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A-hole drivers on the road?

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

A-hole drivers on the road?

Old 07-27-14, 09:04 PM
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Originally Posted by TinkerinWstuff
Had my first confrontation on Friday's commute home. It was fairly benign. I was following the rules of the road, stopped at a stop light when a guy pulls up beside me with his window down and says cycling on the road is rediculous. I politely said "it's legal". He said it didn't matter when I got hurt. That was pretty much the end of it. Most folks have been pretty decent. Some areas of Colorado are much more tolerant and used to bicycles than others. Boulder and Steamboat are extremely friendly areas to ride.
Bottom line I guess I just need to learn to accept not everyone likes cyclists, and get over it.
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Old 07-27-14, 09:06 PM
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How do I deal? Bright shirts, a strong sense of denial about my mortality, and a flasher on the back of my bike.
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Old 07-27-14, 09:16 PM
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Happens almost once a ride. My wife and I were riding this morning and a Suburban buzzed me about a foot away (and it was a 4-lane road; he/she had a full lane open to the left). I was a little ways in front, and when we stopped I asked if she saw how close that Suburban came. She said it did the same thing to her.

It's too bad that we have to put up with the danger and abuse, but what are you going to do, are you going to ride or not? If you let stupid/hostile/vicious people stop you doing stuff, you'll run out of stuff to do pretty fast. You just have to exercise the best judgment you can. When you're talking endoskeleton vs. exoskeleton it's not much of a fight.
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Old 07-27-14, 09:25 PM
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Originally Posted by KonaRider125
Bottom line I guess I just need to learn to accept not everyone likes cyclists, and get over it.
More like most people don't like cyclists while driving, and are annoyed at a minimum. A few drivers are psychopaths and you can't rationalize with those people.
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Old 07-27-14, 09:43 PM
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This is the reason I am apprehensive to start riding alone on area roads. I do have the option, if I only want to ride twice a week, to go with the sponsored LBS group rides, and right now that seems like a good idea because I think there will be safety in numbers.
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Old 07-27-14, 09:57 PM
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I guess I'm pretty lucky. Even though there are relatively few road cyclist in this area, the drivers are generally VERY considerate. The laws here require a 3 foot safety buffer but, most drivers will use the opposite side of the road to pass on country roads. And, wait to pass until it's obviously clear to do so. Having said that we still have our share of Ass Clowns. Most of them are young guys with buddies in the car with them. I guess it's a testosterone thing. I'm pretty sure it's a southern / country culture thing. People are just more considerate and gracious here in the south. Especially in small rural communities. BUT, whenever I ride remote country roads and, especially when the better half is with me I do pack heat. I'm no John Wayne but, I don't want to be out in the boonies facing 2 or three young punks alone. Generally speaking, I just ignore the few idiots I encounter. I won't give them the satisfaction of ruining my ride !
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Old 07-27-14, 10:02 PM
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Originally Posted by HiFiGuy1
This is the reason I am apprehensive to start riding alone on area roads. I do have the option, if I only want to ride twice a week, to go with the sponsored LBS group rides, and right now that seems like a good idea because I think there will be safety in numbers.
Understandable. But even alone you can help your odds. For instance, if I leave the house at 6am on a weekend I can get in a good ride before the cagers get out. The same route on a weekday morning would be full of irritable, impatient, self-important got-to-get-to-workers. On a weekday I either take an out-and-back on a road with an ample shoulder or drive to ride, either the local half-mile track or some roads to the north that don't connect anything in particular. You'll probably learn quite a bit about local routes from the LBS rides, and I'll bet you'll feel more comfortable with experience.
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Old 07-27-14, 10:15 PM
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Originally Posted by KonaRider125
I'm new to road cycling, have only been riding about a year. Love everything about it except sharing the road with idiot drivers. Just about every time I am out riding there is always a hostile driver or two who honk or get within three feet of me when no one else is coming in the other lane. I've been flipped off a few times for no good reason.

Question is, how do you guys deal with A hole drivers? How many confrontations have you been in?
The best thing is to ignore them, but sometimes it's just too tempting to screw with them. I once squirted my water bottle with Nuun in it into his car because he threatened me with his car and just plain got too close. Wise decision? Oh heck no but it was fun anyway!
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Old 07-27-14, 11:05 PM
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Originally Posted by DXchulo
... 9 times out of 10 when people pull a dick move around here they'll have CA plates.

Funny observation. I took a trip this spring driving Alberta-Arizona-Texas-Colorado and back over three weeks never entering California, the only a-hole drivers I encountered on the whole trip had California license plates.
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Old 07-27-14, 11:55 PM
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I live in NorCal so I'll defend my part of the state. In Marin county, the drivers are pretty considerate. In a year and a half of road riding, around 3000 miles, I've only had one bad encounter. A large truck passed very aggressively on a rural road when there wasn't any traffic around. I didn't think that much about it. I think I said, "whoa" to myself and left it at that.

I would have to say that some riders are more prone to negative encounters. Be it personality or riding style.
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Old 07-28-14, 02:22 AM
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Originally Posted by Homebrew01
Rural CT is great.
I live in Lebanon which sits kind of up on a ridge above Willimantic and is about 15 minutes from UCONN. Lebanon has a greater percentage of it's land in farming than any other CT town. We have a town green that is about one mile to walk around. Oh, we also have one blinking light at the intersection by the Town Hall. Most of the time it works. And, we have a gas station with the world's smallest Subway. Got a General Store where they make their own sausage. This place is desolate and old. I mean like founded in 1690 with houses like ours built in 1763. People should avoid this place. No mall. No McDonald's. No highway running through it. Yeah, don't bother with it. We got nothin' but cows. And, farms...lots of farms. You wouldn't like it here.
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Old 07-28-14, 06:26 AM
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Originally Posted by TinkerinWstuff
Had my first confrontation on Friday's commute home. It was fairly benign. I was following the rules of the road, stopped at a stop light when a guy pulls up beside me with his window down and says cycling on the road is rediculous. I politely said "it's legal". He said it didn't matter when I got hurt. That was pretty much the end of it. Most folks have been pretty decent. Some areas of Colorado are much more tolerant and used to bicycles than others. Boulder and Steamboat are extremely friendly areas to ride.
Have you ever ridden in Durango? Best drivers on earth. Down here in Pueblo, not so much.
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Old 07-28-14, 06:32 AM
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Some people are just scum.
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Old 07-28-14, 06:59 AM
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I will say that when I'm dragging on a ride, a little back-and-forth with some driver always gets my adrenaline going quite well, which is kind of nice.
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Old 07-28-14, 07:02 AM
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Originally Posted by DXchulo
I used to be quick with the finger, but the driver wins if you do that. You're giving them what they want. The best way to piss people off is to ignore them. It works on the road and in day-to-day life.

I had a guy pull over, get out of his car, and stand in the middle of the road to stop me once (luckily it didn't turn physical). Pretty sure that wasted more time than slowing down for 10 seconds. Yes, I was in CA when that happened. 9 times out of 10 when people pull a dick move around here they'll have CA plates.
In Toledo Ohio a driver waited by the side of the road til the cyclist rode by...punched him in the face, the cyclist fell and hit his head on the curb, and was killed :-(.

I live in a rural area here, it is nice I can ride 30+ miles at 8-10am and maybe share the road with a total of four cars the whole ride :-).

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Old 07-28-14, 07:11 AM
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Before I started riding, I thought all cyclists were idiots unless they were on the sidewalk.

Once I started riding, I realized that all cyclists on the sidewalk are idiots.

I try to be as understanding as possible because most motorists really don't know a cyclist's rights, and unless they start riding or have someone explain to them about bicycle safety, they may never know.

So I make it a point to ride in traffic, obey traffic laws, wave at cars that give me room, and grin behind my ice-covered beard so that people can see how miserable they are in their cars and how happy I am on a bike.
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Old 07-28-14, 07:19 AM
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Originally Posted by Fishmonger
Before I started riding, I thought all cyclists were idiots unless they were on the sidewalk.

Once I started riding, I realized that all cyclists on the sidewalk are idiots.

I try to be as understanding as possible because most motorists really don't know a cyclist's rights, and unless they start riding or have someone explain to them about bicycle safety, they may never know.

So I make it a point to ride in traffic, obey traffic laws, wave at cars that give me room, and grin behind my ice-covered beard so that people can see how miserable they are in their cars and how happy I am on a bike.
When I am riding now and then I run into other riders, walkers, and runners.

One lady who rides when I encounter her she is always on the WRONG side of the road, she moves over but I can see no reason that makes sense that she rides on the side she does. Most other fitness people will smaile, say a word, or wave.....she never does.

Just one of those things I guess.

It is a rural road with little traffic, I have seen a few folks ride on the wrong side on BUSY urban roads and that IMHO is especially stewpid.

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Old 07-28-14, 07:19 AM
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Originally Posted by kc4sox
I guess I'm pretty lucky. Even though there are relatively few road cyclist in this area, the drivers are generally VERY considerate. The laws here require a 3 foot safety buffer but, most drivers will use the opposite side of the road to pass on country roads. And, wait to pass until it's obviously clear to do so. Having said that we still have our share of Ass Clowns. Most of them are young guys with buddies in the car with them. I guess it's a testosterone thing. I'm pretty sure it's a southern / country culture thing. People are just more considerate and gracious here in the south. Especially in small rural communities. BUT, whenever I ride remote country roads and, especially when the better half is with me I do pack heat. I'm no John Wayne but, I don't want to be out in the boonies facing 2 or three young punks alone. Generally speaking, I just ignore the few idiots I encounter. I won't give them the satisfaction of ruining my ride !
I understand your sentiment completely! It's nice to live in states where our 2nd amendment rights are acknowledged, isn't it? I used to carry on a regular basis, but the only threat I ever met on farm roads were dogs, so I switched to pepper spray.
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Old 07-28-14, 08:12 AM
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Originally Posted by Nick94804
I've only reacted once, it sure didn't improve the a-hole's opinion of cyclists...unless fear of a temporarily off his rocker cyclist is your objective. Now I just wave and smile. F with me in your Prius while I'm in my German cage though, and its game on. ;-)
+1000...my BMW is greater than any pious prius...but I am not a dick when riding my bike...
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Old 07-28-14, 08:34 AM
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Originally Posted by silkroad
Some people are just scum.
Yep.
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Old 07-28-14, 08:35 AM
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I find a good "Fire and Forget," anti-tank missile does the job well. Not so with wire guided, keeping the weapon on boresight robs you of precious watts during terminal guidance.
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Old 07-28-14, 08:37 AM
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If you're commuting or on a regular route, they'll get used to it and give up after a few times. If you don't react to intimidation, or at most just wave - I think that any other reaction tends to encourage them.
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Old 07-28-14, 08:51 AM
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I ignore them. They're usually forgotten about shortly after.
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Old 07-28-14, 08:57 AM
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Originally Posted by kc4sox
I guess I'm pretty lucky. Even though there are relatively few road cyclist in this area, the drivers are generally VERY considerate. The laws here require a 3 foot safety buffer but, most drivers will use the opposite side of the road to pass on country roads. And, wait to pass until it's obviously clear to do so. Having said that we still have our share of Ass Clowns. Most of them are young guys with buddies in the car with them. I guess it's a testosterone thing. I'm pretty sure it's a southern / country culture thing. People are just more considerate and gracious here in the south. Especially in small rural communities. BUT, whenever I ride remote country roads and, especially when the better half is with me I do pack heat. I'm no John Wayne but, I don't want to be out in the boonies facing 2 or three young punks alone. Generally speaking, I just ignore the few idiots I encounter. I won't give them the satisfaction of ruining my ride !
You know it might be a good thing if road cyclists had a reputation of packing heat, would make drivers a little more polite.

I carry pepper spray, mostly for the dog who chases me but wouldn't hesitate to use it on a driver who got out of his car and came at me.
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Old 07-28-14, 10:19 AM
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I personally ignore them as others have listed.
I did have a diesel truck pulling a trailer try and smoke me the best he could the other day and then I think it was the same guy moving some things just up the road about 3/4 of a mile parked right by the road in a small yard.
As I went by - I thought "dangit I wish I would have watched him pull in". But after that thought was my next thought - it would have only became worse if I would have known it was him, then this note to self "ignore everything - all the time"!
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