Originally Posted by
drlogik
One thing really pi55ed me off this past weekend. I was riding maybe 50 yards behind another rider. He was in his late 50's like me. He approached a 4-way stop sign with cars at every point. He drifted into the intersection without making any attempt to stop, yield or even observe common courtesy for who was next to go. I see this a lot now. An older driver honked at him and this guy gave the motorist the finger, yelled an F word-laced diatribe and just went off. I just shook my head.
What's your commuter mindset? How do ride? What do you look for? How do you react?
I worked hard for years to get into the "friendly" mindset. Meaning, when a driver honked, I'd wave; or when a driver yelled or gave me the finger, I'd blow kisses. It's been about a year since I moved to a home office, and last night I found out that I've lost this mindset. Typically, I ride right after lunch, when the roads are relatively quiet. But yesterday was busy and I didn't get out until around 3:30, after about 30 miles, I was coming back home right at the peak of rush-hour. At a classic intersection for conflict (used it daily for 5+ years), I had a driver ignore my right-of-way, I started with looking the driver right in the eye with a friendly wave, driver responded with a one-finger salute; and I responded in kind. About one block later it dawned on me, to a couple dozen cars at the intersection, they saw a biker giving an anger finger to a driver, but I doubt any of them saw the driver give me the finger. This was my reminder to get back to my "mindset", always respond to ignorance and anger with smiles and waves.