Try riding a bike in Kentucky. Nothing but hate for people on bikes.

I know I'm not oblivious to what's going on around me so I know it's not that I am simply not paying attention to rude drivers, but I haven't been honked at in years. In 15 years of commuting I have only been honked at a handful of times, had two cups thrown at me, and maybe two people yell at me. I'm sure I am forgetting some stuff but you can see my point, negative motorist encounters are rare for me.

Ahh.. to better clarify this statement, please fill in the blank....


In Kentucky there is nothing but hate for people on bikes. However, in Kentucky they sure LOVE ................. ?

pork?

Moonshine?

Cops have to glare. It's in the contract.

I've gotten the polite honks and I take them as a friendly warning that a car is coming up behind me and I look at it as the cager trying to be helpful.

For for me anyway, it is always the woman hanging out the passenger window and her obsession with the sidewalk. And it's always "get on the sidewalk" or some such BS. I just usually ignore them or if it was a bad day I will yell back "Read the law!" and flip them off.

My wife keeps telling me to ignore them as I'm eventually going to run into a wacko that wants to take target practice.

I figured I'd be all-but-murdered for riding in the streets when I lived in WV. There is no such thing as a "bike lane" and the shoulders in the Huntington area measure about three inches wide (most of which is full of shattered glass). The people are fat and often rude, so I was always prepared for the worst when I'd head out in the morning.

Oddly enough, I never got one honk or rude gesture. The closest I came was when a buddy and I were playing stoplight sprints with a dump-truck, and he was getting visibly upset at the fact we were beating him every time.

Listen to your wife, flipping off the wrong person (wacko) driving a 2 ton weapon will ruin your day. It's hard, but I try to wave with all five fingers when confronted by jerks. It's hard for the wacko's to run over a guy with a big stupid grin waving at them...

A copy of the local/state bicycle regs might have helped in this case.

Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.

Me too. Too busy listening to good music to get into scraps with drivers.

Agreed. Now several more drivers will be more likely to behave antagonistically toward any cyclist they see in said town.

Exactly. Mellow out instead of lashing out.

Depends on where you are. I never really had any trouble riding in town when living there.

Your wife is right. One of these days, you might flip off the wrong person. And what good will it do to have them in jail if you're paralyzed from the neck down or something for life?

Exactly. Defuse the situation. With the knowledge of how badly road rage situations often turn out between two people in cars, I can't imagine why anyone would attempt to intimidate someone in a car (or insert themselves into a hot situation) while riding a bicycle.

The person was ignorant of the law and instead of politely correcting her, you gave her this line. This automatically makes you an a--hole, and lowering yourself to below their standards. Therefore, at that moment, your character is no better than the people shouting rude remarks at you.

Exactly. Blow their minds, not your fuse.

I just wish I could always follow my own advice. Sigh... It's progress, not perfection.

No it isn't, there is no predicting what a wacko will do or not do, that's why we...they are wackos!

Yes...and that's the point. It can be difficult to deal with multiple Bozos yelling stupid comments. The most Gandhi-like of us can cheerfully smile and wave their way through it but I find it hard to criticize someone who at some point has heard enough.

Let me see if I've got this straight . . . .

You've exchanged words with a guy's wife in a multi-ton vehicle. Now the guy is pissed over your comments because he feels you insulted his wife.

So in your brilliance . . . you get out in front of said vehicle, w/in 6 inches/sideways, and exchange hand gestures and profanity with the guy . . . holding up a long line of cars.

Right or wrong, the cagers are dangerous [at this point] and you're a moron [or perhaps suicidal].

DON

"Arguing with fools..." and all that.

Though this time, BOTH parties were fools.

1. The driver & her man for ignorance.

2. Our intrepid OP for relying on the sufferance of folks not to grind him into a gear-impregnated paste with their automobile after he had personally insulted them.

Hint: If the automobile becomes a party to the argument, no witty repartee or snappy comeback is going to enable you to win.

My wife (currently working toward her RN) is currently helping care for a quadriplegic. He was a healthy man a month ago, right before he was mowed down by a car while riding his bike. Now he can't wipe his own backside. On the bright side, he has made wonderful progress: he can now lift his arms (a little bit, but not with enough agility to feed himself) and flex his left quadriceps.

I think it the wise course of action to smile & wave at the fools in the 2-ton weapons, for my part.

exactly. advice is cheap and easy. doing it day in and day out is something different entirely.

i'm just happy that i don't "slip up" and lose my cool as much as i used to.

At this point, assuming that it was a good idea to respond at all (and it's almost invariably not), wouldn't a more productive response have been something like this?

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but section 12-808 of the Philadelphia City Code actually makes it illegal for me to ride on the sidewalk. Plus, Under Chapter 35 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, I am not only permitted, but in many instances required, to ride on the street."

(Obviously, I'm using my own local law as an example, but I'm sure that whatever jurisdiction you're in has similar provisions.)

You had the opportunity to either ignore the driver so as not to escalate the situation, or to educate the driver, which would have at least created the possibility that the driver would learn not to make the same mistake in the future. Instead, you took actions that will increase that driver's antagonism toward cyclists in the future. Not smart.

It's too bad that in my state, the gal in the car would allegedly be correct. We still have a mandatory sidepath law on the state books, even though everybody ignores it (including the local municipality.) It does contain a bit of wiggle room in saying that where a "usable" or "suitable" sidepath exists... So I could argue in court that the existing "sidewalk" is not suitable for bicycle traffic, and that the MUP on the opposite side of the street puts me in opposition to the traffic flow, or that it has too few points of entry, etc. But the "ruling" would probably depend on the judge of the day.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mohandas Ghandi

To which she will obviously respond "Oh, sorry for my incompetence and stupidity of road laws. Have a good day, lawful cyclist."

interesting, I haven't really had that problem. Pondering this situation, I guess I will start to carry copies of the state law dealing with the riding of bicycles and instead of lecturing someone on the road, I would
just give them a copy and ignore them...