Monday, coming home from the light rail station, I got yelled at for the first time. The guy in the Jeep was apparently unhappy that I slowed his progress by 2 seconds, as I moved across the right turn lane, into the right forward lane(he was turning right). Yelled "get on the sidewalk" at me as he made the turn. By the time I process what he said and turned around, he already had his window up, and was just looking at me(instead of looking where he was going). Felt like yelling back, but kept quiet and went about my business. Got a good chuckle out of it though.

I got honked at yesterday, my first of the year! I commute year 'round... so the drivers are actually better than most people think. The bitter irony is that this is Rhode Island, and once you're in your car, it's Mad freakin' Max. It's just that they're considerate to cyclists and joggers in between trying to force each other off the road to fiery dooms. City Bus Drivers exempted, as it seems to be their goal in life to squash as many cyclists as possible.

I'm trying to learn to do the "friendly wave" whenever someone yells or honks. To my mind it's the only adequate response.

Sounds like the jeep guy is trying unsuccessfully to compensate for some other *shortcoming* in his life.

Good on ya for ignoring the little, er dude.

Bill

ha!

cool. stay positive about it. i've lost my patience w/drivers like that, and it's not a good way to feel. hopefully my sense of humor will return with the nicer weather that's on its way!

I think that's as good a response as any. Hard to properly execute sometimes, though.

I think everyone has to lose their temper once at a driver to realize its extreme futility. Yell back once and you feel like a chump afterwards, then adopt the do-nothing or wave.

Dude! Welcome to the club.

Smile and wave boys..... Smile and wave

How long have you been riding? I think my first yelling came before I needed to top off my tires!

Good job of staying cool.

Like water on a duck's back... just let it roll off.

Like water under the bridge. Then get on top of the bridge and pee in it.

I was basically forced into a bike commute, because the light rail station parking is filled at 9am. This all started when I started back to school this semester... so about 1.5 months now(only 2 days a week) I've officially been commuting on the bicycle. It's only 2 miles each way, but having done this for a bit now, it has me thinking about commuting to work. The school commute started out with bicycle(to the light rail) for the morning class, and then take the car back to the light rail for the afternoon class. After a few weeks, I started(and am now at) doing 2x round trips a day for the bicycle, totaling 8 miles two days a week.

Work is a 12 mile trip each way. Just ordered the DiNotte 800/400 kit last night, so I can actually try the commute to work(it's a 1730-0530 shift). Light when I go in right now, but still dark when I leave. And part of the bike path is along a 4 lane highway shoulder.

When it gets nicer out, I'll probably try the MUP up the Platte river to class, which is around 15 miles each way. But, almost no stops, crossing, or anything in the way. One solid path up the river to downtown Denver.

If I can some idiot cager (is there any other kind?) yelling at me I take it as an indication that the volume on my i-pod is a tad low.

I find "get on the treadmill" often provokes an unwanted reaction, but can be a good choice when strategically deployed.

I've taken to waving at people. I had a guy that was honking at me (from the opposite direction) for about 2 weeks (I don't know where he went). The first few days, it was not a friendly honk.. long and drawn out the whole way past. I waved. By the middle of the second week, I was getting a beep beep beep and a smile and wave.

I hope my AirZound doesn't change that though

That's perfect!

As for the OP, welcome to the club. I had a (cough) lady (cough, cough) try and pass me yesterday on my way in. She didn't have enough time to get around me (I was on a 4-lane bridge), so, when she realized that she couldn't get around me without slamming into me, she slammed on the breaks. Her truck skidded to a stop, half in my lane, half in the left lane, and then she got back behind me. The dumb thing is, she had to wait an extra 5 seconds, maybe.

People think that the 2-7 seconds they have to wait behind us is going to cause irreparable damage to their life; I just don't get it.
D

Here is another comeback. "I'm not allowed"

That's actually pretty good. How about a nice, cheerful, "NO!"?

A driver yelled at me to get on the sidewalk last night when I was riding home from a bicycle advocacy meeting.

If he hadn't have been so isolated in that car he might have noticed that there was no sidewalk to get on.

Many people are crazy; some of them tote guns. I prefer no response. I keep John Allen's advice in mind: At least you know they see you.

Just do what I do: keep a shotgun and several grenades in your saddlebag. The shotgun ensures their window is open, then you lob the grenade in.



Ahhhhhhhhh, wouldn't life be nice...

it happens. resist the urge to flip them off. lots of stories of road confrontations. it is best to avoid them even when these people require an education or a punch in the head

Congrats on the restraint! It's harder some days than others, at least for me! And the friendly wave either makes them feel foolish or pisses them off worse....win/win.