General Cycling Discussion - Honking just to scare me.

I was biking around not to long ago in the West Island of montreal (near 40/St-Maire, south side). I was biking along on ste-Marie. A car pulled up on a side street with a stop sign. My street did not have a stop sign so I kept on going. Just as I was infront of the car (about 2 meters), the driver (a guy) honked and started giggling with a girl (his wife?) they were about 30. There was no reason at all. They were already stationary for about 2 or 3 seconds when they did it. AND THEY GIGGLED ABOUT IT. I don't know what they were planning to accomplish. Scare me into falling off the bike?

Anyone had experiences like this?

Yeah, they do that. I've given up asking why.

This is a classic case of:

a) 11 year old guy taking pleasure in other people's distress

b) 30 year old guy trying to impress his first date ever

(Hi kids. I'm new to the list. I've been riding about 8 monthes now, and really getting into it... I've got a Giant OCR2, and i'm building a single speed and a mountain. The original bike that I got 8 monthes ago split in half a week before I purchased the ocr2....)
anyway
HI!
I've had people try to scare me as well here in the city. I've had people honk and swerve. Once on the way to work I had someone throw a rock at me and hit my helmet...
The worst case was when a couple of blokes pulled up next to me and said "Hey man are you okay?" I was confused "Yeah, I'm fine" I replied. "Are you sure??" I replied again that i was fine. Then the guy replied "Good! Cause we're gonna F--- you up!" and they took off. I was wondering what I was in for but I changed directions and never saw them again.
I'm sure I'll continue to have the occasional run in with people like this as long as I live in a big city.
Ride,
brent

I have some of the local "rocket scientists" pass me as close as they "safely" can and honk the horn when they are right beside me.
I'm not sure what they are thinking when they do this. Er, ah, bad choice of words. They can't be thinking. :(
Are they trying to scare me into riding on the sidewalk (illegal around here)? Or riding only on my neighborhood streets? Not a chance.


One moron did this to me last Saturday and I got his tag number and the color and make of the pickup truck. He had to stop at the next light. I almost caught up with him but he turned right just before I got there. I turned and saw him turn onto a deadend street. I turned onto the street and spotted the truck. He must have seen me following him and quickly ran into his house. I hung around riding back and forth in front of his house waiting for him to come out but he didn't.
Now I ride by his house whenever I go out. It's less than 1/2 mile from my house. He hasn't shown his face yet but I'll be waiting. :mad: :fight:

I wonder if he does this to all cyclists. His house is about a 1/2 block from a road that several cyclists (10-15 per day) use to get to a local riding/training area.

Yeah, even on the back roads in the country this sort of stuff happens. The group I'm with usually stays pretty calm. We just wave, or say Hi!. If it's around a holiday, we wish the driver a happy holiday, for instance, "Happy Easter!", "Merry Christmas!". It usually works out pretty well.

Spire, the middle finger works pretty good.....try it next time:D

Spire, I have had this happen a few times, it is usually some Jabroni in a SUV, I usually give him the finger in return.:) :)

Originally posted by velo
Yeah, even on the back roads in the country this sort of stuff happens. The group I'm with usually stays pretty calm. We just wave, or say Hi!. If it's around a holiday, we wish the driver a happy holiday, for instance, "Happy Easter!", "Merry Christmas!". It usually works out pretty well.

That really is the best response, though not always the natural one!

I've had some annoying people do various things that have been previously mentioned. I always think about catching up with them at some upcomming stop light and then calmly get off my bike and kick their door as hard as I can. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I would love to see the look on their face as they saw me looking through their window.

Dave

Originally posted by Dwagenheim
I've had some annoying people do various things that have been previously mentioned. I always think about catching up with them at some upcomming stop light and then calmly get off my bike and kick their door as hard as I can. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I would love to see the look on their face as they saw me looking through their window.

Dave

Oh heck dwagenheim, with your butt glued to that bicycle seat all those hours and eating the freaky foods we riders love to devour on tour, just stand up, part your cheeks and let it RIP! Relief at last, and for a good cause.

roughstuff

Honking is very common here in NYC. I get honked at least once EVERYTIME I go out riding...I guess they're just warning honks.

As a driver, I do honk at some cyclists (the ones who look like it's their first time riding....wheeving in and out).....but it's just a real quick, soft and short warning honk that says "just to let you know, I'm getting closer"

First Date????---probably more like his sister------you should see some of the inbreds around here---lol

My favorites are the guys who speed up to get in front of you 50 feet from an intersection, then get caught up trying to make a right turn. I'm tempted to just run the bike into them, and roll across the trunk.

......oh my back.... Geez, maybe if you gave me $200 the pain will go away.....

j/k

= G

Oh, yeah.

The kid who tried to fake me out--screaming and acting like he was about to throw a bottle at my head. He got so close I finally flinched, then hit the brakes and watched him run into his house....his mommy answered the door...

The children who tried to startle me (and succeeded! --I say "children" because they were under 20) by screaming at me out the window as I was cranking up a long hill in slow traffic.
What a waste of time.

:beer:

I had a car honking and carrying on behind me tonight on my way to work. The car passed closely but quickly took off. I did my damndest to catch up but the lights didn't work in my favour. It made for a hell of a warm up though. I thought they wanted to play with me in their tough Hyundai Pony race car but they just sped off around a corner. I was sad. At least it made for a quicker than usual ride to work.

I once got a guy good who honked at me and pulled up beside me. I pressed my freshly pressurized air horn in his face. It was priceless. He too raced off and blew a red light to make a left turn ahead. What a hero he was. I'm sure the trashy girlfriend in the shotgun seat was impressed by his manhood.

It's stuff like that that makes me wish I could afford a helmet cam and microphone. I'm certain shows like "Reel TV" would eat it up for a pretty penny. Of course if enough cyclists got together with cams, we could make our own show. It'd be sweet.

Originally posted by KleinMp99
Spire, the middle finger works pretty good.....try it next time:D

On the contrary, I've been taught by an Ozzie cyclist to give a friendly wave.
It DOES happen that some people honk in a friendly way. Actually I'm about 95% certain that all honks I received in Newfoundland, Canada were the friendly type: short double honk from afar.
Then you certainly wave. This also happened in France when I was climbing a particular difficult mountain in sweltering heat with a fully loaded bike.

The trick is that if you wave to unfriendly honkers it will drive them crazy! In case you do catch up with them or when they start abusing you say "oh, I love you' and blow kisses at them...
Will often drive them crazy as well I guess..:p

Ivana

Originally posted by RonH
I have some of the local "rocket scientists" pass me as close as they "safely" can and honk the horn when they are right beside me.
I'm not sure what they are thinking when they do this. Er, ah, bad choice of words. They can't be thinking. :(
Are they trying to scare me into riding on the sidewalk (illegal around here)? Or riding only on my neighborhood streets? Not a chance.


One moron did this to me last Saturday and I got his tag number and the color and make of the pickup truck. He had to stop at the next light. I almost caught up with him but he turned right just before I got there. I turned and saw him turn onto a deadend street. I turned onto the street and spotted the truck. He must have seen me following him and quickly ran into his house. I hung around riding back and forth in front of his house waiting for him to come out but he didn't.
Now I ride by his house whenever I go out. It's less than 1/2 mile from my house. He hasn't shown his face yet but I'll be waiting. :mad: :fight:

I wonder if he does this to all cyclists. His house is about a 1/2 block from a road that several cyclists (10-15 per day) use to get to a local riding/training area.

Ron, I am not passing judgement on you for hanging around outside his house and riding past his house or anything like that so please do not take this the wrong way. But what is your intentions if you do see him again? Do you want to fight it out with him phisically? Confront him with words? Or simply and as pleasently as possible educate him as to the fact that cyclists have the same rights to the road as motorists but they also have to follow the same laws?

It is possible he does not know anything about that. Like I said don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to tell you how to handle it, I'm just curious how you are going to handle the situation if he sees you again.

I live in DC and around here motorists aren't exactly friendly. There's definitely an us vs. them mentality around here.

Anyway, I've learned to develop a thick skin. Id seems insane to me to actually stalk someone (as one of you has written about above) because they pissed you off on the road. What if that guy comes out of his house with a baseball bat and you're stuck in the dead end? You really think you're riding out?

They drive CARS! Cars can kill you. Easily.

I absolutely hate when people do stuff like honk or yell, it makes me want to go out and get a gun permit and carry a gun on my ride so i can shoot at people... hey its Texas, i could get away with it. I thought about getting air zound so i could honk back, but i dont really want to carry that big ol horn on my bike.

Its not really the honking that I have a problem with it was the fact that they did it for no other reason than to piss me off. Frequently people honk to say "I'm Here" or "You just moved in Front of me" or some other legitimate or semi-legitimate reason.

Sometimes I notice that people honk just to let you know they're there so you can move over. But this thread reminded me of an incident that happened years ago. I wasn't on my bike, but crossing at a busy street- I had to cross twice, once west then south. As I was crossing west, I knew the red light was about to change to yellow, but I didn't speed up. It was at night and there wasn't much traffic, only one car was stopped at the red light. Then, as the light changed to yellow, the car suddenly lurched forward as if it were about to take off, and so I began to run so I'd make it (it was a wide street). But they were just faking. When I looked into the car, the two guys were laughing- they thought it was really funny that they'd scared me. I was so furious that I stood in front of their car, banged my fist on the hood, gave them the finger and yelled "F*** YOU!" Their laughter just choked off, and when the light changed, they sped around the corder and screeched to a halt in front of me, blocking my way as tried to cross. I thought they would get out of the car, but I didn't stop. I just walked around the back as if nothing happened. They didn't do anything. I wasn't afraid of them, I think they just wanted to be macho men.

Originally posted by wabbit
Sometimes I notice that people honk just to let you know they're there so you can move over. But this thread reminded me of an incident that happened years ago. I wasn't on my bike, but crossing at a busy street- I had to cross twice, once west then south. As I was crossing west, I knew the red light was about to change to yellow, but I didn't speed up. It was at night and there wasn't much traffic, only one car was stopped at the red light. Then, as the light changed to yellow, the car suddenly lurched forward as if it were about to take off, and so I began to run so I'd make it (it was a wide street). But they were just faking. When I looked into the car, the two guys were laughing- they thought it was really funny that they'd scared me. I was so furious that I stood in front of their car, banged my fist on the hood, gave them the finger and yelled "F*** YOU!" Their laughter just choked off, and when the light changed, they sped around the corder and screeched to a halt in front of me, blocking my way as tried to cross. I thought they would get out of the car, but I didn't stop. I just walked around the back as if nothing happened. They didn't do anything. I wasn't afraid of them, I think they just wanted to be macho men.

Sorry to be naive, but did you say that the red light turns yellow? What does that mean? Here, Green turns to yellow then to red then back to green. I always thought it was universal

Originally posted by Cadd


Sorry to be naive, but did you say that the red light turns yellow? What does that mean? Here, Green turns to yellow then to red then back to green. I always thought it was universal

It depends on where you are. Funny I have been in the USA, Canada and Mexico for so long and I can't remember.
I do know that we in the Nls have the green-yellow-red-green system while Germany has the green-yellow-red-yellow-green system..
I much prefer the one which warns that the light turns green by having a yellow light.. With the other system you always seem to think as if there's a race in which you're 'shot' out of the start position.

Ivana

I was out riding in the country once when a couple of high schoolers in thier POS, raised pickup truck came flying by me. Right when they were beside me, they released the gas and caused a nice loud backfire.

I've had people honk at me. Most of the time, I don't get a chance to see the driver so I imagine that it is a really good looking girl driving. :-)

I know of someone that does carry a gun on his commute! The other day a dog attacked him within the city limits and he shot it! The police came and said they were having troubles with the owners of the dog (meth abuse) so it was okay! I'd hate to be the motorist that honked at him.:eek:

I had an incident a few weeks ago. I was on the last 2 miles of a 70+ mile ride and was getting pretty tired. There is a bike path on this part of the route, but it goes back and forth across the rode and at that point I was not interested in stopping and walking my bike across the cross walk. So I was riding on the shoulder. 99% of the people were having no trouble with me there but one butthead in a big red, doolie pickup honked right in my ear and yelled "bike path" at me. Scared the snot out of me!

The one good thing it did, though, was make me ride faster. I wanted so badly to catch up with him, put on my sweetest face and say "I'm sorry you had such a hard time going by me. No one else did. Maybe that penis substitute that you're driving is too big for you, hmmm?"

My booboo- I meant to say the GREEN light was about to turn yellow. The gumbas in the car were stopped at a red light.

I hate hwn people yell "BIKE PATH!" I saw some shmuck in a fancy car yell at some kid on a bike (not a roadie, just some teenager on a mountain bike), who was going along a busy street and minding all the rules. He yelled "GET ON THE SIDEWALK!" Yeah, that makes sense, endanger the pedestrians.

Horn blowers I've encountered have been treated to any of the following returns

wave and smile, personnally I think this is best
the bird
stopped dead in my tracks in front of car and asked driver repeatedly if they are in a hurry, then I explained that if they are in a hurry I will do my best to get out of the way. This went on while the traffic light turned from green to yellow to red two times and the driver sat in the car with the windows up, sweating profusely.
chased, caught, threatened to pull driver from car and beat him senseless (to late)
chased and caught without being noticed, leaned low and close enough to scream in passenger's ear at the top of my lungs, laughed as driver headed for carwash to clean upholstery
chased, caught, rode slowly in front of vehicle while offering to call police from cell phone to discus bicyclist's rights to the road
spotted car / driver an hour later in town after country road encounter and berated a confession and apology from him while I clutched cell phone in one hand and Halt pepper spray in the other.


Again, a wave and smile are probably the best since you never know what kind of phsyco you are dealing with, think about it, what if they are as crazy as you? - and - There is always the possibility that your actions will escalate the drivers distain for cyclist and the next rider may recieve more than a horn blast.

KleinMp99 it seems that your #1 answer is always the middle finger! :) But, i with you! when people do that yo me, i just wave for flick them off!

for the most part i freak out when i hear some one honk (cuz im on a back road and deep in thought or some thing). The worst that has happened was i moved into the path of the car that honked and then they stopped and i sayed some choice words. I dunno i stay away from roads now!(now that i have my mt. bike)

Jared

In New Jersey it is an offense under the criminal code, it comes under harassment. It states that any alarming conduct with the
purpose to alarm or seriously annoy another.

If you get the license plate and a description of the operartor you could go that route.

But if you take any other action it just shows that that person(s) are controlling you. A simple wave or peace sign and just keep the cadene steady.

The worst honks are when they start about 100 yards behind you and hit their horns all the way until they are 100 yards in front of you, damn i hate people sometimes i nearly fall off my bike and have a heart attack when they do that. And to top it all of it is ussually from behind me so i dont know if they are planning on swerving into me or what. One time when i was riding in the country I had a car full of hicks pull up and say they could get me arrested for riding where i was. I was riding on the edge of a rarely travelled country road. Also many a times I've had things thrown at me, ussually only along bigger busier roads though I ussually have less problems riding on country roads unless it is at night when all the high schoolers go to their drinking stations. Sometimes i wish i lived in Europe so you could know all the honks were friendly.

Originally posted by tokus
Sometimes i wish i lived in Europe so you could know all the honks were friendly.

You are sorely mistaken.. I live in the Netherlands which is considered by many as the most bike friendly country.. HAH
NOT!! We have bike - apartheid, which means mandatory bike paths. When you step out of the line, that is, take the lane because of the appalling state of these paths : bricks, tiles, uprooted trees, cars start honking menacingly, drive by very very closely and I've had it happened that they stop very suddenly right in front of me and start threatening.
I had this happen 3 days ago when I simply crossed a main traffic light rather than the bike traffic light where you have to push a button, the main t.l. is both easier and safer..
At the other side, a car started honking and blocked the path further on... he was an off-duty cop who threatened me to give a fine and gave me a lecture... OH I HATE THIS f***ing country sometimes...
BUt if you're obliging to the rules, and don't mind waiting 2 times to go left, pushing 1000 buttons to get across and don't mind averaging just 15 km/hr , be our guest..

But if you want friendly honks, Newfoundland, Canada is the ONLY place to go... never before did I receive that many friendly honks.. mind you, there's an awesome wind to battle there, so they are thinking to encourage a mad guy/girl. :D

Ivana

It happened to me yesterday, near the end of a 25 mile ride. We had just gotten back into town and were lugging uphill on a curving road. I don't like this road and normally avoid it but bridge construction has made it the most viable route.

A young woman with a hairstyle left over from the 80's (Put down the hairspray and step away from the mirror) driving a gigantic white-trash land cruiser didn't like us being there. She hit the horn three times as she passed.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

I gave her a big, cheesey smile and an enthusiastic wave. I don't think she liked it. She hit the horn again.

BEEEEEEP!

after getting things thrown at me (a lit cigarette being the worst) a honk is not that bad. there are plenty of grown ups that don't know how to 'use their words' when out of a vehicle, so what makes us think that they can verbalize or even just 'deal' with their frustrations in a constructive manner. i had a guy in a conversion van, with little kids in it yell and cus at me that i should be on a sidewalk somewhere.

Life is a long race, and i always imagine the rude people i encounter as blowing a gasket many miles from the finish (fancy way of saying heart attack or stroke in their 50's)

YOU DON'T SUPPOSE there is an SUV Forums where there are people who say log on and say "and once, i had to alter my course and swerve into the other lane of oncoming traffic - well, there was no car there at the time and there was only me and that damn bike on the road..... but he expected me to just ease over a wee bit as if to say 'hello, i'm out for a little ride....beautiful day for a bike ride/......and then he said Merry XMas to me!!!! he must have been on drugs' i read in the paper that all those bike riders are on EPO and steroids and they have the 'roid rage, man!!! they scare me, so i honk and speed around to get the hell out of ther!!!!"

I once had a dog bark at me, it was leaning out of the back window of a car, and it unleashed one hell of a WOOOOOFFF as it passed me. I swear this beasts teeth was a few millimeters from my ear when he barked. I had to replace my cycling shorts.....

I have only had one incendent worth recounting, riding to town with a coupla friends, we had firecrackers thrown at us, fooled them tho we didn't fall down or go off into the ditch, HA!!
Seems we need some new inovative equipment. A helmet cam that records both front and reat views, and a bicycle pump stout enough to defend against the avarage doberman yet still inflate tires afterwardsand only be a pound heaver than a regular one.
As a farmer and old tractor fan I have similar proablems with selfish drivers, at least gravel roads get me off the paving.
kev

One time, this SOB in his huge mac cargo truck gave me a big honker as he drove buy, for no reason at all. I wasn't even in his way. I flicked him off so I would feel justified!:)

What is worse than honking is this experience I have had:

Why do we have the yellow warning line on train station plateforms? It's because if we are too near the edge, when a train speeds past, the low pressure air will suck you towards the moving train. Yes you will die.

What happened to me was once I was cycling with my friends along a wide and desserted road. We were one after another in a line along the side of the road and maintained about 20 meters gap. Then this huge truck( semi) drove by, and for no reason he was speeding and actually drove nearer to me as he passed by me. I felt a strong force sucking me towards the truck but I was lucky to be able to control myself. Then as the truck left me it returned to it's original driving line. What an a55 hole, he did it on purpose!:(

I get honked at, barked at and thrown things at. I have nerves of steel, I don't flinch or get flustered. If the steel box operators get their jollies by doing things to me, great, they are not bothering others while they're bothering me, and I don't care.

I've told this one before, but it has a backwards twist for this thread...

I was at the end of my 14 mile commute in afternoon traffic. A small downhill alongside a long line of trapped motor vehicles, at the bottom, a traffic light...no shoulder.

Three pedestrians making their way towards me against traffic, as the custom is with no sidewalk. I slow down, but no give. I persist moving slowly, hoping they'll see I have no where else to go (they can walk a few feet in the gravel edge, right?) They finally step off the street, and I increase speed a little bit downhill towards the light. The biggest guy sticks his arm straight out at me, fist balled, elbow pointed backwards ("clothesline") about my neck level.

I held up my right arm to block--NEVER DO THIS. As soon our arms connected it was like catching your handlebar on a fencepost. My front wheel turned sideways and I went over the bars on my head/face.

Twist: as I revived (bloody and dazed,) there were at least four motorists who were not in such a hurry that they couldn't stop to see if I was ok. (I think they were a little frightened at my appearance as I thanked them.) They waited until the ambulance arrived. (All four were African-American women, I think because of the area where it happened. They were so caring...)

Wouldn't want to do it again, though!

:crash:

Did you ever manage to catch up to the guy that put his arm out or manage to get the police after him, maybe one of the people who stopped could identify him.

Lots of willing witnesses, police report filed, but no arrests.

I have had the same close calls that you all have. I live out here in rural northwestern kansass(not misspelled) and have to put up with a lot of guff. There are lots of awesome trails and fishing holes around here to find, but you have to travel many miles of wasteland to find them, and by doing so, you encounter the inbred mechanic who is out testing his blown hotrod that he built for a 100 bucks, and thinks that you are the best thing to aim at since he has killed all the local wildlife already. I work full time for a fireworks distributor, and get my hands on some pretty interesting things, plus I have discovered how to build my own little toys. So whenever I get bumped off the road, I just let them go by, and later that night, it's funny to watch him scatter in four different directions at once cause he thinks that osama bin laden is over his house.

Originally posted by russhawk
I have had the same close calls that you all have. I live out here in rural northwestern kansass(not misspelled) and have to put up with a lot of guff. There are lots of awesome trails and fishing holes around here to find, but you have to travel many miles of wasteland to find them, and by doing so, you encounter the inbred mechanic who is out testing his blown hotrod that he built for a 100 bucks, and thinks that you are the best thing to aim at since he has killed all the local wildlife already. I work full time for a fireworks distributor, and get my hands on some pretty interesting things, plus I have discovered how to build my own little toys. So whenever I get bumped off the road, I just let them go by, and later that night, it's funny to watch him scatter in four different directions at once cause he thinks that osama bin laden is over his house.

Now that's funny! :roflmao:

if a guy stuck out his arm to knock me off, i think i'd stick out my foot about nut level and give a good swift kick.