Welcome guest, is this your first visit? Click the "Create Account" button now to join.

To disable ads, please log-in.

Shop at TeamEstrogen.com for women's cycling apparel.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 43
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    150

    People who like to yell at cyclists

    To disable ads, please log-in.

    I have had a couple of close calls in my life - once when riding on a sidewalk (years ago) and once recently at an intersection where a woman looked right at me and turned right in front of me at a light where I had the right away. I swerved out of the way and yelled some profanities.

    Anyway, the most common harrassment I get is people yelling at me while passing in a car and I've also had teenage boys yell at me after passing me on BMX bikes. Teenagers seem to be the main culprit here. I've been called a B**** by a car full of teenagers for no reason (I was riding in the bike lane), I was called a "loser" by some hick in a HUGE pick-up (a young male) and I've had a handful of times when someone will yell at me really loud as they pass me which really bugs me because it can be very startling and I don't think drivers realize they could startle you enough to cause you to fall or even swerve into traffic.

    I live in a suburb of Detroit and this area is not known for outdoor health or bike riding. I used to own a motor scooter, but I decided to sell that because of all of the verbal harrassement I got for riding that around. It seems like if you're not driving a car in the "motor city", you are fair game for harrassement.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548
    I live in Seattle, a more "enlightened" area and we have the same problems with motorists, but i've never been yelled at by a fellow bicyclist. I have been
    called a body part (not a part religated to a particular sex) by a motorcyclist though. (okay, he called the 5 of us the plural AH)

    This is a recurrent theme on the list right now and it is clear to me that
    a serious motorist reeducation campaign is necessary.

    we need a president that likes to ride on the ROAD!

    HEY THE FACT IS, Bikes were on the road before cars were!!
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    East Texas
    Posts
    112
    Quote Originally Posted by kaian
    I have had a couple of close calls in my life - once when riding on a sidewalk (years ago) and once recently at an intersection where a woman looked right at me and turned right in front of me at a light where I had the right away. I swerved out of the way and yelled some profanities.

    Anyway, the most common harrassment I get is people yelling at me while passing in a car and I've also had teenage boys yell at me after passing me on BMX bikes. Teenagers seem to be the main culprit here. I've been called a B**** by a car full of teenagers for no reason (I was riding in the bike lane), I was called a "loser" by some hick in a HUGE pick-up (a young male) and I've had a handful of times when someone will yell at me really loud as they pass me which really bugs me because it can be very startling and I don't think drivers realize they could startle you enough to cause you to fall or even swerve into traffic.

    I live in a suburb of Detroit and this area is not known for outdoor health or bike riding. I used to own a motor scooter, but I decided to sell that because of all of the verbal harrassement I got for riding that around. It seems like if you're not driving a car in the "motor city", you are fair game for harrassement.
    I have been in your shoes a lot and can be quite unsettling...Especially, if you ride alone as a woman. I do carry pepper spray with me and keep it close to my hands. It makes me feel a little better. I have been called a lot of things also...the horn beeping, the slowing down and being stared at..oh, yes and let's not forget about the Gatorade man ! LOL..I don't know if there is nothing that we can do, but keep riding...I hate to say that I don't ride because there are men out there that have no respect!


    Heidi

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Southwest Idaho
    Posts
    518
    I too, have had my share of being yelled at, cussed at and have had things thrown at me even though I live in a pretty bike tolerable town. It still happens and it seems to be mostly teenagers, or guys in jacked up pickups. Just last week I had a car load of female teenagers pass me and one leans out the passenger window to just scream. Too bad for them I caught up to them at the red light. Suddenly the window went up and no one had anything to say when I pounded on the door. I don't think they realize how dangerous their actions really are, either. I saw the car approach in my mirror, so I was anticipating the pass, but I did not expect to be screamed at. Luckily I didn't swerve, but someone else may have.

    I also carry pepper spray and will use it on those from the shallower end of the gene pool. As for the yelling and such, I am learning to just let it roll off my back and keep riding. Stay strong out there, ladies!
    Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.

    2010 Kelson custom/Brooks B17 Imperial
    2009 Masi/Terry Damselfly
    2004 Specialized Dulce Elite/Terry Damselfly
    2003 Gary Fisher Tassajara/unknown saddle
    1987 Bridgestone 100/Terry Liberator X

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548

    Talking

    Good for you Idaho girl ! (Tator)

    I think the same thing that works for dogs works for people in cars.
    they see you on the road and they forget you are human. You get in their face
    (catch up to their car at a light or get off your bike and walk towards the dog)
    and they remember that you are a person.

    They HATE that. they'd rather you continued being an object so they could
    act out their hostile fantasies.

    every time i catch up with someone (happened to me 2x now) I feel like I really scored; because I get to educate them and they find out that gee, they are not the only righteous person in the universe.
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Southwest Idaho
    Posts
    518
    Quote Originally Posted by mimitabby
    Good for you Idaho girl ! (Tator)

    I think the same thing that works for dogs works for people in cars.
    they see you on the road and they forget you are human. You get in their face
    (catch up to their car at a light or get off your bike and walk towards the dog)
    and they remember that you are a person.

    They HATE that. they'd rather you continued being an object so they could
    act out their hostile fantasies.

    every time i catch up with someone (happened to me 2x now) I feel like I really scored; because I get to educate them and they find out that gee, they are not the only righteous person in the universe.
    You know, I can only hope that by educating some doofus that their actions are not just rude, but dangerous, helps in some way. Maybe that one person won't be so inclined to holler at the next cyclist he/she sees.

    I think a lot of it has to do with the 'i'm in a car, therefore I am superior' attitude. Well, excuse the p!ss out of me, I'm on a bike and much more fit and healthy because of it!
    Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.

    2010 Kelson custom/Brooks B17 Imperial
    2009 Masi/Terry Damselfly
    2004 Specialized Dulce Elite/Terry Damselfly
    2003 Gary Fisher Tassajara/unknown saddle
    1987 Bridgestone 100/Terry Liberator X

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    114
    Have to ask, kaian, which suburb? I was born in Wyandotte, and spend most of my childhood in Woodhaven and Trenton. My parents are still in Trenton, eagerly awaiting their retirement in the Upper Peninsula, where they plan to ride their bikes to their heart's content.

    I was harasssed a lot in various places in Michigan, but my last nasty episode was about a month ago here in Portland. It was a couple of weeks after the Portland radio DJ fracas. On the way home from work, I was waiting for the last light on my ride to change with a car behind me. He was acting very well-behaved, not doing a thing. Then this young woman on a bike rides up and just blows the red, which I think is kind of suicidal in this intersection that people in Portland call the "Seven Corners". It really has 7 corners - the traffic light is your friend here, really. After she does her thing, the motorist behind me makes a Jekyll-and-Hyde style change and starts to rev his engine fast, creep up way to close to my tire, yell that I am the anatomical area below the waist that is unique to females using the Anglo-Saxon term, and then slam on the horn the second the light turns green.

    There was absolutely no excuse for the driver's behavior, but I can't help but feel what that cyclist did set the jerk off.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Florida panhandle
    Posts
    1,498
    Here's an idea: if we're really aimed toward education, let's start writing to our local newspapers. I'm not just talking about letters to the editor--most local newspapers have a sort of guest-editorial feature, where you can write a somewhat longer piece than a letter--a kind of citizen's editorial. They're not terribly long--usually 300-600 words--that's around 2 typed, double-spaced pages, but they give you more space than a letter, and they're usually featured more prominently than the letters. You could write about the dangers of all the things being discussed in this thread, or any other dangerous thing you've seen motorists do around cyclists.

    Now admittedly, for this to do any good, people have to read it, and a certain percentage of the likely offenders are probably not newspaper readers anyway, but a lot of them are, and in the case of teens, maybe their parents are. And it doesn't cost you anything more than a couple of hours of ranting on paper.

    Let us know if you intend to try it and whether it gets printed or not. If your local paper is quite small, it can be surprisingly easy to get this kind of writing printed. Good luck!
    Bad JuJu: Team TE Bianchista
    "The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress." -Roth
    Read my blog: Works in Progress

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    150
    Donnambr- I ride around the Royal Oak area, but also ride on Hines Drive in Dearborn Heights which is a very popular place for cyclists to ride because there are HUGE shoulders on the road for us and there are parks all along the road. On Saturdays, they close down 7 miles of it for runners, roller bladers, etc. I've gotten yelled at in Ferndale 2-3 times and on Hines I had a woman make a left turn almost into the side of me and have had people in cars yell.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    555
    Hey kaian...I ride in metro detroit also and find people here are just rude. When I commute to work (Livonia to Farmington Hills) I always get yelled and honked at. You're right, motor city just isn't bike friendly and many of the yells come from teenagers. I haven't really had names yelled at me, just things like "get on the sidewalk" I just try to shrug it off and think to myself that I'll live a longer and healthier life than them.

    I'm surprised you have problems on Hines Drive. I find most drivers to be pretty polite on that road. I ride there all the time and have found it a rare ride to get honked or yelled at. I have had a strange truck drive slowly behind my sister and I before. Talk about creepy! He would follow, go ahead and pull over, wait for us to pass, then follow again. After a couple miles, he took off.

    I will admit though, to ride any road other than Hines Drive, takes getting used to. You really need confidence to ride in Detroit!

    If you ever want to go for a ride, send me a PM! I live in Livonia and like I said, ride Hines Drive pretty frequently.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    pacific NW
    Posts
    1,038
    I have been lurking here entirely too long, so I'll just insert myself into the conversation since the subject so moves me. I don't even bother trying to ride my bike on the roads anymore because it just doesn't seem safe. I am aware that people are hostile towards cyclists in general, but they are doubly so towards overweight women on bikes. Ten years ago a guy in a car full of hooting teenage boys tried to hit me with the open door as I was going over a bridge, and the situation here (20 some miles north of Seattle) seems to be getting worse. I only ride on trails now, but even then....well, just last month a teenage boy yelled "Fat ***!!" at me as I was riding along the Centenial trail. I was so shocked and angered that I blurted out something to the effect that it was better to be a fat *** than an *** hole. Not the cleverest of comebacks, but what ARE people thinking?!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    150
    I am so sorry to hear that, lauraelmore1033 - that is just outright cruel! It is really sad that you don't feel comfortable riding because of jerks who have nothing better to do! I can't believe someone tried to hit you with a door! Don't people realize they could kill another human? Have you tried riding with a club or a group? Maybe you would feel safer. People in cars still yell at groups of cyclists, but they are less likely to do something if there's 10-20 people with you.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548
    Last week my paper (the Seattle Post Intelligencer) ran an article
    about biking and then they had an on line forum to discuss it.
    Two different posters threatened to door bicyclists, and a third said he likes to stand where bikes go by so he can push them into the street.
    they might have been just blowing off steam, but they are THAT nasty and angry and full of road rage.

    When i catch up to someone, I try to smile and be polite. (I'm small and not
    intimidating, so i'm sure that helps)
    but then i tell them (as fast as i can because i'm afraid they'll zoom off)
    what they did wrong.
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Flagstaff AZ
    Posts
    2,516

    Some people who drive cars are just crazy

    A couple of years ago, I was out on my commuter bike (mountain bike) on the road. After work, I had gone out Hwy 180 to go climb our local hillclimb - Snowbowl Road. I had a nice ride and was coming back into town. There is one part of this stretch of road that is 50 mile per hour zone and has a left hand curve where the side of the road just disintegrates into nothingness.

    Two men, out of towner road bikers, had just passed me coming into town (this is slightly downhill so you can go pretty fast). A white pickup truck that was going WAY TOO FAST went by me and it appeared at the last minute saw the two bikers up ahead of me a little ways. He was going too fast and so his truck was being pulled into the bikes on the left hand curve. All of the sudden he swerves to avoid hitting the two cyclists in front of me - ALL his fault - his speed was too high and he was not paying attention. He just barely missed the two unsuspecting cyclists in front of me.

    So, I got the bird's eye view of what happened and thought the guy was a total raging jerk but I still had to go home so I kept riding. There was a dirt pull off on the side of the road right after this incident happened and the guy in the white pickup truck skidded to a stop in the dirt and got out of his car and was running alongside the road beside me screaming at me that I was to tell him who those guys were and he wanted their names so he could go after them. YIKES, he almost killed those two boys in front of me! So here is this kind of fat guy SCREAMING at me and I'm all of 5'4" and 120 pounds , but as I rode by I just told him that he should settle down that he had almost killed two people because he was not paying attention and that even if I knew the boys names, which I did not, I would not tell him!

    What a jerk -

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Northern Utah
    Posts
    14
    Sadly, my sister is one of these ***holes. When i told her I got a road bike she said," Don't ride it in the f***ing street or I'll hit you" Thanks, sis!! She's really been the worst so far. There was an old man on his way to church one day that dang near hit me. I gave him the finger and he looked very angry. What I don't get is honkers. You're riding your bike and people going the other direction feel the need to honk at you. Why?

 

 

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •