I didn't commute much over the winter but now I'm almost back to full time commuting. So far this year I have had more honks, middle fingers, and nasty yells than in all my previous years of commuting combined.

It always makes me mad and I hate coming home mad. I mean, what do they think, that they somehow have a greater right to the road than me?

Mostly I guess I'm just venting but I'm also curious if anyone else perceives an increase in anti-cyslist nastiness from motorists.

Thanks for listening.

Don't feel bad! I am now commuting on almost a daily basis, weather permitting and have run into the same circumstances. I even get rude remarks at work from fellow workers (mostly from the obese ones...might I add).

I'm getting some hassle from cabbies lately. Don't know what that's about, as I've been being a good girl and riding to the right as required by law, but they've been cutting me off, turning in front of me, yelling at me... I started to chase one down on Monday after he cut me off and turned right at the intersection in front of me, but I was also in a hurry, and when he saw me coming, he took off.

Freakin' dumb@sses.

Koffee

Here in Philadelphia (as in many places) it was a nasty, depressing winter. Then there was a war that very few people actually wanted. Gasoline prices went up, the stock market went down, and there was this pervasive sense of individual powerlessness that I think affected most people to some extent or another.

As we all realize, American Car Culture exists as a means by which people can actually buy and then deploy personal power. You may be a drone in your job, demeaned by your spouse, the onject of your children's ridicule, but by God, when you're behind the wheel you're as good as anybody and better than most.

I'm not surprised that the drivers are particularly aggressive and intolerant at the moment. And yes, I've noticed it too. People are unhappy and afraid, and it shows in their driving.

RichC

I think its just people in general....

I ride 3 miles each way to work and back on country roads that are windy and 35-50 mph speed limit with 2 spots to pass people (well 2 spots i can pass people in my 260z anyhow, hehe). When i ride i stay on the right, about a foot from the edge of the road or so and have never had a problem. Cars slow down for me, i know they are there and they go around easily.

So, the other weekend i drive into town for work and lo and behold there is a bike event going on on my road. Well i passed about 20 bicyclists and about 80% of them were driving down the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD just staying right of the center line. It was very difficult to get around these guys and dangerous for me the driver. Yes i was ticked off, i felt they were giving bikers a bad rap for one thing and being jerks. The fact that i share the road almost daily with cars and bikes really left me wondering what these people were thinking. :confused:

Is that your new e-mail address?

Actually, the driver aggression around here seems to be slightly lower than normal for Easter. However, I really don't care about driver abuse anymore. I've copped so much of it over the years that I'm totally desensitised to it. I simply don't care. What bothers me is driver incompetence. This is much more common, and much, much harder to predict.

I can identify with commuter concerns. In the winter when the bike paths are snowed over and the bike lanes are covered in slush, drivers don't seem to respect our right to a lane. A year ago I was hit by a car downtown. As I stumbled to my feet, the driver was out of his car yelling at me about just what kind of an idiot I was for biking in the winter and being in his way.
I have a bad attitude when it comes to drivers. As a rule I consider their actions inattentive bordering on criminal. They smoke, talk on their cell phones and are the major cause of pollution.
Haven't they heard of the Kyoto Accord?
I don't have a much higher opinion of the petroleum companies. Today one is running a promotion selling fuel at $CAN 0.38/L. Drivers are backed up for blocks idling their cars while they wait to fill up.
I just ride by with a big smile.

I'm not sure what is up, but I've noticed it too. Last year it was the other cyclists that were a bit nuts this year it's the steel coffins. I've seen some silly stuff, not just driving and talking on the cell, but doing things like cutting off the bike lane, and not look when you peer into the fish bowl wondering what sort of mouth breather they are, and they know they did it cause they're rolling up their windows.

What really gets me is the head case that thinks they are doing me a favor by stopping where the bike path crosses a heavily trafficed road. They had idiots behind them barreling down not paying attention and swing around them. I don't feel comfortable with this situation, and wave them through, some kid is going to buy it cause of them.

Finally the guy that feels I am taking up more than my share of the road side, and swings into the oncoming lane to "avoid" me. That bothers me, I don't want to be picking some dude out of the trees.

Funny this should come up but I too have felt that there is a lot more bad driving going on this year.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been overtaken, then cut up as they make a turn. Then there is oncoming traffic turning in front of me a bit too close for comfort. But the worst one was a oncoming vehicle decided it was going to overtake another car and use my side of the road to do it in.

I'm beginning to wonder if my bikeforums jersey is actually Harry Potters Cloak of Invisibility

Dang, hate to spoil the atmosphere, but I've recently been very pleased with the noticeably high level of attention and politeness my local drivers have been showing.

Maybe all the good manners are vacationing in Wisconsin this spring?

I was just talking about this with someone the other day. For me it seems to go in cycles. I will go 3 or 4 days where everyone seems to behave themselves and then all at once I will get honked at, yelled at, told to get off the road. One guy actually slowed down and yelled out his window that he should run me over.

I chalked it up to Michigan drivers. The Motor city is definetly not a bike freindly place. I thought Michigan was the worst since I never had problems like this when I lived and rode in Western New York about 10 years ago. However I see now that it happens all over.

I just can't figure out what makes people so angry especially when your not even in there way.

Bigotry usually.

The reason we are seeing more bad driving is probably more congestion. The evironazis and nimby's just won't let anyone build a new road, so we have roads built to accommodate 1970 traffic carrying three to five times as much volume. Throw in exclusionary zoning which makes for larger parcels, and cul-de-sac's which limit traffic to a few paths, and we have annoyed drivers in bad traffic even after they paid much more gas tax after 1982 to pay for those roads. Instead all they are getiing is sound barriers, but no lanes.

I'm not at all convinced more roads are the answer. In fact more roads often create more congestion. It's called Braess' Paradox.

Anyway, thanks for all the responses. It's oddly reassuring to see that many of you share my perception.

School bus drivers are the most aggressive, nasty drivers on the road. I have more close calls with them than any others. I think they really don't have a clue as to just how big the bus is. They cut corners and come way too close when passing, I've had my grip rub the bus side more than once.

Somebody has said... "ride as if you were invisible".

Motorists in Colorado have seemed pretty accomodating of my commute this year, at least out on the highway. The only gestures exchanged have been from either myself or the motorist waving the other fellow safely through intersections or across the bike lanes and such.

Here in my patch of San Jose, all is well. I've seen no change whatsoever in driver behavior.

Just yesterday I went out for a spin and a big dump truck slowed way down and gave me plenty of room. I wanted to stop him and say thanks. But during the ride following that several normal sized cars and small cars blew by me withoput giving me any extra room. Some quite close. I very often think if it is worth running the risk of being killed and leaving my child fatherless to go out on my bike. Drivers are that inconsiderate sometimes. Luckily I have routes that are much friendlier that I ride. The route i topok yesterday is one of the less desireable of my choices.

Complain,
start carrying pen and paper, and write down liscence numbers. It doesn't do much; but a lot of police depts will send out a letter teling the driver to cool it. Also, if the jerk winds up standing in traffic court; the judge will see your complaint. It makes a difference. I feel fortunate that the drivers around here have been good. I can be aggressive in traffic; and people have been very nice about letting me through. Maine tends to be one notch more mellow than most places, and two or three notches behind Mass.

I have to agree with you. When I was still in college, a school bus driver came down the campus's main road, speeding may I add, and almost hit me. She never even bothered to stop for th pedestrian walk. I jumped back all of a sudden and was just standing maybe 6 inches from the side of the bus going by.

In my experience people are just nicer in Wisconsin.

I can't say I agree with that opinion about school but drivers around here. Rather I find that transit bus drivers in general tend to be really, really aggressive.

VTA buses here in Silicon Valley, every ride I see at least one speeding down El Camino Real doing at least 50mph (limit is 35). That's way too fast for a bus to be speeding on an urban street like ECR. If I wanted to bother, I could email VTA a significant violation I've seen their drivers do almost everyday.

But even at work (NASA Ames Research Center), even the 'NASA Shuttle' bus drivers are bad. The one and only time I took the shuttle to get home, the driver scared me so bad, ripping around corners, speeding like a banshee, I simply won't ride it again. Everytime I see them around campus, it's the same sort of driving, too.

In the mornings around here it's off Sandy Bay Road from 8.15 until 8.45 am or suffer the consequences - and it's not pretty place to be. The alternative route has a hill that is mountain bike granny all the way (not an option on a road bike) The decision makers have been trying to generate discussion on sorting this mess out but to no avail (NIMBY rules in Sandy Bay). Happiness would be school holdiays for 52 weeks a year - peak hour traffic drops by over a third during this time.
In the evenings/on the way home - high beam lights, especially from buses. I am seriously considering the acquisition of one intensely powerful spotlight to return the compliment to these people.

Here on the "Coast with the most" (I presume they're referring to stupidity), flashing high beam lights at cyclists is a popular recreational activity. I find my helmet visor to offer the best protection. You just need to tilt your head forward for a couple of seconds.

This is especially true here in Oklahoma. It seems like every red neck mullet wearing trailer baby has a lifted Ford F350 dually that makes them feel like they aren't the white trash minimum wage that they are. I actually had a guy driving in the opposit direction three lanes over slow down to yell at me to "get out of the road!" Made me want to find his nasty orange truck and slice the sidewall of his 39" super swampers... of course I just rode hard and had released the frustration by the time I made it home