i used to ignore it and not let it rattle me b/c i wanted to stay focused on the road. but it happens so much and ignoring it is not helping - i've ignored for several years. then two of our own brooklyn cyclists were run over and killed in the past week b/c two @$$holes think they can do whatever the hell they want. when i shout back, i want to let them know it is NOT okay to honk at cyclists b/c they think they own the road. many people here are not interested in sharing the road while others realize it is the reality of transiting in NYC. when they honk they look like the jerks but some people agree with that line of thinking! being vocal about it at the time it happens is the only thing that quiets them up and makes them think about whether they are actually in the wrong.

this is like when people make an insulting Asian joke and think it's OK or say a demeaning misogynist comment and think it's fine. i don't let that crap fly anymore. people need to know that others do not accept that and if they've nothing nice to say, don't say it. it's a basic human thing we were taught as kids, that people still can't seem to grasp as adults.

and just like the roads - SHARING. if kids can learn to share, adults should be experts at it. but they're not.

I'm sure it's a frustrating situation especially given the recent tragedies. I can see how ignoring is not helpful, but I doubt confronting them is going to lessen it either. It's probably just always going to be a reality of where you commute.

One thing about car horns is that most driver's don't realize just how loud those things are when you're outside the car. Stay safe up there!

Thunder woke me a half hour before my alarm this morning, and I enjoyed lying in bed listening to the rain, being glad I was still warm in bed and not getting rained on. But eventually my alarm went off, and the rain continued. The rain seemed to have stopped when I left the house, but it started up again before I got to the station. Pretty wet. I don't really mind getting rained on, and I don't mind sitting on the train for an hour, but sitting on the train wet, for an hour, well... I don't like that so much. My feet are still wet.

I ride less than a mile of Manhattan traffic between Penn Station and my office, and it's generally a hoot. I very rarely experience the kind of driver aggression [MENTION=397406]snow_echo_NY[/MENTION] describes. As I'm fond of saying, almost all Manhattan drivers are professionals, and they generally know how to coexist with cyclists. That said, even professionals make mistakes. Today, riding east on 36th St, I passed a long line of cars stopped at a traffic light at 7th Ave, I think. A lot of them had right turn signals on, and I wanted to get around them before the light turned. Complicating this, there's construction on the east side of the avenue, reducing 36th St to one lane for a short while. Well, while I'm waiting, a full size tour bus comes down 7th Ave and tries to make the left turn onto 36th. He got about halfway around the corner before he realized it wasn't going to work. Then my light went green. I crossed and got on the sidewalk, gave a friendly "excuse me, officer!" to two policemen who were standing there. Clearly they were debating giving me a citation for riding on the sidewalk, but then their attention was drawn to the tour bus. By the time one of them looked back at me, I was on the street again. The rest of the ride, all the way to my office, I had the whole street to myself. In my helmet mirror I could still see the front half of a tour bus jammed into the corner where I'd left it.

i have doubted that shouting back at them is going to lessen it either. i don't confront - confronting i see as pounding on their window - which i've seen. there are crazy people on the roads (both cyclists and motorists), but mostly there are people just transiting. and when i do yell back it's to wake people up from behind that windshield view that we are people. several of these people driving think it's perfectly reasonable to speed and think they own the road and cyclists do not belong among other things - just, no. what you do on the road has an impact on people.

yes people in cars who honk do not hear their own honking and quite possibly do not know how bad it is - but does that excuse them from it? no. absolutely no.

so my choices are shouting back vs. let myself and my child be honked at? we're already vulnerable. so far the responses i've seen are shame on the part of the driver, and shirking back and letting me transit. so i'm going to continue this experiment and see how it pans out.

I don't commute in anything like what you do, so can't really say what would help. But could you give a wave of acknowledgement? It seems this may let them know that you know they're there, but also kind of says, "Get over yourself, honking ain't gonna get you anywhere quicker."

@rhm i ride 10 miles a day in both brooklyn and manhattan, and many of the spots are in very congested areas. for a ride less than a mile, i don't think you're going to see issues. my husband rides 13 miles a day as well in both BK and midtown Manhattan and drivers have tried to run over him while he's in the bike lane.

but for the most part his rides are easy and good and he likes it.

i do want to point out that what i said up there ^^ are just a few incidences in the past couple of weeks. which means for the rest of my 50 mile weeks it has been smooth sailing and super pleasurable riding. i wave hi to the traffic / crossing guards on my way into Manhattan. i get to see/ride alongside the east river then cross the east river, i get to see brownstone brooklyn. it's nothing short of beautiful. but every now and then i'm woken up from that reverie to the sound of someone honking for no good reason. it's rush hour and everyone's frustrated, i know - and i've just had enough of the nonsense.

haha i have done the wave many times. i have also shouted, you have a nice day too, sir/maam! it depends on the situation i think.

I understand, and I agree. Like I said, I very rarely have trouble with drivers. Obviously, very rarely is much better than frequently, but any is too much. I'm normally pretty cheerful on the bike, but one confrontation with a driver can make me wary and aggressive, as an urban cyclist, for months.

Aside from that, I also suspect some drivers honk because you're a woman. Men want to be noticed. It's on the XY operating system.

Woke up tired from last nights fight against the winds. Checked the weather and saw heavy storms predicted for the afternoon. Let's just say, today is one day I was very happy to have a car to dive. :)

46 degrees. Dry. Fairly uneventful commute.

On the section of my commute where I ride on the MUP I approached a guy walking his dog. He was walking square down the middle of the path and his dog was running back and forth as far as the leash would let it wander. I slowed way down and rang my bell a few times. I thought I saw the guy give the 'head nod' acknowledgement, so I slowly passed him.

Apparently the head nod I saw wasn't really a head nod, as when I came into his field of view I startled him. Then he was mad at me.

Not sure why people seem surprised when they encounter others using the public MUP, but it happens all the time. He was acting like this was the first time he'd seen a bicycle on the path.

Late start. Beautiful and sunny. The foliage hasn't dried out to summer gold yet. Still too cool in the morning for shorts and jersey. I wore my khakis over... hadn't done that in a while, have been using Levi's commuter jeans that are slimmer. So I forgot my cuff clips. Oops, yuck!

35F and sunny. Rode w/ my wife to her job so that was a good start. Although slower so I was colder...

On the right side of freezing (barely) and low winds. Had a young lady ask if she could draft me, which was fine, but next time I looked back after a hill I didn't see her anymore. No one has ever asked before; this was a nice change.

Looks like I correctly called this one. It's pouring here right now, with plenty of lightning and thunder in the area. I would have still been riding had I taken the bike.

Forecast for tomorrow shows low percentages for rain. That should work.:)

My goodness, today was just absolutely darn near perfect. This morning it wasn't dark when I left at 6, about 68 degrees, only had to stop at one traffic light, cooperative motorists, and only a very light headwind. This afternoon it was warm but not too much, again only had to stop at one traffic light, had a nice tail wind, and no problems for motorists. And I was wearing my Performance Ultra bibs which are supremely comfortable compared to all my other shorts and bibs. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better day to ride, I think.

Only hiccup was my Strava failed to start when I left the office this afternoon, so I used my bike computer's stats to enter the ride manually. Oh well.

The commute in this morning was a nice uneventful ride with the temp at 30f degrees when I left the house.

45 degrees with a slight North wind. Borderline shorts and T-shirt weather, but not quite cold enough for a jacket, IMO.

Nice ride nonetheless. Although, I must admit, my arms, ears and face are still feeling a bit of the chill. Beats overheating.

I had no idea Levi's made commuter specific clothes. Interesting. When I had a shorter commute and wore my work jeans or pants, I just rolled them up 80's style to prevent chain suck.

A pleasant ride in this morning. About 65F and overcast. I've been able to add a couple of miles each day this week, so may hit a weekly high for the year if I keep it up.

This morning was 40 degrees, lots of rain and a stiff cross wind. To make matters worse I seem to have contracted a mild cold. My wife was trying to convince me to drive but I explained that I would just sit at work sulking about not riding. She doesn't understand it. Not sure I do either, but that's what I would have done had I taken the car.

I do need to look into getting a decent pair of rain pants. I just wore some old sweats over my work pants. They're not exactly water resistant, but they got the job done in a pinch. By the time I arrived they had soaked up a fair amount of moisture but kept most of it off my pants.

I am glad that right before I walked out the door I threw a spare pair of socks in my bag. My feet were pretty wet by the time I got to work.

Was about 32F when I left my apartment.

Giving my new Trek ALR 5 its first ride to work lol. Was a good morning commute with usual traffic along the way.

Just that, I had to store my bike at a storage cube since we're interviewing people in the office.

Can't really complain since no one gave me flak for keeping my bike at my cube for a year :P

Sunny and chilly this morning.

I usually commute on a fixie equipped with a front brake, which I have no intention of removing; nonetheless, I have been training myself to slow down and stop using only my legs. I thought I was doing pretty well. This morning, I got cut off by a driver making a lane change, and I instinctively grabbed the brake. That was the first time I'd touched the brake in several commutes. Guess I haven't trained that instinct out yet. Not that I necessarily want to, I just found it interesting.

I took Monday off from work as a vacation day, since my wife and I were having so much fun in the sun at our house upstate. Friday I had left my Lemond at work. Yesterday, I should have remembered and brought my cycling clothes so I could ride it home. OK, today I remembered, and the weather is grand. I'm looking forward to it.

my starter went out on my car this past Sunday...which means commuting to work on my bike all week longggg! I love it

It was 35 degrees this morning, but the sun was shining and it was worth it for the much warmer (51 degree) ride back after a long day at work.

Another chilly commute this am, with the temp at 34f degrees, but a nice uneventful ride.

Nice! I'm hoping to cycle with my wife too, but she wants to wait until the near- or sub-freezing mornings pass, I don't blame her.

I forgot to post yesterday but essentially the weather has been similar for the past few days, sub-freezing mornings (-1 to -5C/30 to 23F) but clear and sunny (but not enough sun to make it warm obviously).

This morning's commute was a bit better because 3 of the 6 streets I cycle on had been swept clean of winter dirt/sand so I can move away from traffic a bit more but the worst streets have yet to be done.

I was thinking on the way in about selective amnesia because for the past couple of days, I've been "complaining" about sub-freezing temperatures but not the worst of the weather conditions, headwinds, the last couple of mornings. Now that I've spoken about it, maybe the headwinds will go away (I'm not buying lottery tickets on it though).

65F and a bit humid here in NC. I left a few minutes early and added a couple of miles for 15 total.

I saw a Google street view car a couple of weeks ago while I was biking home. Some searching shows it takes about 6 months before those are online. I hope I can remember to go look for myself.

53F and rain. Sometimes riding in the rain is fun, sometimes it's just getting wet

39 degrees, rain and windy. Pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday.

Because of my slight cold I took a 1/3 shot of Nyquil last night before bed. Zapped me pretty good (I'm a medical marvel when it comes to my low tolerance to medications.) By the time I crawled in bed I wasn't aware enough to remember to turn on my alarm. Thankfully when my wife came to bed she noticed and turned it on for me. Then when it rang this morning I turned it off without even realizing it, and kept on sleeping. Once again my wife came to my rescue and poked me about 15 minutes later. I thought maybe the ride to work would have pulled me out of the fog, but I arrived just as groggy as I was when I got out of bed. Hopefully this will pass soon otherwise I'm in for a long day.

I hope you never lose the reflex of using your brake. Your legs will never brake as well as a caliper.

I rode home yesterday. Man, it was cold. I was wearing a short sleeve jersey and shorts. I pedaled a little harder to make my own heat, and that worked.

I decided to take it easy today, as I only managed to get about four hours of sleep on Tuesday night. I didn't feel tired yesterday, but I do today.

I had my first appointment with a podiatrist this morning to address my bunions. The left foot is bad, and she confirmed that the bunion in my left foot is the cause of my pain. I've been suffering for years. She said I can expect it to get worse. She didn't push the surgery option, but it seems like the best one for me, because I don't want to decrease my activity, I want to increase it. It's been hard to ride for more than an hour, and sometimes the pain comes on much sooner. I got a cortisone shot, so I might have a good ride tomorrow. Or it might hurt tomorrow, in which case, I won't ride.