i think it's commendable that he kicked off the mirror. people flip one another off all the time, so what? it shouldn't ever go farther than verbal. the driver chose to escalate the situation by chucking a bottle of water at the cyclist. i'm sure he's going to regret being such an unreasonable prick when he's signing that check for hundreds of dollars.

now before you hippies get on my case , the cyclist chose to escalate the situation by kicking the mirror off - if that driver got out of his car and the cyclist got his ass handed to him, then i wouldn't have any sympathy for him at all.

the underlying point is: don't start s__t you aren't prepared to finish.

perhaps if more drivers felt the consequences of pissing a cyclist off would be more severe than the cyclist doing breathing exercises then they would think twice before acting the fool.