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

[PamNY]

SO I GUESS SHE WAS TRYING TO TEACH ME A LESSON BY BUZZING ME? THEN REALIZED SHE WAS IN THE WRONG??

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.

[XMcShiftersonX]

They act differently when they are looking the cyclist in the eye.

I think that's true... they don't expect they will ever have to have a conversation with us, therefore they think they can behave as poorly as they want!

[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!

[Bike Chick]

I used to hope that our local cyclist that rides with cameras and reports bad drivers to the police with video taped evidence would catch the worst offenders, but the local police just don't care. The last time when the cyclist was run off the road and the car/driver caught on camera, the cyclist got the ticket and the court upheld it. Very sad state of affairs here.

You are right. It is a sad state of affairs and around here law enforcement officials aren't even aware of the 3 foot law much less enforce it---and it's been in effect for over a year.

[Kiwi Stoker]

I normally cannot do anything but twice there's been a reason for the car to stop and we have ended up next to them.

Our club was riding along a country road when a car overtook the paceline, just as we were approaching some road works. He ended up serving in front of the group, almost taking them out to avoid the cones on the centre line. But he had to stop- there was traffic lights controlling the road ahead as it was reduced to one lane and the traffic from the other side was coming through. He ended up sitting in the car looking very scared as 20 people on bikes pulled up behind him and we all gave him an evil look. When the light changed he let us ride through first and passed us slowly up the road. I think he learned his lesson! And we didn't have to say anything.

This weekend as we were riding a one way road with multiple lanes and moving into the right hand side so we could turn, a car zoomed up on our right side and then proceeded to cross the other lanes to the left hand side. But then the lights changed and we caught him. We yelled "what's the problem?" and he wound down the window and said "stay in your lane". I raised by eyebrows at that- he just cut over 4 lanes without indicating in front of us.

[Zen]

I yelled at him that he could have killed me. He yelled back that I could have scratched his car. Then he went into the store.

He went into the store and his car still didn't get scratched?

[Biciclista]

This weekend as we were riding a one way road with multiple lanes and moving into the right hand side so we could turn, a car zoomed up on our right side and then proceeded to cross the other lanes to the left hand side. But then the lights changed and we caught him. We yelled "what's the problem?" and he wound down the window and said "stay in your lane". I raised by eyebrows at that- he just cut over 4 lanes without indicating in front of us.

unbelievable! what an idiot... be careful out there. that guy probably passed a driving test once.

[Dogmama]

I know that we are all cognizant of this - but I think it bears repeating:

Cars are a lot bigger than we are. One swerve and we're dead. People are stressed out. We can be considered targets. I don't want my tombstone to read:

She had the right of way.

[Zen]

The point.
i think you missed it.

[lph]

I think that what often looks like blatant aggression and an attempt at serious physical harm is "just" a combination of mild irritation and plain cluelessness from a drivers point of view. Many, many drivers have no idea what it's like to be on a bike, and how a close move can feel - and be - life-threatening. Moves that are annoying or a bit snarky between drivers, causing a bit of honking and gesturing, can feel like being hunted down to a cyclist, and they don't even know it. They don't know what it's like to be balanced on two wheels, they don't what how puny our brakes are compared to car brakes, they haven't ever travelled at high speed with the whoosh of passing cars felt straight on their face and body. Which is no excuse, but that's just how it is...

I really really wish that getting a drivers licence included a mandatory bike riding clinic, on the road, in traffic, the works. We would get better bike riders and better car drivers at the same time.