harshbarj

Mostly "Nice stopping in the crosswalk" and "Where's your lights?". Drivers stopping in the crosswalk forcing pedestrians out into the intersection is my big pet peeve!

Daniel4

"Get out of the way. You're blocking traffic."

jgadamski

It does no good to yell in many cases. They have the music up and a cell phone to their ear. A U-lock in the windshield says it more efficiently. And its a lot more fun.

ikaika777

mr geeker

I don't usually yell things, how ever I do tend to mutter "prick" and "idiot" alot.

San Pedro

I'm immature, and have a temper, so I usually go for 'a-hole' or 'put down you ------- phone'. No one understands me though, they just see/hear angry white guy, and that is usually enough to get the point across.

bluegoatwoods

"Your brake light is out" could be useful. That's a good one.

I don't yell much. Usually they can't hear me anyway. Also I just don't like to be one of those angry, yelling people.

But one time I was stopped at a light, going straight. A UPS truck pulled into the right turn lane to my right. As he stopped he chewed me out kinda angrily. Saying, "You're supposed to follow the same rules as everyone else! If you get hit, it's your fault!" (Funny thing is, I was following the rules. Wasn't doing anything to bring this on. Go figure)

I yelled back at him, "You've got better things to worry about!" And his face went blank and he made his turn and went on his way. Maybe he found himself thinking, "I guess I do have better things to worry about". Or something like that.

I also figure that if some chowderhead says something stupid in the future, I'll reply with, "You have to share the road with other people? Oh, you poor thing!" That'll probably shut up most of the idiots.

mgw4jc

LOLz

You probably didn't have your straight blinker on.

Funny thread. It makes me think we should start yelling to drivers the things that we get yelled at us.
"Get on the sidewalk!"
"You can't drive that thing on this road!"

Or perhaps, "You should be wearing a helmet!"

bmthom.gis

twatwaffle.

usually just muttering, or a slow clap.

Had one guy gun to get around me today only to get slowed down by a speed bump and traffic light 10 feet in front of me. I filtered past and got across the road when the light changed first. dip****

Cyclosaurus

I rarely yell at drivers, but when I do it's because of one of two reasons:

1. They are behind me honking repeatedly. There's a couple of short stretches (about 3 blocks each) on my commute where the lane is pretty narrow, like 10-12 feet and there's a median so it's pretty much impossible to share the lane without being less than a foot from the car. I take the lane because I've found people will try and accelerate by me if I am near the right edge. If they honk once, I ignore it. Twice and I look back and yell "YOU WAIT!" mostly because I can't think of anything else productive to say.

2. They do something that almost gets me killed. At that point I'm just venting because of the adrenaline. I was riding along a suburban arterial road during rush hour, so traffic was heavy. The lanes are narrow and I decided to take the sidewalk (legal here) to avoid having to mix it up with cars. I was on the left side and crossing a street with the green light. Traffic was moving slowly due to congestion but the cross street was open. Just as I entered the crosswalk, the driver of the next car in line got her chance to turn and she hit the gas and turned, not seeing me at all. I hit my brakes hard and went into a controlled skid away from her as she finally slammed on her brakes. I was furious for a second, bellowed "WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH YOU?" She threw up her hands and clearly was blaming me. Not my proudest moment but I went up to her car and smacked her passenger window really hard with an open palm, then went on my way.

spivonious

"I didn't know it was a race!"

"Get off the phone!"

"Hey!"

velocity

Nice Mustang!

snow_echo_NY

LOL this thread is awesome. i usually yell,
"REALLY? you're gonna do that? What an @$$!"
"I'm RIGHT HERE" (usually on their left or right and they're trying to merge into me)
"STOP"
"WAIT"
"NO!"
"LET ME PASS!" - (this is usually when cars are stopped and trying to squeeze in the bike lane which they obviously can't do)

my vocabulary shortens to just a few choice words b/c they can't hear me anyway especially if we're at speed.

modelmartin

I yell at other cyclists more often and occasionally a ped! I usually give motorists the 20% wave.

PatrickGSR94

Perfect illustration of why sidewalk riding is dangerous, especially contraflow, as well as 2-way cycle paths with the side nearest traffic lanes riding contraflow. Motorists simply don't expect someone going faster than walking speed to be coming from the "wrong" direction.

I took a sidewalk contraflow for just a few hundred yards in Destin FL a couple months ago, and I was extremely cautious at cross streets and driveways. At one point I saw a large SUV coming out so I stopped on the sidewalk and waited instead of risking going in front of that beast. I could see the driver looking left only (away from me) as she waited to turn right. Would have been very easy to get flattened right there because I knew she would likely never look in my direction, especially not all the way over onto the sidewalk. So I waited for her to start going and went around behind the vehicle.

kickstart

I don't have any issue with sidewalks or bidirectional cycle tracks when ridden in an appropriate manner, but agree riding counter flow on a sidewalk calls for extreme vigilance, and is best avoided.

bluegoatwoods

You know......these are pretty good ideas.

In a situation with actual witnesses who can hear what we're saying, it would tend to make them realize the silly, nit-wittish garbage that is hurled at us so often.

Walter S

I have to imagine that if I yelled at cars it would sound as garbled and unintelligible as when they yell at me.

wolfchild

Sidewalk riding is no more dangerous then sitting on a couch in your living room and watching TV...If a cyclists makes a decision to ride on a sidewalk it is their responsibility to be aware, pay attention, slow down and make sure that there is no vehicle coming while the cyclists is crossing a driveway, intersection or a parking lot. Sidewalk riding requires a little different approach the riding on the road but it's no more dangerous then road riding or riding on a crowded MUP.

BobbyG

I usually honk my Airzound, as I would hong my horn in the car. The older I get the less I engage. However when I experience a close call due to some reckless or intentional idiocy what I have found myself yelling is, "What if I were your kid!? What if I was your kid!?"

baron von trail 

I ride a mile and half, contra-flow on a side walk when I leave work. Crossings are extremely dangerous. I stop at them and make sure no one is coming to turn right or left, even if I have a green light. The right turn cars never stop at the white line. And, the lefty guys never expect a bike to be coming.

But, hey, being alert is part of the game.

txcrash

A loud "hey, hey" in the angriest voice I can muster actually gets a lot of people to stop in their tracks.

Yesterday on on the ride home I came up on a car that was clearly lost and driving like an idiot, so I was on full alert. He pulled off to the side to park, so I still kept an eye on the car but figured I could go on my way. As I came up beside him, he whipped out to the other side of the road to park on that side.

"Hey, hey" got him to stop, open his door, and look at me blankly. "Did you even f-n look?" Was met by "sorry" and I went on my way.

baron von trail 

I tend to blurt out the more primordial, "WTF!"

Bassmanbob

I yell when I'm about to be hit. Usually, it's "Hey! Hey! Hey!" until they see me and correct their actions. I also yelled, "Stop sign!" repeatedly when someone blows a stop sign and is about to hit me.

Also. Do any of you yell nice things? I ride around a lot of traffic circles. Just before I get to them, I get the attention of a driver and take the lane. When the car passes me, I yell,"Thank you!" and give them a wave. I figure it's a goodwill gesture they may remember when they encounter a cyclist in the future.

mgw4jc

Which makes me want to intentionally yell garbled, unintelligible things at them sometimes.

Yes, plenty of waving at folks who obviously waited for me until safe to pass or turn. I rarely see any cars with windows down, so saying/yelling anything would generally be useless. Though most folks can lip read, "Thanks!"