As I gain experience commuting by bike, I find myself getting better at identifying potentially dangerous drivers. Has anyone else noticed that one sure sign of a dodgy driver is headgear? If they're wearing a hat or a hood, they're almost always unpredictable, aggressive or inattentive; if they're wearing both, don't go anywhere near them!

Not sure why this is. To me it just seems wrong to wear a hat / hood in a car.

What other signals put you on alert?

If I'm close enough to see what they're wearing, I'm close enough to see whether they're paying attention or not.

I find the ones on the road tend to be most dangerous. Beyond that, I haven't noticed any patterns.

According to this , bumper stickers and personalized items (like on van in second pic) = road rage.

Yes, I can see bumper stickers being another warning sign. We don't have many of those where I live though.

Another one I've just thought of: "child in car" stickers and signs. Always the cars with those are the ones making unsignalled lane changes!

Actually, I take back my previous refusal to stereotype. I'm personally fairly liberal, and I frequently find myself getting cut off by some jerk with stickers sporting the NRA logo and an aborted fetus, of course finding the behavior perfectly predictable. But just as often, I get cut off by some yahoo whose car is plastered with stickers proclaiming HOPE and urging us to End This War. I never really considered that maybe it's just everyone with a strong opinion that also feels a strong sense of entitlement on the road. However, I will point out that folks with Share the Road stickers seem generally to be a bit more courteous.

Around here if I can spot that the driver is wearing a hoodie and the hood is up or a baseball cap that either is on crooked or the brim is perfectly flat, I know I have a potential driver issue coming.

In other words, young males, notorious for being the most aggressive and accident prone drivers on the road, hence higher insurance rates where allowed by law.

Also, are people riding backwards? I don't tend to see a driver until they pass me, and even then rarely get a good look at them.

I can spot their SUVs with rubberband tires or their riced up Hondas with wings and coffee can exhausts before I can see what they wear. Damn, I can often hear and feel them before I can even see them

I was wondering that too. Most drivers I've had problems with were approaching from behind. The only time I get a good look at anybody is at an intersection.

Not just young males. This applies to all ages and all types of hat. Women wear hoodies too. I almost got righthooked by a dude in a deerstalker once.

Intersections. But you notice it in the ones who pass unsafely too; although it's too late to be any use it reinforces the stereotype.

My 67 year-old dad wears a hat when he drives, but he's quite a conservative and safe driver.

Exception that proves the rule.

Truck nutz. Actually, pretty much any late model truck tends to be a problem, though the company trucks are a little better than the privately owned ones. Tow package pretty much guarantees an ******* behind the wheel.

(I imagine that this stereotype doesn't hold true in rural places where people might actually use trucks. But urban drivers with big trucks are usually poorly endowed men who try to make up for it with an inflated ego.)

just today i saw a female truck driver,She did not even opened her truck side mirrors when she stopped at the lights i opened them for her .I mean fear female truck drivers at all costs

I swung clear of a Suburban with a "God Loves Big Oil" sticker yesterday, but that might have been my own paranoia.

Hurray, science!

Beat up, rusty old pickup trucks tend to buzz cyclists, almost left hook people, and do other stupid, dangerous things on the road, a lot more than most other vehicle types around here, too...

The last driver who honked and yelled at me was a fat, middle-aged woman driving an Oldsmobile. Now I'm wary of all fat, middle-aged women driving Oldsmobiles. Hooray for random observations extrapolated into a stereotype!

By all stereotypes, everyone should dive for the ditch when they see me coming...

- beat up, lifted Jeep with aftermarket exhaust and CB antennas
- stickers covering rear side windows
- wearing a baseball cap

But I suppose it's offset by...

- 4 bike Thule rack on rear hitch
- stickers are almost all bike company advertising
- cap has LBS logo

Yeah, but Jeeps are the official car of the Seattlopolis.

Generally, I find that moving cars are potentially more dangerous than non-moving cars, although I try to avoid both if possible. That's the extent of my profiling.

Did you happen to notice whether she was wearing a hat?

You're the buttered cat of motoring.

I'm pretty sure she wasn't.

I think you missed my point. Rusty old pickup trucks are usually people from out of town who are uncomfortable driving in the city. They occasionally do stupid things, but tend to do them really slowly, and are pretty much nervous of all traffic, inluding bikes.

The problem is the new trucks with the massive front ends and double wide rear tires that are driven hotshot young MBAs, oilfield labourers and other such people with more money than brains.