yeah, get him in a rotary

I am of two minds on shoaling the cars. It does feel like jumping in line and most of the time, when there is a reasonably small line I just stay in line. BUT - my vent - I'm always getting behind some yahoo that lets 4 or 5 car lengths open up in front and then floors it, making it look like I am the one holding up traffic. Half a dozen cars, it's guaranteed that one of them will do it. We'd have all been better off if I'd just filtered to the front.

I used to think the same thing. But you get used to it. Apparently it's easier to move the chain to a larger sprocket when tightening the cable tension, thus stretching the spring in the derailleur (both front and rear). Conversely, releasing the cable/spring tension is easier to shift to a smaller sprocket. And it just so happens that the larger sprocket up front is the harder gear, and the larger sprockets in the rear are the easier gears.

Yep, "me first" is why traffic jams form at merge points on highways. Nobody wants to leave a gap and let people merge in front of them in a "zipper" pattern. They think that keeping the space as small as possible to the next car in front will somehow get them there faster.

OP in DC which is has helped create the Problems.

Like Patrick said they both pull to larger cogs and release to smaller ones. This was important once, but it's just convention now with indexing.

Shimano tried last decade to introduce rear derailleurs that were sprung the other way, but they didn't catch on.

Some SRAM grip shifters are the same unit left and right, just with different clicks, instead of a mirror of each other; and therefore they are "reverse-reversed" on the left side.

Yup.

If you are going to split lanes, make sure you don't get in the way of those you just passed. Of course, if you stop behind the last car in a line, the next car coming up behind you is going to honk and yell at you anyway.
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If you've cycled through this road many times with other motorists patiently sharing the road with you, you're question to her is what's wrong with her that hundreds of others can do but she can't?

Has never happened in 10,000+ miles of road riding.

It's happened to me when driving but not on a bike. Except in a right turn lane when someone wants more room to squeeze by and honks, but not in the through lane that I can recall. I wouldn't say that it detracts from Joeybike's credibility though. It could be an artifact of different driving cultures.

I sometimes feel like a fixed target though, stopped in line between cars so I can sympathize with that part. Beside the line, even next to the gap between cars, feels much more protected from rear end collisions.

Hot afternoon, I'm pretty much dying as I pedal along at the fastest pace possible on a rural stretch of MUP. Ahead of me, I see a cyclist do a U-Turn, going from coming towards me to now riding my way. A few minutes later I pass this clown. Like I said, I'm shot, so I don't bother warning him or anything as I just slowly go by.

Asshat decides to yell at me. "Hey, you could say something!" I'm thinking to myself, you dumbass, you just did a U-ie. How could you not know I'm coming?

Thanks Patrick and @Darth Lefty; I figured it was something like that, and I am getting used to it. I was just venting.

Better signs in Boston? BwwaaaHaaa. Never been here I guess? It's a regional thing. Or lack of sign thing. One can be traveling in a car and be on 128 south and 93 north, AT THE SAME TIME. Crazy, yup.

......and the best part is that you're actually traveling East.

You know, this is a pet peeve of mine. Why do I have to announce my presence to every nitwit who is not paying attention to anything they are doing? If I do call out, it is only for my safety as I don't care if the nitwit falls into an open manhole.

Insisting that I call out before a pass is an ADMISSION of GUILT that THEY are likely to do something boneheaded and without any warning.

BTW...I use a helmet-mounted cycling mirror. No need to call out. When someone suggests I call out, I suggest they pay attention.
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Then others here should not whine about the tourist.

My introduction to road rage was at 8 years old in 1961. We had one of those station wagons that has a pop up seat all the way in the back that faces backwards. My brother and I were in that back seat. My dad is first in line at a red light. The guy that pulls up behind us starts laying on his horn wanting my dad to run the red. Once we got a green and move the guy still laying on the horn starts playing chicken with our rear bumper over and over again until we rear a point we can turn off.

They are fair game when they work out their city driving stress by picking on me. Hassling cyclists does nothing to fix the city's navigational idiosyncrasies.

I would still advise any visitors to Boston to leave the car at the hotel. Even people who live here hate driving here; why subject yourself to that stress on your vacation?

Quite often I'm the first in line at a light, or 1-2 cars back. I watch for approaching cars from behind in my helmet mirror. I can see that the car is slowing, and I turn back and look directly at the driver as they approach, and further verify that they are aware of me and stopping. While we're stopped I then keep watch on the car sitting behind me to ensure that they're not inching forward prematurely. I don't really feel like a target. I'm much more comfortable being traffic than trying to go in between traffic.

Had a guy recently pass me on an arterial road on my right side while I was lane center, riding near the gutter, with no calling out his intentions to pass. I consider him to have been riding like an arse.

Perfect. I agree completely.

OK...you got me. Yes, if I am going to do something unusual and bone-headed I will call out so long as there is zero chance that calling out is going to cause the other "affected" individual to jump onto my line.
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Time for my contribution to the vent thread!

Was locking my bike up outside the local grocery store. When I pulled up there was already someone there unlocking their own bike, but we pretty much ignored each other. Some guy comes out of the store, walks over (he clearly didn't have a bike on the rack), and starts talking to the other cyclist saying some stupid, vaguely sexual thing about finding the hole in her bike lock, but it seemed liked maybe they knew each other so I just stayed silent and kept locking up.

The guy then turns to ME, looks at my bike, says "oh is that an Italian bike? Bianchi? that Italian?" (mispronounced Bianchi on top of it all!) I tried to just ignore him and he leans in towards me and says "EXCUSE me - Bianchi? Is that Italian?" I was finished locking up at that point and just shrugged and said "I dunno man" and started to walk away.

Had a real funny feeling, could see him and the other cyclist throwing dirty looks at me. Was giving me the heebie-jeebies enough that I came out 5 minutes later to check on my bike, and found that my front light was gone and it looks like someone was trying to f*** around with my helmet (the padding on the back was un-velcro'd like someone tried to grab it not realizing I threaded it through my u-lock).

I'm not 100% sure it was the creeper/his cyclist friend but my spidey-sense tells me it was.

Was a $30 light so I'll be able to replace it, but it's irritating to spend that money on a new light when I could be using it towards other, more fun things.

Always, always, always take anything that can easily be un-clipped or removed, inside with you. I'm sort of lucky that when I lock up at Aldi by the outside cart corral railing (no actual bike rack), there's a window right there where I can look outside just after walking in and see if anyone is messing with anything.

*edit* did he say "Bih-YAN-cheee"?

Yeah I'm going to stop by my LBS this evening on my home from work, pick up a new light that I can clip on/off easier. And probably some other gear since I'll already be there

And yes, that's EXACTLY how he was pronouncing it

Time to vent! Was riding out to lunch on the new greenway. The first part is through a tunnel that knocks out something like 4 or 5 cross streets. I get abotu halfway through and I hear this farting engine noise...some ******* behind me was on a motorized scooter. I'm like, really?? Go ride in traffic dbag. You have a f-cking motor, YOU DON'T BELONG HERE. He was totally doing it just to avoid traffic lights. What a putz.

Yes, changing routes is a constant for me and the destination hasn't changed in 11 years. As conditions change and as I notice different possibilities my route is a work in progress. Just mixing it up a bit relieves the tedium at times also.