Kind of a bummer of a commute today, and all my fault. I was waiting at a light (first in line, waiting in the left turn lane), and a cyclist flew by against the red, a young guy on a cyclo-X commuter, going fast. No, there wasn't really any risk, since I know the light pattern and presumably he did too (ie it was green for cars coming straight at us, and there were no cars coming). But it annoyed me, so I figured it would be a good time for an experiment. I caught up to him and passed him while saying "you're making us all look like a**holes". Some yelling from behind about 'you got something to say, say it to my face', and then he caught up to me again. I repeated my comment, and added "you went right through the light; is it that hard to stop?" He said something profanity-laced about "there was no need to; it's my bike and I'll ride how I want to".

Anyway, I felt bad. I don't like thinking I unnecessarily gave some other bike commuter a bad day, and the confrontation has kind of been on my mind all day. I've always felt that it's not hard in a west coast town to get respect and courtesy from cars; just respect the road rules and ride like a slow, skinny car. No, I don't stop for every red light, just the vast majority of them.