I am not just a bike, I'm a vehicle

[PamNY]

There are lots of factors we could discuss, but IMO the main reason is that drivers don't want to slow down, which they occasionally have to do for bikes.

Cyclists don't like to slow down either -- I regularly get snarky comments from cyclists when I stop to let pedestrians cross on the bike path (required by state law at crosswalks).

It's mostly just human nature.

[OakLeaf]

I think it's just our vulnerability that brings out the cruelty in people. They have to slow down for farm machinery and garbage trucks, too, but they don't try to run them off the road.

[zoom-zoom]

We don't have engines or license plates. I think Oak is on it with the vulnerability thing, too. I drive a small car and have had larger vehicles hog the road, ride my @ss, and cut me off more than I see when I'm a passenger in a larger vehicle and paying attention to the politics of the road.

[marni]

because bikes and bike riding are not thought of as an adult recreational or non professional skills unless you are a pro and getting paid to do it. Bikes and the children who ride them belong up on the sidewalk, and most drivers consider anything or anyone on a bike or resembling a bike as childish.

Around here in Texas, it is also probably that most drivers don't remember the vehicle code. Even when I quote to section and lines referring to the rights of bicycles and bicyclers in the vehicle code to them they tell me I am wrong and that I should get out of the road.

I've had "ranchers" pull over and curse me out for being in the road when they had to slow down and "endanger their stock in the stock trailer" in order to get past me. If they had stock in their trailer, why were they driving so fast?

Never mind.

marni

[zoom-zoom]

Around here in Texas, it is also probably that most drivers don't remember the vehicle code. Even when I quote to section and lines referring to the rights of bicycles and bicyclers in the vehicle code to them they tell me I am wrong and that I should get out of the road.

I have really considered getting this jersey. With my luck I wouldn't be wearing it during an altercation. Perhaps I should consier a forearm tattoo.

[marni]

I love the jersey and the site, but as you say, the chances of me wearing it and being able to use it are zip,zero,zilch and nada.

[JennK13]

I do think it depends on where you are. Here in the Denver area, bikes are very common, so drivers are more used to seeing us out on the road.
Circumstances also seem to make a difference. What I mean is, drivers treat me differently depending on how I'm dressed and what bike I'm on. It seems I'm more of a bother to drivers on my road bike dressed in cycling attire. If I'm dressed that way but on my commuter, it's about half and half; if I'm wearing my work attire on my commuter I rarely have any issues with cars at all. It's almost as if they consider me more like a vehicle since I'm dressed like them, and I'm using my bike for transportation instead of recreation.
Last situation, if I'm on my cruiser and on the road instead of the bike path, drivers again look at me like a problem - as if I belong on the sidewalk if I'm on that bike.