Originally Posted by
CptjohnC
Pardon me, but your narrow minded prejudice is showing.
Didja ever think that some or even many of the folks in this forum might drive SUVs and still <gasp> commute on bikes? I don't happen to own an SUV, but I might someday soon (as the available alternatives for large families keep dwindling -- RIP most minivans and station wagons). Or perhaps you're right, and if I buy one I will instantly become bike unfriendly (and suicidal?).
I know that your comment is meant to be hyperbole and somewhat tongue in cheek (right?) but I don't think it is helpful or interesting.
That said, I got yelled at by one or more teenage girls in mommy or daddy's Escalade ESV yesterday as I rode on the right hand side/shoulder of a divided 4 lane hwy. But I have experienced just as many rude events from small, economy cars. And actually, I'll put Porsche, Mercedes and BMW drivers (regardless of style or model) as top on my rude parade, far ahead of the run-of-the-mill SUV.
Of course it was humor by hyperbole. While I have experienced the occasional courteous light truck driver, thus further admitting that my prior joke was false, by and large the most aggressive, unsafe, dangerous and self-centered motorists that I have encountered are driving some sort of light truck (pick-up or SUV). When I am told to, "Get the (expletive deleted) off the road!" it is almost always yelled from a light truck. I have also observed, with some sadness, that motor vehicles with bikes attached to them or "share the road" license plates or stickers tend to also be driven with a fair measure of idiocy. That said, I think any fair assessment of cyclists would determine that most of us break the law on a regular basis as well, we just don't have the kinetic energy to do much killing. By the way, I'll grant you the BMW (or, as my wife calls them, bum w's) drivers are among the worst, but I have not had much problem with the Mercedes or Porsche drivers.
Before you buy that SUV please consider what the U.S. military said in a report they put out this May (echoed by the German military a few months later). They predict the end of cheap oil sometime between 2012 and 2015. When oil is $500/barrel and rising, maybe we will truly have an idiot in every SUV. Hopefully you will find this info both more helpful and more interesting than my prior comment.