silent1

I don't know if it was my handling or decision skills but I just about got killed two times in less than 1 hour. The first problem came up while out in the middle of nowhere going through a series of swichbacks in the road. I saw a large farm truck coming up behind me so I just figured that I would speed up to around 30, get in the middle of the road and get through the turns as quickly as possible without holding anyone up. The road was super skinny and the ditches were deep so I figured this was the best plan. Next thing I know this farm truck pulls up right on my tire and proceeds to follow me through the turns about ten feet off my back wheel. We had gusts up to 30-35mph today and I was going about 30mph so I probably wasn't holding the best line. I would have figured he would have thought it was not a good time to pass but the next turn he floors the truck and goes to the inside forcing me to crap my pants in the rocks on the outside of the turn at speed. About two minutes later on this pretty decent descent this soccer mom speeds down the hill, I easily had 75 yards on her at the beginning, and proceeds to sit right on my wheel. She then tries and pass me going down the hill at 45 mph. The roads are rough here and she was pushing me to the edge of the road(lots of loose gravel) my bike starts to do a little wobble underneath me so I just ended up cutting the lady off about halfway down. She lays on here horn all the way down to the bottom until I get a chance to pull back into the gravel and mess my shorts again.I just ended up turning around and taking the same way back, cutting my ride short, rather than risk getting killed by these idiot drivers.

Is there something I could have done differently to avoid these situations? In both cases it just didn't seem safe to pull to the side of the road and wait for the cars to pass. I also don't think that I should have to pull to the side just so they can get their double quarter pounders two minutes earlier. Sorry for the long post but I am sick of the drivers around here, I just moved and every time I try to get out the people act like idiots and it makes it hard to get anything done.

crackerjab

YOUR safety comes first not their schedule. I consider myself to be a courteous driver but I like to get from point A to point B in the fastest manner possible. If someone gets in my way ( car, pedestrian, cyclist, schoolbus, etc.) I slow down until it's safe to pass. If I don't get a chance to pass I lose a total of what? 2 minutes on my trip. My schedule is just not worth running somebody over.

operator

unfortunately in this case his safety may have come by letting them keep their schedule. A simple friendly wave to let them by and slowing down a bit never hurt anyone. Especially if you have a feeling they're going to be the impatient/dangerous type.

Yeah there's a place to be assertive, and there's also a place to realize when that'll get you killed.

crackerjab

I agree with you totally on this but I gathered that it was not an option. If you can get out of the way without endangering yourself then by all means I say move over and let them pass. nobody wants to wrestle with a 2000lbs chuk of metal.

Snicklefritz

I had some bad experiences today as well. Early this afternoon I went on a ride - it was nice out and then halfway through the ride it starts to rain and eventually turned into a downpour. On my way home I had two drivers cut me off. One was a lady in an SUV who was talking on her cellphone as she was pulling out of a parking lot to make a right turn into the lane I was in. I was already over as way right as I could have got (there was no bike lane). She started to pull out but was on her phone and didn't see me. I yelled and managed to get out of the way. The other incident was very similar. I'm amazed by the number of people I saw today who had cellphones in their hand as they were making turns and trying to merge into traffic. What's with these people??? Is something going on that is so critical that they can't put the phone down for 5 sec. to make sure they are operating they big-A$$ vehicle in a safe manner.

As for what happened to you, if the roads are narrow and the ditches are deep, then I don't know that there is much anyone can do. Just try to get down safely and move over as soon as you get the opportunity. I run into these situations all the time where there is no way to move any further to the right without running into a ditch, etc. I would probably have avoided being in the middle of the road, but it sounds like there wasn't much room to move. However, they have no excuse for sitting on your wheel. That is just plain dangerous and unacceptable behavior in my opinion.

I think it's them and not you. One time I was on a century ride and was in a pack of about 10 cyclists riding single file. The roads were narrow, there was no shoulder, and we were going through some winding roads with rollers. A firetruck was moving along in front of us, but couldn't go much faster because there was another group of cyclists also riding single file in front of it. The guys in the truck just sat there patiently until we got to a straightaway where they could safely pass the other group of cyclists without pushing them to the edge of the road. What is the difference? Well, I have to guess that maybe the guys in the firetruck know first hand the devastation that happens when you mix a lycra clad cyclist with an SUV or other super-sized vehicle.


On another note, is there a way to complain about aggressive drivers like this? I took down some licence plate numbers today but don't know if there's anything I can do. If no damage was involved maybe it's better to drop the issue, but if there's a way to report these nut-jobs to the cops, then I'd like to do it.

John Wilke

Yup. Pick your battles carefully and assume most drivers are idiots (most are).

Glad you're still with us.



jw

Gus Riley

Sometimes on some routes it is so hard not to carry a jersey pocket full of ball bearings! But I don't. My greed (which is sometimes hard to live by...literally) is Predictability and Politeness. Stupid I know, but most times it works. Other times I wish I had put them ball bearings in my pocket!

Sounds like a cool road to ride on, too bad it is full of idiots in their cars. But like others have stated, it is probably better to watch for the dummies then pull over and let 'em go by.

Maybe their karma will be *&^%ed-up in the end. Maybe you'll spot their car parked on the curb down the road a piece, maybe you couldn't get your right foot out of your pedal and fell into the side of soccer mom's parked SUV and put a huge dent in the side of it... never know how bad karma works sometimes, stuff happens! It's unavoidable!

GuitarWizard

To the OP, what part of the country are you in? Here in the northeast, people seem pretty tolerant of cyclists actually......I have found the majority of people to give plenty of room and not give me any hassles. I also ride with courtesy to those in cars as well....I don't run stopsigns/lights, stay as far right as I can, and if there is a dangerous section where I need to get into the middle of the lane, I'll do so well before a car is upon me, otherwise I'll slow way down. Around here, most people have enough common sense to know that you're not riding in the middle of the road to be a jerk.

To the poster who made the comments about cell phone usage while driving.....it always amazes me that people feel this uncontrollable need to call everyone they know once they enter their car. I've wondered if it makes people subconciously feel more important. Get a friggin' hands-free device if you need to talk and drive. If I'm driving and I get a call, if I don't have my earpiece, I won't answer. Here in CT, it is now illegal to use a cellphone while driving unless you have a hands-free setup.

The ones I really love to see are those reading books and newspapers while driving on the highway. Apparently driving doesn't take up too much of their attention span. I've found that wandering into their lane seems to bring their attention back to the road.

JLauren

With all the car magnets flouting one cause or another, I wonder if it'd be practical, and do any good, to have a pocket full of magnets with your state's laws regarding bicycles on the road printed on them, and fling one at the cars with drivers who, ahem, are uninformed. ?

Gus Riley

Great idea!!

rufvelo

That's what annoyed them. You should have let them pass. It is too much of a chance to take, especially when having fun on the bike on your day off. In a country when driving recklessly is only taken to task if :

1)they actually knocked you down AND
2)they were well intoxicated at the time.

Your life is worth much more than teaching them a lesson they should learn at their own risk, when ploughing into a dump truck further down the road!

cooker

What was the speed limit?

silent1

Cooker- The speed is 55 I believe, I live in the midwest and most country roads aren't marked. I believe that the safe speed limit is somewhere around 45mph. The specific roads that I have been riding on have a lot of turns and rolling steep hills that make looking ahead kind of difficult. There is a lot of farm ground and most country roads are kind of narrow and the sides are covered in loose gravel. There is plenty of room for a car and cyclist as long as both parties give a little and use their heads.

The only thing at annoyed me is that in both cases it seems like the person actually made it a point to catch me. I had probably a 100 yards between me and the cars when I originally took the middle of the road, I only took the middle because it was a large distance and I didn't figure they should reasonably catch up to me. I didn't think that it was smart to take the edge and slow down because the cross wind was blowing so hard that I was afraid of falling in the loose gravel waiting for the people to pass. And like I said the people actually seemed to try and put themselves in danger just to sit on my wheel. Gas prices are starting to get high maybe they were just trying to sit on my wheel to save some $/30 sec getting to the Pizza Hut buffet. Plus they cost me a pair of shorts that I didn't even attempt to clean<--Just Kidding.

Snicklefritz

[QUOTE=GuitarWizard]To the OP, what part of the country are you in? Here in the northeast, people seem pretty tolerant of cyclists actually......I have found the majority of people to give plenty of room and not give me any hassles. I also ride with courtesy to those in cars as well....I don't run stopsigns/lights, stay as far right as I can, and if there is a dangerous section where I need to get into the middle of the lane, I'll do so well before a car is upon me, otherwise I'll slow way down. Around here, most people have enough common sense to know that you're not riding in the middle of the road to be a jerk.

To the poster who made the comments about cell phone usage while driving.....it always amazes me that people feel this uncontrollable need to call everyone they know once they enter their car. I've wondered if it makes people subconciously feel more important. Get a friggin' hands-free device if you need to talk and drive. If I'm driving and I get a call, if I don't have my earpiece, I won't answer. Here in CT, it is now illegal to use a cellphone while driving unless you have a hands-free setup.

In northern cal I often see people weaving in their lanes. Not really bad, but enough just to go over the line slightly. Most of the time I will move around to get away from them. As I pass, at least 50% of the time it's someone talking on the phone.

I should say though that I've also had some positive experiences. Today I was riding out near Lake Beryessa which is kind of between Napa and Winters. The road is narrow and windy in places and doesn't always have a shoulder. A couple of times I got passed by a large vehicle but they were *very* polite about it. In fact, one of them actually tapped their horn when they were further back just so I wouldn't be surprised that they were coming up behind me. I appreciated the advanced warning because I could slow down a bit, watch carefully for road obstacles (cracks, potholes) and then get on my way.

mrkott3r

well I hope you at least gave 'em the bird, preferably some abuse as well. F them they were (especially the soccer mum) in the wrong.

Bockman

Tough calls. Insane/irresponsible drivers vs. what's right/legal/safe.

If it were me, I would have probably done what you did, if a vehicle gets too close I'll do the 'back off, please' hand gesture, motioning for them to slow down and please back the F%$! off during the descent. If they don't then I'll either tough it out or pull off when I can, bringing the full force of my impressive library of profanity to bear as they pass.

Farm truck? Did it have the name of the farm on the side? Nothing like a little followthrough to get a couple aholes fired from their jobs which require safe and pleasant driving. I've managed to have two commercial drivers fired for their actions on the road-- the first was a Kimball's Organs (the instrument, not the body parts) driver who rubbed me with his truck as I was traveling in excess of the speed limit on Gallows Rd. here in Fairfax-- he did it intentionally and then cursed me out a few hundred feet later, so I followed him into the industrial park where I know their store is and took it up with the manager. I was steamed but polite, firm, and told him in no uncertain terms that I couldn't imagine he wanted a hothead like that representing his company on the road. He was fired on the spot. The other driver ran an girlfriend off the road right in front of me (again, intentionally, the asshats were laughing up in the cab) so this time I got the number to the landscaping business for which he was working and also got his ass fired.

AnthonyG

I find that being assertive is usualy safer than being meek so I would have held the centre of the lane is such a situation. Something I would have done is realise that these arsewipes would try and cut me off when they pass (because they ALWAYS do) and I would have hit the brakes and move a little away from them as they pulled beside me to pass so they would overshoot.

Regards, Anthony

Comatose51

Soccer moms in SUVs are bar none the WORST drivers in the world. They're a danger even when you're in a car! I've seen them fly down the ramps in my parking garage without paying ANY attention to the mirrors or the yield sign.

cooker

I guess they both though they could safely go faster than you and didn't see the point of you "taking the lane". To them it seemed like deliberate obstruction.

Yeah, well you almost ended up being the hamburger. Perhaps you truly thought it was unsafe to pass, but on the other hand, if you were simply making a political statement about your right to the road, then it is that which almost killed you. Personally, in this situation I would pull over, unless I was very close to the end of the narrow section. I'd rather let a donkey orifice go on his way than risk death making a point.

oilfreeandhappy

This story made me cringe. When a cyclist makes a decision to ride a narrow road with a high speed limit, the cyclist should be willing to pull over and let cars pass. You may live to tell about this time, but next time you could be disabled for life. Be careful out there. It's not worth it.

dta95b7r

Man I can't get over these stories how people can be so oblivious to the safety of others. Everyone move to upstate NY, I have never had bad experiences with cars(minus two girls in a sedan rolling down their window saying you don't have a girlfriend do you laughing and speeding off *ouch) plus we need more riders.

Bockman

Ow! "You don't have a girlfriend, do you?" is really different than, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

LSPR_MTU

You've got it. I think there is something hardwired into people's brains that says "bikes are slow, cars MUST pass them!". People can't stand being behind bikes/tractors/mopeds, even if it's not really slowing them down a whole lot.

On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that you found it dangerous to slow down and take the edge. There is ALWAYS a safe speed to bike, even through gravel or sand. It just may be a bit slower than you were willing to go. In short, people suck. I have to deal with 15 y/o full-size pickups with glass-pack mufflers who feel the need to be as loud as possible, in hopes their pen15 might someday get larger. It's pretty sad.