*Attitude* of Drivers

Where I ride daily consists of desert trails and little used dirt roads. Getting to and from these areas I have to ride some residential/rural roads with moderate traffic at most and speed limits to 50mph. A person over age 13 on a bike is a rare sight here. Someone doing 25+ mph on a bike around here is something I've seen less than a half dozen times over the last 20 years besides myself. With the few cars that pass me during a ride I commonly have a problem with at least one of them.

If on a paved road with no dirt shoulder or a poor quality dirt shoulder, I usually ride the hair edge of the road.

Last week I was riding the edge of a 40mph road with a poor quality dirt shoulder doing about 25 mph. I heard a car coming up fast behind me, probably doing 60mph, so I jumped off the road onto the dirt shoulder and the car flys by right on the edge of the road honking, makes a U turn a couple blocks ahead and drives by without incident.

A few days ago I was riding about a block from my house on a small residential road of 25mph and relatively poor quality. I'm doing about 16mph and about 3 feet in from the shoulder, cooling down from a long ride when an ONCOMING car doing about 25 swerves over to my side of the road forcing me off into the sand on the right side of the road.

Yesterday I was riding a 50mph road at a portion that has a very wide (~15 foot) shoulder. I was on the shoulder about 4 feet from the curb side of the road doing about 25 mph when this Yukon doing about the speed limit swerves about 8 feet over toward me and honks then gets back in the lane.

A couple months ago I was doing about 30mph along a dirt trail that is about 10ft off the side of a 40mph road. An oncoming car throws a drink out the window landing about 3 feet from me. At other times in the past, I've also had the following thrown at me while riding: snowballs, rocks, baseball glove, shot at w/BB, softball. Only the snowballs ever hit me.

Over the years of riding around here, I've found it safer to stay about 2 feet in from the edge of the road if there is no shoulder so I can swerve to the right just as someone is passing me to add that 2 foot gap if the driver doesn't.

Does anyone else have common problems such as these? Not so much having drivers not moving over a little to pass when they can but having drivers deliberately going out of their way to get close? I wonder what is the mindset of these people that feel they need to act like this.

nope never had anything like that happen
here most move away from me, few honk ( usally honker is someone I know )

I think you identified the problem in your first paragraph. It sounds like you live in a very cycling-hostile environment that's probably fueled by certain "elements" of the local culture and the lack of general exposure to cyclists. I've lived many places in the US and the ones I have found most conducive to cycling are the ones where cyclists are already out in abundance. It becomes part of the culture and generally more accepted. I wish I could offer some advice on how to handle your situation other than perhaps consider moving but that's a pretty drastic course of action. Good luck.

We get a few Bone Heads around here in Houston too, allthough I must admit your neighbors seem a little more hostile to cycling than mine. Best wishes, My prayers are with you.

Wow Here in the Mpls, MN Metro the cars have been really great the last couple of years.

What part of S. CA are you in? Sure points to the need for a better education program for drivers and stronger fines.

Here in Minnesota if you don’t carry a cell phone, we have an online form that if you get the license of the vehicle you can submit the incident when you get home and they DO take action on the information. They also promote riders to not confront the driver/vehicle but to get the license get clear/safe and use your cellular phone at once and they will responded.

Good luck our there

Eyebike2,

Get some plate numbers. Maybe if the police pay some of these people a visit people will start to get the message that you have just as much right to the road as they do.

Come to think of it, I spent 2 years in Davis, CA (a very bicycle friendly place) going to school and never experienced anything like here. I've gotton so used to dealing with jerks like these that it seems like part of riding. While there I always expected the things like these that happen here but never experienced it... still it was always on my mind.

That's a good system in Minnesota. Anybody know if there's anything like that in California? That'd be real nice to have something like that. It would at least give them a reason to think twice before acting stupid. I never have been able to get plate numbers, however, it happens too fast, they're gone before I can think to read the plate and at the same time I'm trying to focus on the road and not crashing.

I'm in the high desert, about 90 NE of LA. People generally lack any kind of interest in exercise or physical activity here (beyond puffing on a cigarette). It seems, for some reason these drivers are amused by running me off the road. I think it's either an aggressive challenge of some sort or to impress their friends. It seems like it's always a male driver usually with passengers and between about 18-30 years old. My attitude is, you take the road, you win, you can go faster than me. I'm not putting me and my 30 pound bike in a tangle with a vehicle weighing a few thousand pounds. Still, sometimes it's hard to stay calm.

Sounds like you have a real crop of hostile motorists. The biggest issue I have come across so far is people waiting to turn in front of me when there is plenty of time for them to (which usually results in them then coming up behind me and having to wait to pass safely) and people otherwise not taking the right of way when they clearly should. Since I know they should go, and have time to go, I wait on them to go, and they are waiting on me because they are overly cautious. There are some of the older drivers that honk their horns, which I usually don't mind, but then there are the ones that honk a ways back then again as they go by. I guess that's leftover from the days when drivers were taught to honk as they overtook another car going into the blind spot. That's disconcerting. Occasional comments, but I've never had an instance where I thought the driver was intentionally trying to cut me close or run me off the road, and so far haven't had anything thrown at me.

I think I'd figure out a way to mount a digital camera on the handlebars if I had it as rough as you seem to. You may not get a reportable tag number often, but the flash will make them think about it.

Twahl,

Like your camera idea, the only thing I might do money permitting is a small video camera. While the flash may make them think, the suprised look on his face will be priceless when a driver opens his front door and finds a cop either wanting to ticket or arrest him based on events on the tape (that's when you want the camera)!!!

I was shot at with paint balls once. I confronted them and they said they were sorry. Five teenage boys having a "good time". I feel for you. I ride to work and get harrased at least once everyday. We have a lot of rednecks around here with Nascar crap stuck to their bumper.

In my book, the drivers you describe are guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. ("Assault" does not have to mean hitting anyone, just swinging a threatening "punch.")

Report such incidents to the local police. It's illegal, and you are a citizen who deserves protection.

I have very rarely encountered hostility from motorists, but coastal San Diego County is generally an unusually bike-friendly environment. I occasionally get honked at or yelled at, but most of my rides are models of peaceful coexistence with motorists. I definitely approve of reporting errant motorists and perhaps carrying a small camera to help document any problems.

We did have one very scary case of harrassment a couple of years ago in La Jolla, when a female cyclist was deliberately doored by a teenager in a passing car. Fortunately, this sort of criminal behavior is very rare around here. In this particular instance, the perpetrators were identified and punished, although probably not severely enough.

Was that the girl that was riding up Torrey Pines several years ago? In San Diego, especially North County there are so many bicyclists that the cars have no choice but to be nice to us. The traffic in North County can move pretty slow in some areas too so the bicycles really have the advantage. Even in East County of San Diego we don't have much of a problem, some people will do some stupid stunts like turning in front of you just as you get close to a corner they want to take a right at, I have had that happen a few times. For the most part motorist are pretty good. I have found when my husband and I ride our tandem people seem to be really friendly, waving and smiling and saying something nice to us. Since there aren't that many tandems around in East County we are a bit of a sight.

Snowballs? In Southern California? They must have to drive up to Wrightwood, pack up some snowballs, and keep them in a cooler.

Seriously though, I think that these rednecks are trying to scare you. If they see you jump off the road onto the shoulder once they might want to see what happens next time. They might just tell their friends.

Riding on the razor edge of the roadway is not a good idea. If there's no shoulder I'm at least three feet from the edge. If there's a shoulder, I ride close to the line that seperates the road from the shoulder. Usually, the best thing to do is to hold your line and ride predictably. Start carrying a notepad and pen and report any harassment to the San Bernardino Sheriff department. Even if you get a partial licence plate number, a description, and the time of day, that might be enough.

Here at school people are use to seeing cyclists. However, once you get of campus hold of for dear life. Cell phone addicts are the scariest. They have no idea they are on planet earth That's when I blast them with my Air Zound.

Yep, I've had this happen to me on numerous occasions, although it sounds like it's a little more common in your area. I'm already on record as saying if things get much worse in that respect here, I'll move. I would have done so already but for the magnficient places to ride (and apparently better attitude from drivers) in the Hinterland to the west of here. I probably will eventually anyway.

In your case, your best bet is to call the cops, and keep calling, even if they don't do anything about it the first time. The sqeaky wheel gets the oil.

I normally make it around 3 feet or so. If the lane is particularly narrow, I'll position myself right in the centre and claim the whole thing.

Yep. It's always young males...or males who never grew up - that's just the way they are. There are also lot of people seem to think bikers are self-centered snobs that need to be taugh a lesson, which doesn't help.

bkr

Then there are some that just don't know the law. They think bikes belong on the side walk and they're gonna teach you a lesson.

I was going down 10th Ave. a few days ago in my truck and there was a guy on a bicycle. I was riding very responsibly. As we were comming up to the intersection he decided to take control of the lane. Cool! I thought. There were other cars behind me so I decided to help the guy out. I didn't pass him through the inter section and there were plenty of angery drivers behind me. Once the coast was clear and it was okay to pass by giving him the entire lane, many of the other drive suddenly realized why I had been driveing so slowly. They all followed suite. Sometimes people honestly don't see you. Innocent law abiding people.

Some don't realize how much wobble room a cyclist needs. I always give cyclists a lane worth of room. Basically, I treat a cyclist just like I would treat another car.

Just outside my apartment is a 50 mph road. People regularly do 70 mph. I hate riding on that road. It's a four lane. You'd be suprised at the number of people that wont get in the other lane even when it's clear. Many time I feel more aware of my surroundings when riding my bike than when most people drive their cars.