stupid move and maybe this is why I get seriously injured.

[Eden]

Why would you assume she's trying to teach you a lesson? Perhaps she's a normally good driver who made a mistake, realized it and apologized.

I can understand that this incident is dangerous and would be scary if you are used to having plenty of space around your bike, but taking it personally and attributing motives to the driver isn't helpful.

Of course, biking in Manhattan where I live is different so take my comments with a grain of salt.

There are definitely times when you can tell..... the guy who comes up behind you on a perfectly clear road, drives quite close behind for some time, sometimes honking, sometimes just silently lurking until he decides to suddenly pass within mm of your knee..... or the ones who pass really close then swerve in front of you for no particular reason....

Then if you do catch them the conversation invariably begins with them listing (incorrectly) all of your transgressions - you should be further to the right (in the door zone) - you should be in the bike lane (it's not a bike lane... those are sharrows and in any case we have no law here that says that cyclists must use bike lanes....) you need to move over for me (not so.... only if it is a 2 lane highway, more than 5 cars are being delayed, there is no safe passing zone for said cars and there is a safe place for the slower vehicles to pull over), you have to be single file (not in this state buster, our law explicitly says no more than 2 abreast), your not allowed on the road, you should be on the sidewalk/trail.... (from the really uniformed ones) etc. etc.

[smilingcat]

Thank you all. I've calmed down back to my usual flat line.

Eden is correct. I didn't bother mentioning that the Lexus buzzed me then moved more to the center of the lane. I think the driver wanted me to ride in the dead(door) zone. The street has parallel parking.

I think she was really suprised that I could not only catch up to her but pass her. And that, was a bit of shock value. Her apology seemed genuine.

The sharrow in Hermosa Beach is only few month old. And in LA, its one of very few. So people don't know what to make of it.

In retrospect, I think she was more terrified than me after I tapped her passenger window. For all she knows, I could have been the psycho. So it goes both ways.

As for throwing a rock through the Porche window, that was really bad form. Maybe the two witnesses and the Porche driver will have chaulked it up to a run-in with a psycho cyclist.

[beccaB]

My husband and I got "buzzed" on a ride last week. It was an elderly woman who could have passed us with a lot more room to spare after 2 cars in the opposing lane were clear. She had to hurry up and get to the stop sign. I don't think she would have gotten there much later and messed up her schedule too badly if she had the patience to wait. It made for a nervous rest of the ride.
In a separate incident my husband took up the middle of the lane on a hill with a curve. We could hear and see a car in the opposing lane. Another car in our lane went all the way around us into the other lane to pass us, and ended up nearly running the opposing car off the road. If there would have been a collision we might have been unjustly blamed.

[Mr. Bloom]

I think she was really suprised that I could not only catch up to her but pass her. And that, was a bit of shock value.

Yeah, you're right. One time I did a 30mph sprint for 2 miles to do the same thing...it's a good thing that I came just short of catching him because if I had, it would have taken me 5 minutes to catch my breath enough to speak a lucid word!