Originally Posted by stokell

I'm not a Sociologist, although I have been living with one for 30 years. I have observed this behaviour myself and I put it down to a syndrom that I have yet to name. The subject exhibits classic road rage symptoms. You are not the reason. The subjects lifestyle is the reason.

For the last 50 years as consumers we have been fed a constant diet of higher expectations. We are now extending our lives well beyond our means and abilities. The subjects almost inveriably live a suburban lifestyle. Because of their poor diet and lack of exercise they are stressed, sick and diseased.

I was one of those people.

Almost 11 years ago I sold my car and quit my job that I needed a car to go to everyday. I took a map and marked my house. I drew a circle in a 10km radius around my house and looked for work there. I found a job almost right away and began to bike to work. One day while biking along a path near an expressway it came to me that we are living life beyond our needs. We need to relax, we need to be physically active and have a good diet. People who live in the suburbs and drive hours to work each day are living beyond their human need.

If your boss called you in and said, "Allan, starting tomorrow I'm going to insist that you work an extra 2 hours a day and I'm not going to pay you for it. Further, I'm going to insist you buy at your own expense, a piece of special equipment so you can continue to work. You will also be responsible for maintaining this equipment and providing it with the raw materials it needs to run." You would have a fit, and rightly so. The fact is that is what commuters are doing. They live too far from their work, spend 2 hours or more unpaid every day to get to this work and spend thousands of dollars on a car to get them to this job too far.

Add to that the responsibilities of parenting, keeping a relationship and caring for aging parents and that is why the lady in the minivan went nuts. You are the carefree cyclist. Non polluting, smaller is better, green and living a healthy lifestyle (I hope).

They don't want to see people like us because it reminds them of how unhappy they are.

Well, anyway that's my theory.