Quote Originally Posted by tzvia View Post
So you see, we don't have a 100% iron clad 'we are so innocent and are just being targeted and nobody cares' argument when our own often ignores the rules of the road and just assumes that the motorists and pedestrians will just let them through because they're wanna be pros you know.

Once a motorists rolled down their window and comment that they were surprised that I stopped at a light because 'no cyclists stop at that light' (that was in Santa Barbara).

Now I am not in any way excusing the hit and run driver from that accident in the post above, just saying that some of us cyclists are fanning the flames of the increasingly more irritated drivers who have to contend with hour long 20 mile commutes, only to have to make way for cyclists who can't even stop at a stop sign. As a group, we have to be responsible and not tolerate cyclists like those who, in an hour or so, will be blasting down my street and making that left turn without stopping, helping to create the next intolerant hit-and-run driver.
I need to make more of a point of hollering at fellow cyclists when they do stupid sh*t. It would be more effective if I could do so from my own saddle, though. When I'm in my car I know that if I yell at them that it will fall on deaf ears.

I find that a lot of times motorists go so over the top to give me a wide berth that it becomes annoying. At 4 way stops they often want to let me go first, instead of appropriately taking their turn...which then p*sses other motorists off and their ire is directed at me. It all would be so simple if motorists always treated cyclists as vehicles and if all cyclists always behaved predictably and like vehicles.