Folks,
Let me preface this by stating that I have had more than my share of “disagreements” with operators of vehicles. Perhaps due either to the arrival of my first child, or the arrival of my first nice bike (soloist),
I’ve been thinking a bit about these confrontations.
First, if you think of the number of cars that pass you with no problems, the % of cars that bikers have issues with is extremely
small.
Second, I would guess that the majority of the incidents don’t begin with the driver thinking “watch me mess with this biker”.
In many situations, I think the driver doesn’t even see the biker
until they are yelling “you a-hole” at them. Not saying the driver isn’t wrong in this situation, just that the driver wasn’t an a-hole
intentionally, which is how it often seems to the biker. Now this biker is all irate and making obscene gestures and rather than the driver saying “My bad” the driver says “FU” and we have a situation.
Lastly, on a percentage basis, I have seen a lot more cyclists do sketchy moves w/regards to traffic (often I am that cyclist) than cars. As a matter of fact, if a car pulled some of the stunts I have seen cyclists pull in traffic, I think some cyclists would start shooting first and ask questions later, were they armed.
Kyle
Attempting to join the Peaceful Tribe
PS It would be a shame if I didn’t get to see my kid grow up because I flipped off some deserving grade school-dropout-redneck in a pickup who’s wife just left him when he got fired from his custodial job. I hope for the strength to be able to, in the future, wave apologetically and say “Sorry I was in your way.” and let them go on with their miserable life.