Originally Posted by sbhikes
Not only do people drive too fast and get irritated at every little thing that slows them down, have you ever realized that in America people are basically driving the quiet streets of their neighborhoods in military vehicles? On a beautiful spring day they'll be taking their kids to school in jeeps and tanks (Hummers). It's absurd. These things are like 4000lbs.
Try more like 6200 lbs for your average Hummer H2. Yeah, they're rolling tanks if you ask me. However, on another note... one thing I've noticed that seems to cause people to slow down is turning and looking at them. 9 times out of 10, they'll take it as a signal that you're going to do something like move farther out into the lane and they'll do one of two things: slow down and let you do what you need to do or veer left and stand on it to get around you. I have also found that riding to the left of the white line instead of to the right of it (TN doesn't have bike lanes) causes them to give me a wider berth. I'll admit I've been "buzzed" a few times by people whom I assumed were trying to be jerks, but it wasn't bad enough to startle me or cause me to lose balance. I get yelled at by ignorant rednecks trying to scare me. They don't even yell anything intelligible, they just make some random sound with their head hanging out the window. I just laugh.