oboeguy

Sigh, another one this morning. I mixed-up my route today to avoid a stiffish headwind -- that is to say, I cut through Central Park and Queens to get to Brooklyn whereas I'd normally ride down the Hudson River, crossing Manhattan much further South. I'm zipping south along Central Park West with the intent of turning left into the Park around 100th St (I forget the exact street). Two lanes each way, double yellow line between, crossing all lanes necessary for getting into the Park. A block before the turn, there's a double parked car in the right lane of my travel direction, so I check over my shoulder, signal, and move into the left lane two blocks before my turn. An SUV driver tailgates me most of those two blocks.

As I'm making the turn (signaling again), the driver scoots into the right lane (I'm still in the left to make the turn) and calls out from the rolled down window that "what you're doing is dangerous". As I made the turn I politely informed her in a loud voice that I didn't know what else she expected me to do. Thoughts?

Edit: typo

thefirebuilds

move the **** out of new york?

oboeguy

You mean, the driver, right? So dangerous with all those cyclist behaving predictably in accordance with law.

uke

The only appropriate response: "I'm a dangerous kind of guy!"

thefirebuilds

frankly anyone crazy enough to live in NYC probably belongs there, but yeah, if I lived there, I'd move

threephi

I'm really not certain what she was referring to... you avoided a hazard and took the lane for one block as was fully your right. I'm more curious though about which state the plates on her deathmobile were registered.

And thefirebuilds, I get the sense you were joking (although perhaps only half-way), but I'm also curious: what is crazy or especially dangerous about living in NYC, exactly?

Quel

This happened to me last week in DC. Got yelled at, passed on the right, then 100 feet ahead he was waiting for a hole in traffic to turn left on the same street I was going to, with me in his rear view mirror. Not much you can do about it really.

miket.

"what you're doing helps fund the guys who took out a couple tall buildings we used to have around here."

thefirebuilds

my personal safety is inversely proportional to the number of other people allowed or required to be near me at any given time.

threephi

LOL I hear you there. The personal space envelope for a NYer is definitely smaller by necessity. But god help ya if you violate that envelope...

Andy_K 

Strictly speaking, what you were doing was dangerous, particularly when you were being followed by an erratic, clueless driver. It sounds like you did what you could to mitigate the danger.

Probably when she was done with you she went and told a bunch of fire fighters that what they do is dangerous. Later in the year, she's planning a vacation where she'll tell some rock climbers that what they're doing is dangerous.

subclavius

She probably thought you have to stay in the right hand lane, or that all bikes belong on the sidewalks.

She obviously didn't think tailgaiting a bike in a big SUV was dangerous.

Kojak

Danger... is my middle name.

mds0725

Seems like the only thing that was dangerous about what you did was that there was some a**hole in an SUV tailgaiting you the whole time. So although you were the one at risk, she was the one acting dangerously. (I'm tellin' ya, since getting their own "Law & Order" spinoff, those damned SUVs think they can do anything.)

Sirrus Rider

I would have come back on her with,"So is driving a car when your worrying and fretting over me, tailgating and turning you giant SUV into a 3,000 pound road hazard you busybody c#nT!"

ChipSeal

40,000 people die in auto crashes every year. Driving a motor vehicle is dangerous.

Just_Ryan

Good response. Forget about it and enjoy the rest of your ride. I really think that if people thought you could hear them while you're driving, you would hear the same kind of nonsense regularly while you're in your car. Just brush it off, knowing you were in the right, and get on with life. Should it really surprise us to find out that we share the road with idiots? That's not restricted to auto drivers, either. Keep calm, and carry on.

Grim

I always return fire or cover fire for the other riders but I do commute in Kennesaw GA and its the law.

Gonzo Bob

Ah, the lecture from a "concerned" cager. I get one every now and then. The last one was a woman who was "concerned" about my safety when I used the left turn lane to turn left at a 4-way stop. She slowed when she passed me and said something about her car weighing 3000lbs and me having no chance if she were to hit me. I came back with some lame response that she should learn to control her vehicle but wish I coulda thought of something better.

I don't think this is really concern for your safety, though. It's a different way to say "get the h*ll of the effin road!"

exile

Ah, New York City, everyone in a rush to get to the next traffic light or cut off that dreaded fool who allowed a few inches of space between themselves and the vehicle in front. I guess it's not expensive enough living thier, let alone owning or driving a car thier that you need a nice SUV to idle in traffic, while riding around for a parking spot.

caloso

I'm surprised she didn't claim to be a cyclist herself.

GodsBassist

This one.

KitN

+1

Commando303

Riding down the side-walk of Central Park West is a terrible idea...

Maybe I'm playing Devil's Advocate, but, perhaps she was just concerned with the place in which you crossed the double-yellow to get into the Park. I can't know, of course, as I wasn't there — this sort of description gets people to fill in a lot of blanks.

Mitchxout

You can't have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.