Originally Posted by
mstraus
Bike commuters her do not tend to wave. In San Francisco, most don't even say hi. Too many SF bike commuters I encounter in SF seem downright rude (the filter in front of you at the light even though you are faster then them type or the cut you off in the bike lane from the sidewalk type). Some of the Marin to SF commuters like myself are more polite and will often say hi to each other while passing or at a light, and maybe make brief conversation on how nice it is, or how windy it was, or how glad we are not sitting in the traffic on 101 as we ride through Sausalito.
I agree with you on the filtering to the front - it's rude. However, not waving is a different issue. There are a million situations where we don't wave to everybody - walking on the sidewalk, driving, strolling through a mall. I suspect you don't wave to other shoppers in the mall, and nobody calls you rude for it, because it's not expected there.
We only wave to strangers in situations that are novel or rare, or where we feel a kinship or identification with the other person. Most pedestrians in Manhattan don't wave to each other but if I was dressed as Batman and you were in a Superman costume, we would probably wave to each other as we would feel we had something in common.
So the SF commuters who don't wave to you are acting normally - it's no big deal to see other cyclists in SF and no point in waving to them all. Perhaps in suburban Marin County there are a lot fewer of you and you feel more of a bond, hence you wave.