bicycle road rage

[Timbone]

Getting buzzed, getting harassed being treated as a insect on the roads is Standard Operating Procedure for cyclists in the USA. It's wrong. It happens daily, all over the country, and tells a lot about how Americans feel powerful, immune, and privileges when driving a car or truck.

Bikes never slow down traffic because they are traffic. The road belongs to everyone so it is imperitive - and right! - to share the road.

 

[2old2learn]

It sounds like you live in a beautiful place. Try and let it's beauty help you heal from this indignation. No one deserves to be threatened like that. I do hope that the person who did this was as frightened as you were for it is difficult for me to believe they intended to cause harm. I could be wrong as we do have people who walk among us who have serious psychological problems.

Everywhere I have ever been, I find good people there. We often find.........what we are looking for.

 

[troyg]

Everywhere I have ever been, I find good people there. We often find.........what we are looking for.

I'm with ya 100% there.What really gets me, when I ride, I consider myself a representative for all bicyclists, a more safe, courteous rider you'll not find.I'm always driving my mirror, on 2 laners, if it appears I will impede traffic I will pull into the weeds and stop so cagers don't have to slow down.

This incident happened on a four lane (with bike lane/shoulder so 3 lanes per side), 5 mile straight section, no hills (large median) highway, I've done trucking, he saw me there's no way he was distracted that long, he'd be in the ditch, it was an accurate buzz, I know truckers that can make the tires hit the platforms on the orange cones at 55mph without knocking them over. The only times I ride in the actual traffic lanes is when there is no other option, in this case way WAYYY to the right of any traffic, him and I being the only wheeled things for 13 miles.

It's bizzare, when you're on a bicycle, suddenly you're no longer thought of as a "brother-sister-son-daughter-father-mother-human" just road fodder, I rarely see anyone get more than a slap on the wrist for hitting a bicyclist.

Aleman, I'm a proud card carrying A-hole, for you to suggest the karmic return for rough language, and being a 21st century "meanie" is pulverization beneath a fully loaded semi is,... not surprising.

 

[butre]

It sounds like you live in a beautiful place. Try and let it's beauty help you heal from this indignation. No one deserves to be threatened like that. I do hope that the person who did this was as frightened as you were for it is difficult for me to believe they intended to cause harm. I could be wrong as we do have people who walk among us who have serious psychological problems.

Everywhere I have ever been, I find good people there. We often find.........what we are looking for.

cyclists suffer some serious abuse for what cagers perceive as wrongdoings. I've had bottles and spit and insults hurled at me while long distance cycling. that was all before I ruined my back and could still pedal. people mostly just gawk at my motorized bicycle now.

 

[2old2learn]

For all you brother cyclists who have suffered these mistreatment by ignorant drivers, I am truly sorry. I have told my two sons, many times, that if a cyclist or a pedestrian steps out into my path that I will take a bridge abutment or a head-on into a tractor trailer before I'll run over a pedestrian or a cyclist as they have no protection while I have a steel frame, airbags and a seatbelt that might allow me to survive. And if not, don't blame the other parties as I made a choice even knowing the possible outcome. Even if I knew the outcome would mean my certain end, it would still be the choice I would make. Living with the knowledge that I might have saved their lives would destroy the person I've always been. We each must choose what we believe is right and walk the walk.

 

[mikedabomb]

Look at it like evolution. You're obviously slower and weaker than those around you, they want to take you out.

Good, blunt response. It's a rare occurrence for people to speak certain realities...we all subconsciously want to rise to the top, and it's our nature to fatally compete. The cyclist's only reasonable defense (that I heard of) is cameras, and get the bacon to work it out from there. Eventually, they'll tell their chief to implement something to stop the reports, right? How effective are cameras in getting justice? If you get hit, what use is the camera? :-/

Hit and runs are common with pedestrians and cyclists as the vehicle is not seriously damaged and the escape from inevitable punishment is easy...this is what scares me the most. My friend who lives half a mile away got ran over when he was in elementary school. He was hit just a few hundred feet from his house in a 25mph school zone by a car doing well over 40mph and they ran. Cracked his skull open. He's alive today but I'm not sure he liked the ordeal

2old2learn, I wish everyone had your selflessness, your post made me feel warm inside

 

[The_Aleman]

I did about $3500 damage to a RAV4 hitting it at the b-pillar going 20MPH on a chinagirl MTB back in '09. A little more to my face. That wasn't fun!

The problem was I couldn't see it happen. If you have a big truck behind you on a smallish road it might be a good idea to pull off!

 

[HeadSmess]

revenge is a dish best served cold...

i was almost squashed by a chicken laden semi... well over the speed limit and giving me nowhere to go but the gutter. not a suburban gutter. a rural bush gutter with holes and broken glass n stuff. wasnt the first time either. just the closest and scariest. i was riding well outside the marked lane. so was he! he SWERVES FOR US.

well, i passed it a few minutes later...he leaves his trailer at a convenient spot and disappears for a few hours, its a routine.
i resisted the urge to go kick his teeth in while i was wearing steel caps and just rode home.

three months later i removed all his valve cores one night, stuck em in an envelope with a letter "next time you dont slow down for cyclists i will use a knife..."


12 flat tyres. ouch.

never had a problem since... with that particular truck at least.

 

[troyg]

I can't say I'd do that, when trucking there are often many drivers using the same truck, you may have taken the food out of the wrong dude's mouth.
The ability to prove intent would be impossible, I'd only be able to prove negligence, unless my camera caught his face smiling, obviously seeing me, and such.There are bad drivers, trying to scare bicyclists into wrecking, they'd say "I didn't hit him" but it's the equivalent of making a kid flinch at the edge of the grand canyon, you may not have touched him, but if he over reacts he'll be dead at the bottom.

 

[troyg]

I did about $3500 damage to a RAV4 hitting it at the b-pillar going 20MPH on a chinagirl MTB back in '09. A little more to my face. That wasn't fun!

The problem was I couldn't see it happen. If you have a big truck behind you on a smallish road it might be a good idea to pull off!

Please read my responses, I stated "on 2 laners I pull off and stop" this happened on a 4 lane divided highway (with additional bike lane/shoulder), so three lanes, the f^%k had room and time, could have been 6 lanes same outcome.I'm not going to stop for every passing car.