Nice Drivers!

Babbar

I keep reading all the horror stories about aggressive, inconsiderate, and irate drivers. But, my experiences are just the opposite.

I have had only one bad experience, but when I reminded the irate driver - a brash, loud-mouthed 20 something punk with spiked hair and about twelve earings - that I was twice as big as he was and invited him to step to the side of the road for further "discussion," he had second thoughts and sped away.

Today was a typical ride. I was on mainly two-lane country roads with no bike lane. They are narrow, hilly, and lots of twists and turns.

I noticed a van behind me as I approached a stretch of narrower than usual road, a blind curve down a hill. The van slowed down and poked along behind me. After rounding the corner, I spotted a driveway, and I pulled in and motioned the van to go ahead. The driver waved back, and shouted "Thanks!"

Later, I came on an intersection with a car at a stop sign. The car could have sped in front of me to make its left turn, but the driver motioned for me to go on by. I said "Thanks" and he smiled and waved.

This is a normal ride for me. No aggressive, obnoxious, irate, insult shouting drivers. All the other cyclists I saw waved back, the police waved and smiled at me, and the weather was simply gorgeous, about 75 with very low humidity. All it needed were some little birdies chirping and a line of cheerleaders cheering me on!

Brunswick_kate

Gee, I thought I was the only one who didn't have driver horror stories. Part of it is this is a rather laid back part of the country. "Road rage" is just socially unacceptable. Part of it also is that cyclists are common so drivers expect to see us. Our family has a little game of seeing how far we have to go before we see a cyclist. I think we've had about 3 days where we went about 1 km before seeing one.

I can honestly say I've dealt with more idiot stick cyclists than motorists. I'd like to figure out a way to get cyclists off the sidewalks where they are endangering pedestrians and being a general nuisance.

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Babbar

A friend of mine rides to work on an Army base daily and has to traverse a major road where there are no bike lanes. The traffic is very heavy because of the volume of traffic trying to enter the base via only one gate on the northside. He says he is routinely yelled and cursed at. I guess if you ride in the rush hour, you will get more of the ninnies and self-important.

I have ridden this same road, but not during rush hour, and found none of this. Must be a rush-hour thing.

Brunswick_kate

Probably...I keep forgetting that "normal" people aren't commuting at 6:15 am. What a shock to my system when I have to take the car during the real rush hour -- I'm wondering where in hell all these cars came from.

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HellonWheels

Interestingly, my bad experiences with drivers were back in the 1970s and early 1980s when I lived in Philadelphia (which since then has become a very bike-friendly city.)
As much as I hate the burbs, the drivers here have been very nice. And, just yesterday I managed to convince one soon-to-be-former car driver to abandon driving for mass transit and cycling!

She had written a letter to the editor, complaining how DMV now makes her show her marriage license to prove identity, name, etc and I called her up after finding her number in the phone directory. We had a really nice chat. She commented, "If only we had buses out here I'd give up the damn car forever!"

I then told her there is a bus system out here in the burbs and that I use it regularly. I referred her to the tollfree number for schedules, etc and she was SO HAPPY! She said she was going to get rid of her car (she said her husband does grocery shopping anyway, with HIS car), and she's going to uses buses now. I never heard anyone sound so relieved, it was weird! She kept mentioning how much money she would save too (since our state has one of the highest car ins rates in the US.)

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Geonz

I've had lots more no-right-to-be-that-friendly experiences than the other way around myself. It does help not to be out there when and where people are hurrying.

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