A-hole drivers on the road?
#26
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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.
#27
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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.
#28
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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.
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.
#30
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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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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 !
#32
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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.
#33
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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?
Question is, how do you guys deal with A hole drivers? How many confrontations have you been in?
#34
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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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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.
I would have to say that some riders are more prone to negative encounters. Be it personality or riding style.
#36
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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.
#37
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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.
#39
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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.
#40
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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.
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.
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 :-).
Bill
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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.
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.
#42
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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.
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.
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.
Bill
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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 !
#44
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+1000...my BMW is greater than any pious prius...but I am not a dick when riding my bike...
#46
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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.
#47
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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.
#49
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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 !
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.
#50
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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"!
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"!