Different groups, different motivations...

Out of all the threats I encounter the vast majority of them just don't know how to safely negotiate their way past a cyclist through sheer incompetence, ignorance or they're just too youg (immature/irresponsible) to operate any vehichle. There's no malice involved, only ignorance and incompetence. I'd have to run a nationwide chain of driver training academies and have lots of legislation chaged before I'd have any impact on that problem so I just let it go. These are the ones that will kill you without meaning to, and the ones I most watch out for and worry about the most as they represent by far the biggest threat to me.

Then there's the average mums and dads that give a short toot on the horn and pass slowly and carefully with a ridiculously wide margin, sometimes they even hang back and don't pass me but wait untill I signal them to go. Some think they are being 'safe' by alerting me to their precense where others are just saying "cycling is very dangerous and I wish you weren't here because Im afraid to hurt you accidentally". No sense worrying about them, My father probably falls into that category. They are a small group and a mild annoyance at most.

There's the tough mouthed version of the ridiculously safe that try to shove their safety concerns by agressively demonstrating to you just how much danger you're in (the 'teach you a lesson for your own good' crowd) they turn to water with a little confrontation, usually an invitation to get out of their cage shuts them up. These idiots are a bigger annoyance but pose little risk.

Then there's the 1% of true a-holes that will go out of their way to harm you or otherwise bully you for their own sadistic pleasure. They don't really care if you end up hurt or dead so long as they aren't held accountable. As far as I'm concerned they deserve to meet disproportionate resistance because they only language they understand is pain and fear. They drive a weapon that serves a secondary purpose as transport. Needless to say they shouldn't be in society, never mind driving on the roads. They are a very small proportion of cagers but an encounter with one is often an unforgetable experience.

I've hade a few run ins with the "1%" sociopaths, some of which ended in a physical confrontation. Recently I was deliberately road raged and hit by one - it was a totally unprovoked attack while I was stopped waiting for cross traffic at a stop sign - he came up behind me honking agressively, deliberately hit me from behind (he stopped, revvied his engine several times, then lunged forward) then deliberately sideswiped me when he took off. There were plenty of witnesses and all the cops would do was to give him a ticket for negligent driving.

Another time one said something to me as he went by and I gave the standard F*** YOU reply. He screeched to a halt across several lanes blocking the road, got out and ran at me. Then he made the mistake of grabbing my handlebars and shaking my bike, he got his face well and truly smashed in and his car keys taken.

There's been a few more, like the two punks that tried to mug me for my laptop in a parking lot, I was heavily into my martial arts training back then as I had just graded for my black belt - they didn't get the lappie and I doubt they would remember just what did happen to them.