Rude driver today!

I'm sure we all have our version of this kind of story, but it's happened to us so seldom that it really bothered me. DH and I were at the beginning of our ride and were in the center lane of a rather wide but not-very-busy road waiting at the red light to cross. We were both wearing high-viz jackets, helmets, and have big mirrors on our bikes. We were stopped in the center lane (no cars in that lane) because the left lane is left turn only, and the right lane is right turn only. A SUV rolled up to the right of us, and this gray-haired man, maybe 65ish, rolled down his window and yelled "Get out of the middle of the road, you idiots!" then rolled forward to take his right-hand turn.

We are in southern coastal Texas right now (N. Padre Island), and have found the Texas drivers to be very polite, much to our surprise, but this guy had an Illinois plate. We haven't had any other "driver incidents" while doing a boatload of miles here (especially DH).

It really pissed me off because we were following the rules, in the appropriate lane, with all kinds of safety gear, and he still felt he had to say something. He obviously thinks bikes belong on sidewalks or paths only (of which there are neither on this road), or walked across at crosswalks. I wish we could have educated him, but it would have done no good, I'm sure.

I managed to have a good ride even after this, but it did get my blood boiling! There's still SO much ignorance in the non-cycling world, and this makes me really sad. :(

Sometimes it's with good reason that people from WI refer to people from IL (at least those from CHI) as FIBs (F'ing IL bastids). Sorry, that stinks. The dude is clearly a miserable SOB. That must suck to be him.

Unfortunately we get that here in Houston from the locals occasionally. Mostly everyone is really nice, but there's always one ignoramus.

PS...welcome to Texas :-)

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

I'm sure we all have our version of this kind of story, but it's happened to us so seldom that it really bothered me. DH and I were at the beginning of our ride and were in the center lane of a rather wide but not-very-busy road waiting at the red light to cross. We were both wearing high-viz jackets, helmets, and have big mirrors on our bikes. We were stopped in the center lane (no cars in that lane) because the left lane is left turn only, and the right lane is right turn only. A SUV rolled up to the right of us, and this gray-haired man, maybe 65ish, rolled down his window and yelled "Get out of the middle of the road, you idiots!" then rolled forward to take his right-hand turn.

We are in southern coastal Texas right now (N. Padre Island), and have found the Texas drivers to be very polite, much to our surprise, but this guy had an Illinois plate. We haven't had any other "driver incidents" while doing a boatload of miles here (especially DH).

It really pissed me off because we were following the rules, in the appropriate lane, with all kinds of safety gear, and he still felt he had to say something. He obviously thinks bikes belong on sidewalks or paths only (of which there are neither on this road), or walked across at crosswalks. I wish we could have educated him, but it would have done no good, I'm sure.

I managed to have a good ride even after this, but it did get my blood boiling! There's still SO much ignorance in the non-cycling world, and this makes me really sad. :(

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:mad: Those kinds of things shouldn't happen to nice people like you, just trying to do the right thing! And you weren't even blocking his lane, why was he upset?? :confused::confused:

It's hard not to let that stuff get to you, the good news is that physical activity is just the thing to clear away the fight-or-flight adrenaline that kicks in, and you were on your bike. At least you enjoyed the rest of your ride!

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Originally Posted by thekarens

Unfortunately we get that here in Houston from the locals occasionally. Mostly everyone is really nice, but there's always one ignoramus.

PS...welcome to Texas :-)

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plus Texas is crawling with white Ford F150 pick ups driven byl30 somwthing guys with baseball caps on sideways or backwards who delight in swinging as close as possible, gunning thier motors and farting black smoke as they drive off. Talk about over compensation. I hold my breath everytime I see anything white coming up behind.

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Originally Posted by marni

plus Texas is crawling with white Ford F150 pick ups driven byl30 somwthing guys with baseball caps on sideways or backwards who delight in swinging as close as possible, gunning thier motors and farting black smoke as they drive off. Talk about over compensation. I hold my breath everytime I see anything white coming up behind.

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The Pennsylvania version of that phenotype includes truck nuts!

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Originally Posted by zoom-zoom

Sometimes it's with good reason that people from WI refer to people from IL (at least those from CHI) as FIBs (F'ing IL bastids). Sorry, that stinks. The dude is clearly a miserable SOB. That must suck to be him.

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Thanks Kirsten! I thought the same thing as I continued to go over the incident in my mind afterwards for awhile -- that he must be a pretty darn miserable individual. We weren't hurting him in any way, slowing him down, or blocking his way, and he said something when he could see that he could continue rolling on through and not have to deal with anything we might reply. What a coward and a jerk.

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Originally Posted by marni

plus Texas is crawling with white Ford F150 pick ups driven byl30 somwthing guys with baseball caps on sideways or backwards who delight in swinging as close as possible, gunning thier motors and farting black smoke as they drive off. Talk about over compensation. I hold my breath everytime I see anything white coming up behind.

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There are certain TONS of pickup trucks of every color here, but we've been (so far) relatively pleased that no one has been an azzhole except for the guy from Illinois. Not driving a pickup! I had in my mind that the Texas drivers were going to be difficult, but we've been pleasantly surprised.

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Originally Posted by AppleTree

:mad: Those kinds of things shouldn't happen to nice people like you, just trying to do the right thing! And you weren't even blocking his lane, why was he upset?? :confused::confused:

It's hard not to let that stuff get to you, the good news is that physical activity is just the thing to clear away the fight-or-flight adrenaline that kicks in, and you were on your bike. At least you enjoyed the rest of your ride!

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Yes, at first after it happened I thought the ride might be ruined b/c things like that really do get to me, but the more I rode, the less it mattered. By the end of the ride, I had almost forgotten it, really. I certainly didn't lose any sleep over it afterwards, but I just hate that people are so ignorant! I wanted to tell him that we were vehicles and were following the rules of the road, but he didn't give me a chance. And even if he had, I am sure he wouldn't have gotten it.

Emily, you can't talk sense to people like that. We once had a guy, who was in the car with his teenage son, get pissed because I went to pass a slow rider on a road with an extremely wide shoulder, with DH following. This is about 3 miles from my house (the bridge over the Concord River on Lowell Rd for those of you familiar). I did not go out of the lane, over the white line and this guy got enraged. He put down the window and started screaming at us. DH sprinted to get even with him and before I knew it, DH had forced him to pull over :eek:.We tried to talk to him, but he just wanted to "fight" DH. This was a normal looking suburban dad, not in a pick up. His son was cringing. What an example he set.
Marni, every time you make a comment about riding in Houston, I think of the juxtaposition between that and Acton!

Yep, I know you're right Crankin. I don't think this man's mind was liable to be open even a small crack. He looked like he hadn't smiled in years.