Originally Posted by
Roody
Years ago, while riding, I was making a legal left turn in front of a driver, who began honking his horn and flashing his lights. Well, I flashed him the finger and yelled a few choic words at him, and continued my ride. The next day, a co-worker started laughing when he saw me. I asked him what was so funny and he said, "You didn't know it was me, but yesterday you were riding your bike, waving your finger around, and cussing like a drunken sailor. And I had my wife and my little son in the car with me." He was the driver of the car, and was honking and flashing his lights just to say hello!
I felt so humiliated by my bad behavior. This was really one of the turning points that made me try to be less angry and reactive, both in traffic and in life in general. That is, I try hard, I don't always succeed, but at least I'm a lot better about apologizing when I do slip up.
When I was younger, I might have done just what you did. Okay, I did give a few one finger waves, but not very often. I'm more inclined to simply call poor motorists morons (often just under my breath) and move on.
However, one fine day I was riding on a street with a door-zone bike lane. Naturally, I was riding in the middle of the travel lane to stay out of the door zone. A pick-up came up behind me and honked its horn. While I was tempted to respond negatively, but I just pointed at the parked cars and rode on in the lane until there were no more parked cars, at which point I moved into the bike lane. The driver pulled up alongside me, matched speed and rolled down the passenger window to chat. At that point I noticed his young child and was thankful that I hadn't made any obscene gestures or yelled anything. I explained the risk of the door zone and he thanked me for the information and drove off. It was a pleasantly civil encounter, even if it did start with a honking horn.