68venable

I just throw mine in the truck and buzz cyclists. What else would I have a truck for?

cuzican

Entertaining thread here checking out all the stereotyping going on.
I'm not taking sides on this because I don't live in a populated enough area to have encountered many cyclist's while driving, or many rude drivers while cycling.
I do sense a lot of resentment towards truck/suv drivers. I find it really amusing how people are just aghast at seeing one person driving an SUV capable of hauling 9 people for daily commuting. My wife is a perfect example of that. 5 days a week you would see her driving a GMC Yukon XL to work with just her in the rig and you'd start cussing about it no doubt. Yet what you don't see, is us on the weekends pulling our 24 foot travel trailer with our family of 4, 2 dogs, and associated camping gear loaded up. Or on an evening after work with our boat hooked up and 5 or 6 friends riding with us. It is kind of hard to pull a travel trailer or a boat while hauling the associated gear/people with some crappy little sedan, but it isn't worth buying two vehicles just so she isn't making her 3 mile commute to work in the Yukon.
I have an old full sized truck that gets driven less than 5k a year because it is only used for hauling my dirt bike and ATV.
The rest of the time I drive a Subaru because it is more economical.

I always go out of my way to give cyclists plenty of room and have to take at least a little offense to being stereotyped as a "dick" just because I might happen to be driving my truck one day.

68venable

Wow, a SUV, boat, ATV, travel trailor, dirt bike... Thats a lot of fuel, you may make these people mad!! lol.

cuzican

I'm not here to make anybody mad. Montana is a big state with lots of wilderness and thousands of lakes and I like to enjoy it all.
Burning lots of fossil fuel, yes, but it beats the hell out of sitting at home eating granola and complaining about being bored when I live right in the middle of the most beautiful state in the U.S.

nancyj

Haven't been in Montana for over 30 years. Still have the Stockman's Bar and Cafe t-shirt to prove it. I really liked Missoula - back in the bikecenennial days. Beautiful state.

billew

Wow a whole three miles! Hey, isn't this a bicycle forum? You sound like active folks how about riding a bike?

Biker395 

Naw, Montana sucks.



And only losers go to Stockman's. Like me and the rest of us cyclists riding across the country:

tomg

i use my pick-up truck when running SAG (Support And Guidance?) during our bicycle club sponsered Century rides. i carry gator-aid, bannanas, pump/repair kit and drive the route, questioning how riders are doing, assist if needed.

i also use my truck to transport bikes and friends to events/rides. i go to hardware/lawn supply stores to transport lawnmowers or top-soil. i also help friends move.

i have a hybrid car that i usually use for personal transport when not riding bicycle or driving.

personally i think, taking on a broad general statement, that i have had more of an issue with people driving SUVs and lack of appropriate space-share.

sknhgy 

I could look up the particulars, but yes, I believe him. He is a farmer, I've known him most of my life, and he's a credible person.

electrik

Ok, now that i have more time let me explain further. The use of a prejudice is often practical and may save your butt or others. If a motorist learns that 1/10 cyclists will run a stop sign then they're probably forming some prejudice about cyclists. This is only normal. Maybe 1/10 is a rate high enough to state that cyclists are indeed lawless. It is certainly high enough for a motorist to stop and wait until a cyclists yields the intersection, both benefit from the extra safety. The argument is similar for pick-ups, lets say 1/10 pickups will buzz you or throw something out the window, i now am conditioned to realized pickups are usually trouble. This benefits my safety, since i am ready to duck, more than simply assuming a pick-up is like any other vehicle and being caught off guard. The benefit comes mostly because i am passively engaged in the task, i am not going out there "fed up" with pickups and stabbing the first guy in a pick-up i can find(a bizarre conclusion from such a prejudice but possible).

Yes it's important that it isn't a valid proof, and i have repeatedly said that this prejudice isn't a law or a sure thing, but i'm not waiting around for a proof when the consequences of my lack of action in avoiding pick-ups maybe serious.

What i am saying is that everybody comes on here complaining about how a pick-up did such and such. What you are saying is that because all those people come on here and tell the same story doesn't mean that story is universally true. I can agree with that. The point is these people are still coming here with the same story. It isn't valid to use ad populum to dismiss them, that is another type of genetic fallacy. So while it may not be well formed enough to seem coherent my "common sense" tells me that something may be up.
Indeed it is true that a semi requires a different class of license. However is not relevant to the level of destruction when it gets into an accident with a cyclist.

I'm not going to dig up the stats. Honda did a whole research program on it and redesigned their cars to flop people off them. It doesn't take a genius to notice getting hit in the leg and sliding up and over a roof is less traumatic that getting hit all at once square in the chest by a giant steel pickup grill.

edit: sorry but i can't find the study which shows cycling injury by type of vehicle, white van, pickup, taxi, lorries and high-milers were above average.

sudo bike

I also want to clarify here a bit.

I understand why you are forming these prejudices (although philosophically, I would note that there really is no reason this prejudice is any better than the next one, but let's leave that).

What I'm mainly saying is that:

1) I think stereotypes of pick-up truck drivers in general (not necessarily related to cycling) color some people's vision of truck drivers somewhat unfairly, regardless of their personal experience.

And 2) That this experience with truck drivers is more than likely simply coincidence. This demonstrated by the fact that many on here have noted that trucks are not the worst offenders is their experience. Relying on a prejudice to assume one is more likely than the other to do something stupid seems, to me personally, like it would put you in danger of getting screwed by the guy you did not expect (i.e., it seems safer to treat all motorists as equally idiotic).

I think I'll leave it at that. At this point we agree on some points, and simply agree to disagree on others.

68venable

Everyone is making sense here. Especially Nancy.

Cuzican - I was just being sarcastic. I dont care how much fuel you use. I wish I had all those toys.



Trucks are more dangerous to the point that they CAN do more damage. They are bigger and heavier. Assuming that people that drive trucks drive dangerously is where it gets dumb though. Most people that drive trucks realize they are bigger and drive accordingly.

Its also dumb to assume that only truck driver will throw stuff at you. I had to LOL at that one.

DArthurBrown

My solution: A minivan. A tent. Kayaks. Mountain bikes. It will save you oodles in gas. In addition, Yukon XL's shout "I want to be big and noticed." Minivans say, "I'm doing this because I have to."

nancyj

I would love to haul my dogs in a minivan because unlike an SUV you can open them up and get great cross ventilation but (1) the absence of true 4wd in most of them - you don't really need it much but when you do you do. Sometimes we don't even have a ramp to put in our team boat and awd does not cut it. and (2) the abysmal ground clearance of a minivan.

DArthurBrown

This thread comes at a sour time for me, since a joker in a pickup discharged a shotgun at a 45 degree angle over my head while passing me just the other day. Scared the $%^@ out of me.

A few months ago, I made a quick 600-miles ridden study on driver behavior versus type of cars driven. At the 95% confidence level, SUVs and pickups were statistically more likely to do something offensive to me as a cyclist. I even did t-tests on different classifications (for those of you that know what that is). Offensive behavior included, revving the engine hard while passing, crowding the shoulder, shouting obscenities while passing, throwing things at or in the way of me, honking the horn hard, etc. I even found significant trends in the age of the vehicle and in the brand. The worst: Dodge. The second worst: GMC/Chevy. The worst era trucks are trucks/SUV's made in the 1990's (as best I could tell).

It was a little disappointing because I actually convinced myself to go through all the trouble to dispel the stereotypes for myself. Epic fail on that.

DArthurBrown

Something else I've noticed that immediately dispels the stereotype is one of those "My other car is a bicycle" bumper sticker, or something similar.

Biker395 

LOL ... actuary, are we?

That shotgun blast? That's a felony ... ADW. I wonder if that knucklehead knows that.

And where heck is Ovdabak?

68venable

Im selling my truck now. Any jerks on here wanna buy it? I only sell to jerks.

electrik

Maybe this driver bought it?

slowandsteady

I own and drive a pick up truck. I am not a jerk. However the vast majority of jerks I encounter on my bike are driving pick up trucks.

billdsd

Bike harassers around here are mostly pickup truck drivers, especially large pickup trucks. I would guess it's around 70-80% of harassers I've encountered. Most of the rest are driving SUV's, especially large SUV's (think Suburbans, Tahoes etc). There are a few regular cars but not a lot. If it's a smaller pickup, it's usually jacked up.

I would guess that about 97-98% are male. So far, those few women have only honked and yelled and in two cases tailgated. No buzzes. No swerves. No brake checks.

Bike harassers here are mostly white, and definitely tend towards the white trash groups (especially rednecks but also surfer stoner burnouts and such). I rarely see someone who looks like they might be well educated harassing a bicyclist.

I'd guess mostly aged 25-55. Younger or older than that is unusual.

San Diego has a huge hispanic population (of those, it's mostly Mexican). However, I almost never get harassed by hispanics. I even used to live close to the Logan Heights/Barrio Logan areas and rode through there many times. One of the few times that I did get harassed by hispanics, they were in a big pickup truck and wearing cowboy hats (Mexican version of redneck maybe?). It was also at the intersection of Sea World Drive and Pacific Highway which is nowhere near a predominately hispanic area. I have a hypothesis that this is due to the fact that I see a disproportionately large number of hispanics riding bikes, especially in areas with large hispanic populations so hispanic drivers are more likely to have either been in a situation where they had to ride in the road or have family or friends who ride.

Still, harassers are a small minority of drivers. They're even a small minority of pickup truck drivers. Most people, even rednecks, have better things to do than harass bicyclists.

CritEastwood

Bill, your observations parallel mine, which is why my routing is normally through predominantly hispanic communities in the LA basin area. Add in that I ride around in just regular clothes and to them it would probably appear that I'm just someone trying to get somewhere, whether I'm recreating or in fact trying to get somewhere. Yesterday I rode from East Anaheim to Torrance Beach, around the Palos Verdes Peninsula and back through Long Beach and didn't get hassled once.

Staying on-topic, on the rare occasions when I do drive, it's a stock 2003 F150 4x4 and no, I don't hassle cyclists.

cellery

Perhaps this is an extreme example, YMMV. Earlier this year I decided that after years of constant harassment by the drivers of pickup trucks, I would start to document what types of vehicles these people were driving. I quickly discovered there were some logistical hurdles in writing down and/or taking pictures of license plates while riding. Especially in the middle of a fiery Phoenix summer in rush hour. It is a project I feel like I might be able to resurrect though. If I do, I will try to post the results here later on.

Despite not having hard facts backing it up, what I found was, with the exception of one van driver telling me I wasn't a car (obviously I'm a human, or at least, a very intelligent chimpanzee), every single other instance within the last 6 months where I was harassed by a vehicle while riding the city streets has been by the driver of a pickup truck. I can say definitively that I am being harassed by trucks at least once a month and not more that once per week. This could mean a very loud honk where not appropriate, crowding, or worse. Aside from the one exception, that number drops to zero when I consider when I have been harassed by other types of vehicles.

That doesn't mean I think down upon the drivers of pickups in general, as I'm sure there are plenty of very same pickup drivers out there including the many here who also self identify as cyclists. But... I do think it is a very interesting phenomenon, and I have a hard time believing it is simply a coincidence.

electrik

cellery, keep track of work vans also... they're notoriously dangerous.

vol

I haven't had time to read the whole thread here, but what I can say is, yes, I wonder what's with the pickups, because when I read a car accident news, ,most often a pick-up truck is involved; the next (or equally? not sure) often involved is SUV.