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Yea, today a woman, who was knitting in stopped traffic at a light, took off and purposely almost hit my DH, as he rode home in the rain. In a very nice area. When he caught her and asked if she was trying to kill him, she said," Contrary to what a lot of people believe, cyclists don't own the road."
DH swore at her quite a bit. I've never heard him so angry at a driver.
I've considered getting pepper spray -- http://www.pepperblaster.com/ is one that the bike class instructor had -- and then considered getting the "training version" instead, especially if I could put something less noxious but very marking ... so that people who "only" threatened me (as with that lady) could get a message. Only considered it so far... and I do want to get my camera set up... but oh, just about *everybody* on my route is friendly to a fault.
I have found that rough neighborhoods in my town (Seattle) are more bike friendly than "nice" suburban areas because of the attitudes that they have towards cyclists. The contrast is rather stark and you will just have to try it yourself.
You say the violent crime statistics are quite high in this slum near where you live; I can imagine that is true; but most violence is aimed at other gang members, not at cyclists driving by; so I really think you have less to worry about than you think. Try the morning commutes for starters, and after you start feeling comfortable there; try the scary afternoon commute. REmember, most people in bad neighborhoods are good honest people who are just trying to get by.
good luck.
For about 2 years, I cycled by a crowd of folks on my way home from work...usually 15-20 that hung outside a community centre...these were people who were drug addicts, poor.....I didn't worry about them...alot of them are not in the condition to do a fast chase. The community centre specialized in services for these people.
And would you worry if a homeless-looking person came cycling towards you on a bike? Or if there were 2-3 cycling slowly along with their belongings? Or maybe you've never experienced this regularily...
As a cyclist on the road at the same time, I worried the least about these folks because wrongly or rightly, I honestly believe they can cycle out their frustrations on bike, and usually they tried to be more self-sufficient, at least mobility wise, to pick up discarded pop cans for some coin at the recycling depot, etc. and get around town on their own.
In many large North American cities, methinks in suburban areas are truly not accustomed to seeing regular cycling commuters in their area, the roads are usually "less" congested of cars, people. So any deviation for a local resident driver in a hurry, seeing a cyclist in front of makes some people impatient and wrongly angry at the wrong thing (cyclist).
It makes me wonder how many new neighbourhoods are being built without sidewalks. Those neighbourhoods actually scare me at night/in bad weather. I worked out in the suburbs for 3 yrs. and had to walk to the bus stop in an industrial area for 15 min. Over half of the walk had no sidewalks...just dangerous.
Don't buy property in residential areas that don't have a sidewalk. It's not helpful to anyone living there nor to drivers
I live at the slum's edge, basically. And I go through some really "interesting" areas on my daily run at 6am or so. In my experience, the dealers and hookers and gangsters are almost always off the streets at that hour. I've run into the occasional drunk/ high person, but very rarely. The few people out at that hour are respectable hard-working folk just going to work. So it's really no big deal. Now in the evening it's a different story; up until sunset I'll go almost anywhere on bike (but not on foot). After sunset I'm a bit pickier.
The good news: at least where I live, there are a lot of people who use bikes as their only vehicle in these very poor neighborhoods. The bad news: most of them have no idea about the rules of the road or how to ride safely. Like stopping for lights and stop signs and riding with traffic....
I go to see my clients at their homes and I do a lot my work in a city where there's a high number of immigrants who use bikes as transportation. The city recently has put a whole lot of effort into painting bike lanes, sharrows, and signs with bikes that say "bikes may take the full lane." Great, except almost none of the people riding there have any concept of the rules of the road for cycling, and I continue to see almost 100% of the riders going against traffic, through very complicated intersections, hopping across to sidewalks, and of course, not wearing a helmet.
There is a large university in this city, but I don't think many of the students ride. I want to say something to someone, but since I have had dealings with other aspects of the city government, I doubt anyone would listen, as I don't live there. I hate driving in this city, as the drivers are worse than the cyclists. After my car accident a few months ago, the other driver, who faked being injured, got to the 2 witnesses (probably with drugs), and they decided to find us equally at fault. It didn't harm my insurance rating or add points, but this just gives you a feel for the way things work!