Why are Motorists so Idiotic & RUDE

[ms pepperpot]

I had a particularly unpleasant experience the other day. I was on my way to work, and waiting to turn right (remember i'm in the UK) into a main road from a side road. The traffic I needed to pull into was at a standstill so I went between a car and a van to the other side of the road. When the traffic started moving again the van I had crossed infront ofme overtook me the passenger leaned out the window and started shouting abuse "you stupid f****** b****" and so on.

I was shocked, but less shaken than i have been with other unpleasantries by drivers. the level of rage seemed so over the top it just made him look like a complete idiot. All i'd done was cycle relatively assertively. They were stationary and could clearly see what I was about to do.

On a slightly odder note, yesterday I had a more bizarre anti-cyclist incident (presumably by a motorist). My bike was locked up in central london while I went to an exhibition. When I went to collect it someone had built a little cage around it out of orange plastic panels usually placed around roadworks. There were 4 walls and one on top. then written in chalk on the pavement was:

"not paid road tax, tut tut",

with an arrow pointing towardsd my bike. Just really quite odd.

[Blueberry]

On a slightly odder note, yesterday I had a more bizarre anti-cyclist incident (presumably by a motorist). My bike was locked up in central london while I went to an exhibition. When I went to collect it someone had built a little cage around it out of orange plastic panels usually placed around roadworks. There were 4 walls and one on top. then written in chalk on the pavement was:

"not paid road tax, tut tut",

with an arrow pointing towardsd my bike. Just really quite odd.

How bizarre. Too bad you didn't have a camera! Here, road tax is partially paid by auto registrations. I have 2 (plus DH's) - so, that argument doesn't hold water for me personally. But even so, from what I understand, our road upkeep $$ predominately comes from other places (and bikes certainly don't put the same load on the road as other vehicles).

So...did you get your Surly??

CA

[ms pepperpot]

[QUOTE

So...did you get your Surly??

CA[/QUOTE]

I did, and it's lovely. There's a rather poor quality picture of it on the original thread in New Riders now.

[Eden]

On a slightly odder note, yesterday I had a more bizarre anti-cyclist incident (presumably by a motorist). My bike was locked up in central london while I went to an exhibition. When I went to collect it someone had built a little cage around it out of orange plastic panels usually placed around roadworks. There were 4 walls and one on top. then written in chalk on the pavement was:

"not paid road tax, tut tut",

with an arrow pointing towardsd my bike. Just really quite odd.

While I've never heard of anyone making an exhibition of it.... around here we get a lot of people calling for bike registration and rider licensing. They think that we should pay a vehicle tax just like the cars as we are not paying our fair share for the roads...(and thus should stay off of them...) They conveniently ignore the fact that vehicle taxes don't really pay for roads, that's mostly done with property taxes, which cyclists pay their fair share of already, that we don't damage roads the way cars do and that many if not most of us do actually own cars and do pay tab taxes anyway even though we destroy the roads much less, by driving less....

[lauraelmore1033]

Lately, I've encountered several angry young men on the roads who yell at me for being a "fat b1t*h!", as if it were a crime to be fat and on the roads. I have since discovered there is a lovely rap song of that name...

When I complained about this to my sons, who are both runners, they both said, "well, they have to call you SOMETHING". Apparently, both have encountered angry motorists while out running, and usually endure verbal abuse regarding judgements about apparent sexual orientation. This rage is encountered in spite of the fact that they are not hurting anyone or getting in anybody's way or even freeloaders taking up an unreasonable portion of the tax payers roads. Some people are just a$$ holes on the road and the condition is apparently contageous

[Grog]

Maybe we should all have eyes at the back of our helmets?

http://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/11/24...mountain-lion/

[SouthernBelle]

Maybe we should all have eyes at the back of our helmets?

http://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/11/24...mountain-lion/

I want glow-in-the-dark ones.

[lph]

I want glow-in-the-dark ones.

Me too! Should be able to cobble some together out of some ankle reflector thingies where the velcro's shot... hmm...

[Aggie_Ama]

I used to endure quite a bit of yelling running on the sidewalk of a busy college town. Now I hear quite a bit cycling, although not every ride. Yesterday we got "Hi people on bikes!" from a wooded field. We both smiled knowing it was some mischievious little boys we saw last week. They don't harrass us just do silly things like launch water balloons at goats.

I tend to think the people who yell and cuss are projecting the anger they have at themselves for not being active. They know no matter what we look like we are enjoying ourselves and they are too weak (mentally) to challenge themselves. At least that is what I tell myself, difuses my own anger and just makes me feel like bit sorry they are not out there.

[Tri Girl]

Maybe we should all have eyes at the back of our helmets?

http://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/11/24...mountain-lion/

Awesome! I'm putting those on the back of my helmet. If it keeps cougars/mountain lions away- fine. I'm more interested in drivers and other riders. I mean, how can you not laugh and smile when seeing that on the back of someone's helmet. Maybe they'll laugh and not run me over (or maybe they'll laugh so hard they'll run into me... hmmm...)


Sorry about your crappy driver, Pardes. I don't know why people get so angry sometimes. It's not like my taking 10-20 seconds out of their day ruined all their time restrictions. I think AggieAma has it right- they're just mad because me cycling makes them feel bad about themselves and the bully in them feels better to take it out on me.