chicharron

My main beef, in general is a popular complaint, from what I have noticed here. It is motorist, who tailgate bicylist, instead of passing, and just keep honking the f*****g horn. Or motorist who yell things as they pass, like "ride on the sidewalk".Real smart.

blwyn

Peep hole drivers on frosty mornings. How many seconds can it take to scrap the whole window?

Turbonium

58) fellow cyclist that don't keep numbering.
59) after winter the cleaners clean the stone covered roads and push it all onto the bike lane.
60) cars that honk for good or bad reasons.
61) salt
62) cars with no turning signals.

gritface

Very similar are the drivers that pass 50 feet before a stop sign. Then you are stuck waiting behind them. Then they accelerate and leave a plume of exhaust that chokes you out.

Drying your cycling clothes after commuting in a downpour. Unless of course, you have just commuted home.

Water finding it's way on to your street clothes during your commute. "Where did that hole come from in my garbage bag?" And being stuck with some damp piece of clothing all day at work.

I've read all the peeves up to this point and although I agree with most of them, I'd have to say it's all worth it. Perhaps that's why people call us crazy for commuting.

Leo C. Driscoll

63. Speeding cars and no police
64. Muggers in the Fenway and no police
65. Few red-yellow-green light sequences ---> jackrabbit starts---->bike casualties
66. Pissing contest between police and university police
67. Drivers running red lights and no police
68. Few if any bike lanes
69. Frequent and sometimes fatal "doorings"
70. Dangerous mobs in the Fenway
71. Students riding without helmets and without brains
72. Students riding wrong way on one way streets and without helmets and without brains
73. Students riding without lights at night and without helmets and without brains
74. Erratic snow plowing
75. Rampant bike theft
76. Rampant bike vandalism
77. Jay walkers and jay runners
78. Serious "heavy metal" road debris
79. Equal opportunity pot holes, craters that wreck cars and bikes
80. Road rage directed at bikers
81. Salt, salt, salt
82. Slush turning-to-ice-turning-to slush-turning-to-ice
83. Buses, farting buses, paralyzed buses
84. Interminable waits at lights
86. Drivers who cannot tolerate 2-wheel vehicles in front of them
87. Horns, horns, horns, car alarms
88. Trucks and buses spewing carcinogenic smoke
89. Ubiquitous deafening sirens- mostly ambulances and fire engines (Boston imitating Baghdad)
88. Bike paths dangerous (not plowed, not maintained, one close to oncoming cars on Storrow Drive)
89. For the traumatized winter bike commuter- sidewalks, icey and not plowed or shoveled
90. Sleepwalking pedestrians (mostly students) with iPods, cell phones, hangovers

spidercyclist

91. People who can't drive
92. People who think they are superior cyclists
93. People that hit your bike when you're not on it and let it lay there
94. Bad drunks
95. Pot holes
96. Saboteurs
97. Badd Weather

ollo_ollo

98. Drivers who almost right hook me because I'm invisible then brake to a stop blocking my path when they notice me!

Vision-

99. Drivers who honk and yell obscenities as they pass by, but then roll up their windows, look forward, and pretend they can't see you when you pull up beside them at the next red light and ask them what their problem is (he's on a bike, I'm in a car, what are odds that he'll ever catch up to me in rush hour traffic ).

nick burns

I forgot one-

Putting on the shorts that didn't quite dry from your rainy morning commute

John Ridley

My #1 thing I love: my studded tires.
My commute has several short, steep hills on gravel that have hardpacked snow/ice on them this time of year. Even with studs I'm slipping the rear wheel. But so far this winter, I haven't even come close to losing control.

EnigManiac

Why would sidewalks with no curb cuts be a problem? You're not riding on the sidewalks are you?

peterm5365

It's legal in some places. Doesn't mean it's safe, just legal.

100) Depressions around manhole covers.
101) Deisel powered vehicles.
102) Glass in the road.
103) Roadkill.
104) That damn clicking sound when I pedal.

chicharron

In my town, there a places where they have seperate paved bike trail, and to access them from the street you need to look for a curb cut out, or stop, get off your bike and lift it over the curb.

CommuterKat

This has to be my number one biggest pet peeve in warmer weather. I just "love" to ride past a freshly squished skunk on a warm summer morning and then every "stinking" day after that as it gets flatter and flatter, and then you get to see the "stain that once was a skunk" fade slowly away as the stench lingers on...and on...and on....

Leo C. Driscoll

Hi again, CommuterKat. Your squished skunk in Burlington, reminds me of a final "pet" peeve -running over Rattus Norvegicus in the Fenway. You could pour a gallon of Bloody Mary on the skunk roadkill ;-) But what can I do with WTB 2.1 MotoRaptor tires after their aggressive knobs have morphed into a 22-inch Rattus Norvegicus?

https://www.reilleydesign.com/BlueCarMag/A_00002.html

Iride

touche!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

waterboy

Flats on the way in when you have an 8am meeting!

SecretSatellite

my commute would be so much better without the cars

boog

EXACTLY!!!!!!!

meat_toothpaste

1. Herds of joggers running against traffic in the bike lanes
2. Cyclist who think they have pedestrian rights
3. The electric busses tethered to overhead power lines that try to pass
4. Drivers who think it's funny to yell
5. Roadie pacelines who don't announce their passing
6. Cars that do the rolling stop at 4 way stop sign intersections
7. Drivers who think bikes belong on sidewalks

Edit: Adding some more:

8. People who leave trash in my basket/rack
9. Drunk people who sit on my locked bike and pretend they are on a motorcycle

Daily Commute

10. City planners who think bike lanes are perfect for 25-35 mph roads with lots of intersections.
11. City planners who engineer bike lanes for 20 mph on smooth, downhill roads.
12. City planners who put bike lanes in the door zone.
13. Incompetent cyclists who want to put bike lanes everywhere because they are to lazy to learn how to ride in traffic.
14. Bike lanes, except as a last resort.
15. Anti-car groups that masquerade as pro-bike groups.
16. Any advocacy group or government program that lumps cyclists and pedestrians together.
17. Groups that think the epitome of bicycle advocacy is convincing the government to paint lines by the gutter and forcing cyclists to ride there.

CommuterKat

A 22 inch rat!!!

Ok, you win!

Kat

Tree Trunk

To add to this one, forget HEARING car radios even with their windows closed -- how about FEELING car radios even with their windows closed?!!!!? Some with the amplified bass just about move me, literally. I feel like the sound is sucking all the air from around me and I am going to implode!!

Geez, that just reminded me that I forgot to remove the Audio Slave CD from the family van before my wife discovers it. She hates music like that so much that she will throw the CD out!

Tree Trunk

--Rolling the bike out of the garage at 5 AM and discovering that I forgot to charge my headlight battery
--Riding to work at the end of a headlight battery charge and realizing that I left the charger at home
--Climbing on the bike to leave for home and realizing I should have charged the battery. What do I do? Stay at work for an extra hour while the charger does its magic.
--Reaching in the bike bag for the patch kit and realizing that you didn't replenish the rubber cement supply (and kicking yourself for not doing anything about it the last time that happened).
--Canadian Geese in the Spring time. My ass still stings. The poop cleans off the bike easily, thank goodness.
--Seeing blue hair as I approach a side street.

Geez, from my first few items, I sound like a real dummy!!!! (no comments, please)

PainTrain

Catching a cloud of gnats right in my slack-jawed piehole.