Being harrased, becoming "rageful" and reflecting...
 

Had a low speed "buzz" on my ride today and I went ballistic. I ride on a peninsula in So Cal that is in a land slide area and the road is under regular repair. The road crew was out paving today causing intermittent lane closures with traffic stopped to share what became a single lane road - however the bike lane was clear. In one stretch as I went by stopped traffic (me in the bike lane) there was an older guy (hey I'm an older guy) who looked at me and swerved into the bike lane as if to stop me. I may have been going 10-15 mph (max) and he was crawling when he swerved while clearly looking at me. Sigh.. I narrowly missed his mirror and of course screamed at him while passing on his right. The road crew waived traffic on, he caught up with me, slowed and for a moment we're going the same speed and he is is giving me the "stink eye" and yelling at me (well his lips were moving). Now I'm screaming back at the guy to pull over because I seriously wanted to pound him. He snarled at me, looked like he may, but then drove away. There is no doubt in my mind he intentionally wanted to stop my progress when I passed on his right (while I'm in the bike lane). He was a reasonable looking guy in a nice car, it was weird... Was he a cycling hater who was mad at being delayed? Perhaps... The rage it brought out in me was scary and after I calmed down I wondered why I was so ready to hurt this guy. Adrenalin, fear of death? Don't know but I'm glad he didn't pull over as I may be writing this from the local jail.

Sorry you had such a negative experience. I think you might want to consider that when it comes to stuipd violence, there aren't rules. It would be a mistake to think that he would show any honor, pull over, exit his vehicle and interact with you "face-to-face". IMO, you're lucky he didn't just run you down. I know this sounds harsh, but I'm always amazed how many people seem to think they become these super creatures when behind the wheel of a vechicle.

Or from a hospital bed or worse the morgue!!

Writing from the morgue?

Need a medium for that.

Had a right cross incident this morning. I was just entering an intersection and a Honda Element zoomed around me and turned right into the farthest of two lanes in the cross street. I was doing about 18-19, and damn near got clipped. I wound up evading right ,fell in behind him and started drafting ala Dave Stoller, while giving the guy a one finger salute. He dropped me at about 30, and I'm not even sure the dipwad saw me back there.

Road rage is an evil an unpredictable beast, and would like to say that I can avoid it. Ain't proud of it, but sometimes just can't help myself.

BTW, the OP incident sounds like PV Peninsula. Correct?

I always invite them out of their car.....No takers yet.

I'm a little old for that now though. Last fight I had cost me a broken humorus bone and that was over 20 years ago.....I'd probably be inclined to do it again anyway though.

boy, that helmet cam is sounding good right about now...

I about got killed tonight on my ride home. I was coming down a slight downslope at about 30 mph, and a lady in car did a left cross in front of me. I tried to feather the brakes but still managed to lock up the rear wheel and do a little fishtailing. I yelled out something or other profane. The lady had her window down, and hollered out to me "I didn't see you!" as if that were my fault...

Addressed to the Dead Letter Office no doubt.

here2day,

Bottom line is, in general folks hate/resent being passed. Drivers/riders are competative, it is in our nature imho.
Often when going to the front of traffic at a long light with traffic stacked-up it is not uncommon for someone to pull to the right forcing me into the curb where a 4' path had been there before.
I dismount, walk the bike past them up on the curb, wave at them with all fingers extended, remount and ride on.

Yes I realize you were in a marked bicycle lane.

Lane sharing (wrongly called lane splitting) is legal in CA, the only State so far and with over 200k miles on motorcycles I could offer many stories of angry car drivers.

Getting upset gives the offender control and we are apt to make poor decisions as a result of our anger. $0.02

Great lesson, tough to learn, since it requires breaking bad reactive habits.

Yes - out by Portuguese Bend heading towards Lunada Bay through the rollers.

I used to get really upset and had several confrontations with stupid drivers, much like yours. I guess five years of daily bike commuting and 30,000 miles have mellowed me. Now I just give a yell and a wave to try and get their attention, maybe a fist shake to the really stupid ones. You just have to let it go and remember why you are out there in the first place.

Regarding getting crossed or hooked, many times drivers really don't see us. Interesting article on this topic:

http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/raf-p...each-cyclists/

I ride with really bright (Dinotte) lights, front and back, day and night. This has increased my daytime visibility and reduced my incidents of the right hook or left cross to zero. There is a reason why many places require that motorcycles have their lights on all the time.

Agree. I rarely get angry while driving and when I do I keep it within my car.

On a bike I find it much more difficult. I suppose some threat-response-instinct is hard wired into our brain.

So if he got out I probably would not have been able to control myself. I'm glad he didn't. I grew up in a tough town and learned that fights rarely end well - often someone gets hurt - sometimes the legal system gets involved. Not something I'm interested in at this point in life.

Must learn to control anger when threatened on my bike. Repeat...

In the case yesterday, jerkface definitely saw me, as he was obviously trying to beat me to the turn, and just barely made it. A couple of years ago some guy in a Miyata gave a couple of short beeps on the horn as he was coming up behind me before turning into a driveway right in front of me. I went off on him when he stopped. he was genuinely surprised I was upset, after all he had warned me.http://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/twitchy.gif

When I worked at a car dealer in Santa Clarita I was surprised at how many people carry weapons in their cars, more than anywhere I have worked. There were many cars with a bracket installed near the driver seat to hold a knife or club. I even saw loaded handguns in cars.
I think about that before I flip anyone off.

drivers don't realize who they are messing with. I had a clown in a prius do that to me twice within 1/4 mile. I caught up to him when get got stuck in traffic in front of our local fire dept. I pulled up to his driver window and read him the riot act. I think he wet himself. twerp.

Wow, here2day gets buzzed by a car, almost gets into a fight over it, and what do you all do? You make jokes about it! I was thinking, "Boy, this is tough crowd!" but then I remembered, no . . . this is the 50+ forum :lol: !

Rick / OCRR

I grew up back there and go back every year. Have a daughter in college in Boston and another on the way this fall. Thinking about bringing the bike back this year.

Anyway.. It's funny but I get mad, like when I started screaming at this guy, my accent changes back - Yo Adrian.

Having seen the antics that car drivers pull on other car drivers, all I can say is "expect bad driving decisions at all times". I once watch two SUVs racing each other to the point where the two lanes merged into one, with neither giving an inch. Needless to say the SUV on the non-passing lane lost, spewing gravel and mud as he ran out of road and continued on the nonexistent shoulder, till he could get back on the road.

When it comes to saving themselves any piddling little fraction of a microsecond in order to feed their delusion of "saving time" on their trip, I find that all too many motorists will be complete morality-free aggressively stupid... er... fundamental orifices. For this reason, when I come to any intersection, I will slow down and make dead sure that I can cross it safely before crossing at all. If they want to cut me off, then do so already so I can have my peace of mind back. :)

I bet you will find allies among those poor folks who have to work on roadsides, such as utility crews and road construction workers.

In VA, it is illegal for a driver to speed/pass to beat a bicycle to a turn unless it is safe to do so where there is plenty of time to pass for the cyclists to safely and reasonably slow. When I get pretty close to an intersection I will sometimes take the lane(when safe to do so) to prevent such behavior. I try to hold my tongue as the guy is driving a big metal weapon and may have a weapon with him too. I did get buzzed once on a 4 lane road where the adjacent(left) lane was clear and empty and I shouted out A##h**e! The driver must've heard me as in the distance I saw him flip the bird at me. Some are just jerks and idiots.

Well non union roadhands are somewhat "poor", lol.
After having two guys killed by a truck on a paving crew (boy did I see some near misses out there) we had a 60 something supervisor that would chase trucks down and slap them through the window from their running boards after that. He never had any takers while we were close by.

Are you sure he just didn't follow his sight line? He looked and drifted, without intent? It's a neurophysiological phenomenin thaty if we're somewhat distracted while driving, we may unintentionally move in the direction we're looking while driving. That's one of the reasons that it's best while driving in a very tight quarter, it's best to look straight ahead and not look right or left, other than a glance.