Late yesterday afternoon I went out with my girlfriend for one of the most pleasent bike rides I have been on in a long time. It was one of those glorious fall days when the leaves were a rainbow of colours, the air was cool, but not cold, the sun was shining brilliantly at just the right angle and the roads picked for the ride where perfect - two hours of aerobic bliss with beautiful rural scenery! I felt lucky and grateful to be out riding my bike on such a wonderful day. What a fantastic way to burn off the excessive calories from a long weekend of thanksgiving feasting.
The only thing that spoiled the ride was the observation and indentification of a behaviour of motorists that we could not understand. The road is wide open. There is little or no traffic. It’s late in the day on Thanksgiving monday - a holiday. Yet, motorists have to jump on the accelerator with a massive acceleration when passing us. Why is that? I’m going 25 - 30 Km/H, the cars are going minimum 60 Km/H. The cars will pass me/us with ease. Why then is their this obsession with jamming the pedal to the floor every time a cyclist is passed. Is it a superiority thing? I have noted this behaviour for many years, but this was the first time that I had really thought about why it happens.
You opened the door, so I’ll step through. I’m at work, so I’ll spare you the long rant.
People, largely, are jerks behind the wheel. We have this enculturated belief that we are anonymous and invisible when behind the wheel, and all should bow before us. This is why people who wouldn’t even squeak at you in person are suddenly Genghis Khan when they are in their car. It’s also the reason why people pick their noses in traffic. They think you can’t see them. Strange. This mentality is also why in another 5 years every vehicle on the road in the US will be a Hummer or Escalade ESP with blacked out windows operated by a certifiable d***head.
I’ll offer another, slightly less cynical possibility: On tighter roads, cars will often slow as they approach you, and then, once by you, they step on the gas to speed back up again.
My observation has been that when you are running or riding, about 90% of the pedestrians, runners, and bikers you encounter will nod, wave, or say “Hello!”. Yet behind the wheel, less than 10% of the drivers you encounter will let you pull out in front of them in traffic. These are the same people, aren’t they?
Hey Fleck. This reminds me of a ride home from work 15 years ago. I was at a stop light with heavy traffic behind me and getting ready to turn left. The light turns green and I had difficulty clipping in, taking a few seconds to clip in, and thus holding back traffic by all of 15 seconds (at most). I got into my pedals with a Mercedez Benz 500 SEL convertable revving his engine like he wanted to run over me. The next traffic light was only ~100m away so Dev on his Kestrel and the Mercedes arrive at the next light in the same sequence. The 500 SEL is revving like crazy upset that he did not make the green. I turn back and say, “Relax Pretty Boy”. You can image the rage from the driver at this point :-). Anyway, the light turns green and I decided to have some fun and took my time and for this next left turn which “pretty boy” was also making. I faked missing the clip in to my pedals. By now pretty boy is balistic and revving like crazy. “Relax Pretty Boy”, I yelled out with a smirk…“What did you call me !!!”, he replies…“I said, relax pretty boy, life is too short”. This drove him over the edge and he is now trying to cut me off as the light turns green, car against bike (you know who usually loses). Fortunately, years of commuting in dense traffic, and riding ~10,000K per year, resulted in my left foot being unclipped and ready for action with a huge Time cleat, which conveniently found its way into his passenger door. This stopped him in his tracks as we were only going at 10 kph at most. Anyway, he wanted me to stop, but by then I was off at 45 kph.
Was I proud of this. Not really. One should respect the property of another, but on the other hand, if someone tries to attack me with a car, my best defence is a Time Cleat. In most circumstances (i.e. high speed), the bike loses. For once, the biker came away ahead. Probably not the brightest thing to do, but I came out of it OK and have not done anything as foolish since (something you would do at age 22 when you think you are bombproof, but not at 37 when you have a family to support) !
I was on Santa Rosa Island FL on Sat and passed a cyclist on Via DeLuna drive…I would bet he was going about 18mph…I was going no less than 165mph…I kinda felt bad about that…though I did get in the other lane to not be near him. A buddy of mine was at the side of the road watching and said that my car made a GIANT rush of air as I passed that kind of made him step back a bit when it hit him…I wonder what it felt like on that bike???
All wheel drive, six pistons and two turbos…AWWWWWWW YEAAAAAA
I did make an average speed of 97mph from Pensacola Florida to Chicago last night though…I am so bad
Well, I’m a biker, yet when I am in a car, I sometimes speed up when I pass bikers.
Reason? Well, in my mind, I’m trying to go ahead and get around them quickly, so as to avoid more chance of running close to oncoming traffic, the biker has to swerve, wind, or just to just get by them quicker so they don’t have to listen to my car anymore than they have to.
Also as another person pointed out, a lot of the time I slow down when approaching them…then speed up to pass at my previous speed.
It’s not always done in the spirit of meanness. Sometimes I’m passing up a cyclist on a single lane road and have to swing wide around them, so I want to get it over with as quickly as possible. I’m not feeling anything one way or another towards the cyclist, just want to get past the situation as quickly as possible.
Sounds like you were riding the same part of Eastern Ontario that we were. The wife and I did a three hour ride on the rural backroads. It was a beautiful sunny day on CDN Thanksgiving weekend and all the leaves are changing color. We saw the same motorists that you did.
The problem is even bigger when some of these jerks behind the wheel are actually cyclists themselves. They would like to be respected while on the bike, but then they don’t respect other cyclists… it’s a strange thing… and happens all around the world.
Well, it is that time of year around here again. More bikes on the road, which means more irate drivers, having to share their tarmac with guys with shaved legs on 2 wheels. As I rode along today and was repeatedly buzzed or greeted with the MASSIVE acceleration of the guy who had to slow down to get past me, I was reminded of Fleck’s classic observation way back in 2003!
You REALLY like digging through the archives. However, I was thinking the same thing when I was riding down in Clermont last week - everytime someone passed us while out training, typically in some massive truck/SUV/RV( Goodness gracious, they drive big vehicles down there) there was this HUGE acceleration, and then of course we have to breath in the accompanying fumes.
I saw some of the biggest RV’s that I have ever seen in my life driving on Florida roads and Highways AND usually, these RV’s were towing, I kid you not, a HUGE, SUV. I realize this is Lavendar Room material, but I wonder where the price of gas has to go to change people’s lifestyles. Clearly, to these folks, and there seemed to be a fair number of them, the cost of gas is an after thought.
My training partner and I use the massive accellerations for interval training. Some bozo does this and then we sprint all out to try and catch them by a stoplight/sign, get in front of them and then do the whole thing over again. Really pisses them off. Great fun and a great sprint workout.
Fleck, not really digging. It was 2 degrees C and windy, so I have this 8K loop near my home with one really steep 300m hill where the road is narrow and a bunch of other rollers. I just do this loop till I am frozen and then pack it in. It breaks up the wind and I get to do the big hill several times, so I don’t freeze that quickly. Anyway, going up the hill, I usually need to take the middle of the road to stay “safe” vs getting passed by a car and squeezed into the ditch/granite rock cliff. Anyway, it means cars slowing down and as soon as there is no oncoming traffic, the massive acceleration happens, so it reminded me of your thread.
I head ya on the giant RV’s pulling giant SUV’s…oh well, the give off a good draft when you both depart from the stop light! Keep in mind for some of these folks, they are retired and their RV IS their home, so price of gas is not a huge issue…they aren’t paying property tax on a house…that’s lots of $$$ to spend on gas.
I can give some insight. When I’m stuck behind a slow car, I get a bit frustrated, and the first chance to pass them, I tend to accelerate with a bit of vigor as if to notify them of the frustration they caused me. Now, with cyclists, I don’t have that because I am one of them, but slow drivers? Drives me nuts. I know, I’m terrible!
So I’ve spent basically all of the last 5 months in a “Car Free Training environment”. I’ve been XC skiing, running, swimming and riding my rollers since mid November.
Finally it is time to pull out my bike and put my life into the hands of the local irate commuter, balancing reading plummeting stock updates on his blackberry, while on a conference call, while shaving and of course with one hand on his Starbucks or Tim Hortons…
…anway, it seems like the bike “always in the way”…as soon as the above mentioned irate commuter gets the chance there is this massive accleration as he puts the stamp of authority only possible from behind the manly wheel of his V8 vehicle to show my pansy cycling tight wearing butt who the boss of the road really is…
OK, back to the regular ST scheduling.
Maybe Frank Day and Andrew Coggin can weigh in on whether that car driver could have a better acceleration by simply stomping on the gas pedal or using a more circular application technique while the power gurus can comment on whether going to 140% of the vehicles FT for 30 seconds will have a major impact on whether the guy gets to the gas station with or without an empty tank!
Late yesterday afternoon I went out with my girlfriend for one of the most pleasent bike rides I have been on in a long time. It was one of those glorious fall days when the leaves were a rainbow of colours, the air was cool, but not cold, the sun was shining brilliantly at just the right angle and the roads picked for the ride where perfect - two hours of aerobic bliss with beautiful rural scenery! I felt lucky and grateful to be out riding my bike on such a wonderful day. What a fantastic way to burn off the excessive calories from a long weekend of thanksgiving feasting.
The only thing that spoiled the ride was the observation and indentification of a behaviour of motorists that we could not understand. The road is wide open. There is little or no traffic. It’s late in the day on Thanksgiving monday - a holiday. Yet, motorists have to jump on the accelerator with a massive acceleration when passing us. Why is that? I’m going 25 - 30 Km/H, the cars are going minimum 60 Km/H. The cars will pass me/us with ease. Why then is their this obsession with jamming the pedal to the floor every time a cyclist is passed. Is it a superiority thing? I have noted this behaviour for many years, but this was the first time that I had really thought about why it happens.
Still it was a GEAT ride!
OK, so I was driving to the pool at lunch time and it was around 10C today and there was a group of cyclists riding in shorts (which is unual at this time of year). I drove up beside them and asked them if they needed a team car to drive beside them since drivers are pretty unfriendly to cyclists at this time of year having owned the road since Nov with no cyclists. But in the short 20 seconds that I was chatting with the guys, it seemed like the line up of cars was getting a bit long and irate since they needed to all get to Tim Hortons for their lunch break coffee. So I gradully pulled forward, and realized the poor cyclists would now have the roar of all those cars accelerating by…at which point I remembered Fleck’s thread from 2003!
So you managed to piss off every single person in your vicinity. I can’t imagine what you were thinking. I can’t think of any group I’ve ridden with that wouldn’t be trying to wave somebody on that slowed to our pace in an effort to be ‘helpful’.
The sooner that driverless cars become a reality the better. Humans are simply too irrational and emotional. I see pointless or even self-defeating behaviour on the roads every day. Accelerating towards a red light or traffic jam and then slamming the brakes on. Tailgating me for a few miles, then when they eventually get past immediately pulling in and slowing down so I’m forced to go back past them. Flooring the pedal to overtake cyclists when approaching a junction where it’s clear the bikes will go straight back past.
I know people I wouldn’t trust to use a hammer without breaking something or injuring themselves, and yet they’re trusted in a 2 ton lump of metal with 200+ brake horsepower. Crazy world.
You opened the door, so I’ll step through. I’m at work, so I’ll spare you the long rant.
People, largely, are jerks behind the wheel. We have this enculturated belief that we are anonymous and invisible when behind the wheel, and all should bow before us. This is why people who wouldn’t even squeak at you in person are suddenly Genghis Khan when they are in their car. It’s also the reason why people pick their noses in traffic. They think you can’t see them. Strange. This mentality is also why in another 5 years every vehicle on the road in the US will be a Hummer or Escalade ESP with blacked out windows operated by a certifiable d***head.
I’ll offer another, slightly less cynical possibility: On tighter roads, cars will often slow as they approach you, and then, once by you, they step on the gas to speed back up again.
My observation has been that when you are running or riding, about 90% of the pedestrians, runners, and bikers you encounter will nod, wave, or say “Hello!”. Yet behind the wheel, less than 10% of the drivers you encounter will let you pull out in front of them in traffic. These are the same people, aren’t they?
and if the guy happen to have a BMW, Mercedes or another high priced car then u better get hell out his/her way cause he/she OWNS the road…