Originally Posted by
JoeyBike
One of the nicer neighborhoods I ride through has a bike lane far right with super-wide lanes for two cars going each way. I always chuckle nervously when a pickup truck or SUV (always one of the two) passes me safely, then merges the passenger side wheels over into the bike lane to run over two or three bike symbols just ahead of me. If that's not purposeful hostile behavior I sure don't know what is.
It is what you think it is, of course. Jerks who think it's fun to intimidate you and might actually hurt you if they thought they could get away with it. All of us who have cycled for a long time in America have experienced it. Some of us don't have to put up with it much in our current environments.
Some US places still have way too many of those creeps, and local cultures that allow them to continue their antisocial behavior.
Other places have advanced to the point that drivers who act that way are very rare. In lots of American towns, that sort of acting out would earn you an expensive trip to court, these days.
Keep working on NOLA. It ought to be bike/ped heaven in a number of neighborhoods. And making life less convenient for motorists would make the streets safer in several ways.