What is up with all the dangerous passing??
 

I have noticed quite a bit lately during my commute on 2-lane rural roads with no shoulder, where a car will get in the oncoming lane to pass me (usually leaving me enough space thankfully), but all the while an oncoming car IN PLAIN SIGHT is coming right at them! This makes the oncoming car have to slow down and/or even pull off the side of the road so that this entitled IDIOT can go on by me. And then afterwards sometimes the oncoming car will honk at ME as if it's my fault!

It's like these people not only feel entitled that they have more rights to the road than me, but apparently even more rights to the road than the oncoming car.

Yesterday a truck actually did pass me pretty close, while a Mazda Miata coming the other direction had to pull off the side a bit. Obviously the Miata would have been the loser if a collision had happened. I wonder if a small car passing me would do the same thing if a truck/SUV were coming the other way.

I just don't get what's going through these idiot drivers' minds.

Nothing. They're not thinking and that is scary.

Happened to me today, the guy didn't even pass me close, he was half in the other lane and forced the oncoming car far onto the shoulder.

I like to preempt the honking by honking at the guy passing me first.

People are just idiots. Here's one from earlier this year:

http://youtu.be/vuVKDTMh4ZM

The more i ride my bike everyday, the more i realize how utterly detached people are from reality when driving.

The reality of how fast they are going, and how quickly things could go wrong.
The reality of them not paying attention, and having moments of temporary "blindness" to consequences.

Don't take it to heart though, just try to stay safe.

Still had cell phone in his hand.

His head was cut off.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=341835

Had a kid (17?) in a little car passed us pretty closely today. Cell phone in his hand (I could see), he stopped at a stop light up ahead. My bf was pretty ticked and confronted him at the stop light. We noted his plate number and called the police when we got home. My bf actually got a response from the PD and a message that they will talk to the kid and his parents.

Update: got a call back from the police that they talked to his mom. It's mom's car. Mom said that they have talked to him about texting and driving several times already. Now it might be time to take the car away. I hope getting a call from the police about this gets them to take it more seriously.

I've had this same thing happen a couple of times. Lots of things are going through their minds, and none of those things are related to the task at hand :)

I think the problem is simply that most motorists do not have the experience to determine how much space a cyclist actually needs. And more than that, cyclists, as a whole, have not built up trust that we are not going to suddenly swerve out into the road or cut across traffic on a whim.

When I am out on the road, I spend a lot of my time directing traffic around me. Drivers appreciate this and often honk or wave to let me know it.

Very true - go drive the same route that you ride and see it from a driver's perspective. Being in a car just doesn't give you the same sense of space as being on a bike. One look at a typical parking lot will tell you many people have no sense for the physical space their car requires.

One of my usual commute routes has a great shoulder most of the way, which I use as much as possible - so I'm frequently two feet to the right of the white line. The travel lanes are large enough for a car to pass me while staying in their own lane, and still have four or five feet between the car and the white line -- huge amounts of space. And yet they still move way over into the oncoming lane. If you drive the route, you'll see what the driver sees and it's not the same as what we see riding.

Not that it excuses a driver from the responsibility of making safe passes. People don't want to slow down for anything.

It's no secret that some motorists despise cyclists. Before I go too far with this, some cyclist do no favors for the rest of us. & some motorists are very courteous & some have never been on a bike, in traffic. As both a cyclist & a driver I have seen cyclists who are complete Aholes. Plenty of them. I've also been buzzed many, many times by Agro motorists who are just as big of an Ahole as that cyclist. I've had stuff thrown at me & I've been nearly run off the road. We do ourselves no favors, being Aholes on either side of the equation. The whole situation easily culminates into a perfect storm. Best case scenario, Distracted driver, even poor driver vs the cyclist with marginal skills= near accident, all too often. Throw in some attitude & some gets hurt. Unfortunately, unless its a fist fight, the cyclist will lose almost every time. It's dangerous out there. I've always tried to take the stance that "I'm" going to get hurt. Therefore "I" should do the best "I" can to keep myself from danger. & before you call me out as a "Sam safety" kinda guy... I have chased cars down with the intent to beat the living hell out of the driver(or at least scare them to death). As with most bullies, the Ahole usually cowars writhin the safety of their vehicle. Be safe & be considerate. Actions speak louder than words.

I was riding a MTB on the sidewalk the other day, there happened to be another guy behind me a MTB too, as I crossed the street a woman in a car almost hit me but I saw she was on the phone and I stopped, she saw me the last second and she stopped. I waved politely and said thank you, the guy behind me on the bike said to me, "why did you thank her, she was on the phone and almost hit you". Well when she finally saw me she hit the brakes,,,I guess thats all you can ask for. We on bikes know whats out there, we are the ones that will get killed and we have to take responsibility for trying not to get killed lol.

most of the time when they say "sorry I didnt see you" they are telling the truth.

I agree "try to stay safe"

When I am riding trucks pass by me pretty close, but still with plenty of room where as cars will pass nearly in the other lane. When I am driving my car and seating position is low and I can't see how close I am to a cyclist so I end up passing extra wide. It is a lot easier to see how much space you have when sitting high like in a truck.

I agree, the lack of cyclist consistency puts us at a disadvantage. Every week, it seems, I catch myself either seeing a rider salmoning, or hollering at them for doing so. (When I don't holler, it's because I'm too far away....) A lot of folks seem to think that there ARE no rules for bike riding, because 'it's a kid thing'. The very thought that a bicycle could be a VEHICLE is just Greek to them, because most have grown up with the idea that adults drive cars, and kids ride bikes. It's like breathing, you drive when you're old enough to get your license. (I hear, though, here and there, that that's changing, thankfully)

I agree with everything that has been said. But I still don't see why any sane person would move over fully into the oncoming lane when another vehicle in plain view is coming right for them. I'm talking on a straight road, flat or downhill, with good visibility. It's just idiotic.

It IS idiotic, and we happen to live somewhere that says being an idiot is a free choice. The rest of us can SUGGEST that the idiot straighten up, but the idiot can freely say, "F you!"

Liberty is not a pure thing, it has a downside, as well. Selfishness to a fault, or a sickness, is allowed.

What's salmoning? I'm picturing dressing up a meal by adding salmon to it.

Personally I think the drivers license exams should be much more difficult and include more material on bicyclist's rights and responsibilities. I knew virtually nothing about it until I started biking again and looked it up. In my state, the drivers license exam is a joke, with no preparation or study required or offered really after the first time you get the license. And indeed I do keep hearing about the car culture losing it's grip. I've never driven less miles than I do now since I first got my license.

What pisses me off even more is some arsehole in the on-coming lane electing to pass another vehicle in MY lane. Such people ought to be bunged under the nearest fuel truck followed by a molotov cocktail. Sorry, a little hostile this AM.

Salmoning is riding against traffic, the way salmon sometimes swim against the current.

this week has been a whole new ball game in bicycle safety. Im down visiting my son in so.cal. He has a few bikes, and I fixed one up to ride.
Riding around here is a whole new experience in bike/car awareness....or lack of
no wonder I see so few bikes on the roads down here

I've seen this a lot, too. Some people just don't give a ****. Not much you can do about it, really. These are the same kind of dickheads who run through a turn arrow even though it turned red 2 seconds ago.

^^^^This is by far my biggest pet peeve when riding my bike on the road. I seriously question the mental capacity of drivers that cross the double yellow line into oncoming traffic to pass a bike. I know it may seem Draconian, but it think it should be an offense punishable by license suspension / revocation. Problem is that the stupid ones seldom get caught.

I don't have a problem with someone passing me on a double yellow if it's safe to do so. Typically passing a cyclist (especially my slow butt lol) takes much less distance than passing a car, so passing on a double yellow usually isn't a problem unless you're right there in the curve or just before the hill crest. Passing on a blind curve or hill is one thing. But passing when there is plenty of visibility (usually a dashed line) with a car coming right for you has to be the dumbest of the dumb things to do.

I've had a rash of people like this lately on my rides home, too. Even worse on some occasions recently, I've had people hop the double yellow line and try to pass me despite the fact that I've taken the lane and am signaling left turn well before they get close and change lanes. It's so irritating.

I've noticed as I've slowly moved west in the USA that there's a lot of variation in the design of roadways that can lead to differences in how people drive.

On the east coast, in older towns and cities, many of the roadways have fewer lanes, lower speeds and nothing but a double yellow line separating oncoming traffic. This leads to people routinely needing to use discretion about when to cross the line and when to make left hand turns. In more recently developed cities out west, I find that there are more, wider lanes, higher speeds, wide medians and "left turn on green arrow only" signals that tend to desensitize folks to the concept of driving slow, yielding and using discretion and, indeed, oncoming traffic. I'm way more cautious now in parking lots and streets without such features than I ever was before.

And here we have a mix of both, including 5-lane 55-mph roads with "Left-Turn-Yield-On-Green" signals at intersections.