Gotta get some speed up and overtake them then! Or just drop back a bit so it isn't directly going in your face. The only time I get that is in a traffic jam, but I try to filter past them most of the time. (A london commuter here).

I worry more about about the long term effects of pollution. My commute takes me through downtown Los Angeles during rush hour, and it can get pretty nasty at times. Fortunately, really smoggy days re relatively rare, and the air is cleaner than it used to be. Still, you have to wonder how healthy breathing in a lungfull of diesel fumes is for you . . .

You get more pollution in a car - just be thankful that you can filter through the traffic, they have to sit in it, in a closed car.

Lol! I feel exactly the same.

I get far less pollution whenever I commute by bike. Part of my commute involve riding a train which rail is high above city street. When I do have to drive, I usually inhaling my daily dose of smog in stopped freeway traffic.

Part of life irony is that one of my car is a gross polluter which is going to the junk yard soon (reason why I commute by bike). With that being said, I worry more about pollution while driving instead of biking. I seldom get other car tailing me behind the "curtain of smoke" but too bad I cannot use some of that smoke to keep cars off of me when I am biking :)

Mmmmm nothing like the smell of diesel in the morning.

It's a big concern for me. I know that air quality is just as bad inside cars, but there's something about being at a light turning green when everyone hits their gas peddle at the same time. :(

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, car pollutants cause ground-level ozone which damages your lungs and is extremely harmful to people who have asthma and other types of lung disease.

Riverside, CA is where I call home. And I'm lucky to breathe all this smog. :D

This has been a concern of mine for some time. I even have a mask for keeping dust out of my lungs, when I am using the leaf-blower. The problem becomes, that I can't wear the dust mask for a long period of time. I have a bi-weekly commute that takes an hour and, a weekly commute that takes 2.5hrs.

As for you giving up bike commuting, because of pollution, you would go from being part of the solution to, part of the problem. The only way to not contribute to vehicle pollution is, to not drive.

Take a look at this website: http://onelesscar.org/page.php?id=1

Yeah, the ozone is bad enough to burn sensitive crops in some areas. You can be sure it is doing the same to your lungs.

Schools and School buses are the worst spots, you can smell the idling fleet of buses and parents a mile away if the wind is blowing the right way.