Originally Posted by indyfabz

You do know the simple responses to that position, don't you?


1. Gas taxes, etc., do not cover road spending completely. Some of it is paid for with general tax dollars. Remember the bi-partisan budget reduction committee formed earlier in this administration? It calculated that the federal gas tax covers only about 1/3 of federal highway spending. The rest comes from the general fund. The federal gas tax would need to be tripled to make things revenue neutral. Unless a cyclist is not paying taxes, he's contributing to highway spending.


2. The overwhelming expense is terms of roads is maintenance, and bicycles are not the vehicles necessitating that maintenance.


3. How many cyclists do you know that don't also drive? Many cyclists drive and thus are paying taxes and fees for roads. To the extent they use a bicycle in lieu of a motor vehicle in some instances, they are actually saving the state money by causing less damages to roads.


Unfortunately, I believe that most people either cannot, or are too lazy to, think with such depth.

Originally Posted by CosmicF

It's like you guys are all from another country.

Originally Posted by Dan333SP

Today I learned that sarcastic waving and thumbs up'ing of angry motorists is not appreciated.

Riding at dawn, caught in a downpour that ended up being kinda fun until a truck flew past at about 50 with 2 feet to spare and hit a deep puddle that almost knocked me off the road with the spray.

Recovered from that, then started to enjoy myself once the rain cleared until I was on a 2 lane road with a car parked on the right shoulder. The driver got out and looked like he was going to cross into the street without seeing me, so I moved into the middle of the lane to give myself a chance to avoid him. I looked behind and there was a car about 200 yards back before I moved into the middle of the lane.

While in the middle of the lane, that car flew up behind me and layed on the horn for 30 seconds a few inches off my rear wheel (this is on a road with a limit of 25 and I was doing about 20), and then sped around. I gave him a nice thumps up, a loud, "Thank you so much!" and started waving at him with a smile as he passed.

Of course, it was a heavyset middle-aged man with a very angry scowl and a bumper sticker of a particular candidate that I shall not name. He ended up pulling off to the side of the road ahead of me, turning around with a tire squeal, and then made a sharp jink directly at me before slamming on his brakes and rolling the window down. I just rode past him without smiling this time and continued on my way, making sure he wasn't following me.

TL;DR angry people don't appreciate when you laugh at their anger. He was literally ready to commit a felony because I slowed him momentarily and waved. Hope you all ride safe today.

Originally Posted by cthenn

Since I have little to no faith in the police, can someone at least make me feel better about potentially calling 911 in this kind of situation by posting a POSITIVE story about doing exactly this? First of all, it would take forever for the police to get to the scene, second, I pretty much can guarantee they see this kind of thing as a waste of time. Maybe if it got to the point of a physical altercation, they might be interested, but a he-said/she-said type situation especially revolving around cyclists seems to be a dead end.

Originally Posted by CosmicF

This forum makes my heart hurt. In Alabama, where the police will tell bicyclist to get off the road, not because of any law, but because they know that some truck with a pea sized brain behind the wheel is just dying to knock you off your ride. Alabama road rage incident crushes dream - and bike- of cross-country cyclist | AL.com

This happens every day here. I would never even consider getting on a road to ride. Every time I see an out of town bicyclist on a main road, it is just custom to honk, flip them off, and throw stuff at them. I had to get on a road for a few block to get home from a trail ride one day, and had a beer bottle hit me in the helmet. The police will just tell you that you're an idiot for getting on the road.
Flipping off a driver will just guarantee that you will either be swiped or shot. In my town, they just passed an ordinance making it mandatory for every house and car to have a firearm. We have been told by our city council that this was just a political mooning to DC, but many, many people took it very seriously.
The news is also constantly telling people to keep bicycles off the roads, because the roads were paid for with gas taxes and tags. And, since bikes don't pay for either of those things, they are not welcome.
My advice is to not tour through Alabama. I can't speak for the rest of the Red States, but I know these people, my neighbors, the death of one bicyclist would not be at the top of their sins.
There are good people here, but I know both of them. They can't be everywhere, ha ha.

Just my $0.02

Originally Posted by Dan333SP

Today I learned that sarcastic waving and thumbs up'ing of angry motorists is not appreciated.

Riding at dawn, caught in a downpour that ended up being kinda fun until a truck flew past at about 50 with 2 feet to spare and hit a deep puddle that almost knocked me off the road with the spray.

Recovered from that, then started to enjoy myself once the rain cleared until I was on a 2 lane road with a car parked on the right shoulder. The driver got out and looked like he was going to cross into the street without seeing me, so I moved into the middle of the lane to give myself a chance to avoid him. I looked behind and there was a car about 200 yards back before I moved into the middle of the lane.

While in the middle of the lane, that car flew up behind me and layed on the horn for 30 seconds a few inches off my rear wheel (this is on a road with a limit of 25 and I was doing about 20), and then sped around. I gave him a nice thumps up, a loud, "Thank you so much!" and started waving at him with a smile as he passed.

Of course, it was a heavyset middle-aged man with a very angry scowl and a bumper sticker of a particular candidate that I shall not name. He ended up pulling off to the side of the road ahead of me, turning around with a tire squeal, and then made a sharp jink directly at me before slamming on his brakes and rolling the window down. I just rode past him without smiling this time and continued on my way, making sure he wasn't following me.

TL;DR angry people don't appreciate when you laugh at their anger. He was literally ready to commit a felony because I slowed him momentarily and waved. Hope you all ride safe today.

Originally Posted by TimothyH

"Pepper spray someone in the face while they are operating a motor vehicle" are your words, not mine.

When the motorist turns his car toward me intentionally it ceases to be a vehicle and becomes a weapon. He is no longer operating a motor vehicle but operating a weapon. He may as well have pointed a gun at me.





It's cool. Did what you thought was right.

I would have rode to safety and dialed 911. That's just me. See my comments above.


-Tim-

Originally Posted by Dan333SP

A friend took a road rager to court after getting most of the incident on video. The judge threw the whole thing out because they were riding 2-abreast in a national park, and didn't make enough of an effort to single up to let her past, or something to that effect.

She was maybe 70 and actually parked her car in front of the group on the side of the road after passing with a few inches to spare at high speed. She got out and started screaming at them and threatening that the next time they pass over "her" road, she'd hit them and not stop. Still, no charges.

The guy who took it to court is actually the head of our local bike/pedestrian safety non-profit organization that lobbies for bike infrastructure, and that carried no weight either. Oh well!

Originally Posted by RPK79

Hey, at least the angry ones see you. I was running (not riding!) against traffic the other day and it was shocking how many drivers are staring at their phones as they cruise down the road.

Originally Posted by CosmicF

The news is also constantly telling people to keep bicycles off the roads, because the roads were paid for with gas taxes and tags. And, since bikes don't pay for either of those things, they are not welcome.

Originally Posted by indyfabz

You do know the simple responses to that position, don't you?


1. Gas taxes, etc., do not cover road spending completely. Some of it is paid for with general tax dollars. Remember the bi-partisan budget reduction committee formed earlier in this administration? It calculated that the federal gas tax covers only about 1/3 of federal highway spending. The rest comes from the general fund. The federal gas tax would need to be tripled to make things revenue neutral. Unless a cyclist is not paying taxes, he's contributing to highway spending.


2. The overwhelming expense is terms of roads is maintenance, and bicycles are not the vehicles necessitating that maintenance.


3. How many cyclists do you know that don't also drive? Many cyclists drive and thus are paying taxes and fees for roads. To the extent they use a bicycle in lieu of a motor vehicle in some instances, they are actually saving the state money by causing less damages to roads.


Unfortunately, I believe that most people either cannot, or are too lazy to, think with such depth.

Originally Posted by Dan333SP

Fair enough. For me, if he'd actually gotten out of the car and charged me or thrown something at me, then that would be the line crossed that would get me to call 911. With what he did really just being some honking and threatening maneuvering, and without any real evidence of anything (no cameras on my bike), I figured it would be a waste of time to call them.

Originally Posted by rmfnla

so I pay plenty of taxes and have just as much right to be on the road as anyone else.

Oh, and go f@ck yourself...

Originally Posted by dr_lha

I think that's pretty apt. Despite having my fair share of abuse and people passing too close, the fact is that the majority of people around here obey the 4ft passing law, and generally are pretty generous about letting cyclists go and not getting mad at as when we block up the roads with our group rides. Sure I've been shouted at plenty of times (some guy called me a queer the other day, for example), but most of the time the doppler effect means I can't understand what they're saying so I assume it's encouragement.

Originally Posted by PepeM

I've been considering getting cameras lately, think I might end up going for it (any recommendations anyone?)