Had yet another interesting run in with a motorist today. I live in Washington, DC and have been commuting by bike full time for about four months. My ride is about 7-10 miles each way, depending on the route I take. But I absolutely LOVE IT. I've made a personal commitment that I'm going to do my best to continue commuting as the seasons change. My job has irregular hours so I'm as likely to commute at 2am as I am in morning and evening rush hour. DC is not the easiest town to bike in (though probably not the hardest either). Like any large city, you've got car danger, human danger and humans-in-cars danger.

Thus, I invest a lot of time and energy into lowering my risk and exposure. I spend hours poring over bike maps, looking at satellite images of roads on google earth. I actually really enjoy it. Its such a strange exercise in environmental psychology. I have different routes for different times of day, different days of the week, different weather, etc. (One thing that I've discovered is universal in DC is that when it rains-- all drivers go bat**** crazy. Seriously. You would think that every driver in DC is seeing the head of their newborn child crowning out of their wife's vagina in the backseat. I don't understand it, but its true.) So, today, being one of the first days of true end-of-summer showers (at rush hour no less), I knew to take it easy. Watch my corners. Not go too fast.

They say that most **** goes down close to home. Today that was true. I was totally alone on a fairly residential two-lane road, with no cars behind me. Cruising at about 17 mph. The light at the end of the road turned red and I pulled up to it and stopped. I personally don't like to jump through red lights for various reasons, so I was just sitting there through the 30 sec light, pretty much in the middle of the road, with my front wheel just barely in the cross-walk. The first car pulled up alongside me and was waiting to turn right. A second car pulled behind it. From where I was sitting, I couldn't see the signal of the second car, but I assumed since it pulled up behind the other car, and not behind me, that it was also turning right.

The light turned green and I accelerated away from the light, while the car next to me turned right. All of the sudden, I saw the second car parallel alongside me on my right. When he noticed that a parked car wasn't going to let him complete his pass on the right, he laid down on his horn. Without thinking, my adrenaline got the better of me and I gave him the finger (not-zen-action #1 ). At that, he swerved violently, accelerating around me to left and into the oncoming lane. There, he was again thwarted by a car coming the other direction that also (justly) laid down on its horn. At this point, the driver swerved back close behind me, honking his horn and yelling from his window, "you can't f###ing do that. Move over!!!"

At the next stop sign I stopped and he stopped behind me. At this point, I'm literally around the corner from my house. Yet, for some reason, I decided to stop and eloquently confront him. Unfortunately, he was still yelling when I responded (not all that inspiringly), "I'm a vehicle Mother-F$$$ER. Go f##k yourself!" (not-zen-moment #2 ) At that point he swerved around me into the intersection and sped away. Of course, being a residential neighborhood, at the next intersection there was another four-way stop-- where I caught up to him Moronically, in a moment of victory, I sped past his stopped car through the intersection.

The final block of my journey was spent with me pedaling at break speed, with him following close behind me-- me swerving (right?) to prevent him from being able to pass me. Until finally I turned off to my house and he gave me a final "honk, honk, honkity-honk-honk-honk" from his truck.

It was a bad end to the day. And it really messed with my head when I got home to the wife-- knowing what just happened and what could've just happened. So, there I sit. This ain't the first. Probably ain't the last.

You know... I've got the headlight/taillight. I've got sidelight. I've got good brakes, tires, fenders. I've gotten really good at riding with and communicating with motorists. But the one thing I have to ditch is my ego. And its going to be the hardest part. Especially in those moments, where you're balls deep in the cyclist high, compounded with the mainline of adrenaline from some yahoo doing something stupid. But I know that sooner or later, the elephant is going to step on the mouse and it'll all be over.

Tonight, I'm at home with my wife and the cats, and I can walk and talk. Tomorrow I'm gonna ride into work again. But in those 90 seconds-- things could've easily gone the other way. And for what? I mean seriously... For what?

interesting story. I had a big run-in with a moron a couple of weeks ago, and I wish I had acted differently. I always have had better outcomes when I behaved in a more reserved manner. The problem that day was I had a run-in with another moron on my commute into work. That one was so bad I called the cops. I would have called the cops on the second guy too,but I didn't want to leave them questioning if I was doing something to start these problems.

As much as I've wanted to show people they were wrong, it NEVER worked. Now I avoid any of those potential situations altogether. Even when I'm driving if someone is following too closely I just pull over and let them tailgate the next guy. Not worth getting worked up about it.

Your "for what" sentence says it all. Nobody won and the whole scenario is going to bug you for a while. As stupid and wrong as the driver was, you'd probably feel a lot better right now if you got out of his way and let him get on with his crappy life.

I hope this doesn't come off like I'm bagging on you - I just know the feeling all too well.

I was walking this evening back to the office and I saw a car pull out of an underground parking lot at fairly high speed, right in front of an oncoming cyclist. The cyclist yelled at the driver. I saw the car turn onto the street, and the driver appeared to signal a thumbs up instead of a one-finger salute at the cyclist (at this point, both were headed in the same direction - driver on road, cyclist on sidewalk).

I was tempted to tell the cyclist as he passed me on the sidewalk "Hey man the street is safer than the sidewalk - and you just got a lesson why - especially with a curb-protected bike lane on the street that you could have been riding on", but I didn't feel like escalating the situation as he was just as hot-headed at that moment as the driver.

Every time I have a confrontation with a driver, I've worked on remaining calm...regardless of what the other person is doing. Each time I play the incident back in my mind, and find the points where I could have exercised more control, and imagine myself doing the better thing. It's gotten easier to keep focus. Last Friday I was riding in the right tire track position on a 4 lane road, coming up to a railroad crossing where the gates were down. A car passes me about a block from the crossing, and I hear "...on the sidewalk" being called out as it goes by. I know where this is going, but I roll up alongside them in the line of stopped cars and say politely, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said". To which of course come a stream of "there's no bike lane, you're supposed to ride on the sidewalk" nonsense simultaneously from both the passenger and driver. I replied, "do you know Illinois vehicle law?", to which I got "yeah, you're supposed to ride on the sidewalk" or something like that. As I tried to explain to them that cyclists have the same rights to the road as drivers, that this was a substandard width lane which meant that a car and bike cannot safely occupy it together, and it was perfectly legal for me to occupy the full lane, and that they actually broke the law by buzzing me closer than the 3' required to pass a cyclist, they got louder and angrier, and tried the whole time to yell over me. The woman in the passenger seat, unbuckled her belt and started screaming, "get away from my car or I'm coming out to kick your ass", to which I replied, "If you do that you will be committing assault and will probably get arrested. If you get out I will call the cops. I have the right to be right here in the road and I am not touching your car." That stopped her dead in her tracks. Finally I said, you know what, I'm going to ride right here in front of your car and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. They started yelling that I better be going 30 miles an hour, which I ignored. The train finally passed, the gates went up, I rode down the middle of the lane for about a block until they passed me in the left lane, yelling something unintelligible.

I don't really have it in me to back down and just give in. Maybe I will in the future. But I've decided I'm going to get better at staying calm and being in control.

It's tempting. Especially when you are able to catch up with the ***clown and do and say whatever comes into your mind.

I just keep telling myself what starts in anger ends in shame.

Five things help keep me calm. 1) My helmet-cam. Reviewing the incident and your reaction to it later when you've calmed down can be enlightening and instructive. 2) My Air-Zound air horn. A loud non-verbal response can be satisfying and less likely to be perceived as a personal threat/insult by the driver. 3) Improvisational theater training. I joined an improv comedy troup five years ago and we basically rehearse being placed in unpredictable situations where we must consider possible outcomes, let go of preconceived notions of where the scene is going, and learn to go with the flow without breaking character. It's like practicing with a sports team so that in a game you are prepared for any situation and can react appropriately. I have found this very helpful in dealing with outrageous client requests, and the outrageous and often horrible surprises of life itself. 4) Maturity. I'm 53. With age comes patience and wisdom...supposedly. And I don't know if it's mental or just a general physical slowing down, but I do find I don't get all bent out of shape like I would in my 20s or 30s. 5) "At least I'm not married to him/her!" I try to imagine the hell that must be domestic life for these emotional idiots. And thanks to recent federal marriage laws, it's even easier to imagine being married to people of the same gender.
But seriously...You aren't going to teach anybody anything through confrontation. If you must, choose kindness...kill them with kindness! (You will have been kind, and they will have been killed.)

The problem lies with ourselves. We're not enlightened, really. We're depraved, and craven, and angry, and prideful. So, our response is, "I have a right to be here, as I'm a vehicle, Mother****er!"

I'm right there with the OP. We're brothers. God help me.

You sound a lot like me. It took me a while to learn when to let go of situations like that one. We need more of us out there. Cheers.

About 5 years ago there was a guy in a pickup that was giving me grief by honking and yelling. I finally caught him at a stop light and asked him if he really wanted to find out how physically fit I am. He gave me the finger and turned right.

Not my proudest moment.

Thankfully most days are completely uneventful.

I've gotten more mellow with age and realizing I'm not likely to change things much anyway. I really try to remember that now that Illinois allows the paranoid and insecure to legally carry lethal weapons with them. Especially when the last guy I talked with about not violating the 3 feet to pass rule was armed and said he was a cop.

Absolutely spot on. This is a pretty accurate description of natural man

I try to stay calm and take the high road. Doesn't always work. Ever pedal in MA? Interesting to say the least. My mirror helps some in that I can see what's coming up behind me. I have said back to drivers" Jesus loves you, I will pray for your soul" it catches them off guard, I think. If the drivers are at all church going, maybe it will give them pause. Often times it is " Share the road" The close to home stuff happens with me as well. The next road from the one I live on is just a cow path. Really. 20 mph posted, twisting with curves and blind corners, some lane widths are like 8-10 feet, that narrow. Zero shoulder. So I take the lane. Safest for me. Idiocy follows. Crazy passing, horns and shouting. So many pass and then take the next turn. No alternative road to take and its maybe 1.5 miles until it becomes much wider.