islandboy

What is your response when a car passes you (illegally) when you are already exceeding posted speed limits?

My gripe comes from a rash of recent incidents where I have been passed (occasionally honked at) while taking the road when travelling at 45 to 60 kph. Most of the time in areas of corners or double lines. The last truck passed when I was travelling 7 kph over the PSL. It is as if they "need to pass" the bicycle.

mandovoodoo

I don't generally respond unless I get pulled over into, or someone passes fast to slam to a halt at a stop in front of me. I generally limit my response to a single finger salute.

maddyfish

I have no response for that at all. If they pass and then slow down in front of me, I pass them.

Hickeydog

That is were a helmet cam and a cellphone comes in handy.

AStomper

I ride faster after they pass, they get embarrassed that I can keep up and go faster. After that they realize that cyclist go over 5MPH and hopefully don't think "I've got to get by this jack***** in the road as fast as I can." +1 on passing them if they slow.

notzofast

My friends. The roads are for everyone, not just a guy who follows the rules and regulations. You must have equal respect for people that use roads illegally.


Frankly, unless you're a cop you have no business in someone elese's business if they break the law.


What? Is that shocking? That's right, tread others as you wish to be treated.


If you have a problem with car passing you by, then perhaps that guy has a problem with you having a problem.


Here is how to fix this. Step by step:


1. Call the police if something bothers you.
2. Wait for police to arrive.
3. Tell the officer what happened.
4. Observe his response, which will basically tell you if you're not injured or have some damage, there is nothing the officer can do.
5. Next time mind your own business.


Shoudl the road be too dangerous for you to travel on, find another road.



You see, when you have problems with other people, you're in their business. That's stress and stuff that you don't really need in your life. Find a different, more healthier outlet to spend your time and energy on. That will make you a happier man or woman and you will enjoy your ride more. Guaranteed!



The less problems you will perceive, the less things will happen to you. Notice that it's never just one driver doing harm to you, usually it's something else, something else, and on and on. Until you calm down and deal.. Learn to DEAL and move on.

The ultimate action to show someone that you're bigger is to deal and move on. It is NOT to make them submit and pay.

notzofast

THE RIGHT OF WAY
==============



It is not something that you have.



It is something that is given to you by the other driver/biker.



Stop assuming that you have the right of way.



You can not have the right of way, never.



The right of way must be given to you. If it's not then you're reckless and dangerous.

maddyfish

[QUOTE=notzofast;4957249]


Frankly, unless you're a cop you have no business in someone elese's business if they break the law.

QUOTE]

The law belongs to everyone, not just the police. Where people are passive, like notzofast, you'll generally find alot of law breakers and chaos. No you shouldn't chase down a speeder and kill him. But you should look down upon him, and expect him to follow the law.

notzofast

Let's analyze this. If you're in a car. And there is another car passed you by 20 over. What do you do? Chase him down and tell him to slow down? That's road rage.

Look down up on him? What does that involve? Exactly nothing. You don't do anything to look down upon him.

Now if you're on a bike and you do anything but nothing (or look down on a speeder) then you're road raging. Proper term for that is law making, i.e. putting your life in danger to make some laws so that other bikers can be "safer".


Passive is not a proper term for this. Passive is riding on the side of the road and hoping cars will avoid you. My attitude is anything but passive. In fact I'm proactive. If you drive a car this is also called defensive driving...


Defensive driving does not include taking action against driver that pisses you off. That would be agressive driving. Thus you misunderstood me complitely.


I drive in two SCCA classes plus auto x. Basically, to peform, remove all the emotion and deal with things as they come, then move on. If you stuck on the past, on something that happend to you, then you're lagging and your performance suffers.


Such as the poster of this thread. He is stuck on the past. Else why spend precious time dwelling on what if, would have, should have... Life's way too short for these negativity.

Bushman

its interesting the drivers response when a cyclist keeps up to them or passes them. On many occasions i have seen them speed up way over the posted limit to stay ahead of the cyclist. You cna see the irritation as the cyclist keeps passing them, the driver gets more aggressive and speed more. Its almost like we trigger something them......lol

Roughstuff

My attitude, both in a car or on a bike: I'd rather have the person in front of me than behind me. Thank you and keep going.

roughstuff

notzofast

I had:


1. Driver who went over 4 red lights and made an illegal turn just to keep up with me.

2. Driver who tried to block me left and right on a narrow road.

3. Driver that flow past me twice the speed limit.

4. Driver that went in front of me and tried to force to side walk.

5. Driver that went real close to me on purpose.


You name it, it happened. Response? 1, 2, 3, 5, nothing. 4 I caught up to the driver, exchanged a few words, called the cops. Cop told me he can't do nothing. That was the time when I learned that unless you hurt or have damage they can't help you. Thus help yourself. I did call guy's supervisor and he was suspended for a week without pay.

Was it worth it?

No. Extra stress never worth it.


In cases 1, 2, 3, and 5 I had fun. Hey, look at me, here I am a biker and I caused a driver to flip out and loose their cool. There is a rule, unspoken one, if you cool then people respect you. Now if I had lost it, I'd get less respect from others, so it's not worth it. So what if a car just went over four reds just to over take you? Let him hate. Makes me that much hotter.

San Rensho 

For some reason, cars just have to pass bicycles, even if the bicycle is going the speed limit. I've tested this theory. When driving on a narrow 30 mph residential street near my house, if I come up behind a car and the car doesn't notice me, I can usually keep up with them because even though the limit is 30, traffic is usually in the 20-25 mph range.

Now, If I'm going the speed limit, a car in back of me accelarate from far away, catch up with me, honk, tailgate, and then make an unsafe pass every time.

Drivers are just jerks. I just take the lane and proceed as usual. But I do live in Miami, road rage capital of the world.

islandboy

notzofast please reread my original post. My response has been to prepare to avoid a collision (slowing, moving to the right if safe, or checking the ditch for a soft landing ). I am looking for a better way to deal with it.

Lately I have had a number of these vehicles try coming back into the lane beside me when they realise the on coming lane has a vehicle coming around the corner - the worst was a woman who passed on an inside corner nearly did a head on with a school bus neither of us could see till we were in the corner.

The characters were to show the futility of reacting with rage.

notzofast

You know what. I'm south floridian and we have a special name for canadians here. Snow Berds. Because they come during winter. Those folks usually drive slow. I just can't picture it being overwise. If we have a 45 zone, we go in it 60, them 30 if they trying to be fast. It's that slow.

There ought to be a way to get around that obsticle without reserving to law making, or a sub conscious desire to sacrifice yourself to be right. Perhaps a different route, a different speed, a different side of the road. If not, perhaps walk around it while hauling your bike, lol.

Think hard.

The middle of the road? That way rear drivers can see you better when they pass, and oncoming drivers can see you too.

There can just be no way drivers in your part of the woods are faster and more agressive than in my part of the woods.

islandboy

LOL You do get our "retirees" in the winter. Up here we call them silvertips. They usually stay downtown and they are pretty safe if they are awake.

I generally "take the road" at speeds over 45 kph (especially at corners). so that is not the issue. As for the route it does not seem to matter. Riding against traffic is not an option. On a recent trip, I had two close calls going 50 kph (PSL) with full panniers, where drivers passed going into corners and then changed their minds and just came back in the lane as if I could magically dissappear.

I have been doing that, even checking out bicycle forums.

ken cummings

Most of the time I just start slowing to create a safe stopping distance. I did once chase a truck pulling a horse trailer down a steep, twisted mountain road for miles until he pulled over as soon as it was wide enough and waved me by.

notzofast

Let me put it to you this way islaslandman. If I have to get off my bike and hike in the woods to keep me safe, I'd do it.

AlmostTrick

When someone speeding slightly over the limit passes me safely I do nothing, even if I was going near or over the speed limit. But if they pass me unsafely, or at an extremely high rate of speed, then that IS my business and I will let them know. Usually I will issue the "slow down" signal. Hand flat with palm facing down, pumping up and down as if to be pushing towards the ground. This is the same signal speeders get when they race though my residential area while I'm in my front yard or driveway. It's nowhere near as good as an officer giving them a ticket, but it doesn't hurt to let them know that someone is watching.

If I get the chance I will talk with them, but since my routes have long distances between intersections this rarely happens. Doing this causes me no extra stress. As a matter of fact, I would be way more stressed if I didn't do or say anything in response to something that could endanger my wellbeing.

Mr. Underbridge

Well, if I want them not to pass me in the lane, then I take the lane. That's simple. At that point, they can do whatever they want.

The only time it irks me is when we're approaching a stoplight. There's one place on my commute where I'm in decent traffic (not heavy, but steady stream of cars), I'm about 50 yards from a stoplight, and I'm doing 20mph. There is a line of, say, 6 cars at the light.

Normally, a car would be coasting there, meaning they should be doing about the same speed as me (20ish). But not when they see a cyclist! These morons will pass me, cut over, and slam on their brakes, barely avoiding rear-ending the cars in line to turn. Why they have to do this I have no idea, it doesn't get them where they're going even a second faster. But it happens every day.

I'm not sure whether it's your 'must....pass...bicycle!' theory, or whether it's that they seriously misjudge our speed. In their experiences, standard bike speeds are probably about 8 mph.

Blue Order

100% wrong on the law.

bragi

I think that's it: some motorists have a compulsive need to pass the cyclist no matter how fast he's going. I can't tell you how many times I've gone at least as fast as the cars I was traveling with, and yet was passed, often unsafely, and with great irritation on the part of the motorsits. I think they can't believe a bicycle is capable of going fast enough to keep up with traffic, and when they make that discovery, it somehow pisses them off.

Trek Al

You are one fast guy, 60 kph = 38 mph. Wow

al

WriteABike

Ooh ooh! I've got a good story! A friend and I were riding home from work, going about 21mph, approaching a bend in the road with an advised speed of 20mph. There's a house and trees blocking the view around the bend, so you can't see what's coming, and the road is narrow--barely two full lanes. Right as we get to the curve, a pickup truck pulling a 30 foot (about) trailer loaded with hay pulls into the other lane to pass us, but of course he has to slow down to our speed so he doesn't tip over or overshoot the road. To make the situation really fun, a car comes from the other direction. I thought the guy in the truck was going to run us off the road, but thankfully he didn't. We slowed down, but his trailer was so long he had no chance of getting around us. He made the other car bail off the road into a driveway. I looked over to see how the guy driving the pickup truck was reacting to the situation, fully expecting to get yelled at. He was talking on a cell phone. I wonder what he was saying. "Oh, I'm driving in the wrong lane, and there's a car coming. I'm an idiot." That's what he should have said.

After we got through the bend, he was still right next to us. His load was heavy enough that he still had a hard time getting past us. It was quite possibly the stupidest bit of driving I've ever seen. On the bright side, he didn't pull back over and run us off the road.

It's like he felt compelled to pass the cyclists even if they were going faster than he could through a blind curve on a narrow road with oncoming traffic. Good ol' cell phones. He might as well have been drunk.

Repo_Man

I never know quite how to approach this one. I frequently ride through a couple of spots where I can easily hold 30+ MPH in a 35 or 40 zone, basically they are long downhill stretches. The roads are fairly busy with shoulder activity, pedestrians, side streets, etc., and I don't like having somebody passing me there going 50+ MPH, often they will blast around me and then slam on their brakes as soon as they get back in front of me, they see people milling about close to the travel lanes and realize they need to slow way down. Or they pop out over the double yellow, decide it's unsafe, and try to get back behind me, but I am already slowing down because I see the same hazards, and we get into that awkward side-by-side state where each of us is slowing down at equal rates, expecting the other to overtake.

I've taken to just riding a lot slower, so if somebody does pass they overtake and gap me very quickly, and there is more margin for error if something pops out into the travel lane. But that's gotta be infuriating to drivers who decide to just stay behind me for the whole way.