billh

I dunno, maybe I am so sensitized to slights from motorists that little things are starting to bug me. Like last night. I'm stopped at a light next to a guy in a car. Normal looking guy in a normal looking car. I'm just sitting there and waiting for my turn arrow like I have about a million thousand times before. I have spandex tights and about a million lights on my bike. The guy looks at me. I look at him. Then he locks his door. I hear all the power locks click. Casually. Not like he was making some statement, but like he was thinking, "Oh yeah, there are dangerous people out there like that guy in spandex on that bike. He might be a dangerous person. He might just jump off that bike, rip open my door and start pounding on me. I better lock up." I dunno. Maybe I just think too much. Geesh. I mean, I'm about as threatening as a bag of frozen peas. My nickname in school was "Opey" after the Ron Howard character on Andy Griffith Show. I wouldn't harm a fly. I dunno, it just bothers me. It's the little things. I should stop thinking about it.

Corsaire

What do you care. It happens all the time, people are afraid. it's their right to be affraid, let it roll off your back. Sometimes when I'm running has happened too, coming from behind, approaching a woman, she turns around like somebody is coming at her deliberately to get her, I go like: "just a runner", she goes shrieking: "How do I know?!"
I just waive good bye and sped off.
Corsaire

TeleJohn

Being afraid is one of our national pastimes.

simplygib

Uh huh. I think that's what Norman Bates said too. You know, around these parts about 25 years ago there was this guy who ***** about 30 different women and who later moved to a different area and murdered at least 10 people, and he used a bike to do his dirty deeds. So you see, all you bikers can't be trusted. :-)

I wouldn't worry too much. What people do on the road never ceases to amaze me, but you'd think I'd stop being surprised by now. I need to work on that, the not being surprised part.

Just last night I was going home, and got to a point where I need to turn left. So I ride into a left turn lane (no signal at this intersection) and am patiently waiting for oncoming traffic to clear (burning 40watts worth of headlights and two rear blinkys). A guy is on the side street to my right, waiting to turn left onto the street I'm on. He comes out into the intersection, flashes his lights at me, honks his horn and passes me on my right, entering the turn lane I'm in going in the wrong direction. So I'm left pondering what I did wrong, from his point of view. The only things I can come up with are:

1. Bicycles shouldn't be on the road
2. Bicycles shouldn't be using left turn lanes as if they were a car
3. This is my road dammit, the nerve of these bicycles thinking they own the road!
4. That was a tasty bottle of Jack Daniels, think I'll run to the store and get more.

TeleJohn

Actually, I think the "Advocacy and Safety" forums and the "Commuting" forums should be combined and titled:

"The Little Things That Bother Me"

max-a-mill

i find a big smile is most re-assuring jesture you can give!

make me know your out there and you LIKE IT!!!!

super-douper

It works both ways. As commuters we prepare for the worst from each car that we pass or passes us. I wouldn't be offended, just like he shouldn't be offended when you blind him with 50 watst rear blinkie

We're all just trying to stay safe, and that incluedes the motorists.

DanO220

I know how you feel - like when I smile, nod and open the door for a lady and she proceeds to look at me and suspiciously place here hand on the door as she walks by anyway, as if I'm just pretending to be chivalrous in order to slam the door on here as she walks through. DanO

d2create

He used a bike to **** someone? OUCH! That's gotta hurt!

meat_toothpaste

Funny, but oh so true.

There are drivers out there who honestly think that it's law that bikes belong on the sidewalk. Maybe the DMV should include that question onto the written exam more often. Lots of adults I know, who are now drivers, haven't ridden a bike since their sidewalk riding childhood days and never bothered to learn about bikes and their rights in traffic because it's a non issue to them as an adult now. So now they're ignorant adult drivers. No excuse, but that's my thought.

At least in nearby Santa Monica, where I do most of my riding, there seems be a crop of new "SHARE THE ROAD" with bicycle signs. West Hollywood actually has a lane for cyclist to enter the left turn lane. How cool is that eh?

sggoodri

I think in this case the driver was probably not really afraid of you as a commuter, but he suddenly realized that *any* person on a bike could come up beside him to his door which was - oops - left unlocked.

clancy98

you should have looked back suspiciously, then snapped your bike lock on...

pedal

I say you should have substantiated his fears by getting off the bike and running to his car with a deranged look in your eyes and tried to pull the door handle. Just so he knows he did the right thing.

clancy98

Haha

meat_toothpaste

Funny!

I once thought about doing that. I was going to make deranged faces and twitches. Then the thought escaped me and I rode off.

On a serious note though...
You never know what someone's fear factor is and when their defensive thoughts kick in and they go whippingout that gun in the glove box under the car mats.

That person wouldn't have known that I was just messing and would just ride off when the light turned green.

Sometimes people just freak, like that bike rider who shot and killed that passenger in the car that supposedly got too close in Palo Alto.

Chris L

Don't let it bother you. If he's stereotyping it's his problem, not yours.

jslopez

Ofcourse it could have all been just a coincidence....

slvoid

That's weird... What's so scary about a guy in tight spandex?

slvoid

He heard there was a Code Orange cyclist alert.

Dchiefransom

Or a Megan alert.

LittleBigMan

Funny. Statistics show that drivers are the ones guilty of most of the bloody mayhem in the world today, not strange cyclists with their blinkies flashing.

(Maybe it was that wild, endorphin-like look in your eyes.)

Anthony King

I've had the same thing happen to me several times. Invariably, my reply is to pull out the gun I keep in my pannier and inform the driver to "Get out. We're trading." The driver gets my bike, but usually the chop shop gives me more for the car than the bike was worth, so I upgrade. I don't like carjacking people, but sometimes you have to act on principle alone.

Dahon.Steve

The statement above is correct. Watch "Bowling for Columbine" sp. if you don't know what he means. Everyone's afraid of each other in the U.S. and it's not just cyclist. In Canada, people sleep with their doors open all night while New Yorkers have at least two locks on each door. I've seen more gated communities developed in the past 15 years than I've ever seen in my whole life. When you think about it, we have more gun violence than most industrial nations put together. Make no doubt about it, America is a violent nation and I believe it's because of our war stricken past and obsession with guns.

BeTheChange

You have to have principles.

Paul L.

Well, you know, Machiavelli (spelling?) did say it is better to be feared than loved. He'd be so proud of you now. Maybe he should have worn spandex and rode a .... um.... poor man, he didn't have a bike come to think of it, how could he have been feared?