Commuting - Anybody else notice the only crappy cars honk at you?

So after reading many stories here of angry :mad: drivers honking at us, and two of my own experiences, the commonality seems that crappy(hoopty) cars/trucks are the ones that honk and yell out the windows. and the two people that have honked at me were not the "pick of the litter" so to say.

I actually find that nicer more expensive cars will give me the right of way even when i am not even close enough to deserve it yet. the exception to the rule is nice SUV's will usually run you off the road because 99% of the time the driver is on the phone and doesn't know your there.

I find the exact opposite to be true. It's the Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW drivers that tend to buzz/honk at me while the drivers of clunkers tend to give a wide berth. I have no idea why this is.

I find the exact opposite to be true. It's the Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW drivers that tend to buzz/honk at me while the drivers of clunkers tend to give a wide berth. I have no idea why this is.

Same here...

I think there are two main groups that are high offenders.. the low-class cavemen who think it's funny to mess with people on a bike (stuck in high school)... and the hoity toity snobs who can't believe they are being inconvenienced and losing 10 seconds of their valuable day waiting for a bicycle to get out of their way.

i find that drivers behind the wheel of SUV behemoths tend to be the least accommodating to me as a cyclist. maybe monstrous SUV's tend to attract people with a predisposed attitude of "if i'm bigger than you, then i'm better than you".

Out in the 'burbs, everybody honks at me. In the city center almost nobody does, but the few that do fall into one of two categories:

Big, loud trucks
Nice cars with well dressed men

I'm with the OP - most of the folks who honk, act up and otherwise annoy me are lower on the socio-economic spectrum and typically seem to be lower on the education/intellect sprectrum. They're also usually, but not always, young. I don't get hassled in Center City or nicer areas, I get hassled while driving through crappier areas. The last time I had an issue with a nicer car, the driver was a thug, just a thug in a nice car. I should say that I rarely ride in the burbs, so my experiences are probably skewed. I think Center City folks are used to bikes here and I think we have better infrastructure keeping each other out of one another's way more often. I think lower in town speeds might play a role too.

My guess? You have pissed off, resentful people with someone they can bully.

.....Big, loud (Diesel pickup) trucks



The favorite choice of our local young alpha males, but instead of using a horn, they just stomp on the accelerator and drown out my ear drums with their loud side exiting exhaust.

Thanks to our states stiff smoke laws and fines, gone are the days of the thick black cloud of smoke to go along with the decibel assault.

Out in the 'burbs, everybody honks at me. In the city center almost nobody does, but the few that do fall into one of two categories:

Big, loud trucks
Nice cars with well dressed men

I've noticed a similar trend where I live.

Almost a year ago my company relocated which changed my commute route. Previously I rode through primarily a suburban area, and now I ride straight through the downtown area and then into an industrial area. In the last year, I think I've only been honked at once. On my old route, it was at least a weekly occurrance.

I haven't noticed a car demographics trend. I think jerks will honk regardless of their vehicle type.

Cars I've been honked at from recently:

- Porsche Panamera
- Lotus Exige
- BMW 6 series sports coupe
- UPS Truck
- Fiat 500
- Toyota Prius

Pretty even across the board, from 6-figure price tag sports cars to moderate priced average vehicles, with a delivery truck thrown in for good measure.

I find that ignorance is not unique to any one economic class.

The interactive psychology between bicyclists and drivers is very interesting to me and I hope someone does a serious and comprehensive study of the issue someday. The results should be most interesting.

Many drivers are not bothered at all by cyclists.
Many are nearly driven around the bend at the mere sight of a bicyclist.
My hunch is that on a basic level seeing someone choosing to transport themselves on a small, inexpensive, vulnerable bicycle upsets major parameters within which most individuals build their self image and therefore structure their lives.
Most drivers buy into the notions, that are well exploited by automobile marketers, that they are better off people (and maybe better people) if they have new, shiny, safer, more powerful means of individual transport that they develop a view of as an extension of themselves.
The costs involved, both financially and otherwise, in maintaining this structure then tends to dominate and re-order many other aspects of peoples lives.
Enter someone who has simply chosen to bypass all of this and actually seems to actually be enjoying it. This makes people feel frustration on some level which is often expressed by engine revving or some other assertive gesture.
All of this is aggravated if the individual feels incapable of exploiting the bicycle option themselves for physical or social reasons.

Yes, I have spent way to much time pondering driver attitudes.

Disagree. It depends more on the area. Obviously people will be more used to cyclists in an area that is more bike friendly. Around me, that can be a lower class or upper class area.

Yesterday I got honked at and called a "f ag" by some guys in a new charger. I wasn't even on the street, I was riding on the bike path parallel to it..

and the hoity toity snobs who can't believe they are being inconvenienced and losing 10 seconds of their valuable day waiting for a bicycle to get out of their way.

I usually catch up to these people when they pass me.

Yesterday I got honked at and called a "f ag" by some guys in a new charger. I wasn't even on the street, I was riding on the bike path parallel to it..

LOL, i had a bizarre honking too. I went for a early morning Saturday ride, i was on a four lane main city street where there is a dedicated bike lane. the funny thing was i was riding in the parking lane because of glass in the bike lane, so that made me even farther from traffic. and because it was early saturday morning no cars were even out. YET THIS CRAZY driving a beat up olds with rust on it lays on his horn proceeds to go from the far left lane into the right lane and partly into the bike lane so he can lay on the horn even more. then he "speeds" away laying on the horn more. i put speeds away in quotes as the beat up cars engine could barely handle 30mph.

the part that had me laughing all the way to the MUP is that the guy had Wisconsin plates. seriuosly what the heck is a cheese head doing in city anyway and why is he so pissed when Rodgers took them all the way while Cutler got an owee and need a hug. I should have been the one yelling at him.

LOL, i had a bizarre honking too. I went for a early morning Saturday ride, i was on a four lane main city street where there is a dedicated bike lane. the funny thing was i was riding in the parking lane because of glass in the bike lane, so that made me even farther from traffic. and because it was early saturday morning no cars were even out. YET THIS CRAZY driving a beat up olds with rust on it lays on his horn proceeds to go from the far left lane into the right lane and partly into the bike lane so he can lay on the horn even more. then he "speeds" away laying on the horn more. i put speeds away in quotes as the beat up cars engine could barely handle 30mph.
My most recent honking was equally bizarre, and not even bike related. Two weeks ago I was out for my morning run and was in a residential park area on the sidewalk alongside the street. This strip of sidewalk was right up against the street, and didn't have the normal 6-8 feet buffer area of grass that most of our residential sidewalks have.

As I was running along, a driver coming down the street starts honking and swerves over so when he passes me the car tires are within inches of the curb.

I'm guessing either the driver is morally opposed to fitness or he was just a jackwagon.

I'm too busy to see who's driving what,either they hit me.....or they don't.

I see no correlation.

I find the exact opposite to be true. It's the Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW drivers that tend to buzz/honk at me while the drivers of clunkers tend to give a wide berth. I have no idea why this is.

For me, it's either one extreme or the other, with a pretty even balance. Folks with ordinary, sensible cars that are in pretty good shape rarely hassle me, but rich entitled a**holes and people with junkers honk pretty often.

So after reading many stories here of angry :mad: drivers honking at us, and two of my own experiences, the commonality seems that crappy(hoopty) cars/trucks are the ones that honk and yell out the windows. and the two people that have honked at me were not the "pick of the litter" so to say.

I actually find that nicer more expensive cars will give me the right of way even when i am not even close enough to deserve it yet. the exception to the rule is nice SUV's will usually run you off the road because 99% of the time the driver is on the phone and doesn't know your there.

I have had young men driving beaters laying on the horn and shouting, but also women driving Priuses.
I don't get too much trouble from cars, but VW Jettas seem to have particularly aggressive drivers.

I also have noticed some of the most aggressive drivers I've encountered were from out-of-state. A Honda with California plates sticks out in my mind.

I think there are two main groups that are high offenders.. the low-class cavemen who think it's funny to mess with people on a bike (stuck in high school)... and the hoity toity snobs who can't believe they are being inconvenienced and losing 10 seconds of their valuable day waiting for a bicycle to get out of their way.

This.

i find that drivers behind the wheel of SUV behemoths tend to be the least accommodating to me as a cyclist. maybe monstrous SUV's tend to attract people with a predisposed attitude of "if i'm bigger than you, then i'm better than you".

It's the fatuous philosophy of "success=idleness"; the better off you have become, the less you have to do. Thus, SUV drivers use their rolling trophies as a means to rub everyone else's noses in "it". Also, they ALL know that their overly-marbled personal buttsteaks are too spread to fit a typical bike saddle, so anyone that DOES sit on one MUST like "having things stuffed up there", i.e., a "f ag".

I had a co-worker tell me once, after looking at my bike (ergonomic Nashbar MTB saddle at the time) from a particular angle, that it looked like I was sitting on a set of "dick-and-balls". He wasn't too bright, and didn't last long on that job....

Haven't noticed that - like others I have been honked by drivers of many different cars.

One thing I have noticed though is that if a car is poorly maintained - brake lights broken, dirty etc. then the driver will more likely be a bad driver.

The only person who's yelled at me had a sunburn on her neck :lol:. Nuff said. Car wasn't a beater, but wasn't new or shiny. I don't remember any honkers, but around here (Indy) I think people are getting used to seeing people on bikes.

Well i would say that generally speaking the lower quality cars are driven by teens. And we all know how they act ;)

Here in the Chicago burbs I get honked at every day. I honestly can’t say it’s mostly a certain type of car or driver doing it. I will say that the majority of honkers are passing me safely while they are demonstrating their displeasure. I've even had nut cases honk/yell at me while going in the opposite direction when we were both in our proper lanes! Go figure.

I'm almost exclusivley honked at/harrased/buzzed by pickup trucks.

It's a wide variety of offenders here, but soccer moms in mini-vans are the worst.

I rarely ever get honked at, but the 4 times I remember were all full sized pickups

I also rarely get honked at. Mostly, it's the quick tap to say "hello".
Other than that, I agree with the previous posters - two types of honkers. Kids screwing around in beaters, and drivers of expensive cars who's time is obviously much more valuable than mine...

I also rarely get honked at. Mostly, it's the quick tap to say "hello".
Other than that, I agree with the previous posters - two types of honkers. Kids screwing around in beaters, and drivers of expensive cars who's time is obviously much more valuable than mine...

I rarely get honked at, but when I do, it's invariably someone in a pickup truck.

OTOH, the people who try right-hooking are invariably in high-end cars.

My 10-yr-old son and I were on a trek to the LBS two nights ago around 6:00PM. Both of us had rear blinkies, front lights, and he was wearing a safety-yellow jersey. In spite of that, we got to an intersection when a guy in a BMW zoomed up from behind us, cut over to the left, and then right-hooked, causing my son to nearly t-bone him. I went over to the front of the car and blocked him while my son collected himself and continued across the intersection. And then I glared. And glared. And glared. Then, for good measure, I glared some more before I left.

Sadly enough, I expect he probably left the situation *****ing about cyclists.

^^^ A good glare can be much more intimidating than even a whole bunch of cursing. Since it was your son he put in danger I can imagine how you felt. Good anger management on your part I'd say.

So after reading many stories here of angry :mad: drivers honking at us, and two of my own experiences, the commonality seems that crappy(hoopty) cars/trucks are the ones that honk and yell out the windows. and the two people that have honked at me were not the "pick of the litter" so to say.

I actually find that nicer more expensive cars will give me the right of way even when i am not even close enough to deserve it yet. the exception to the rule is nice SUV's will usually run you off the road because 99% of the time the driver is on the phone and doesn't know your there.

I've haven't noticed this at all. What I have noticed is that I get harassed more frequently in areas I would characterize as more challenging to drive in; specifically during rush hour, when motorists are the most stressed. High traffic intersections, high speed arterials in the sprawl, freeway overpasses and narrow low speed roads used as arterial detours by impatient drivers who want to speed, etc. The car make/model/year doesn't seem to correlate.

I usually get yelled at by gold chained, thick accented types driving a fancy late model Euro coupe. I assume bicyclists are poor second class citizens in their native country that submit and give way to weathy car owners, maybe old habits die hard. The other day I was in a residential area with tree-lined, narrow tight curves, I took the lane, he kept honking and flashing his convertible BMW's lights, yelling at me with barely understandable English, "Hey, you, move out of my way!" Just around the curve I saw a illegally parked car in the on-coming lane, I signaled him to pass with a wave and drove into a driveway and onto the sidewalk...Slam, he hit the parked car at ~30mph, I bet his passenger was shocked ;)

I think there are two main groups that are high offenders.. the low-class cavemen who think it's funny to mess with people on a bike (stuck in high school)... and the hoity toity snobs who can't believe they are being inconvenienced and losing 10 seconds of their valuable day waiting for a bicycle to get out of their way.


^^This

Best example I have that lends itself to the OPs theory was the time a bunch of white trash in a rundown handicapped van pulled up alongside me to talk smack (muttering something about my taillight). I just looked at them and shook my head as their pile limped and farted away from the light. Of course, I caught them at the next light and then one after that as well.