Originally Posted by
wildmoses
The other day I was on the back end of a commuting trip when I had to take the lane on a four lane road because of a poor shoulder. Shortly after taking to the lane a driver pulled in behind me and proceeded to honk for at least a solid five minutes before finally passing, and the entire time he is honking he has missed several opportunities to pass me. After experiencing such rudeness, which I'm relatively accustomed to dealing with, I was troubled by the lack of options for dealing with such a person. So my question is, what do you do about rude drivers, and do you have any interesting stories about encounters you have had with rude drivers?
Depends on the setting.
In a very busy urban setting I was passed by someone who just had to edge past me when he could clearly see a red traffic light barely 50 yards ahead. So he stopped, and I went right past him into the designated cyclists' area (we have what's known as an Advanced Stop Line at many junctions in the UK). When the light turned green I got up to cruising speed, albeit more slowly than normal.
In a more remote setting I'd be more inclined to just suck it up, on the basis if the guy did want to be a major asshat he could easily enough nudge me off the road and there wouldn't be a major road full of witnesses.