I've been riding out among the mass of unwashed motorists for more than 30 years... and I've commuted by bicycle for many of those years. And in all those years of riding I have had only a handful of times that I felt truly endangered by an aggressive motorist. I've had close calls aplenty... but only a very few that I felt were the intentional result of a really angry driver.

But I ran into a young guy the other day who claimed to have the opposite experience. He claimed to be experiencing encounter after encounter with angry motorists... and I told him what his #1 problem is.

His T-shirts.

He wears a lot of shirts that are obviously meant to get a rise out of others. And boy do they spawn ...errr... conversation. He showed up at a recent group ride wearing a shirt with the words "911 was an inside job" emblazoned across the front and back. Nice way to make friends and avoid confrontation.

My strategy: Don't wear confrontational clothes or t-shirts. If you provoke people, they will react.

I tend to wear goofy or fun t-shirts... my favorite is a camouflage shirt that says across the front in bright yellow letters... "Ha! Now you can't see me."

I figure that motorists dislike us enough already. So I don't give them any further reason to harass me.

Do you avoid wearing t-shirts that provoke folks? And if you choose to wear them, why do you?