so some a-hole in a red subaru forester decides that he is having a bad day and doesn't think bicycles have any right to the road. I was having an great ride on this 70deg early march day, when I was suddenly scared to death by this car passing within inches of my side. Then he stops and asks what my problem is, as i'm grabbing my throbbing chest from the shock of near death. Then it gets good...police were called, and he tails me for the next 2 miles down mountain road like a stalker. I called mis to come get me not knowing what this psycho killer might do...turn around and go wait for my ride, call 911 and tell them my story. So I end up back at home and have a nice hike with mis and mars before wendy's memorial service.
I don't hate most motorists so much as pity them in their cages. They feel they have to go with the flow, able-bodied or not. I've found the most considerate drivers are usually the ones in Mack trucks. 395 is my fav bike road 'cause of wide shoulders (like 2 feet or more) and lots of big-rigs. They give you way more room than the jerks in convertibles. If every able-bodied person on earth would ride a bike at least one day a week, imagine how much cleaner the air would be and safer us cyclis
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Very reason why I refuse to ride my bicycle on any road.
Sidewalks(rather deal with the LAW compared to a criminal gun(though sometimes what is the difference?)), but try my best to stick to pure bike paths/routes.
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I love it when the car that's just cut me off get's stopped at the next set of lights. More often than not, the driver is apologetic, so I get to make them feel bad before riding off. The other week though, two guys threw some rubbish at me as they drove past, and then had to run two red lights to get away from me. After cornering them in a mall carpark, I got their plate and called my mate, a cop. Still laughing!
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Gotta love those that gotta make that right hand turn and speed up to get in front of you just to chop you off!
Ride a motorcycle if you really want to be entertained! I love stupid people... makes me feel really smart!
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i like the curteous honk from a good distance away, if theyre too close and u didnt hear them it just scares the hell outta you, when people scream u can hardly understand them if at all
and some people like to mess around, such as rev their engines like some 17-19 year olds did yesterday(not a bad bmw btw) but when they actually rolled down there window and talked they werent bad
its the people that race up to you, slow down to like 5 lay on the horn and then speed past inches away
we had a tea
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i like the curteous honk from a good distance away, if theyre too close and u didnt hear them it just scares the hell outta you, when people scream u can hardly understand them if at all
and some people like to mess around, such as rev their engines like some 17-19 year olds did yesterday(not a bad bmw btw) but when they actually rolled down there window and talked they werent bad
its the people that race up to you, slow down to like 5 lay on the horn and then speed past inches away
we had a tea
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I was in my car on my way to work last Friday when a car that was tailgating me at the speed limit +5 zipped around me so she could go faster. This is a one-lane each way road with a ton of morning bikers on it. I snapped a pic of her car and license plate at the next stop sign, but I'm unsure what to do with it.
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I've been an avid cyclist for about 18 years and have had my share of driver related problems. But I want to balance this thread by saying I've also had many problems as a driver with obnoxious bicyclers, many of them the Lycroid wrapped club riders. In one fairly serious incident I was in my car, second in line at a 4-way stop sign. I could see left that a line of cyclers was coming. The car in front of me proceeded. I pulled up to a full stop and looked left. The cyclers were approaching their s
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Be careful. We had a similar incident last year on 4th July while descending a Malibu Canyon. A resident in his car was fed up with the cyclists and pull in front only to "allegedly" slam on his brakes sending one through his rear window- and this driver was a Doctor!
your friends at yikes ID
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Here in NJ you have to be careful. While some drivers are malicious a lot are just ignorant idiots -- and that leads to malice. Example: the other day a huge SUV went straight from the left. Nearly gave up the ghost. Without yelling, I calmly said "It's my understanding that that's a left only lane". You should have heard the guy blow up -- my understatement was a lot more bothersome to him than a slew of cussing. Then there are some that are just accidents. This morn on the way to work
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My brother, age 60, named Doran, is an avid bicyclist who lives near Denver. He has over 60,000 miles logged bike riding with no accidents, until recently. On June 15th he was on an early morning ride and was struck by a pickup truck in an intersection. Nobody saw the accident. The truck driver claims he had a green light and didn't see my brother. He also claimed he was going the speed limit of 45 mph. My brother's doctors think the truck was going much faster than that. We think the truck driver
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Here in NY it all depends on the luck of the draw. Yesterday I had my first near death experience with traffic when riding on a lightly used country rd with posted a posted speed limit of 45 and no shoulder, a tandum dump truck tried to sandwich me between a set of guard rails and his rear tires. He never move an inch and almost sucked me under the trailer. Nedless to say I didn't get the plate number. I was to busy trying to catch my breath. Overall though most drivers seem to go out of their way in t
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Living in Chicago I would think I would see more and more of this, but I really haven't. Yesterday I was on a gorgeous 20 mile circuit, first time riding the route, absolutely gorgeous. Every car was so courteous that I almost shed a tear. I mean going all the way over an entire lane, and giving a slight honk to let me know they were passing to my left. Then, with about 5 miles left, on a road traveled by very few, some idiot in a pickup was within inches. I seriously yelled WTF! The only thing he did
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Just two weeks ago some dork in a red sports car almost hit me. I was almost across the street and he wasn't even looking. I yelled and startled him. He slid a little and I think I scared the crap out of him. If there were a rock nearby, I would have thrown it at him!!!
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I'm from New York City, and I can tell you motorists on the busiest streets are the most courteous and friendliest I have encountered, pedestrians on the Brooklyn Bridge however are a different story. The walkway is small enough especially since it is split into two, one for pedestrians and one for cyclists. Not a day goes by when some completely oblivious pedestrians back up into the lane either trying to take a photo or avoiding a pack of other pedestrians.
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I was running last week and came to intersection and the mortorist in SUV cruise thru the stop light, I yelled you almost hit me. He yelled back chill out, I said it if you were not on the cell phone you would of seen me. There was a poice cruiser two cars behind him, they pulled him over, for talking on his phone while driving
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I've been fairly lucky with the drivers here in Taunton & Raynham, MA. I also try not to get into routes that have barely any width to the road to begin with. I know how frustrating it is just to drive those tight roads, let alone have to share it with a rider. There is one spot on Rt 44, right after the center, and before the highschool that has tons of pot holes and I get nervous. Other than that, it's all smooth sailing.
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Couple of my friends have either been run-off the road by some teenagers (by dumb luck he saw the SUV again and confronted the girls and the parents). I'm making it a habit to memorize license plates now that pass me as a drill, so if something does happen, I can report it.
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The worst one I had was some drunk idiots sticking their hand out of the window and slapping my backside as they drove past. Unfortunately they almost knocked me off and they'd sped off by the time I righted the bike so I couldn't get numberplates, but I hope they had horrible hangovers the next day!
Most of the time drivers in my area are pretty good though - I think most of them are actually cyclists themselves :)
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I was cycling on a fairly busy street and I was actually amazed because all of the drivers were either slowing down for me or going into the next lane over. I was doing a little over 20mph and the speed limit is 25 mph on the street. I was on the street for almost 2 miles with all sorts of courteous drivers and then some lady in a green SUV came screaming past me like she was being chased by the cops. Maybe my acquisation was right because the sameSUV was pulled over at the end of the street.
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I had a few situations like this. I tell my friends and at least one of them just does not believe me. One motorist was honking and yelling, GET OFF THE ROAD and they where two women 40-50 years of age around 5 feet tall and who were not kidding around. I found them at the end of the road eating their dinner as if nothing had happened. I said a few words but I should have dragged them out of their car, I as so mad.
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Sounds like you live here in Tucson. I've had drivers come up behind me, I can hear them, and blast away on the horn anyway. The worst can be motocyclists, the HD type, that want to impress you with their ability to be stealthy (who can do so with a motorbike like that) and then blow away. However, I do like the drivers that give you the entire lane and wave at you as they go by. I tend to avoid the high traffic/no bike lanes roads and use the roads with them with less traffic or rilling in the sho
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I've had decent luck around here in North Shore MA... I got run off the road three or four times in the two years I lived in CT, here all I get is a lot of shouting (usually this time of year, the teenagers trying to impress their girls) and the sneak-up-then-honk move, though I did get nailed with a beer bottle in Peabody last year, that wasn't much fun... Almost caught up to them afterwards... Pity I didn't.
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I've been run off the road on my bike so many times I've lost track. Since I've been a driver when passing bikes, I can understand "not seeing them." Doesn't make me any happier, but I've learned to not take it personally.
The most I do is on the situations where you're passing a driveway, and a car is "leaning out" to wait for traffic so they can turn. If they see me, they usually stop, and I'll wave my thanks. If they don't, I'll r
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agreed Aldimond, Seattle motorists are oblivious and recklessly inattentive, especially for a city vying for Portland, OR's title of most bicycle friendly city in the US. Pair that with a still-booming population and an already overdeveloped metropolitan area and you have a recipe for impact. Need eyes on all four sides of my head and one on each buttcheek.
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I seriuosly think that there should be strictor laws for mototrist. Half of the people out there shouldn't even receive a license. And several people out there don't even have a licence.
Does anybody know what to do to get bike lanes put in?
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I hear that Dragon! Happened to me today, but calling them punks dignifies them - over here we call them 'neds' or 'chavs'. Either way, next time I hope they run themselves off the road...
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i know the feeling too, i almost got hit a few times on my bike. then there are some punks that ride by and shout obsene things out, and some just do it to scare the crap out of ya. motorists suck.
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Here in the UK, ref mnock's comment, there are quite a few trails for dual pedestrian/bike use - they're generally great and easy to ride, but last weekend I came across a set of radical ramblers. The rules of the trails state that cyclists should give way to pedestrians, and boy did these guys take that literally - they were walking 4-abreast, and forced me to stop and wait till they rambled by! Give me motorists any day...
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I hate people, especially people in cars.
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On the other hand, I've recently moved to Cambridge, England from Montreal, Canada; and in the UK, though motorists have the right-of-way even with pedestrians, cyclists are considered legally and socially as regular street traffic. There are lanes in the roads for bikes, special paths between lanes for cyclists, many bike paths, etc. Plus, cyclists can go anywhere (save the highway) that a car can go. It's a nice contrast from almost being run-down from behind by buses in Canada. I was too ne
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I find cars inconsiderate when I'm running - I try to stay on public footpaths here as they are completely car free, but the trouble is getting to them. Yesterday I was on the sidewalk and a car came screeching across the road trying to turn into a drive. I had to jump out of the way to miss getting hit - and to top it off the guy in the passenger seat gave me a filthy look!
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This seems to be one of the biggest issues when biking or running. I have been struck every year at lest once while running or biking. The last time I was pushed off the road by a car I got a flat. While I talking to the bike shop repair man he said did you get the plate number. I said no, didn't think of it. He said next time get the plate number because in Maine cars a required to give 3 feet of space along bikers. I believe people who drive like this should be charge in the same way someone sh
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I've had a near miss or two myself. The thing that irks me most is when I'm forced to run on a sidewalk and a motorist insists on stopping for a stop sign, six feet past the stop sign... which completely cuts off my crosswalk, which I'm already in. I knocked on one driver's door window before they came to a complete stop and shocked the hell out of the driver. I asked 'Did you look left?' and followed up with 'your stop sign is BACK THERE.' I just hope she's
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I feel ya. The cagers in Chicago are usually OK. The ones with attitudes don't bother me as much as the ones that are oblivious, though. One of them came way too close on one of those metal-grated bridges where you don't have much traction. I chased her down at the next intersection, knocked on her window and told her she needed to give me more room than that. She said, "Sorry, I didn't see you." She had a dog IN HER LAP.
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come down to Texas...seems like the biggest "a-holes" in the road are the ones that drive trucks with lift kits on them. That's been my experience.
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Agreed
Motorists suck
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