people yelling at me on bike

I would have told them to kiss my a$$. . . People have yelled at me before and I yell right back. Maybe not the most mature thing, but oh well. I guess people have nothing better to do than to slow down and yell at cyclist from time to time. Whatever floats your boat.

This is why I don't ride in town. It is much more convenient and I get a better workout if I would just drive 10 minutes to get to a nice, low-traffic, country road. Lucky for me I can ride one mile and be on some nice country roads.

There is not really enough room on the shoulder of most city streets to cycle ... and I really have a problem with cyclists that ride in the middle of the lane as if they were a regular "vehicle" ... unless of course they can ride the speed limit and slow down traffic.

Pack riders are even worse. I've ridden with a pack of riders before and likely will not do it again. They seemed to be daring cars to "run them off the road".

In town, even riding the sidewalks is poroblematic b/c you always have to ride defensively as you cross every intersection. There is a guy in town that I see that rides his bike in the street as if he's a car. He's going 12-15 mph and the cars are going 35 (speed limit). It's an accident waiting to happen. It's not too hard to predict who is going to get the worst of the accident.

Too me, it's not worth the risk factor to ride into town, and it's not that good of a workout b/c you spend half of your time looking around with your head on a swivel, and slowing down and speeding up as you come across intersections. I like being able to maintain a steady pace and focus on cycling ... I would drive 20 minutes to the country to avoid riding in town.

I always yell at people on the sidewalk. Bikes don't belong on the sidewalks with pedestrians. The big problem I enounter is when walking my dog. I've had a biker go between me and my dog ripping his leash out of my hand. It could have been really ugly.

I don't want you on the sidewalk.  That means I may hit you when I am driving my car

I yell back, but then again I'm rude & bitchy when crossed. I'm really lucky to live in an area where cycling, skiing, hiking, etc is so promoted. We have miles & miles of paved bike/jog paths throughout Anchorage. I could get from one end of town to the other, without being on a busy street (riding in the street), unless my final destination is on a busy street. The sidewalks are considered 'street paths' on most of the main roads (at least according to the local bike maps).

Today I did a 10mi ride from Anchorage to Eagle River on one of the paths which runs pretty much alongside the highway (seperated by fence and/or 50ft and/or trees). Only a few portions where I needed to cross a busy street or pass a walker, etc. It was quite relaxing to only need to worry about whether some idiot threw gravel on the path or not. LOL

Diana

Get used to it.

Just grow some thick skin, smile and wave back at the people who get mad. My theory is they're in a multi-ton vehicle and you're on an 18 lb bicycle. Unless you think that you can outrun 'em just ignore 'em.

jsargevt

My theory is they're in a multi-ton vehicle and you're on an 18 lb bicycle. Unless you think that you can outrun 'em just ignore 'em.

Plus, I doubt many of us triathlon tranees would want our actions to result in another cyclists paying for it (through violence upon them). We are all "walking billboards" for triathletes/cyclists.

Although I live in El Paso (a very unfriendly bike town), I am from Tucson and go back there frequently. There are bike lanes all over the place that a clearly marked so cars do not use them as the broken down lane (like they do in El Paso). They also have a sign at nearly every intersection stating that drivers are to yield to bicyclists. This makes for a peaceful (most of the time) environment between cars and cyclists. Perhaps you could write to your city council and ask them to create a more friendly bike environment (use the "It would attract tourists" angle), and perhaps they can do something about driver/cyclist awareness.

You get used to brain dead types yelling out all sorts of idiotic comments like that.  I take them with a grain of salt these days.  I do remember catching up to one guy some years ago who had just yelled at me to ride on the sidewalk.  I pulled up to him and asked him why he was not riding on the sidewalk.  When he replied that it was illegal, I pointed out to him that riding my bike on the sidewalk was also illegal and even more dangerous than riding on the road. 

Lat year riding in rural Ohio with a friend, we had a redneck in a pick up with his son throw fire crackers at us as they went by. They were laughing so hard they were swerving on the road. It scared the crap out of us.

I live in Fresno which has bike lanes all over town which makes it nice to ride, but still you must be on gaurd continually. I can be on a country road in a mile or two but even in the open road car still don't notice you. Just last week had a freind run off the road by a truck that never saw her, she is alright just picking gravel out of her knees and elbows, she was on a country road.

Well at least you guys have never had an air horn blown in your ear. I ahd ringing for about five minutes after he did it. I just wait for the day that someone does somehting really dumb (like blow an air horn in my ear!) by a stop light so I can have the joy of scarring the crap out of them when they see me take their plate #. Otherwise I'll jsut ignore them or give my middle finger a workout.

I'm all for riding on the road. Bicycles have the same right as motor vehicles to use the road.That being said, if cyclists continue to blow through stop signs and red lights motorists will continue to be pissed with them. If we want to ride on the road we HAVE to obey the rules or else we are being hypocritical. I know it sucks to have to wait for yet another red light or stop sign but if we all follow the rules hopefully we will, with time, gain the respect of motorists. (at least the non-redneck ones capable of actually dispalying respect).Just my two cents.

Or move to Europe. At least there it's a 18 pound bike vs. 100 pound car
But definitley obey the rules of the road.

In my hour & 40 min ride today, much of ended up being on streetside paths, I was almost hit at least 3 times. No yelling for me, but I had a few "Watch it!"s to throw out there.

Let's review how I ride. Very carefully. I was hit as a kid going across a shopping center driveway by someone in a sports car, it hurts.

I ride designated bike paths. In the street *only* on sections where there is no streetside path & speed limit is below 35 (preferably 25), and only for a short distance. At any major 4-way intersection, I use the ped xing & walk my bike. It's a pita, but I was almost hit *walking* my bike through the intersection. Would have been hit for sure on my bike.

Woman driving a minivan, blew through a parking lot driveway 3ft ahead of me and into the bike path crossing. "Watch it" number 1 was issued as I swerved around her brand new van and wished like hell it was okay to key it or do something nasty to it. (I didn't do anything, calm down...:P)

Major, major intersection, almost hit as ped xing turns to walk and I step off the curb to walk my bike across. I issued a "What the Hell! Watch it!"

At the tail end of my trip downtown, some moron was stopped fully in the crossing, requiring me to walk my bike around the back end of his vehicle, because the front end would have put me in traffic. Issued a dirty look, shared a commiserating smile & head shake with another driver (they had a bike rack on the car).

Return trip, almost got creamed by a driver turning left onto a minor street after I had entered the street crossing (yes I'd looked, they hadn't reached the turn lane). Hooters van witnessed the near collision, van driver shook his head at the other driver.

I most likely won't take that route again unless I have a specific downtown destination to reach. I slow/stop at most intersections looking for drivers who are turning before proceeding. I obey all laws regarding being a cyclist or pedestrian and practice what I call "healthy paranoia" when approaching busy intersections.

Drivers need to be more aware, get off their phones and remember people could be walking/cycling on the streetside paths (it's legal here, they're made wide enough to accomodate the bike & foot traffic).

Unfortunately, police are rarely in the right place at the right time, to deal with these infractions. Cyclists, don't usually have a chance to get plate numbers, so these habitual offenders (and I'm certain the majority are habitual) get away with inconsiderate, rude & dangerous behavior time after time after time.

Diana

I ride on the street. If its a multi-lane road, I take the whole lane. To paraphrase a Critical Mass slogan, 'I am not blocking traffic, I AM traffic.'

20 years ago I was hit by a car coming out of a parking lot. I wasn't hurt seriously but I certianly was damaged mentally (that sounds bad .

As I started training this spring I started out on a trail that was an old rail bed turned into a bike trail. Flat and no turns. Not much fun to ride and not much expereince for a real race situation.

Saturday I did a real road ride. I live in a small town so I can get into the country quickly (less than a mile). Country roads typically don't have much for a shoulder (unless you like gravel). I have also had a a few idiots honk as they go by (scares the s**t out of me).

I know this much - there is no way I would ride on a sidewalk at 15-20 mph. I would consider that suicidal besides the fact it is illegal

I think the best one I've had yelled at me so far was: "GET A CAR!"  The kid that yelled that was walking home from Wal-Mart...

The thing about being ran off of a country road is that there's an unoccupied ditch you can swerve/crash into. If you get ran off the road in town ... especially in a section where 4-lane roads (2 each way) are, what are your options? Slide on the pavement? Swerve into other traffic?

IMO, busy intersections are just accidents waiting to happen. Throwing bikes, skateboards, roller blades, etc in the mix just adds to it. At least other drivers are "watching for cars". I've seen quite a few motorcycle-car accidents, and people are more familiar with watching for motorcycles than they are bicycles.

When I ride on country roads, I wave to everyone. It did not take long before I could tell that people were familiar with me being there and I got a sense they were "watchful for me". It's pretty cool.

My only scare in the country occurred when I was going downhill, and a car came flying over the top. After that I always switch to the other side of the road, so I am facing the oncoming traffic when going downhill. The cars can see me the whole time, and I can see them. All my other scares have involved a split-second determination regarding whether the farm dog chasing me was friendly or not, or whether they were going to dart in front of me. All of the dogs have been friendly. Everyone of them has stopped chasing me after I stopped to pet them just once. It's like I killed the thrill for them.

--------------------------------

To paraphrase a Critical Mass slogan, 'I am not blocking traffic, I AM traffic.'

As long as you're going the speed limit ... we all know how we feel about traffic that refuses to go the speed limit.

Edited by TripleThreat 2005-06-14 9:40 AM

This our tactic locally. We condition our drivers through positive reinforcement. On the country roads I ride regularly they nearly all know the cyclists and give us a full lane to ourselves or, if there's oncoming traffic, many of them will actually SLOW DOWN AND WAIT TO PASS! I mean, farmer types in great big pickups! I want to send these people flowers! The real menace is kids on bikes who don't know the rules of the road for cyclists. You never know what those little wild things will do and I worry that they'll mess up our good driver relations or plain old crash into me.

Edited by CLLinIA 2005-06-14 10:14 AM