Originally Posted by banerjek

I'm normally a very calm rider, and I've consistently maintained a practice of not provoking drivers. If they do something stupid/dangerous, I don't flip them off, yell, or whatever. If they buzz me, I ignore them or give a friendly five fingered wave (it really is friendly, that they have an issue with me doesn't bug me). And I can think of only one incident where I purposefully hit a car. In that case, some woman who was texting or otherwise not paying attention simply drifted on me, I couldn't bail because I was on a 'bent and was sandwiched between a curb, so I whacked the car to tell her I was there.

Yesterday when I was going down a hill in the bike lane, a bus drifted over so far over the line right as I reached it that there was no way I had enough room. I checked my speed and the bus went back into its lane. I tucked in behind so I could catch some draft and maintain speed on a flat section I knew we'd reach in a not too long. The bus suddenly started slowing down. So I go back into the bike lane to pass and the bus again cuts me off. Again I drop in behind and it immediately slows down about 5mph.

I get back into the bike lane looking for an opportunity to pass. Eventually we hit a section with a right turn lane, I start the pass, bus drifts over, I give a WTF?!!! slap on the rear of it as I pass and drift out to avoid being hit. At this point, we caught up with some traffic so I left it behind for good since no one else was a couple feet in the bike lane. This all took place on a downhill section so speed through the exchange ranged from 34-40mph -- a bit quick for being within inches of something that big for long -- but it wasn't scary.

I thought the bus driver's moves were uncalled for because it is legal to pass on the right if it's safe. I generally regard hitting someone's car as unnecessarily provocative except in cases of true emergency, but does this principle apply to buses? After all, the driver doesn't own the thing. And the risk of getting hit by a raging driver is way lower for the simple reason that you can brake and maneuver faster.

While probably not too wise from a safety standpoint, a bunch of people (traffic behind me and passengers on the bus) saw the whole thing. Frankly, I'm less concerned about the safety aspect than I am about becoming one of those yahoo urban cyclists who makes people hate bikes. Not sure what kind of impression I conveyed on witnesses and there were a bunch of them.