There are aholes everywhere.
I generally ignore them or to piss them off I wave as though I know them.
Where in NNY are you Swimbike? I am in Brownville, next door to Watertown, and in the 4 years I have lived here I have had maybe one or two negative interactions with drivers. I actually have had a few give a bit of a wave as they passed by. This is a much friendlier area than when I was living in the Brockton MA area.
Fast story:
Group of us out on Sunday training ride. Maybe 10 of us all working hard in a paceline. Beat up old pickup truck passes us real close and does a little "swerve towards us" move. Several of us, yep me too, give him the finger. Several minutes later he is coming towards us and wings a beer bottle at us. It misses and we mock him and give him the finger again. He again passes us on our side and this time we have to veer as he nearly side swipes us. We are all yelling and cursing at him while we continue to ride...sheesh we were nuts then. We come to an intersection with a 4 way stop and there is a local cop sitting in his car. We approach and describe the incidents including our giving him the finger. Cop says he will keep an eye out. Sure enough here he comes again for another pass. We point him out and the cops lights up and stops him. We follow and watch as the cop checks him out. Next thing we see the cop takes him out of the car, finds a bag of weed on him and cuffs his scruffy arse. We are all across the road mocking him and laughing our asses off. His wife/girl friend is standing there crying as the cops drives away and we leave as well.
All in all a GREAT ride lol.