Originally Posted by chipcom
Yes, you are right, they may not honk or give visual/audible indication at the time, but then any time a public debate starts about cyclists' right to the road, one of the common themes heard from non-cycling motorists is that 'those bicyclists never obey the traffic laws, they are a menace'. You know it's true as well as I do...
Jumping the sidewalk, cutting across a parking lot, using the crosswalk, etc. don't normally bother motorists for exactly the reason you stated, but filtering up on the right, then doing a 'right fakey' to get back on the same route, usually ahead of traffic that just passed you, annoys drivers just a much as if it was done by another motorist.
Actually I don't know that is true since I NEVER heard anyone say a negative word about cyclists in a conversation unless it refered to them slowing down traffic or "blocking" a lane. (or their apparal/appearance, but that is a different issue) The only place I read such negative impressions is on bicycle discussion lists where cyclists claim that "bad" cyclists give the "good" cyclists a bad rep with motorists. Or cyclists repeat what they read from a nutcase letter to the editor in a weekly shopper tabloid.
I don't doubt the that a bicyclist who repeatedly slows down the same motorists (as in Chipcom's filtering scenario) would bother the motorists, but that fits right in with what I said; motorists only get disturbed by bicyclists (in my experience) when the bicyclist causes the motorist to alter trajectory or velocity.