I've had that happen to me twice, and I think it was the same 4WD pickup both times. Both times the on-coming car honked, but I don't think he was honking at me, he was honking at the guy who tried to run him off the road.

Sure. That will allow you to yield sometimes and give you some convenience other times. You exercise your discretion, and it doesn't atrophy.

Out here, I can go months without ever exercising my discretion to yield because it's "turn on green arrow ONLY." So when a driver suddenly has to use discretion, he has never practiced it, and he hits you and kills you.

I ride in the early mornings and have noticed that since school has started again my morning rides have become much more hazardous. It appears that getting little johnny to school is much more important than following the rules of the road. The worst offenders are the soccer mommies that for some reason don't think that stop signs apply to them.

And this is why I now take a different route that is 1 mile longer, but passes zero schools, vs. my old summer route that passed by THREE schools, 2 of which were right around 7:30. Traffic was redonkulous when school started back.

i watched some of your videos. some of those people are absolutely crazy. I think i would have to think long and hard about riding some of those roads. Very scary.

It actually doesn't bother me that much. I sometimes wonder if there's something wrong with me, when stuff like that happens, even the one time when there was physical contact with the car, my pulse doesn't even go up. I just avoid and keep going. I post the videos just for fun.

@ itsJustMe video.

I looked at it a few times. I think you should THANK the red Pontiac guy for NOT running you over. ItWasYourFault 100%
Why ?? 200 ft before the tracks you seemed to be close to the fog line. Then all of a sudden you were dead center of the lane. The road curved, but you went straight.
The car was going 40 mph faster and was at most 100 ft behind you. He had ONE second to somehow avoid you and the oncoming car. Squaring up to the tracks sould have your turning right, not left.

Looks to me like he was at least in the right tire track most of the time. But it doesn't really matter, as the oncoming car was in plain view and the red Pontiac could have WAITED a couple of extra seconds and then gone around leaving plenty of room. It was absolutely NOT [MENTION=40124]ItsJustMe[/MENTION]'s fault.

report it. the local cops can set up a patrol or a shoulder speed trap watching drivers

Cyclists may have better experiences when they ride bigger in the lane when on narrow roads, such as you describe.

Riding big communicates clearly to drivers behind that if they want to pass, they must move into the other lane.

Sometimes drivers aren't sure about passing — is there room to share the lane? They may not figure it out until they are already committed.

Better to tell them, with your lane position, that there's no room for two — move over to pass.

When I use lane position to signal tight conditions, drivers are much better at passing me. They pass as they would a car.

That has been my experience as I noted in the OP - drivers will usually pass me with plenty of room (i.e. getting fully in the oncoming lane) but often they do so with another car coming right at them. It's just idiotic.

I do this too, but only on roads without a big speed differential (>30mph difference). I don't want to get rear-ended by a driver who couldn't slow down in time.

I got passed on an empty section of the highway this morning but although the car moved into the oncoming lane, there was no traffic so no one was in any danger, I appreciated the courtesy but wouldn't like that to happen when there is traffic. At the same time, when there is no oncoming traffic and (as had happened a few years ago) I nearly get clipped by the extended side mirrors of a truck because the driver won't move over a bit, I didn't like that at all, especially since the transport immediately in front of the truck did move into the empty oncoming lane as it passed me.

Similar phenomenon here. I work in about the middle of a large Midwestern University. During the summer, there are far fewer people around and the commute was not very stressful. Now that the students and whoever else are back, I've found that the passes are much closer between 5 and 5:30 (the timeframe I want to head home, just like everybody else). It's spooking me enough to think I should stay at work a little later or maybe go get a beer just to avoid the a$$holes.

It's a no passing zone and the oncoming car was clearly visible. I was in the right tire track. The car had no business passing me even if I'd stayed to the right.

That is the only safe way to cross that crossing. You have to swing to the center line then cross the track at one particular spot. Most of that track is a tire eating monster.

He had way more than a second. He was only doing about 10 MPH faster than I was.

I will say that since that event, I ride that section a bit differently - I take the lane aggressively (left tire track) well back and make it completely obvious that they should NOT be passing me.

I almost got run off the road a few months ago and two weeks ago I did get run off the road. I was so mad a wrote a (nice) letter to my local paper telling people how they should handle bikes on the road.

Eh. You have to expect some of this. It's just life.