i am scorned by this little feisty dog down the road from my house every time i pass his area. he shows his fangs, makes this growling sound, and starts chasing me. yesterday i outran him, then turned around and rode directly at him at full pace (i would never hurt a dog, just wanted to teach him a lesson). he ran away from me whimpering, so hopefully now he knows not to chase me again! now if only i could get him to stop pooping in my lawn.... maybe i should give him a taste of his own medicine in that regards, too.

on the issue of the workplace, i am lucky in that i feel a lot of respect from my co-workers when it comes to commuting. they say things like "wow, you ride 8 miles to work every day? that's great!"
i can't imagine why people would be against a healthier lifestyle.

i do get scorn from people on the road on occasion. usually people driving bigger jacked up trucks and suv's. i think they feel secretly ashamed of their wasteful ways. usually what they do is when they get beside me they rev up their engine and blast off down the road at an idiotic pace. what's funny is when 10 blocks down the road i pass them as they are waiting at a light. i'll usually give them a nice cheesy smile and a friendly wave.

Another similar and curious psychological phenomenon I seem to notice:

Often, when I am in traffic, if I keep pace with a car next to me for 10 seconds or more, they will invariably accelerate. They do this just about every time, regardless whether there is a car in front of them, or a stop condition and they have to immediately slow down. I'm still left wondering why?

chezjfrey, i have noticed this as well. maybe it's a portland thing? i think people are secretly ashamed of their wasteful ways, and jealous that we are getting around so much more efficiently, and having fun while doing so. then, when we are keeping pace with them, they can't validate why they are driving, so they try to speed up out of frustration.

although i do think people here are more conscientious towards bicycling than in most places.

Willic, I am surprised that people in england think that way. I know that not everyone in the UK is exactly the same, I just always thought that attitude was more north american and that the UK attitude was more cycle-friendly.

I remember watching this show "casualty" on BBC canada. It's sort of like ER. In the show, one of the hospital administrators rides his bike to work, and his coworkers joked that he looked like 'the pizza delivery man'. As if it's so weird to ride your bike to work!

We don't get BBC canada anymore. Too bad, I loved that show!

I'm not even sure if that's it. . . I was thinking maybe it's simply a case where they're just upset that they can't move faster than a "slow-moving" bicycle.

BTW, I responded to your PM - have you rode/driven Hwy 30? You might like it.