Nice ride yesterday. I often read threads of rude motorists and shake my head wondering where you live. Apparently some experience this on each ride and sometimes multiple times. I "never" experience this behavior aside from a very rare but ocassional "buzzing" from some 20 something little boy in his loud mufflered honda.

So I'm cruising along and this car is behind me which stays way back, like 75 - 100 yards. Won't get any closer. I keep cruising along and 1/2 mile later this car is still way back but with a line of cars behind it. If I get someone behind me that for whatever reason won't pass and cars start backing up, I'll usually pull over and let everyone pass. But this guy is literally as much as 100 yards back most of the time and won't get closer. So I continue on, through a school zone. When I am well past the school I look back and see this lead car turn into the school. I meet several cars oncoming and look back and notice this column of cars that the lead car was holding up are getting closer now, but also notice some guy has pulled out of the column and trying to pass the cars in front and meeting oncoming traffic.

About to be a major problem. So the car trying to pass manages to get back into the line and as the line reaches me I hug far right and everyone passes fine.... except the idiot trying to pass the column with oncoming traffic. Now he has embarrassed himself by getting caught over in the left lane. He has his passenger window and starts screaming obscenities at me. Something about "getting off the ********** road you ******, and ******** and by then he was far enough past that I couldn't hear him further. I smiled and waved. I wanted to explain to him it wasn't me, but the lead car that was holding up the column. He probably wouldn't have had the brain capacity to understand.

So it's happened. I've been cursed by a lower life form.


I've "arrived" as a roadie!

Unfortunately this is caused by the person who refuses to pass and backs up traffic. When you see this happening, the safest thing is to pull off the road and let them pass. They are trying to be nice but just cause problems.

Are you exaggerating the distance? I can't imagine a driver be so scared of hitting a cyclist that they hang back the distance of a football field.

I know exactly what you mean! I'd rode for years without the yelling motorist. Then one day... waiting at a traffic light... I hear yelling and look behind me and there is this guy yelling and motioning.

I figured something important is happening so I pick up my bike and scurry back to his passenger window. I ask him if he's OK.

He says: "Get off the road so I can get by"... while pointing towards the sidewalk.

I ask: "You want me to ride my bike on the sidewalk?" In my mind I am thinking this guy is clowning around or something... and I am smiling ear-to-ear.

He says: "Yeah... get off the road".

So (still smiling) I say: "F*** Y**, I am not going to do that".

And as I walk my bike back in front of the guy he whips his car out into the left lane and runs the red light while slipping into the moving traffic. To me it was just an odd/strange interaction. I think he expected me to be intimidated. I don't think the guy realized till I stuck my head in his passenger window... that I was maybe a decade older than him.... and much larger/fitter than him. I think the up-close interaction scared him.

No I am not exaggerating the distance. I shoot rifles at the rifle range and I'm pretty good at estimating distances, particularly around 100 yards.

That was what was so seriously strange to me also, that the lead car held so far back. If they're closer and uber-hesitant to pass, and they have cars backing up behind them, I do pull over. But this car being that far back, was confusing to me and I never was clear, and still not, as to whether they were actually fearful of getting close and passing, or if they were just cruising along at a slow speed. But I decided to keep going until they got closer or turned off. It would have been obvious to those following the lead car that the car was what was holding everyone up, not me. It was a flat country road with plenty of forward visibility. I don't know at what point the jerk joined the column but he obviously felt I was the problem.

I hate when people don't pass and they are just hanging around back there. It makes me nervous for some reason.

Except for time I was caught past dark without lights and some friendly car followed me slowly to give me light.

I call B.S. You think you're making some point with this, I'll wait for the finale.

Me too. Maybe it's because of the movies. Always some mob hit man following closely behind the intended victim, dark car, tinted windows, victim nervously glancing over the shoulder... Then car speeds up, pulls up beside victim and "offs" them before hitting the gas and squealing tires out of there.

Thinking about this again. Another possibility. Perhaps the driver, intending to turn right into the school 1/2 mile ahead and not being in a hurry, decided to just cruise along hanging well back of the cyclist until time to turn, oblivious to the traffic backing up behind them.

Maybe they were 96 years old and that's just as fast as they ever drive.

One of the things I love about having moved to SC is one law in particular:

SECTION 56-5-3445. Harassment of cyclists.
It is unlawful to harass, taunt, or maliciously throw an object at or in the direction of any person riding a bicycle. A person
who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars or imprisoned not more than
thirty days, or both.

While the bike culture in central SC is a little sparse, I've noticed traffic is generally more pleasant than my years in NC, NM, and OH. Still shopping for cameras, though.

Seems you could have pulled into the school, or safely off the road. I don't understand why you didn't do what you "usually do". ^

Wut?

It seems like jackass drivers come in waves. For months I haven't had any yellers, just the occasional buzzer. However, lately I have had at least 3 yellers in the past couple of weeks.

Must be seasonal or something.

I always get yellers that yell at me while driving quickly past. They don't seem to understand that it means that I can't understand a thing they're saying unless they slow down an yell directly at me.

Therefore I always assume they're yelling encouragement.

Yeah, motorists don't have to be very bright or alert to get behind the wheel.

From the thread title, I was assuming/hoping for a story along the lines of some jerk driver had been harassing OP on the road. Yesterday, by chance, they met in a grocery store, exchanged words, then a fruit fight ensued. Oh, well..

I think there is more than one...and more than one jackass cyclist too.

I wouldn't have smiled and waved. The middle finger would have been whipped out. And no I don't need a lecture.

You'd have to know his posting history. In every other thread he wails on cyclists for causing problems for motorists. If a cyclist carries a camera, he suggests that it's only in order to tape the fights that they intentionally incite.

[QUOTE=WNCGoater;18238015]Nice ride yesterday. I often read threads of rude motorists and shake my head wondering where you live. Apparently some experience this on each ride and sometimes multiple times. I "never" experience this behavior aside from a very rare but ocassional "buzzing" from some 20 something little boy in his loud mufflered honda.

So I'm cruising along and this car is behind me which stays way back, like 75 - 100 yards. Won't get any closer. I keep cruising along and 1/2 mile later this car is still way back but with a line of cars behind it. If I get someone behind me that for whatever reason won't pass and cars start backing up, I'll usually pull over and let everyone pass. But this guy is literally as much as 100 yards back most of the time and won't get closer. So I continue on, through a school zone. When I am well past the school I look back and see this lead car turn into the school. I meet several cars oncoming and look back and notice this column of cars that the lead car was holding up are getting closer now, but also notice some guy has pulled out of the column and trying to pass the cars in front and meeting oncoming traffic.

About to be a major problem. So the car trying to pass manages to get back into the line and as the line reaches me I hug far right and everyone passes fine.... except the idiot trying to pass the column with oncoming traffic. Now he has embarrassed himself by getting caught over in the left lane. He has his passenger window and starts screaming obscenities at me. Something about "getting off the ********** road you ******, and ******** and by then he was far enough past that I couldn't hear him further. I smiled and waved. I wanted to explain to him it wasn't me, but the lead car that was holding up the column. He probably wouldn't have had the brain capacity to understand.

/QUOTE]

there's your problem right there...

Several years ago, a car full of college kids scared the crap out of me by pulling up alongside and yelling at me and then laughing like crazy. They sped up and got about 2 blocks ahead and then got caught by a red light. They didn't realize that I was catching up with them as they were stopped. As I pulled up alongside, I leaned my head inside the rear window and yelled at the top of my lungs. I've never seen people jump so hard. One of my all time favorite stories.

I've had bottles thrown at me and people passing way too close.

One incident where a guy pulled up along side me at a red light less than an inch away from pedal. I informed him of this and he got all defensive in his new BMW and floored it when it turned green. He sat a great example for his son in the passenger seat.

But besides that nothing too much as far as angry drivers go.

I've seen drivers pull to the right over the solid white line (which is illegal) preparing to make a left hand turn. Today, there was an idiot driver who was making a right (three lane roads) and she pulled *left* over the white solid line into the bike lane.

I find that when there is sufficient room, cars often wait for me. This makes me nervous because if they would just go, I would not have to worry if they really saw me or were distracted. Another oddness I've experienced is that cars will go slower and stay back. Great. But then they speed up and pass me just as I am approaching an intersection. Now I have to worry about being cut off.

Drivers do some strange things.

That's what I thought too.

I wouldn't want to know where the cucumber ended up.

lmfao yeah !!you ****ing tell them ****ing motorist to shut the **** up and shove it up theirs. i flip the bird in front of theirs faces all the time SMH bunch of idiots impatient ********