Originally Posted by
Chris516
Why the war-
Just yesterday, I was on my way home from a doctors' appointment. At one point while I was 'taking the lane' and a motorist in an SUV gave me enough room when passing. When he proceeded back into the lane I was in, he suddenly started rubbing the edge of the raised sidewalk(parallel to the road) with his SUV. I thought he was going to rollover. Some people may chalk that up to coincidence. I see it as an indirect example of his hostility towards cyclists. By rubbing the edge of the raised sidewalk with his vehicle, after he had passed me.
Why do you think he'd risk crashing, or damaging his rims or tires just to spite you. If he wanted to spite you, the driver didn't have to risk anything, he could simply have passed you close, and or pinched you in as he merged back to the right.
Odds are that the driver simply was somewhat less skilled, and misjudged his lane position as he merged back to the right.
Despite a noisy and idiotic minority of both drivers and cyclists, there is no war. The vast majority get along fine, and are courteous and respectful of each other, even here in New York.
I'm not saying that there isn't some drivers who might hate cyclists, but I suspect it's simply because we're trespassing on "their" roads. But these same "road owners" treat other drivers just as badly, and if you want to see really rude driving, sit in the front of the bus and see what bus drivers go through every day.