Seriously, what's wrong with people?

[Rich McP]

What makes some drivers feel like they need physical threats against cyclists who have done nothing to them, in fact, nothing wrong at all? Today the offender was a 90s or 00s Suburban. Went by me tight with his right wheels in the painted bike path. I know he was watching me, because when I flipped him off he did a hard swerve further right covering the whole painted bike path. I was expecting him to stop and confront me for hurting his delicate feelings by flipping him off. I guess he felt that showing me that he could kill me if he wanted to was all he needed to do. My parting message to him? GFY!

 

[graham418]

Those self-righteous, tree-hugging eco-cyclist bastards!! What right do they have being on our roads!!
I know the experience only too well. It seems to me , or at least in my experience, that the cycle haters who actively and aggressively torment cyclists are in the more rural roads. I don't know why
In the city, its inattentive, distracted idiots behind the wheel that kill you, but I don't think they're as much haters as just bad drivers
Just my thoughts and experiences

 

[Jilly]

Need a pool noodle??

 

[martyg]

As I have said before... Get a Fly6. If this were in CO, and you had video evidence, there would likley have been harrasment charges brought against the driver.

As I have said before... On the rare occasion when a driver takes liberties with my safety, I don't get angry. I smile. I smile because when I get home, I download the footage, upload to a private YouTube link, Call the sheriff and forward the link and password to them. They then go to the driver's house and issue a citation.

I smile, because I know that the driver's day, or week, is about to be fucked. I am educating drivers one at a time.

 

[Rich McP]

As I have said before... Get a Fly6. If this were in CO, and you had video evidence, there would likley have been harrasment charges brought against the driver.

As I have said before... On the rare occasion when a driver takes liberties with my safety, I don't get angry. I smile. I smile because when I get home, I download the footage, upload to a private YouTube link, Call the sheriff and forward the link and password to them. They then go to the driver's house and issue a citation.

I smile, because I know that the driver's day, or week, is about to be fucked. I am educating drivers one at a time.

As he drove away I was thinking to myself that it sure would have been good to have video running. Yes, CO; Denver, leaving the stop light crossing Broadway at Dartmouth.

 

[martyg]

As he drove away I was thinking to myself that it sure would have been good to have video running. Yes, CO; Denver, leaving the stop light crossing Broadway at Dartmouth.

My relationship with LE might be a bit different than most. LaPlata County and Durango might be a bit more hard lin than most. However, I never leave the house without my Fly6. It is the best $200 that I have soent. Can't recommend it highly enough. And then look up CO safe passing regs. Many LE are not familiar with them. You may have to do a bit of gentle education.

 

[slowrider]

For the life of me I don't understand why anyone would ride a bike on highways or rural 2 lane roads. So dangerous because of the disregard for your safety and poor driving skills of others.

 

[wooglin]

Too much entitlement. Not enough empathy.

 

[François Pugh]

Those self-righteous, tree-hugging eco-cyclist bastards!! What right do they have being on our roads!!
I know the experience only too well. It seems to me , or at least in my experience, that the cycle haters who actively and aggressively torment cyclists are in the more rural roads. I don't know why
In the city, its inattentive, distracted idiots behind the wheel that kill you, but I don't think they're as much haters as just bad drivers
Just my thoughts and experiences

Rural roads and the city of Sudbury Ontario Canada.
I don't agree with flipping someone off; them's fighting words. However, I understand where you're coming from.

I was once yelled at to "Get the F*** off the road", while riding next to the curb, just far enough not to hit the curb with my right pedal. I swore back, which was totally out of character for me. I am somewhat ashamed to say I was ready to fight. It's unfortunate that some people never learned respect, but killing someone over being yelled at and sworn at seems pretty dumb to me.

 

[scott43]

For the life of me I don't understand why anyone would ride a bike on highways or rural 2 lane roads. So dangerous because of the disregard for your safety and poor driving skills of others.

I mean..you don't have much choice sometimes. If you want to ride a road bike..best you can do is limit the damage, choose careful routes around busy roads. This is what I generally do.

 

[jt10000]

For the life of me I don't understand why anyone would ride a bike on highways or rural 2 lane roads.

There may be no other options to ride.

 

[slowrider]

I mean..you don't have much choice sometimes. If you want to ride a road bike..best you can do is limit the damage, choose careful routes around busy roads. This is what I generally do.

It's like skiing on ice. If you want to ski then you deal with it. I cringe ever time I pass bikes on the road at work. If there is a mechanical failure in a 42 ton truck no one wins. I share the road.

 

[cantunamunch]

In other news, Virginia gets a new law, complete with Idaho stop, double wide travel and NO passing without lane change.

Bicycling safety bill passes Virginia House, rolls on to Senate

Its prospects in the state Senate are uncertain as a Richmond senator's duplicate measure to the one sponsored by Del. Chris Hurst failed there.

roanoke.com

 

[oldschoolskier]

I share the road, what scares me as a driver is the bike lanes and the cyclists that use them and still don’t follow the rules. More to the point blowing a traffic light and expecting the vehicle to stop that has a green light. While I never drive to endanger a cyclist or pedestrian I now have a dash cam with front and rear cams to ensure I have done part in ensuring safety and not falsely blamed should an accident happen.

Sharing the road means just that and truthfully it applies to all. Bias it one way or the other and some one gets hurt (unfortunately usually the weaker slower lighter one).

Traffic rules are clear, all need to follow them equally. The question become how can we ensure that so everyone remains safe.

 

[jt10000]

I share the road, what scares me as a driver is the bike lanes and the cyclists that use them and still don’t follow the rules. More to the point blowing a traffic light and expecting the vehicle to stop that has a green light. While I never drive to endanger a cyclist or pedestrian I now have a dash cam with front and rear cams to ensure I have done part in ensuring safety and not falsely blamed should an accident happen.

Sharing the road means just that and truthfully it applies to all. Bias it one way or the other and some one gets hurt (unfortunately usually the weaker slower lighter one).

Traffic rules are clear, all need to follow them equally. The question become how can we ensure that so everyone remains safe.

Where I live (NYC) we know that cyclists and drivers break the laws at about equal rates (constantly in fact), but that in crashes between them drivers are more often at fault.

And at a fundamental level, the more inherently dangerous something is, the more responsibility the user has to being careful. So drivers should be more careful than cyclists who should be more careful than pedestrians. Truck divers even more so. Places more so. Big planes more so. This is basic.

Suggesting the less dangerous (to others) road users bears equal responsibility to the more dangerous (to others) road user is wrong. We frankly would be a much safer country (talking about mine) if we had massive pro-pedestrian bias and quite a bit more pro-cyclist bias. We don't - our entire transportation system is set up to favor drivers. From intersection design to light timing to road width to funding to law enforcement's well-documented bias in favor of drivers. Roads are set up for their convenience and they get away with killing people ALL THE TIME.

I hope it ends. We're fighting hard to end that in my city.

PS - if you ever want to get a true sense of how much drivers continuously break the law, follow a person learning to drive, with a teacher in the car. They follow all the rules and you will see other drivers utterly lose their shit.

 

[Rich McP]

In other news, Virginia gets a new law, complete with Idaho stop, double wide travel and NO passing without lane change.

Bicycling safety bill passes Virginia House, rolls on to Senate

Its prospects in the state Senate are uncertain as a Richmond senator's duplicate measure to the one sponsored by Del. Chris Hurst failed there.

roanoke.com

I LOVE the Idaho Stop. I think it should be everywhere.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

What is the Idaho stop?

Back to the OP, I give those guys a big friendly wave. I like to think it pisses them off/ confuses them more than the bird they were hoping for.

 

[Philpug]

I don't want to die being right. Sure, I have the right to ride on the road, we have miles and miles of bike lanes here but all it takes is one idiot like @Rich McP encountered and it's all over. I will stick to the trails.

 

[cantunamunch]

What is the Idaho stop?

It's a rolling stop with a yield. In other words, sure you can roll through the sign but if you do, everyone else has right of way.

In theory it recognizes that forcing cyclists to a complete stop just slows all traffic through the intersection as polite drivers wait for the cyclist to get restarted. In theory it also recognizes that cyclists have the ability to turn to avoid a collision, which cars do not. In theory it also recognizes that a notable purpose for a full stop is for drivers to have a good look to either side - and cyclists have much less restricted vision and much more time to actually look prior to arriving at the stop.

In practice it just means a cop can't ticket you for *not* putting a foot down at a stop. It also means that yelling 'Clear!' to your wheelsuckers is now legitimate.

 

[scott43]

I've been doing Idaho stops for fifty years!! Who knew?!?