Today I was on my way to school, when some madman in a minivan drove up behind me speeding towards me, honking his horn-I said great... I looked behind me again and it looked like he was heading my way,so I thought i was going to get hit since he was screaming at me waving his fists. In just a split second I hop onto the curb only to find out the city hasn't evened out the pavement in decades. going 25 miles an hour my front tire gets turns and does a weird skipping motion from the left to the right-has this happened to anyone b4?- i try to gain control when I then, hit another bump which sends me over the handlebars onto the cement. I fall straight on my back and roll acouple times and hopped right up with pure adrenalin pumping pick up my bike and notice my computer broke, my fork bent and is now unusable back tire is severely out of true, so is the front handlebars are ****ed but i made it out ok!!! aside from not being able to walk up straight. I bruised my right hip bone, my right side looks like i got into a fight with a cheese grader. why do people have to drive with such anxiety and rush?? there was no bike lane but there was signs to share the road...Im just glad i had the skills to get off the road and fall were there wasnt 3 lanes of traffic. im going to be out of commision for like a week..and i bike everywhere.
I posted this thread to inform and spark up awareness to please slow down!!! and be aware of bikers..now I now most of you already watch out for them..because were all bikers here but spread the word, bikers die every year from accidents similar to mines. and to all you on the road...watch out, and never let your guard down

Why didn't you try to stop on the curb? Via skidding or front brake?

If someone was honking at me and waving their fist, i would have just gotten in the center of the lane and leisurely continued along my commute, but thats just me...

Furreal, at least you knew they saw you.

@leukybear i was going pretty fast and as soon as i hoped on the curb i had to turn left bc there were bushes infront of me then when i turned left the street was there

@nuhtowel I live in the east bay, drivers and people are really violent here and there has been other instances where they show me that people really dont care about bicyclist

today i stopped and trackstood at a stoplight. Yes, i was in the crosswalk... but i was also TOTALLY stationary the entire time and there was plenty of room for all other traffic(including peds) to safely get around me, and i wasn't even close to being 'in' the intersection. i was firmly in the crosswalk, and totally stationary.

well... the light turns green and i start at a normal pace. not slow, not fast, just normal and safe. mind you, this is a 'sharrows' road that is a main bicycle route(we call it the bum trail because... well...) from downtown over to the bridge that leads to the university.

i'm ON THE POINT of the arrow on the 'sharrows' signs when i pass over them and inbetween, exactly where i should be. this is a two way, one lane each direction side city street.

about a half a block after the intersection, two cars pass me reasonably safely before there is oncoming traffic in the oncoming lanes. a motorcycle is coming up behind me and honks his horn, 8 feet from my rear wheel, before passing me within a foot of buffer. i am still, EXACTLY as far right as the sharrows indicate is safe.

at the next light (which is red) the motorcyclist is stopped and there is no traffic between us, so i stop out of arm's reach to his right and ask calmly and kindly, "was that your horn?" to which i get no response, so i calmly ask again. to which he replies

"yes, i was alerting you of my presence."
'okay, so you know that horns are for emergencies; not what you just did.'
"would you prefer i just run you over next time?"
'no, but you understand that you would be running over me from behind while I'm safely travelling in my lane with the right of way...'
"YOU WERE IN A CROSSWALK!"
'i was being completely safe.'
"being in a crosswalk isn't safe!... bicycle legally (yell yell drive off)"

*****es be wild'n

TL;DR I was illegally stopped in a crosswalk, but otherwise completely safely travelling to the right of my lane and that made an idiot indignant motorcylist honk and buzz me then pretend i was the one being unsafe.

Motorcycle with a horn? Must have been a goldwing. Anyone who rides a goldwing is a dick.

i think it was, actually.

I dislike motorcyclists. It seems they feel like they can pass closer since they aren't in a car but they still go 40mph. One got stuck behind me on a hill and instead of passing, since he could have, he kept revving his engine real loud. At the top of the hill and at the red light he goes on to yell at me and tells me to stay to the right, which I was

I track stand like a boss and put my ass in his face.

And then there are scooter riders that try to use the bike lane as a passing lane :facepalm:

My motto is that if your going to be in the lane you need to own the road (as long as its daytime)... once you can get to the right and there is enough distance for a car to pass you, you let them go... then you take back the lane... If you don't ride aggressively, they will. Also, if someone is honking and being a dick, just pull over and let them pass... There is no way for you to know what their intentions are, and its best to just let them pass and ignore them...

What I can't stand is the times when I purposefully move to to right to let a car go by, and they don't pass.... That's the kind of driver that I dislike

+1.. except the ass in the face part.

Zomgossshhhhh so annoying when this happens. Gah.

quote for great justice

I concur with Rusty, goldwing = dick

I had a fun moment today, this is completely unrelated to drivers but rather another cyclist.
I had a really long day, got a flat, had to walk home get my car, come home running late for class, swap my pedals and then run out the door.
Buzzing down sunset, not quite at a mash but definitely not cruising I see a cyclist a head of me in full lycra. It was on the first and only real grade on my ride so I started pushing a little bit harder and I start to approach him at the top of the grade where there's a stop late. I'm running late, have HW that i still need to do and he stops in the middle of the bike lane making it impossible for me to pass him. I jump on the curb, go around the traffic and then run a red light as the other cyclist shouts at me to learn how to ride. I run the light in a safe manner, absolutely no cross traffic and even the cop, sitting at the light ignores me.
I push on and as I signal through traffic to get to the left Lycra Dbag come up behind me and shouts "TAKE SOME LESSONS ON HOW TO RIDE YOU GIVE CYCLISTS A BAD NAME." one thing about me, I don't react well to hostility and I respond to this lycra warrior on a fixie "Ride brakeless, kill yourself" and ride off. Pretty hypocritical **** if you ask me, considering I call Scrodz a hipster and I ride brakeless too. but none the less I thought I'd share.

Also, when in doubt, take a lane. at least thats my opinion on it

Only the actions of a genius.

People in Florida don't understand roundabouts. There are three roundabouts on my way to work. Not the big British kind, either; these are basically four-way stops but with yield signs and a circular concrete planter in the middle. Perhaps some pseudo-progressive freshly graduated civil engineer jackass is to blame. It's an OK idea in theory, but in practice nobody knows the rules and thus they are very dangerous, especially for cyclists.

Anyway, 70% of drivers don't understand how they work, and 90% of those drivers completely freak out when a cyclist approaches. They just assume that I'm going to blow through it, I guess. About every other day I get into a "go ahead" battle while trackstading with someone who refuses to utilize their right away, meanwhile traffic is backing up behind me getting pissed off. I'm just trying to follow the rules, bro.

Roundabouts are awesome.

I've had cars pass me to turn left while I'm in the left turn lane. I've had cars pass me to go straight, when I'm in the go-straight lane. I guess what I'm saying is, lots of people suck at driving. And I guess some of them are *******s, too. It's a nice source of righteous anger for me.

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~

There are tons of 4-way stops in Chicago. When I first moved here I would try to let the cars go and obey right of way laws but that seemed to cause trouble for everyone. Lots of start, stop, no one move, etc. most of the time cars wouldn't go until I completely got off of my bike and waved them across or got off of the road entirely. Now I go straight through most of them (carefully) and everything is much smoother and easier for everyone.

I've also been caught out at night without any lights and it actually seemed more relaxed when nobody saw me coming and I just assumed nobody saw me.

He's rushing down the road not caring about you, you're rushing through school not caring about grammar...

Can you clearly and eloquently state your case so I can care about reading it?

We were doing a group ride last week and some idiot passes us 12 inches away from us. We could of reached out and touched the person in the passenger seat he was that close.

Note: we were riding in a bike lane too

I'm going to design a handlebar-mounted cannon that pivots a full 180 degrees and shoots u-locks.

Years ago I was riding my BMX on the sidewalk when an old lady pulling out of a gas station hit me (at low speed), throwing me onto the hood of her Town Car. She then continued out into the traffic heavy, six-lane road with me on the car trying to find something to hold on to. She went maybe a hundred feet before stopping so I could get off, but it felt like that ride was never going to end--terrifying.

Florida drivers are the worst. They're either old and oblivious or just aggressively furious that bikes exist.

U-locks might be too expensive for ammo. What about making it rapid fire and using 10-speed cassettes?