It will be worth it.

no problemo
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2024037_n.jpg

edit: My favorite thing is when you're at a four-way stop and a car has the right of way, and the driver waves you through after you've come to a complete stop. Way to encourage cyclists to blow stop signs~[/QUOTE]

when I see this situation about to happen, I just look down. No eye contact. Eventually the car will give up & take its proper turn.

It's annoying how most people in cars don't know how to act around bikes. Whenever I come to a four way stop, they just sit there and look at me. Or if I'm riding through a parking lot, cars slow way, way down and the drivers just look at me like I'm going to dart out in front of them or jump on their hood. It's annoying. Treat me like an ordinary gosh darn vehicle.

Haha Johnny Boy, or Dr. Makesyousick as I heard him called. Especially dig him with the Goku hair and bottle of Water/Magnesium. Oh...salten Sea was so good.

Also Hairnet, will you be at FMLY?

people who just wont pass you after youve given them room. creeping along right behind me like their gunna offer me some candy or ask me to help find their lost dog. its just odd perverted behavior

Was riding just the other day on a street with no shoulder or bike lane and as I'm riding along, cars are passing by me by using the oncoming traffic lane (very polite), and as I turn my head to the left to see how many cars are left behind me, I was nearly hit in the face by the passenger-side mirror of a large white van that had some pretty yellow plates (county vehicle) with one of those pass safely bicyclist law bumper stickers on the rear bumper. (There was no one in the oncoming traffic lane still btw).

Seems I have good luck on the roads too... Came home last night after a relaxing slow ride just for funsies and as I'm sitting down reading bike forums... my rear tube explodes. After some investigation, I found I had gotten a bit of what looked like an office staple stuck through the sidewall of my rear tire (and it had been rubbing on the side of the tube for a while). The tube just completely blew out and has about an 8" gash in the general area of where the staple stuck through the tire. I ride Hutchinson Intensives 23c btw.

I concur that riding in the East Bay is risky business at times.

For those in the Berkeley/Oakland area, not only are roads crap (think potholes big enough to take a bath in) but often bikelanes are marginal at best.

I've found that the biggest danger is not the lone a-hole driver, but rather, just clueless people opening doors without looking and making sudden right turns without looking.

Riding in an urban setting like this takes tremendous prediction abilities.

Yep, that's how some person died last year in Oakland, got hit by the AC transit bus because of a lady opening her door without looking.

Or no bike lanes at all! Good or bad considering you might as well dominate an entire lane and hold up the very traffic behind you on your very whims. >=D

AC transit sucks.... the buses are the equivalent of public urinals.

Yeah, and there's always at least 3+ hoodlums trying to hassle unsuspecting people, or 1 bum hassling people for money OR spittin' the crazy jibbrish.

@OP: No offense, I'm not trying to say it was your fault, but you handled this situation incorrectly and hopefully you can learn from it. Yes, it can be scary when an angry motorist tries to intimidate you, but getting out of the way often is more dangerous than "staying the course" even if the result isn't as dramatic as in your example. If you can safely let the car pass that's an option and maybe the first instinct of many people but it often isn't safe. If you let yourself get pushed into the door-zone or out-of-traffic (which means you have to re-enter traffic again) you're just putting yourself in more danger than you are already. Yes, a big car honking at you is uncomfortable, but even if the driver is very angry indeed, chances are overwhelmingly he won't hit you. Cyclists get hit when the other party doesn't see them! Everyone who drives a car can lose his cool sometimes, that doesn't necessarily say he's a bad person, driving simply can be a very aggravating activity, but only a true psychopath would act out their anger by deliberately hitting a cyclist.

If it happens again to you, don't panic, stay calm and keep doing exactly what you've been doing until you can either let him pass safely or the situation gets resolved any other way (red light, you going a different way than him or whatever). The best way for cyclists to be safe is to be visible, predicable and consistent in your movement imo, not to be push-overs.

^^^What rogwilco said.

The driver that will get pissed and honk, will be pissed and honk regardless of your position in the lane. It's an innate feature of road usage and personal temperaments.

Those d***s have no idea what it is like to be on a bike. Or to ride one in traffic, for that matter.

They have no understanding of door zones, right hooks or the debris in the streets. All they understand is, OMG, I have to take my foot off the gas pedal and turn wheel, maybe even wait a few seconds to initiate a safe pass.

But, OP, you do know the hazards. Be assertive in the way you ride. You know what is dangerous and what to avoid. "Why is this guy in the lane, when he could be riding right next to the parked cars?" The majority of the driving population hasn't a clue. The majority of the driving population is courteous. Don't let the bastards grind you down and intimidate.

Word. Just this morning a guy in an Escalade tried to intimidate me out of the lane as I was avoiding some jacked up road surface/potholes. Blew by me super close and honked his horn for good measure.

Then I caught up with him at the next light. I intended to say (nicely), "C'mon man, give me a break - I was avoiding some potholes," but it came out "Do you have a f***king problem?" Ooops. Light turned green and he took off so I didn't get to b***h him out further or hear his reasons for being such a jerk.

The attitude I've taken lately is that we have to take responsibility for the risk we are in. If a cyclist gets hit it might be the driver's fault but it's the cyclist who will be hurting. Someone wrote that even if a car breaks every law, runs you down and hits you it is your fault. That's obviously an extreme example but there is a point to it.

I have a friend who was run down and knocked off of her bike for absolutely no reason by people she didn't know. It was a two way street with only her off to the right hand side and a van coming straight at her, no other moving vehicles on the street, the driver was looking at her too. She managed to get mostly out of the way at the last second but still got clipped and ran into some parked cars. This doesn't happen every day but it still but it kind of drove this point home for me. There are people who will hit you and a lot of people who will mess with you.

I think you have to ride assertively like Rustybrown said, but you also need to be aware of the behavior of traffic.

Don't worry I did much worse before. Something along the lines of grabbing and damaging a car's spoiler and verbal harassment/ threatening. But hey I got away without a problem.

U-lock justice. It's like the police but it's you.

Lol. How about a spiked Mad Max style club mounted behind the seat you can use to bash cars 'in self defence' when they get too close?

+1 if you knucked the computer screen

u-lock justice or any kind of physical violence requires a uncomfortable amount of profiling on the biker's part, especially in the east bay.

you might bang up that side-view mirror of the white blonde lady but would you do the same if it were male person of color?

O snap!

LOL just don't use U lock justice on any scraperz on 26's OR any low rider, suburban or escalade on 24's; that should keep you clear of people of color in the east bay. Unless you're carrying sufficient heat on yourself. That's why I have a chrome metropolis to carry my AK with me at all times.

I dunno, I just find the cowardice troubling and disempowering. I'm not saying white-bread drivers don't deserve a wake-up call from bikers (in the form of some physical threat), but the selectivity of outrage feels disingenuous.

No kidding. I was once ticketed in Gainesville (while driving) for correctly using one of those little roundabouts you are describing. I moved out of G-ville shortly thereafter and ignored the ticket. That was more than 10 years ago. I guess they still haven't figured it out.

Racist

Agree