POLL**Anti-Cyclist Rage**POLL
 

Hey there everybody,

I was just wondering how many of you have encountered the Anti-Cyclist Rage phenomena? You know, how in the mild cases people just like to ride by in their car and call you a ******, and in the worst cases will tail-gate and/or cause you to veer and crash into a parked car, etc...

I always wondered what the motivation was for these people because the majority of the time when it has happened to me I have not been in anyones' way. I have been called ******, had big-gulps thrown at me (they always miss though), been tailgated, and even one time when I told the jerks off they stopped their big truck, sat in the driver's seat with a "cold-one" in their hand and said they would shove the end of the bottle up my...

Well, you get the point. I'd like to hear of other's experiences and thoughts on why this seems to happen as perhaps there is a solution, or at least words of wisdom floating around.

Thanks
-Ian

Never had the issue, but I live in a civilized nation... ;)

It sounds nice; I like Costa Rican coffee btw ;-)

austin isn't as bad as some cities, but i've had my fair share of asses yell and threaten me.

I get the very seldom car horn or yell. That was until yesterday morning when a woman in a Jag, behind me at the light, honked her horn and yelled out the window. I didn't think anything of it because it does happen occasionally. Well she decided to barrel past me as the light turned green, side swiping me in the process. I managed to remain upright and nearly caught her at the next intersection. She yelled at me again before leaving that intersection as the light turned green.

I just don't understand how someone can get so upset and have such little regard for life over absolutely no delay (she had to wait at the next intersection anyways). I can only suppose she was mentally ill or on drugs.
Craig

Out of the thousands of motor vehicles that I've encountered since commuting only a few have been total jack asses. I've had trash thrown at me, yelled & cursed at, had people try to spit on me (only to get in on themselves), tailgated, I guess the whole 9 yards. My temper at first had always gotten the best of me but now I'm pretty immune to it unless they put me in a dangerous situation. It's always the bad encounter we remember but in my experience they are the exception & not the norm, I just have to keep remembering that.

Never happened to me in chicago..

But as a skateboarder in Austin, I got a lot of '******s', and had bags of flour, and firecrackers thrown at me several times.

Ill have been in three states in three years this June :cry:
PA was ruff....not as bad as some of the stuff I read here,
but could be a challenge. Vermont was fabulous !! Ive
gotten beeped/buzzed 5 times the whole time Ive been here.
FLA looks like its going to be a challenge :eek:
But, yeah....people hate anything they *think* is going to slow
them down. CageRage is something Ill always expect no matter
where I am. That .5 of a second they need to slow or yeild
ROW can be a crucial factor in reaching the next red lite or
sale at WAL*MART
:rolleyes:

I'll give you some insight from a person who has been on the non-cyclist end of such things, me.
Yup, before I decided to give cycling a try I was your average hillbilly who couldn't hid my red neck if I tried. Granted, I'm still a bit of a redneck, but in a less of an assholish way.
For me, it was all about getting my jollies at someone elses expense, and cyclists are easy targets. They are for the most part skinny little fella's with no threatening muscles to show. They made a very easy target since I knew that if it came to physical encounters I would be the one walking away from the fight.
Me and some buds would be riding around, doing god knows what, and we'd see this skinny little brightly colored guy up ahead. He looked odd, like a clown, and out of place. Showing off his sausage and hard boiled eggs through his little tight girly shorts. So why not yell something out the window or toss my wad of chew at him. We'd laugh and drive off making jokes about him and what he and his buddies would do later once they all got sweaty and wot-not. We look in the mirror and see him stop and try to wipe the tobacco juice from his clothing. It was pur sadistic fun that we could have and be totally anonymous about it.

I'm no longer that person though and have paid my dues for my past life. But I'm not going to put on a false face on here either just to try and fit in. I'm am who I am and not who I was.
But that is why we would do it.

I'm in California, and many people (from other states) are surprised at the number of "ignorant red-necks" you encounter in California outside of SF or Berkeley; yes it is true. I thought about having some kind of protection on me when I ride just in case things might get ugly; mace, etc...

First off. I hope your luck holds out. I have been hit by slushies when turning and it can really throw off your path when your not expecting it.
I've been commuting by bike on and off since 2002 and have had my fair share of abuse/rage. I get alot more people just being jerks because that is who they are rather then people who hate cyclists. Both in Bridgeport/Fairfield Connecticut and the DFW Texas Area. Of the thousands upon thousands of drivers who have passed me, and 2 or 3 that I have passed :o it is only a select few that do anything. Usually honking, tailgating, throwing things, jamming you off the road, cutting you off and slamming on the brakes but I find the best response is just to smile and move on. If they weren't ill intentioned you don't start anything and if they were trying to be a jerk you don't feed their anger or make it fun for them.

Some things that cut down on driver anger I follow traffic laws as close as absolutely possible, ride consistently and predictably, ride on the right side of the _STREET_, don't blast off sidewalks into traffic without looking, move to the side when it looks like I'm going to cause a little traffic jam, am fully lighted and reflectorized and I think the rear panniers really help. It shouldn't matter however people seem to think with the panniers I am on my way somewhere and not just getting exercise and getting in their way. I could always do better and sometimes I get distracted and am unprepared and get in someones way or I have bike issues and hold up traffic.

No matter how I or anyone else rides cars are going to get peaved sometimes either just because or because they were unprepared for, because they were distracted or possibly because they fear for your life out their with all the vehicles. In both cycling and driving I find may/june is the worst in Texas. You have either inexperience riders out trying to cycle or you have people who ride their bikes with complete disregard for everything and everyone else. Drivers seem to be alot more fed up with me this time of year then all the others.

It isn't really bikers though If you driver your car the speedlimit or slower and drive like a civilized person instead of jack rabbit starts to drag race between stoplights alot of drivers will get very angry with you in your car for holding them up.

I'm not going to give you advice on wether to cary a defensice weapon or not. But if I had stepped out of my truck to confront one of these guys, something like mace or pepper spray might have changed my attitude real fast.

I dont get harassed very often in chicago myself.
But you got me thinking about carrying around bags of flour just in case I do.
Bags of flour, funny stuff, who carries around bags of flour?
And what should I use like a cup?

In the last 20 years, I've had to stand my ground, NY chain in hand, once. I've had someone throw a golf ball at me, once. And I've had folks honk, tell me to get on the sidewalk, gesture, and sound about as forgiving and polite as I do when behind the wheel, countless times. For the most part it's still more pleasant and less stressful on the bike than behind the wheel.

I live in NYC. Everybody yells at everybody. In all seriousness, though, I have generally been impressed with how congniscent drivers are of bikers. Part of it is that in Manhattan and Brooklyn traffic is such that bikes are generally not slow-moving vehicles, and part of it is that there are a lot of bikers here: delivery people, commuter, serious road bikers, leisure riders, etc. The biggest problems are delivery trucks, city buses (who have to be aggressive to get their people where they are going), and PEDESTRIANS, who wander out into the street without looking because they don't hear an engine.

I just started commuting, and so far both times I've ridden to work someone has driven by and shouted something derogatory at me. Startled me, mostly!

I'm just down the road in San Marcos and I have been called ******, told to get on the side walk (in an area with none...) I had several ppl yell various things, and I have had a golf ball thrown at me (as I passed the local golf course...apparently it was my fault he sliced ;) )

I lived in Austin for several years without any issues, but San Marcos if full of self righteous cager/frat boys that ALWAYS drink and drive...I can't wait until Aug when I move to Illinois!!!

none. ever.

From my side I yelled at a JAM today (and rightly so). Done that about a dozen times in my life.

I've lived in France, UK, and Canada as well. Lucky?

what is psychology of such rage?

the psychology is "i am in big metal shield: I am protect

the man rides cycles is unsafe and unprotect

i, man, in car see man in cyle as not obey rule he do so to hurt me and takes advantage of me in metal shield

i must take matter in own hand! he has no right on road! i rage him!

(b-c i the car driver is not know the rule and the law!!! the law say cycle allow on road!)

I've had a couple incidents but they have been few and far between. Usually by idiot teenagers with little thought going on up there and a lot of false bravado.

I have had some whistles from young women though. ;)

Aww come on, don't be so hard on yourself, you still got plenty of assholish in ya! :D

Hey you think it's bad now. Wait a week or two when school is out for summer. I've never been hassled by old people. It's mostly white male teenagers and twenty somethings. And in a couple days there is going to be alot of them... in cars... and bored out of their little skulls.

I regard catcalls from young women sarcastically. One time I got the ubiquitous "Nice bike!" and it turned out it was a girl I went to school with for 12 years, I don't think she recognized me. She pooped her pants in first grade, so I win.

Different groups, different motivations...

Out of all the threats I encounter the vast majority of them just don't know how to safely negotiate their way past a cyclist through sheer incompetence, ignorance or they're just too youg (immature/irresponsible) to operate any vehichle. There's no malice involved, only ignorance and incompetence. I'd have to run a nationwide chain of driver training academies and have lots of legislation chaged before I'd have any impact on that problem so I just let it go. These are the ones that will kill you without meaning to, and the ones I most watch out for and worry about the most as they represent by far the biggest threat to me.

Then there's the average mums and dads that give a short toot on the horn and pass slowly and carefully with a ridiculously wide margin, sometimes they even hang back and don't pass me but wait untill I signal them to go. Some think they are being 'safe' by alerting me to their precense where others are just saying "cycling is very dangerous and I wish you weren't here because Im afraid to hurt you accidentally". No sense worrying about them, My father probably falls into that category. They are a small group and a mild annoyance at most.

There's the tough mouthed version of the ridiculously safe that try to shove their safety concerns by agressively demonstrating to you just how much danger you're in (the 'teach you a lesson for your own good' crowd) they turn to water with a little confrontation, usually an invitation to get out of their cage shuts them up. These idiots are a bigger annoyance but pose little risk.

Then there's the 1% of true a-holes that will go out of their way to harm you or otherwise bully you for their own sadistic pleasure. They don't really care if you end up hurt or dead so long as they aren't held accountable. As far as I'm concerned they deserve to meet disproportionate resistance because they only language they understand is pain and fear. They drive a weapon that serves a secondary purpose as transport. Needless to say they shouldn't be in society, never mind driving on the roads. They are a very small proportion of cagers but an encounter with one is often an unforgetable experience.

I've hade a few run ins with the "1%" sociopaths, some of which ended in a physical confrontation. Recently I was deliberately road raged and hit by one - it was a totally unprovoked attack while I was stopped waiting for cross traffic at a stop sign - he came up behind me honking agressively, deliberately hit me from behind (he stopped, revvied his engine several times, then lunged forward) then deliberately sideswiped me when he took off. There were plenty of witnesses and all the cops would do was to give him a ticket for negligent driving.

Another time one said something to me as he went by and I gave the standard F*** YOU reply. He screeched to a halt across several lanes blocking the road, got out and ran at me. Then he made the mistake of grabbing my handlebars and shaking my bike, he got his face well and truly smashed in and his car keys taken.

There's been a few more, like the two punks that tried to mug me for my laptop in a parking lot, I was heavily into my martial arts training back then as I had just graded for my black belt - they didn't get the lappie and I doubt they would remember just what did happen to them.

Yeah.... I guess you're right. :D
But nothing like the way I used to be! ;)