor the gas and then zoom past me (quite unnecessarily) - is it to display their 'gas pedal pressing' prowess?

2) I've had one automobile, piloted by a very elderly man, pass by me with literally half and arm length clearance. Needless to say, I was almost swiped by his side mirror. Absolutely pissed, I saw he turned into a parking lot...I followed, knocked on his window, and then told him to be careful when passing cyclists. His response? "Well, I didn't run you over did I?" Then he goes on his merry way...I guess his hearing aid failed him or something
:rolleyes:

3) Legally, I'm a vehicle. I can occupy a whole lane. A lot of drivers obviously do not understand this. I'm at a red light, occupying the left turn lane. It turns green...but I obviously have to wait until there is no oncoming traffic before turning left. The driver behind me honks repeatedly...he probably doesn't like the idea of me getting in his way. There is a break in traffic, but considering the velocity of the oncoming cars and the fact that I'm a riding a bike, the margin of safety is slim so I opt to continue waiting...this infuriates the car behind me and he continues honking. Finally, it is safe to go...I pedal through the turn and the car behind flies past me, honking...farther down the road, the passenger screams something along the lines of "get off the road stupid cyclist" + wonderful hand gestures. What an idiot I think to myself...adjusting my bike to high gear w. the hopes of catching up to him (alas no such luck).

Well...those are my stories of Toronto driving idiocy (from the past few days or so). I always tell myself...at least I'm in great shape and these abusive drivers are the ones can't pedal 5 miles if their lives depended on it :D Won't kill my love for the sport...but does make me leery about riding on the bigger roads.

Got any good stories to share? :)

Just yesterday, I was out for a good long ride with a training mate. The two of us are riding abreast at reasonable speed on a supremely quiet back road - NO TRAFFIC - but this one frickin' huge SUV comes up behind us, and rather than moving into the completely empty 'oncoming lane' the piece-of-trash punk preffers to lean on his horn.

For crying out loud, this road was so UN-BUSY and REMOTE, that it didn't even have lines painted on. He moved up beside us (yes, driving in the wrong lane) so that he could scream "SINGLE FILE A*****E!" before zooming off - probably double the speed limit on this road.

We passed the man exiting his unecessarily large vehicle at a convenience mart a mile or two down the road. He recognized my friend and I, and gave us an additional finger. I yelled something back about how the law allows cyclists to ride two abreast - or something like that - but he probably didn't hear me as I didn't feel like slowing down for his sake, and it was too long winded to make an impact on him. I should have yelled something shorter like:

"F**K YOUR MOTHER!!!":D ...but I didn't.

- Maurizio

Yeah riding in Toronto is an experience. I used to live in centre of Toronto and had to re-learn to ride the Toronto way. At least once a day I would see my life pass before my eyes! I had to learn how to jump curbs and navigate tramlines. Spadina Ave. was a major hazard with car and tram doors opening into the bike lane and the bike lane would disappear into parked cars or piles of Chinatown garbage. I would ride the sidewalks, back lanes, walking paths and go the wrong way down the one ways. I would dodge pedestrians and the homeless, while evading the suburban drones commuting in their SUV’s balancing their latte in one hand and their cell phone in the other. Being chased by bike hating drivers who felt it was their right to force you off the street. I’ve seen it all and survived! (Toronto was voted the most bike friendly city once!)
After re-learning to ride the Toronto way I went to France for a 2-½ month cycle tour and spent some time in Paris. I just assumed Parisian cyclists rode their bikes the Toronto way. To my surprise they did not ride like Torontonians! I was yelled at a few times for riding the wrong way down one-way streets. The French obeyed traffic lights and stop signs! They didn’t like it if you locked your bike to their wrought iron railings. You weren’t allowed to ride in parks! The French car drivers gave you room! I found a bike path that was sculpted with banked corners and landscaped with statues, monuments, flowers, trees and road signs. And when I reached the end of this trail and was trying to get my bearings, a French man stopped his car and ran up to me and offered to take me home for lunch. It was a strange experience to say the least, so un-like Toronto.

I live in the suburbs of Toronto, Thornhill (Vaughan) to be precise. I avoid riding those 3 streetlights south (Toronto) for multiple reasons. First, the drivers in the city are crazy. I used to ride downtown all the time during the last 3 years and I got used to it but around the same time the SMOG began to get worse in the summers, the drivers also got worse. They say don't drive, so more people drive and it just gets more dangerous that way. It's not worth the risk anymore. Second, the roads are just terrible for my road bike wheels. Steeles Ave has to be the worst street with no streetcar tracks. It is all broken up and I went on a 2km strip and had to retrue my wheels because of it. Long live the suburbs!

Unfortunately it's a problem all over.

I was cycling home over a narrow bridge in Edinburgh on Thursday, in a line of traffic doing about 15mph just behind an Audi TT.

A guy in a Punto pulled out to pass me, but obviously there was no room between me and the TT and so he just put on his indicator and tried to pull into my space.

me being me, I kept my position. He flashed his lights (sensible as I was beside his passenger door) and honked his horn.

I just took my right hand off the bars and thumped the side of his car (he was that close), then braked, pulled out behind him and signalled to him that he was a follower of Onan.


He then had to turn right which meant he was stuck in the middle lane while waiting on traffic to clear.

I always wonder if there is one thing you can say to defuse the anger, but let the driver know how stupid they have been. I usually just swear and insult them and I know this just inflames matters.

Here on the Gold Coast, I've become totally desensitised to incompetence and abuse. I've been riding basically daily for at least the past five years. In that time, barely a day has gone by where I haven't had some numbnut either attempt to yell something totally incomprehensible or demonstrate their total and complete lack of intelligence in some other way. Ute driving rednecks are the worst, but they certainly aren't the only ones. Groups of surfies are also notorious.

As I said before, it's now happened so many times that I don't even get excited about it anymore. Totally desensitised.

I agree with most of what you are saying about Toronto. I disagree though with the idea of taking the lane when you are in a left-turn situation across multiple lanes. You mention that you naturally hesitated when a gap opened, since on a bike accelerating from scratch, it was too risky. I think this is where the automaniacs can get frustrated. Mentally, they are thinking that the gap that presents itself is a green light to go (for a car.) They are thinking along the lines of the accelerating ability of their vehicle, and not really concidering how long it takes you to clear the intersection. In that situation, I would stay to the right of the turn lane, although the law allows you to command the lane.
It is important to understand the mind set of those you share the roads with. And remember, these type of episodes, result in changing your mental composition for the rest of the ride; testosterone is on the rise and all that entales, that is not where you want to be. The automaniacs believe that they are paying a huge amount of money for the right to drive. They rightly or wrongly believe that they are the ones paying for the roads. They are continually frustrated by road work projects, escalating gas taxes, high insurance rates, not finding any place near where they want to go to park their turtle shell, rip-off leasing terms, fears of car theft and all. The result is that they are usually not happy campers at the best of time. When the possum is on the same branch of the tree as the gorilla, he could point out how he has equal rights to stay exactly where he is since he came there first, or he could recognize the situation for what it is, accomodate to the reality-and live awhile longer.

Goodness what a show.
Is it just me or does it seem like people everywhere are more rude and less considerate theses days?

The thing about toronto is that it's a work obsessed city and commuters rule. People there are so worried they'll get stuck and miss five seconds of WOOOOORRRRKKKK! Heaven forbid they get there five minutes late! I've never ridden a bike in TO, but pedestrians there are RUDE. Try cutting across a crowd, for example to get to a door or exit. No one ever looks up or lets you pass- everyone just walks, head down, marching to WOOOORRRRRRK.

Montreal motorists, I have to say, are not as bad when it comes to bikes as one would think, and not as bad as some other cities. The big problem is they can be impatient and oblivious. They just have no patience and resent even stopping at stop signs. Often they just roll through, and then crap on cyclists for not stopping. They also tend to be rather self absorbed, and don't look out for pedestrians, cyclists, sometimes. But generally, they aren't too bad, in terms of sharing the road. They aren't overly abusive. Once in a while you get some jerks. I also generally tend to try to avoid very busy areas at certain times of the day.

I've never ridden a bike in TO, but pedestrians there are RUDE

I had a good laugh over this! As a rude pedestrian I have been knocked down more than a few times by cars and got so pissed off a van once for trying to force me from crossing the street I had a fit took the boots to his grill. I gave the guy the one-finger salute and calmly walked across the street and disappeared into the U of Toronto. I turned once to look back and discovered the guy was a big monster!

Originally posted by Maurizio

so that he could scream "SINGLE FILE A*****E!" before zooming off - probably double the speed limit on this road.



haha...speaking of a yelling match...one time I was riding with a buddy when an SUV pulled up along side of us on a road...could have passed us easily and been on his way...but decided to be an ass instead...

SUV: "Hey ****'s, ride single file!"

Friend: "Thats right I'm a homosexual!!! I'm GAY! and what are you gonna do about it!?!?!?!"

SUV: *totally dumbfounded look on his face* drives off not knowing what to say...

hahaha...silly SUV's...

Toronto=Galveston?????
Had a good ride today though. Even a couple of youngerr fellas in a car honked about a block behind us on a country road to let us know they were there. Normally a honk pisses me off but this was cool as I understood their intention. Had a dog chase us for the first time though.
Doug

Try Florida, half the drivers are rude the other half are senile.

I remember Dave Barry wrote a column about Florida drivers, it was hilarious. I've been there and it's true- half the drivers there are about 300 years old and can barely see over the wheel. My mother calls them "The invisible drivers".

Well KennethToronto welcome to the world of commuting. I have been commuting for a long while on the streets of Scarborough and often take a ride downtown. My best advice is to get a copy of the Toronto Cycling Map (download available) and map out routes that utilize bike lanes or are traditionally less travelled roads at the times of day you are commuting. I must admit that I have actually found some improvement in the driving abilities of many drivers. Usually if you ride at the same time, same route every day,....... so do the cars that surround you. Give it a bit of time and let me know if this helps.
Hockey (from Toronto):confused:

Drivers here aren't rude, but just plain dumb. Stopping at yeild signs, not accerlating onto interstates, stopping in th #1 lane to make a left turn insted of using the turning lane, and backing up at stoplights. Cyclists seem to get a good treatment here from motorists. One reason is the lack of good paying jobs, so biking to work is very common. You do get the a'holes and necks.

A funny story, and poetic justice: I was riding in the right lane of a four lane road with little trraffic going into to town one night. Some moron pulled up next to me, rolled his pasenger side (right) window down, and started yelling at me to get off the road and he'll kick my ass if I don't. I simply told him, "Truck up!", but too late, he hit the back of a truck waiting for a stoplight!

Hey atleast its only the drivers in your areas that are rude. I a suburb of nashville, tn we have a road commission that is banning bikes from popular roads cause they dont want to improve them. Just remember it could be worse.

Originally posted by DieselDan
Drivers here aren't rude, but just plain dumb. Stopping at yeild signs, not accerlating onto interstates, stopping in th #1 lane to make a left turn insted of using the turning lane, and backing up at stoplights. Cyclists seem to get a good treatment here from motorists. One reason is the lack of good paying jobs, so biking to work is very common. You do get the a'holes and necks.

A funny story, and poetic justice: I was riding in the right lane of a four lane road with little trraffic going into to town one night. Some moron pulled up next to me, rolled his pasenger side (right) window down, and started yelling at me to get off the road and he'll kick my ass if I don't. I simply told him, "Truck up!", but too late, he hit the back of a truck waiting for a stoplight!

:)
Why can't that ever happen to me. I had some jerks on motorcycles pull up to me, pull in the clutch, jam the throttle, and wheelie away. In my day I'd a showed them a thing or two about riding crotch rockets but anyway I thought to myself as the one got a little to high in the wheelie "dude if you crash i'm gonna ride up to you and laugh, then calmly ride away" Would I have done it? No.. but it's the thought that counts :D
Doug