g0tr00t

Hi, new here. Been riding for a few months to work. I haven't flipped out anyone..yet...since I take the same route daily. My pet peeve is I work in a hospital complex and am plagued by those doctors that race to stop signs only to be sitting 8 cars back. I mean seriously!?? They literally move over into the grass. I usually just ride on the right side of them and go around, dopes. I guess they need patients so why not pick on a easy target

The rearend print on the window is truly a classic. That is HILARIOUS!

nashcommguy

In my previous post I was just making an attempt at some levity. Well, all that ended yesterday. Don't really want to get into the details, but suffice to say it got ugly and loud real quick. When he threatened me I dropped my bike and told him to 'bring it'. He declined my invitation...as do all cowards when confronted directly. All of a sudden he didn't 'have time to mess w/you this mornin'. WTF? All of a sudden it's go time and this S*B doesn't have time? Heck, it was his idea to begin with.

djork

imi, I noticed you're from Gothenburg, Sweden. You into the Gothenburg metal scene? And by metal I mean Swedish death metal!

Digital_Cowboy

This year I've encountered two of those guys. Both got out of their cars wanting to know if I wanted to fight. Tonight coming home, I had a car slow down in front of me in the left hand lane and ask me why I wasn't riding on the "bike path."

What they choose to class as a "bike path" is a recently widened sidewalk making it a MUP. I tried to explain to the occupants that I travel too fast to be on the MUP, they said "No you're not."

Hmm, let's see I have a car slowing down on my left side, so why am I going to be traveling as fast as I normally would be if there wasn't some moron going too slow for the posted speed limit?

Bud Bent

I still blow up every once in a while. The day before yesterday, I was eastbound in the right lane on Sycamore School Road on my way home. Sycamore School Road is a divided road with three lanes each direction, but drivers still don't like to give me that right lane. I'm only on that road for just over half a mile, and I always push hard on that stretch.

A woman in a silver SUV came speeding up behind me, changed to the next lane at the last possible second, and layed on the horn as she passed. She got stopped at the right turn onto Crowley Road a short distance further, which is also my turn. I almost caught her just after she made that turn and gave her a one fingered salute. She returned it.

Less than a half mile further, she turned left into a residential neighborhood. I couldn't resist, and turned in behind her. She got caught up behind a slow car and I almost caught her again. I don't know where she was going in the neighborhood, but she gave up on it, speeding around the block and leaving the neighborhood, and I lost her. So I never did get to ask her why she would buzz and honk at a cyclist.

formicaman

I've been lucky to not have any major issues with motorists. Then again, I pull over to the edge of the road to let people pass when possible, and I'm less annoying to be stuck behind than a bus.

FatBaldMen

..

Doconabike

This is an interesting discussion, but it's important to realize that violence often begets more violence. Though it can be difficult, maintaining control over the situation (by keeping your cool) is usually the best course. Trying to "teach someone a lesson" seems to make sense, but very often people are temporarily beyond being able to learn. I have worked in several Emergency Departments and have developed an appreciation for the huge number of people who are driving around high on drugs. Though these people can make mistakes (and often do), damaging their cars or beating on the people really won't help. They truly don't know what they are doing, and entering into their vortex of confusion and violence won't help them learn how to drive better. I have seen so many drugged-up people who get beat up for doing something clearly stupid, and they seem to always confabulate some story in their minds that "justifies" what they were doing. Even from just a practical point of view, beating up on some crazy car driver will only raise your taxes by increasing the uncompensated care in the local county hospital. The subsequent disability in the driver only makes them less likely to keep a steady job, so we end up paying for their unemployment benefits also. Furthermore, a quick call to the cops about an out-of-control driver will bring folks who actually do have the authority to take away the license of the crazy driver and keep them off the road (and gives you time to calm down while you chat on the phone). In summary, though it's difficult, I am a strong advocate that we bikers should keep our cool and not beat on the crazy car people.

xn7

i see too many bikers layed out on the street with their bikes mangled around here.. just need to be more careful, can't trust drivers

Booger1

Waste of energy.....besides they might get really mad and run my ass down for real.

silmarillion

^^^Hey, I resemble that remark!!^^^

silmarillion

That's awesome!

woodway

I have flipped out twice, both times in Bellevue (suburb of Seattle) and both time in the same spot. In both incidents, I have to take the lane for a couple of blocks to keep from getting doored. For about half a block, there is a raised center curb that keeps drivers from going around me, and this seems to sometimes piss them off. I have had two drivers laying on the horn behind me, and when the center curb ends, blowing past me as close as they can, or cutting me off from the lane. Both drivers were stopped a block down the road by a red light.

Driver #1: It was raining that evening and this jerk end up next to me at the stop light, basically trying to push me out of the lane. I gave him a "what the hell" and he (while talking on his cellphone) flipped me off. I, without thinking, grabbed his windshield wiper and flipped it up into the position you set it in to clean the windshield. This forced the jerk to get out of his car in the rain to put it back down. I did not hang around to watch the maneuver.

Driver #2: I rode up to the drivers side window and emptied my water bottle all over his window and gave him the old "your number 1" before turning around and riding around the block to cool down and let him clear the area.

Since these two incidents, I have turned over a new leaf, and except for the occasional expletive, I just let the jerks go.

jfowler85

Definitely understandable so long as you acknowledge that, if anything, stuff like this will only make a situation worse. Of course, I don't mean to make light of idiot drivers committing less-than-intelligent acts toward cyclists. A few suspended licenses back in my very youthful days taught me that law-abiding pacifism on the road is the easiest and safest way out of a situation like that...you never know who is going to take up your (perhaps unintentional) offer to brawl, as demonstrated by the time I was hit by a guy in a van during a parking lot altercation (post him almost hitting me and my passenger on the road because of his negligence) while trying to entice him out his vehicle so we could 'chat' about his idiocy.

Watching a cyclist oc some idiot driver's face would be pretty amusing though...in fact I might pay a nominal fee to watch that.

yellowsirocco

I know it doesn't help, but I have had two cars recently make contact while passing that had no clue that they even hit me. I catch up with them and knock on the window and ask "WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH YOU", they proceed to be ignorant tools and then I unleash my full knowledge of french. It is an a-hole way to do it, but at least they will have some memory to associate with bikers when they see them instead of just being invisible.

yep202

So this one time I flipped off a women cuz she yelled at me to stay out of her lane once she did I gave her a middle finger then turned into a parking lot. Then she turned into the road ahead of me and began yelling at me as as she was still driving. Lucky for me a semi blocked her path. I would have not given a care in the world if she was hit trying to get at me for crossing an intersection when the light was green. That's the only time I see her after that