Originally Posted by
heypaul
How would you deal with this?
How do I deal with this? Easy.
On a good day-- when I'm feeling charitable-- I simply hold my ground, give a steely-eyed glance ahead of me showing that I ain't going nowhere, and give the moron one of two choices: to either swerve into traffic to avoid me or take a detour on the sidewalk. No way in hell am I going to swerve into traffic for his benefit.
On a bad day-- and by bad day I mean one of those days when I've had to deal with several of these idiots PLUS clueless pedestrians wandering into the bike lane absent-mindedly or ignoring my bike bell-- I just scream at the offender. Yes, I do it... I am a ***** on wheels. I'm sorry, but I have zero tolerance policy against cyclists who are either too stupid or too selfish to care how their actions affect others. I'm especially intolerant because of where I'm biking from. I live in East Flatbush and have to use many heavily trafficked, non bike-laned streets where everything from delivery trucks to SUVs are rumbling past you so closely that just the slightest move will have you going under their wheels. That a fool would happily bike down the wrong side of the road on such dangerous streets and then expect ME to risk my life for him infuriates me, so you can be sure that on a very bad day of idiot pedestrians and ignorant cyclists, I really let people like that have it. I don't practice "etiquette" because a person who'd endanger my life like that doesn't deserve it.
I wouldn't advise being belligerent like I am, but I do think that you should just do the alternative-- keep biking straight on, don't acknowledge the offender, don't swerve, don't do anything. Keep going and pretend he doesn't exist. When he realizes that you're not going to "move" to let him pass, he'll move onto the sidewalk or maybe be forced to deal with the terror of riding too close for comfort near traffic.