Calling the Cops on Me?!

[kat_h]

When people honk I like to pretend it was a friendly honk and reply with a friendly wave. I actually got into that habit because my boss honks when she passes me on the way home from work, and a few other friends have honked greetings when they recognise me. There are times when it's clearly an unfriendly honk but I respond as if it's a friendly one anyway. I've found that being nice to angry people annoys them more than anything else I could do.

[Zen]

How old was this woman with nothing better to do?

[kfergos]

How old was this woman with nothing better to do?

She looked between 35 and 45. She also had other people in her SUV -- I could see at least somebody (an older guy; her dad?) else in the passenger seat.

Grog -- I love it! I almost wish she had called. It could've been the talk of dispatching.

[Aint Doody]

I'm not trying to be contrary here, and I do think the woman was over-reacting, but I thought cyclists were supposed to get completely off the roadway when we stopped regardless of what type of road it is.

[mimitabby]

I wish someone HAD called 911 and we'd have an even better story.

the woman sounds like an idiot, clearly unsure of her own vehicle.

[Geonz]

I prob'ly would have reacted the same way... but when I remember to, I make sure I"m on the "already through" part of the intersection and all the way off the road. If I'm going to turn, I can go the extra few feet. (However, I don't know that intersection's layout. 'Round here it's mostly cornfields )
My guess is there were other unrelated anger issues happening with the driver - it was bizarre behavior.

ONce three of us were resting at a corner - and pretty much off the road - and a car whipped around the corner too fast and while we were trying ot get away - okay, I confess, I was still at the "what?!" and looking at the license plate - but fortunately my friends were already in motion - the driver clipped the back wheel of one bike, then swerved and took out a mailbox on the other side of the street... pulled to a stop a hundred yards away and started backing up (at which point *I* started heading into the cornfields, with some kind of Rockford Files scenario going on in my head).
So... I really try to get all the way off the road.
IT was a lady who had been "having an argumetn" with her daughter who wanted to help drive (?!?!?). She paid damages and she got a ticket.

[mimitabby]

wow. you were three lucky cyclists!! that's quite the story Sue

[kfergos]

I'm not trying to be contrary here, and I do think the woman was over-reacting, but I thought cyclists were supposed to get completely off the roadway when we stopped regardless of what type of road it is.

I certainly made sure to be out of the way after that! I stopped the way I did because I thought I'd only be a minute, and when I stopped it didn't look like there was anybody around to be inconvenienced.

However, you could very well be right -- I haven't heard anything either way at the couple of intro biking classes I took, and it definitely wouldn't have hurt for me to have been more off the roadway. I'd be interested to hear if anybody with more legal knowledge of biking than me knows anything about this.

[Geonz]

It's probably not *illegal* (and even if it were it really would be laughable).

After my mishap, I made a stern note to myself that it was much more important to haul my buns out of the way than to look for a license plate number. Three weeks later, I was making a left turn from a left turn only lane, and the fellow in the truck perpendicularly to my left was doing the same, was only looking for oncoming traffic, and cut the corner 'way too closely. I do believe I moved faster for the previous encounter, and while he nicked my basket and knocked me down, it was lots better than it could have been.

[uforgot]

I'm sort of confused here. Were you still in the road? Or were you on the shoulder?

[jobob]

I've found that being nice to angry people annoys them more than anything else I could do.

Hee hee, I've found that too.

[Blueberry]

I've found that being nice to angry people annoys them more than anything else I could do.

It either annoys them, or they spend the rest of the day trying to figure out who they flipped off and shouldn't have

[Grog]

Imagine this 911 conversation:

"Hello, police?
- What is your location?
- Corner of such-and-such avenue and such-and-such road
- Ok, what is the purpose of your call?
- [Angry voice] There is a cyclist on the side of the road reading a map!!!!!
- [Embarrassed silence]
- Can you imagine!!!!
- Well, go around it..."

That would be sort of funny.