bigdaddy35

I'm from Mississippi, which is the capital state of rednecks. I'll ride out in the country and most people wave or nod. Every once in a while someone will get too close but that's it. In MS, country people (they're not all rednecks, just country) don't seem to be in as big a hurry as people in the cities.

Machka 

I moved from Winnipeg to central Alberta. Winnipeg is notorious for being a car city and being quite cyclist-unfriendly. It's sort of funny because the provincial slogan is "Friendly Manitoba" and Manitoba IS very friendly -- the people out in the country were usually great. It's just the people in the city itself that would happily run you over.

Central Alberta is a bit more rural, but Alberta in general is more sports-inclined with the mountains right there, so perhaps there's more of an understanding for people involved in sporting pursuits.

Vision-

They would happily run you over, and then back up again to make sure they finish the job. Then, when the cops show up at the scene their likely response would be "Well.... he shouldn't have been riding on the road anyway... Stupid jerk, now my coffee is cold!"

SpiderMike

You are one lucky Texan. I knew someone that commuted by bike. He was the winner of a paintball drive-by. I have had eggs thrown at me. The worse was someone took the time to wrap the egg in duct tape. Got me right in the sternum. Since that night I have changed my times of riding at night, so all I get now is the honks or yells. Just the other night I pulled up to a light, and got laughs from a SUV. I was debating saying something, but didn't. I think I got a second hand high.

I am just glad not to live in New Orleans. At least the Downtown/French Quarer/Old industriail district. I was there on my honeymoon. I didn't even want to drive! My wife pointed out a guy riding a tall bike in the French Quarter the first night we were there... all I could say was BRAVE.

PaulH

Harassment is very rare here in the Washington, DC, area. I've had a total of one guy tell me "Get out of the road!" (I ordered him to "Get out of my country!"

This area has high levels of road rage, but cyclists seem not to be te target of any of it.

Paul

Peek the Geek

You know, it's really good to hear so many people actually saying that they DON'T suffer harrassment on a regular basis. I've personally never been yelled at or had stuff thrown at while biking, but there are so many threads on these forums that make it sound like I'm taking my life in my hands every time I put on my funny tight shorts.

I know human nature is to focus on the negative, but this thread is a nice change of pace.

aiguy

I like that one. Hope you don't mind if I steal it. Or maybe "Get off of my planet!". That way they'll think I'm too crazy to mess with.

And if not, I'll shoot them with my handlebar-mounted phaser cannon.

UmneyDurak

Not a lot of road rage against cyclists here, but it does exis. Probably because once you leave the "main" roads and go in to a hills there are almost no cars.
I think I had only four incidenets with cars. Two were just general one finger salute, one was some fat guy shouting "Get of the road". Last one was someone accelerting from the stop sign, then breaking right infront of me shouting some obscenaties.

la calavera

I started to ride in San Francisco, bike lanes were a myth and cyclists were too often fatally hit. So I kept to parks and in a city with an awful excuse for public transportation, it was frustrating.
Now, years later I ride in NYC. I actually feel a little safer here (wha?!), but I'm scared to death of doing something wrong and having the man take my bike away.

I hope more and more people will become aware of us as being part of traffic. Its always so great to hear people happily riding.