This morning, I had a guy on a motorcycle tell me to get off the road. I love it when motorcyclists talk down to me because they have the same problems with cars that we do.

Then on the way home, I had a guy in a beat up pickup truck pull up beside me in a right turn lane and tell me to get off the road. I snapped...I told him, FU. He slowed down to wait for me. I came up beside him and told him that I have every right to the road, a-hole. He looked surprised! he said, you are the a-hole. So I told him F-U again, and he made a right hand turn.

I instantly realized that I had handled the whole thing incorrectly. I will strive to not respond; I don't know why I snapped. I haven't done that for years. I told my wife that the next time I will say, "I will sir as soon as I get enough money to buy a car, God Bless you."

But, I just don't understand what it is about being in a car that makes people so rude. Could you imagine someone walking up to you in a store and telling you off for no reason? Since, I have started commuting, I can understand why some cyclists are so millitant.

maybe the motorists (car or motorcycle) had "displaced anger or frustration". these emotions will be worked out in one way or another. maybe they just "had a bad day", or were just a-- holes.
try not to bring your-self down to their level, Rise Above !

Part of me wonders if life wouldn't be better if all motorists thought cyclists were angry, potentially homicidal maniacs, best not annoy.

I've had beer bottles and cans thrown at me, a morbidly obese kid lean out of the window of the car he was riding in shooting a cap gun in my ear as his equally morbidly obese parents laughed, I've had every imaginable insult and curse hurled at me, etc. etc. I think some drivers feel totally anonymous in their cars, so it frees them up to do things they'd never do under any other circumstance. When I was a teenager, I'd give it right back, and on the rare occasion that I caught up to somebody, I'd always notice that they'd wilt the moment I started having at them. Now it doesn't bother me, most of these people are idiots and losers who probably get winded stepping out of the shower. That said, I don't blame you for reacting the way you did one bit.

I just got back from spending 2+ hrs. riding around the block looking for a parking spot. About 30 mins. in I was raging at the moron cagers in front of me. While I saw plenty of cyclists, they weren't the target of my anger as much as the bad drivers in front of me.

OP, you did the right thing. Most cagers will wilt if called on their actions. The rest will flip out and do their Incredible Hulk act on you.

I chased some fool in a pickup truck down the other day... Caught up to him at a light, said 'Smile for the police report' and snapped a pic of him. Then followed him another 1/4 mile or so to his destination, and just stopped across the parking lot.... He gets out of his truck, and starts storming towards me.

I said to him: "Yeah... you're going to look real tough in handcuffs, a******." and pulled out my phone. He stopped dead in his tracks, and turned around and walked away.

That's what I thought.

None of us is perfekt.

People think and act like it's their home, and many states treat it as such legally. It's the rolling equivalent of the stereotypical old man yelling, "get off my lawn!".

I think that you are on to something here. I guess some people actually think they own the road.

Around here, you are just as likely to see a guy wearing a dress as you are to see someone riding to work on a bicycle. I guess riding a bike is a provocative statement.

Group hug!

Anyhow, everyone looses it from time to time. The degree of loosing it varies.
I spew 4 letter words like it is no one's business. That and I make close to absolutely no sense when the temper is raging.

I think I'm going to adopt the following rule:
I only talk to friendly motorists. I have no desire to educate anyone.
Applied in a confrontation ,I hope that this equates to me leaving or avoiding it altogether.

This would be in addition to my existing rule: lalallalalalalala AKA I'm freakin' deaf! Can't hear you!

most of us have stories of losing our temper. i definitely wasn't at my best 4 weeks ago when i beat on some woman's window when she blared her horn at me for no reason. and then it was worse when she rolled by me yelling and then i chased the car down at the next light and sprayed gatorade on her when she got out to confront me. i'm normally a pretty mild mannered person, but sometimes these people just really push my buttons.

That's a side of Tim I've never seen before, now if only you can channel that aggression into your racing.
I'm gonna be at the next race throwing dirt at you while you ride.

as long as you don't mind getting splashed with gatorade throw all the dirt you want. although i must warn you - i race cat 5. as such i'd probably lose control of the bike, smash into another rider, and cause a huge pile up.

Strap an Uzi to the top bar or handle bars and see what the response is......

No, No... ya gotta yell "Get off the track, you have no right to be there!"

I banged hard on the window of a Mercedes that passed way too close to me the other day. I was riding down a two lane street, towards a red light, when I heard an engine racing from behind. As I looked over my shoulder a green Mercedes swerved behind me within about 4 to 5 feet in order to pass on my right and park at the red light. He had passed (againts a double yellow line) an SUV that was behind me by about 2 or 3 car lengths. I thought about how he: 1) passed the SUV illegally, 2) was speeding, and ,of course, 3) passed close enough to endanger my life had we collided. I rolled up beside him, banged hard on his passenger side glass and pointed at him. This big-headed jello mold of a guy immediatly jiggled with outrage as he double flipped me off, belly pulsating and hair flying. I flipped him off and just coasted nonchalantly through the intersection. It was amazing how, even though he was in the wrong and my response was minor compared to the threat he had posed to me, he simply erupted with rage. I was the one who had the right to be raging. It occurred to me that (had I the time/opportunity) I should have run a key down the length of his fat-cat car. That's probably the best way to upset him. Then, had he caught me, beat his @$$.

"God Bless you" is not a bad response. Most of the time, I'm doing good just to keep silent. But to diffuse the anger, a good primal scream every once in awhile helps. Just wait till no one is around or it is so loud no one will hear.

I sound so militant here. I'm not, really.......

I just think that some things happen to warrent a strong response, this was one of them. Could I justify "beating his @$$" to the cops had it come to that? Probably not.

I like the idea of the primal scream tactic, that's got to really freak them out-make them think you're freaking crazy. That's good.

This thread is very theraputic. I'm a great Monday morning quarterback when it comes to these incidents, but often laugh pretty hard at what I actually say when the time comes. I strive to keep my mouth shut, smug in the knowledge that most of the people who mess with me would suffocate if they tried to. It doesn't always happen that way.

"Get off of my lawn" really sums it up for me. People are very territorial by nature, and yell at those outside their vehicle like they'd yell at the TV. I really don't think most people who do this would consider themselves a-holes, completely oblivious to the fact that those are real people out there, who could really die under their 200hp lazyboy.

Not only am I more patient when I'm on a bike, but I actually exchange greetings with peds/cyclists almost every day, adding to my good day. Its just not the same in a car.

Several times in random conversations with strangers I've steered our talk subject to "bikes-on-the-roads" just to point out that bikes have the same rights and restrictions as cars. Virtually every time the person says, "I didn't know that" or, "I thought they were required to use sidewalks"

But MY pet peeve (my beef, what steams me, what really gets me mad, ...) is bikers who blow through stop signs in heavy traffic - often forcing cars to hit brakes hard. Those morons really screw it up for the rest of us. (I mentally imagine them getting plowed into the ground by pick-up truck)

And when somebody yells at me to get off the road, I just holler back, "You get off the road." But I try to make it sound like a humorously exagerated retort. That way the idiots think I'm acknowledging that they are right, and the thinkers wonder if maybe there is another perspective (you can't smarten up and idiot).

Just say the magic words: Have you found Jesus yet?

Lauren, I like the way you think.

+1

I usually shout out "Mind that stop sign!" They invariably give me a look of confusion as if to say "A cyclist is calling me out...not a car?!"

Didn't know he was lost.

If I could count the times I've lost my cool during my commutes or just when out joy riding.

Some that come to mind:

I worked at Fort Hood a couple years back and had to ride in what is some of the worst stop and go traffic getting onto the post (this was after September 11). On one particular morning I had a motorist nudge my back wheel on my mountain bike. I assume he thought he was funny. I flipped out. I threw the bike to the ground and was opening his car door when the MPs actually pulled me back and arrested him. I can say without a doubt that if I had 15 more seconds, I would have put my cleat to his head.

Last year, right before I took my Fatty-fatty-I'm such a fatty hiatus from biking, I had a couple pass me in an old Sanford and Son-quality pickup screaming their lungs out at me on a downhill. I got to the red light about 2 seconds after them and literally almost climbed into the passenger window to explain to them in very clear english that "I have a right to use this road. If you somehow disagree with my right, I'll be more than happy to discuss it further with you fat asses over there in that parking lot, but I'm afraid two out of the three of us are going to making a trip to Scott and White. I won't be one of them, ****ers."

They both were ash faced and clearly wanted to get the devil that was in the window to go away. They apologized profusely.

To make matters worse for them, they were heading to the bus station to pick up one of their kin apparently, because I had time to change, talk with a few of the press crew in the back while staring at them in their truck. The press guys made it a point to stand there and be very loud and aggressive about ending that truck's life if Dean gets hurt by them.


Other than that, the occassional curse, hand slammed down on a hood has always worked. Its what I have taught my wife now that she has joined me in the lifestyle. Considering we've got a trailer each with one of our son's in it now 90% of the time, we're very aggressive to get "our space' on the road.