Originally Posted by
epnnf
What can we do when, a car passes us, but trying to come as close to us as possible? It's intentional that they miss us by inches. They try to run us off the road. Sometimes they say something. If we get angry, catch them at the light and yell at them, they laugh- it's just what they want. I guess you're supposed to smile/wave, but that's really hard when you almost just got killed. Do we have any options?
I understand your frustration and even your fear, but after 40 years of cycling as an adult, I dismiss most stories like this as crap. As a newspaper columnist who often wrote about bike issues, I got dozens of letters a year about cars that "tried to run me off the road" or "tried to hit me" or something similar. There are certainly bad and inattentive drivers out there, but they can't all have bad aim. If that many drivers were trying to kill cyclists--a ridiculous supposition--there would be a lot more dead cyclists. I've ridden nearly 100,000 miles in most parts of the country, big cities, small towns and rural areas, and I've had ONE bad experience with a motor vehicle, when a couple of drunk kids threw a beer can at me.
Of course you have to be careful, but it's a mistake to think drivers are out to get you. If it happens more than about once every 10 years, I'd look at my riding habits. Maybe you're doing something to piss them off.