Felt like a stupid-angry-jerk-cyclist this evening.

At an intersection where I turn left across oncoming traffic, a lady stopped moving forward, attempting to yield to me (when she had the right-of-way), but only succeeding in leaving me hanging in the middle of the intersection.

While I madly wave her through, pointing at her green light, a vehicle behind me (a work van with good-ol'-boy occupants) honks its horn. The lady finally moves through, and the van and I make the left turn together, and I turn my head to give the van my 'evil eye'. I'm sure I yelled something at them, though I don't remember what.

The passenger in the van rolls down the window, and I think, "OK - here it comes", expecting a confrontation. The van slows down, and before they can berate me, I start yelling, "Hey! I'm sorry I was slowing you down, but..." -- and then both guys in the van start apologizing to me! The driver said, "There ain't no problem, fella" and the passenger said, "We weren't honking at you, we saw one of our buddies drivin' by!"

I'm sure my face turned red, and it wasn't the cold wind! I was so embarrased... more reason for me to keep my big mouth shut, and keep on' riding. Good thing they weren't as keyed-up as I was, and itching for a fight...

Sometimes we expect the worst...need to remember those who are nice to us....there really are more of them.

"There are lots of people who's headstone could read 'But I HAD the right of way"

I've been commuting for about two weeks now (10 miles each way) and I've yet to meet a blatantly discourtous driver. I've had a few drivers pull into the bike lane to make a right turn without looking, but I've avoided those accidents pretty well. I'd say the vast majority of drivers on my commute are very courteous, especially because at some points I probably slow them down a bit.

Wait until you get the jerks that sneak up behind you, blow on their horns, and then yell at you about how you shouldn't be on the road.

They are out there, and it will happen.

I like hearing stories like these. I have to say the majority of honking I get is the positive, "hello" honk. Just today as I commuted across town someone in the passenger seat of a passing car yelled something. I am so inclined to think it was something negative and when I thought about it I realized he had said, "Hey Dude."

I've had to switch my normal responses here in South Central Los Angeles as every day I get thumbs up, smiles, and waves. Still the best ones are the kids who smile big, wave, and sometimes say, "hello." I think it's because they still understand the pure joy of riding a bike.

Don't get me wrong I'll still flip someone off or yell when they have it coming, but even when you are in the right you most likely end up looking like a jackass. In the end it's better just to focus on riding well and giving the jackasses an out. I find it so funny that someone who can't wait a couple of seconds to get around me will then have all the time in the world to pull over and pick a fight.

Reminds me of a time I had a horn behind me...then AGAIN! WTF?
So we roll to a light, I flip my bike upside and walk over to the car
"What's your ******* problem? Got something to tell me *******!"

"Ya Jeff, we just wanted to say Hi...you working @ the club tonight?"

"Um..ya, maybe don't honk at me when I ride..I freak out."

"You got it..you're not gonna wail on us are you?...."

People still do that? No, I'm serious. Where do you live that this still happens? I would feign deafness or just be obsequiously polite. They can't be happy people and nothing you say will ever fix that.

Not exactly bike related, as I was a pedestrian when it happened, but I was crossing (on a green light, at a crosswalk), when this SUV sort of drifted toward me, and didn't seem like it was going to stop for me or the red light. I stopped and eventually the guy did stop, completely across the crosswalk. I gave him a nasty look and walked around. As I was continuing up the sidewalk, he honked.

I couldn't believe he was honking at me, and turned around ready to really say something (I'm not known for being confrontational, but the honk really steamed me). However, he had rolled his window down and just wanted to get my attention in order to apologize.

My mood changed 100%. It's amazing what a difference a sincere (and warranted) apology can make.

Don't want to take your thread into one of those VC ***** sessions, but I hate it when people do this. It disrupts the entire rythm of traffic. I know they are just trying to be nice.