Crazy people swearing at and driving RIGHT beside cyclists

[blind_dead_mcjones]

I've found it strange how the mere act of sitting in the drivers seat can turn a rational person into a complete ass

seriously, the only reason motorists yell abuse at cyclists is because they think they can get away with it. best solution my older brother has found is, if you are a cyclist and come across one of them at a set of traffic lights, get off of your bike, knock on their window and confront them, they tend to change their tune very quickly when that happens

its all very well and good to say "use the bike lanes" but more often than not people tend to park their cars/drive on the bike lanes anyway, or the bike lanes only count as such for certain time periods in the day or only go for a certain distance before disapeering completely

and don't say "ride on the sidewalk", its illegal to ride a bicycle on them

 

[Lonan]

I was biking on the road, and certainly wasn't going out of my way to make anyone angry.

But angry you did make them.

The question is did you go out of your way to let the lines of very angry motorists pass you as they were queing up? No rational human being would get that overtly belligerent unless they spent well over 2 minutes behind you.

The one who fingered me was by itself, the second had one car behind it, which went to the other side of the line and obeyed the law.

 

[LCP]

Drive in the sidewalk dammit, cyclists are annoying as hell, specially big groups that take the whole damn road.

If i have to get in the opposite lane to pass you there's a problem..

GTFO the road

 

[Lonan]

I realize you live in Canada, but Canadian right-of-way laws are very similar to American ones.

An average Mountain Bike gets between 13-18 MPH (sometimes faster with professional riders)


An average road bike gets between 18-30+ MPH (rarely above 30 though unless its a professional bicyclist who's trying to go fast)


The average car goes faster than both of these with a very slight push on the gas pedal.


The speed limit in most neighborhoods is typically 25, on non-major roads 30, on main roads between 30-55, and on the highway it can get up to the 80s (though legally I think it cuts off at 75 usually)

With this in mind, and with me assuming you are not a professional bicyclist, unless you're in a pedestrian area, or a bike lane, then you'll likely be going slower than the average car to ridiculous extents. Right-of-way laws state that unless an immediate disturbance such as potholes or debris are present, you should stay in the right lane as a bicyclist.

You have the rights to drive in other lanes, but if you do so, then don't complain if you somehow get hit, or some driver is an asshole due to the speed of your vehicle.


EDIT: Colorado, we have bike lanes all over the place here, so my opinion may be biased.

There was no "right lane."

 

[Lonan]

So much hate on cyclists. Oh well guess that makes me happy to be dutch. We've been riding on bycicles so long that there are rules in place to protect bikers. And when teaching you how to drive there is a lot of emphasis on bycicles(because they are everywhere)

But I'm kinda wondering how you were riding on the road. and what kind of road it was? because here we can ride anywhere extremely safely unless its a real highway or something. and no one is going to ride there. And every other lane has either a seperate bike lane. or is wide enough that you have an implicit bike lane (as in no actual lane, but people realize thats where you are going to be biking) and if you know how to ride its quite easy to stay close to the edge.

That's exactly it. People seem so much more civilised in Europe. Except for this and the other incident, people are very good though.

 

[Lonan]

Drive in the sidewalk dammit, cyclists are annoying as hell, specially big groups that take the whole damn road.

If i have to get in the opposite lane to pass you there's a problem..

GTFO the road

You HAVE to get in the opposite lane to pass, or you're breaking the law, at least where I am. Many people do understand this though.

 

[LCP]

Drive in the sidewalk dammit, cyclists are annoying as hell, specially big groups that take the whole damn road.

If i have to get in the opposite lane to pass you there's a problem..

GTFO the road

You HAVE to get in the opposite lane to pass, or you're breaking the law, at least where I am. Many people do understand this though.

If there's a perfectly empty sidewalk next to them why don't they use it?

 

[spartan231490]

Today I was biking back from from university when this woman pulled up right beside me and told me that unless I can go as fast as she can, I must get to the side of the road. Someone also flipped me their middle finger and swore incoherently at me while driving by very close and not giving me any room on a different day. Does anyone else bike and drivers treat them like this?

*edit*
I'll have to elaborate here. I was in the right tire track of the other vehicles passing on the road, and to my right was the gravel and the gutter. There's also cars parked over there. Sometimes people open their car doors without looking and hit cyclists.

So I avoid it, and go where the cars go. I used to go in the gravel and the gutter, and go out of my way to please people in their cars, but I realised how ridiculous it was. Everyone has the same entitlement to the road, and I shouldn't have to move to gravel every single time a car shows up. In fact, they should, because their clothes won't get dirty from having to go in the mud. So I don't. Cars do not have exclusive rights to the road, and whatever other people are using their cars to travel around can't be more important than what I am using my bike for.

Most people manage to obey the law. As a cyclist, I legally am a vehicle, no different from a car, van, truck, or SUV. I stop at every light and stop sign, and I use the road like any other vehicle. Cars need to give me a full lane, on the other side of the yellow line, when they pass me. I'm not going to pander to people in cars and slow my travel down just so they don't have to lose a few seconds of travel time, especially since they have such an enormous sense of entitlement and treat me in such a fashion.
*edit* speed limit 50kph, residential area.

People are assholes and live in their own little world where only they matter. This is magnified 10fold when driving. To them, you are slowing them down when you could just as easily move off into the gravel and therefore, you're a dick. It doesn't occur to them that you have as much right to the road as they, nor does it occur to them that they are the assholes. These thoughts are foreign to the mind of a human being when driving a vehicle. Get used to it.

 

[TheRealCJ]

Maybe you are indeed hogging more road than you should be? Technically cyclists are allowed a full traffic lane, but unless you can move at the posted speed limit, you're also technically obstructing the flow of traffic.

My theory is that if you managed to piss off two completely unrelated people to the point of them swearing at you, then chances are there were alot more reasonable people that you pissed off that never bothered saying it. I'd agree with majority rule here.

For the record, I'm both a driver and a cyclist, I've never had that happen to me, and I've spent more time pissed off at entitled, completely irresponsible ass**** cyclists while driving, than being pissed off at stopsign rolling, aggressive ass**** drivers while cycling.

But remember: Being on a healthy, environmentally neutral bicycle give you the god-given right to act like a pompous arse and look down on all those unhealthy pollutant-spewing motorists.

For the record, I ride a bike on the road. And I stick as close to the gutter as humanly possible. It's safer for me, I don't tick off the majority of motorists (there's always one, of course), and at stop signs and lights I can keep going without having to swerve around traffic. It's a win for me, for the people in the cars, and it gets me to where I'm going just as fast. Probably marginally faster.

 

[Lonan]

Drive in the sidewalk dammit, cyclists are annoying as hell, specially big groups that take the whole damn road.

If i have to get in the opposite lane to pass you there's a problem..

GTFO the road

You HAVE to get in the opposite lane to pass, or you're breaking the law, at least where I am. Many people do understand this though.

If there's a perfectly empty sidewalk next to them why don't they use it?

It's illegal.

 

[LCP]

Drive in the sidewalk dammit, cyclists are annoying as hell, specially big groups that take the whole damn road.

If i have to get in the opposite lane to pass you there's a problem..

GTFO the road

You HAVE to get in the opposite lane to pass, or you're breaking the law, at least where I am. Many people do understand this though.

If there's a perfectly empty sidewalk next to them why don't they use it?

It's illegal.

That's goddamn stupid. Nothing else I can say

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

You are not a car.

Get out of my way.

Legally they are a vehicle. Like it or not. They have the EXACT same rights of the road as you as long as they follow the same rule, hell over taking one without a full lane of clearance or driving side by side is as bad in the eyes of the law as doing that to a car.

SNIP

I cycle everywhere, i ONLY use "sidewalks" or pedestrian walking places, or stick so close to the curb i can slide past cars. I reckon you can decide to be a vehicle or not if youre a cyclist depending on location, but you HAVE to stick with that decision fully. I decide im not a vehicle, i dont take ANY of the rights they have. Ever. Or take up any road space. If i decide i am, i cant run stop lights or give way signs. For example on VERY wide country roads im a vehicle. In very packed fast lanes im a pedestrian.

To be fair, a lot of cyclists are douchebags.

Tonnes of people cycle. This statement is just unfounded and silly. "People who walk using their feet tend to be douchebags". Im not a "cyclist" i just cycle places... because i cant afford a car (being a student) i sure as hell wouldnt define myself as it. Unless you are a proffessional athlete who the hell calls themself a "cyclist" to define themselves. Im sure at somepoint 100% of people have been cyclists. Are they all douchebags? I dont feel entitled because i cycle i feel freakin poor! Even less of a reason to be a douche >.>

 

[Belluavir]

Cars are quite expensive, especially in countries like Australia and sometimes people simply can't afford them but still have to go to work, school or university. There isn't a viable bus route, maybe they can't even afford it and they certainly can't afford twice a day cab fares and it's just too far to walk. What option is left? Biking, people who can ride them often have them and even new ones are a lot cheaper than cars. There are no bike lanes on their route or very few, they try the sidewalks but it's a bit too narrow, especially at the speed the pace they need to not be late and lots of people yell and swear at them and tell them to get on the road. On the road they have the room they need, their less liable to hurt someone and perfectly legal, but people are yelling, honking and swearing at them. At this point though, they've exhausted all of their options, they still need to get to work or get to class, so they'll just have to find some way to cope with it.

What cyclists probably really need most of all in these situations is some decency and empathy. I know the above description doesn't fit every cyclist's situation but I think it's more fair to give someone the benefit of the doubt rather than to assume they're just an asshole out to waste your time.

i'm a cyclist and i would advise you to travel on the freeway and use the shoulder as it is specifically for parked cars and bikes the only time i get abused is when fuckwits don't know the road rules themselves and when you mentioned that you don't travel in bike lanes and go on the road instead because cars in the bike lane might hit you when they open their doors, wat do you think is going to do you more damage that or being run over by a truck?

Where are you from MrStab? So far as I remember, it's illegal in America and Australia to ride a bike on the freeway, even on the shoulder.

Even if it's legal where you are from, it still doesn't sound like a good idea. What if someone's engine dies while they're in D? They can't get it started again and their breaks won't work and the freeway is busy, the only option they have is to pull into the shoulder and slowly and carefully use the handbrake to stop their car, if you're in the way and they can't stop or swerve back onto the road... Well that wouldn't be very nice.

 

[Gathercole]

Hey Lonan, I totally sympathize. I commuted by bike for three years in and around downtown Boston, I've been in my share of encounters with cage rage. It's always tough to strike a balance between being assertive about your rights, and not endangering yourself by provoking a coward with only tenuous control of his vehicle and temper.

First of all, you're totally within your rights to ride in the middle of the lane, if it's not safe to be over to the right. Circumstances that make it not safe include glass or debris, parked cars that can door you, or a narrow lane.

If a car gets up on your tail and starts honking, point them around you with your left arm. most of the time, if they're more interested in getting on with their life than starting a fight, they'll just zoom around you and be gone. BUT, sometimes they like to pass you really close to try and intimidate you, and there's always the chance that they'll misjudge the distance and clip you... after all, if they were a good driver, they would have passed you right away instead of timidly hanging back and honking. So when they start to pass, I liked to do a "safety sway"... just sway about three feet to the right in your lane as they go by, just enough to keep you out of range of mirrors and miscalculation.

For really rude drivers, when I was in a bad mood, I would catch up to them at the next light... get off my bike and walk quietly up to their window and then suddenly bang on it hard and repeatedly with the flat of my hand, usually scaring the piss out of them. If they rolled down the window I'd inform them about the law, with choice profanities depending on how much danger they just put me in. If it was a young man and he was being a douchebag I'd invite him to step out of the car and see if his ass could cash the check he wrote with his mouth. In three years of making this offer to all kinds of men... SUV drivers, BMW drivers... I never had one of them take me up on it. They just suddenly started staring straight ahead and sweating. Not that I'm recommending that you do the same, but it is indicative of the type of people that harass cyclists. Like I said, if they were confident, competent drivers they would have passed you right away instead of wasting their time honking and going slowly.

So know the law, and be safe, but every cyclist has to decide for himself where to draw the line between being safe, and taking shit. Just make sure to draw it in a place where you can live with the consequences.

 

[Wolfram23]

It annoys me to have to pass cyclists on busy roads, BUT, it annoys me even MORE when cyclists think they aren't vehicles and don't need to obey rules of the road - they ignore stops and turning rules and just do whatever the fuck. That's going to get them killed one day.

Anyway, people suck. You just have to deal with it I guess. Keep doing what you're doing because you're in the right.

 

[johnzaku]

wowzers that sucks =[

I have yet to experience anything like that here, though I car more than bike...

 

[Dragonclaw]

I really used to side with bicyclists...until SF started this group cycling thing called "Critical Mass" to prove their point...apparently their point is that cyclists are complete douchebags.

These guys get HUNDREDS of cyclists in SF the last Friday of every month, during the evening commute and take up entire streets where they know traffic is the heaviest, just to cause a log jam...if there's an event like a Giants game they make sure all roads in the area are clogged there too. I was caught in one of those groups once because I happened to need to drive into the city and a bunch of these guys started beating on every car that was stuck in their mess. They damaged the entire left side of my car with dents and shattered 2 windows while spouting off that I should be "doing better for the environment and leaving my car at home".

Well they did their job...they wanted to change minds with their monthly protest and they HAVE...I now pretty much HATE pretentious cycling pricks!

 

[godofallu]

Yeah bikers come to one of the small towns I used to live near, and do the exact same stupid shit the OP does.

Eventually the town got so fed up that they invented ways to fuck with the dumbass bikers who were always right in the middle of the damn road. One local mechanic gave free "modifications" that would make it so your windshield cleaner shot sideways. This eventually led to someone getting arrested for filling it with piss.

The sad thing is the town eventually built a giant bike lane, but none of the bikers use it. Probably because they are all dipshits. I mean the speedlimit is 50, and the area is extremely hilly. Riding in the middle of the road in that area is dangerous and stupid.

If you want to bike, find a bike trail or something. Riding in the middle of a crowded highway is just stupid and disrespectful.