Too hard to profile driver with caps or hood in this state, because most of them also tinted their window including the front door window.

I do give my best respect whenever I profile a car with some kind of bike rack or holder on them. Too me, they're like sister and brothers.

Agreed. A bike holder on the back of the car is a near-guarantee of courtesy.

the jesus fish, followed closely by the family stickers. the more "people" the more dangerous, btw.

Man Neil i sure hope your just generalizing,i was looking forward to meeting a fellow cyclist in Edmonton ( i of course know a few). I actually love pickups and always have had one,its not a "one ton dually" you speak of though, too inconvenient to park in city. Ive done a ton of oilfield trucking with semi's back in the day.Wear a ball cap too even on my bike. Sounds like we might get along good.
PS It is the small size pickup though,dont need big one for city use.

I read somewhere that some psychologist thought he might do a study, because he thought he could make a case that anyone with > 3 bumper stickers on their car probably had some kind of diagnosable mental illness.

That's a real stumper as to whether it's good, or bad...

Which side will my Jeep land on if I roll it?

No no no. It's the car with the driver applying nail polish to her/his fingernails and gingerly handling the steering wheel with one hand so the other hand can dry without smearing that you worry about. It's tricky not messing up a manicure while driving and obviously the priority here is pretty nails.

I saw this marvelous driver last summer. She couldn't figure out why other drivers were honking at her as she drove like a snail in the centre lane.

*Rampant Unsupported Profiling Alert*

Bad:

Minivans (all kinds). Men who drive them overcompensate for the fact that buying the damned thing was the wife's idea, and he couldn't have the Mustang he wanted; women who drive them seem to be in a constant state of low-grade panic, likely because they're late for daycare/soccer/hockey/karate/piano/school/ballet/whatever (hi, sis!).

Boiracers. There's nothing like the Pwissssss! of a turbo system dumping pressure to say, "I (or more likely, my parents) have more money than brains." C'mon, an aftermarket turbo on a Dodgey Neon?

Lift kits. For men, the distance the truck has been lifted is directly proportional to the insecurity the driver feels over the length of his penis. For women, it's directly proportional to the length of the penis she envies.

Token good:

Corvettes (all years). Plastic fantastic + 215 pounds of me through the windshield = closed casket funeral for the driver. That, or the dent I'd leave in the car will worsen the owner's mid-life crisis. Either way, Corvette drivers give me a wide berth.

On long rides I have found people with big pickups and horse trailers tend to give me lots of safe space. I don't know any horse people, but my guess is that they understand being a vulnerable road user.

SUVs, and pickups in general, where I live in the 'burbs, are unnecessary and a sign of wasteful consumption. Their drivers tend to be selfish jerks. I imagine that drivers who actually have a need for large vehicles may drive differently, like the horse trailer people.

Mid-'70s Cutlasses and Impalas.

Anybody in cars. I'd say about 2% to 1% of drivers. No particular typing noticed. I do notice that the home bound rush hour seems present more of them.

I tend to ride in poor to working class neighborhoods.

Personally, I wear a Cinci Bearcats hat whenever I'm not in the office, and my car has a stainless exhaust with a big tailpipe. I give half a lane every time, which is pretty often since my route home from work is all backroads between East Longmeadow, MA and Hartford, CT (popular bike route apparently).

Maybe my hatch-mount bike rack that I'm too lazy to ever remove really does offset the risk factors...

One could argue that a small pickup is greener than some cars. You see cars that can seat 5-6 people with one driver only running around town. Where as my small Ford Ranger only has three usable seat positions if i cram someone right next to me in the middle which gives me no room to shift(standard trans) plus i can carry quite a few bikes and other large odds n ends in it. Might say its less wasteful but i guess im stretching it a little here. I went to smaller truck with smaller motor this time as a little contribution to wasteful consumption you speak of.

Point taken. Around here I haven't seen a small pickup in ages. When I said pickup I was seeing this, usually driven too fast and owning the road.

This thread is bonkers. I wear a hat while a ride my bike. Backwards. Does that mean cars should look out for me?

Was that you, I forgot the post exactly: you stopped to offer a cyclist with a broken bike a lift and you scared the crap out of him?

Hey hey hey!!! Watch it I have a minivan, 2004 Mazda MPV, it was my decision to buy it (for utility: fits 3 people, 3 bikes with wheels on and all gear inside) and I'm a very considerate and safe driver. And I would never drive a sports car, ever. So there goes your stereotype... although I pretty much agree that I am an exception from this rule

LOL What about bikes with stickers?!?

Old people and girls with huge sunglasses. Old people can stare right at you as they gun the accelerator and not even see a thing. The big glasses 20 something girls are just annoying, in the car and in life.

Yeah, they usually have serious emotional issues and they look like bugs, they just don't realize that.

Oh, but add those boxy Scion cars

Yep. It was before I had the bike rack, so it was a little less obvious that I was stopping to offer him a ride to the LBS. I think the only thing I could have done to scare him more would have been to roll up behind him with my spotter lights on and hit the airhorn.

cccorlew mentioned drivers with horse trailers giving plenty of room, and I notice that around here, too. I don't know if it's based on equestrian understanding of being a vulnerable road user, or if it's just because they're safety conscious about their humongous trailers and actually understand how much space they take up on the road. Either way, I've never gotten less than 1/2 a lane of clearance from one.

Darn, I guess that rule out big glasses for me. I thought about taking a round helmet and paint it red with some black dots all over. Then I'll put on one of those big black sunglass to make me look like a Ladybug with big bug eyes riding around town on a cruiser.

I'm not 20 so maybe I gotten over my illness by now.....NOT!

For me, the ones to watch out for is any car or truck containing two or more young guys. They're the ones that throw things at me, and I can just imagine that every time, it is preceded by: "Hey, watch this!" If they're well behaved enough not to try to clip me or throw things at me, they can't refrain from shouting something out the window.

As someone posted earlier, it is usually an afterthought. I can't see them coming, but I can tell the demographic as they pass by.

This week, as I was riding home, some guys shouted out the window at me: "WOOOOOO!" I caught up to them at the light, pulled up next to them, and gave them the: "What was THAT all about?" look. One of them timidly replied: "Nice lights." Somehow, they lose their courage when they are no longer anonymous or going 40 mph faster than us.

If I saw you riding your bike backwards, I'd probably give you some extra room.

i am cautious of EVERY car I see. however, i am guilty of 'profiling' before I yell at a driver for being an ass. If they look intimidating, i let it go, otherwise i'll let them know they need to watch where they're going. that's just from learned experience, I don't like when big scary dudes get out of their car and ask me to repeat myself.