Originally Posted by aley

I frequently get the clueless drivers who stop where the MUP crosses major streets and wave me across, oblivious to the cars whizzing by in the other lanes, or the line of traffic that stacks up behind them full of people just waiting for the opportunity to move around the stopped car and flatten me. No, thanks.

One of the few times I've been scared on a bike was this sort of thing. I had gone for a ride with my two year old son in the trailer, and I was waiting to cross a small arterial (2 lanes each direction, no turn lane in that area) at a light. Since I had the red light, I was waiting with both feet down. Some guy in a small pickup was driving from my right down the arterial, and suddenly came screeching (literally) to a halt at the light. I saw him, but didn't know why he'd stopped - I figured that he'd suddenly realized he was about to miss his turn and he'd braked hard to turn, then ended up killing the engine on his beat up old truck and couldn't get it to restart. Eventually, when my light turned green, I went, keeping an eye on him since I didn't know quite what his problem had been. He turned to follow me down the residential street I was riding down, and followed me for a block. This made me nervous, since by now I'd realized that he'd probably stopped for me to cross even though he had the green light. I took the first turn, intending to find a route through the neighborhood, but unfortunately it almost immediately turned into a dead end. I made a U-turn to go back to my previous street, only to find him patiently waiting for me to get back so he could let me cross in front of him. Not a chance - I didn't know if he was drug-addled, or waiting for a chance to run my son and me down and claim that I rode out in front of him, or what. I put both feet down and waved for him to continue. He waved for me to continue. I shook my head, pointed to my stop sign (he didn't have a stop sign), and waved again. He refused. I got off my bike and stood next to it. He opened his door to get out of his truck (50 feet away, that in itself wasn't threatening, but his refusal to go unless I crossed in front of him was!) I pulled out my cell phone to call 911, and he finally got the message, got back in his truck, and went. A couple of blocks along, though, he pulled out of a parking lot behind me. I sprinted to the next arterial, made a right turn into the wide right lane without waiting for cross traffic to clear, hopped a curb into a parking lot, and sprinted for the opposite exit. He didn't follow. I never did figure out what his motivation was, but whatever it was, it was something he didn't need to be doing.

The point, I suppose, is that I don't cross in front of overly polite drivers who should have the right of way because I don't know what their motivation is. Maybe they're just trying to be nice - or maybe they're looking for the chance to kill somebody and get away with it by telling the police that I didn't stop, and even though they tried to miss me they weren't able to. Failing to follow the rules of the road leads me to question their judgment.