Man, you would think I had a giant sign on my back that said, "Be as rude as you can!" today.

Normally I mix with cars no problem on my infrequent (say once a week) commute. Today on the way home I couldn't catch a break.

In the morning at oh'dark'hundred, the few cars are always all fine.

In the pouring rain in the dark on the way home, cars are usually all fine.

Today it was dry and light out on the way home, and I had no joy.

So was this just random, or are cars just more rude in daylight, dry, and evening?

It's almost like if it's nasty out you must be using a bike for transportation, so you are OK, but if there is a chance you are enjoying yourself during the time that roads are made for commitin' in cars, you are not OK.

Discuss...

JP -

Feel your pain...

I think this time of year in the Seattle area encourages an inverse relationship between how awesome it is to finally have 2 dry days in a row to commute vs. how much it sucks to be stuck in a car on a rare nice day. Had a couple of 'stupid' encounters on my Monday and Tuesday rides - but absolutely did not faze me. Literally a couple of times where I would normally have been tempted to pound on the car or yell at the driver, but with the temp in a nice comfortable zone and some additional daylight beginning to show this time of year they get nothing but pity.

Even the parts of my usual route that have poorly accommodated merges/etc with traffic it just felt freaking great to take the lane, grab a couple extra gears and show the the traffic behind be that bikes can kick ass on the streets without really holding anyone up. And if it really gets too bad, with the extra light they can check out the beauty of my one fingered salute over the glare of my headlight with the extra daylight.

Chin up, man. More dry days right around the corner.

My commute is alot like JP's. Not much traffic in the wee hours of the morning so I make good time. The afternoon is heavy traffic, so I either ride with the cars or pass on the shoulder depending on how fast it is moving. People in Hawaii seem incapable of acceleration when the light turns green so I usually move to the front and will beat the cars to the next light and usually catch it green. It just seems like more people would be encouraged to commute when they see me ride by while they are in gridlock traffic. What is the point of living in paradise when you spend two hours a day in a car? The PNW is a different kind of paradise, but a paradise nonetheless.

I think that the afternoon commute is the scariest of all. Drivers just seem to be more agressive at this time of day. I suppose they are all eager to get home, so to hell with the rules 'eh?

I live in Las Vegas,and we have long city blocks with few lights. This just seems to egg on the afternoon agro. Merging can be impossible with a neverending stream of cars going 50+mph. Still i'd rather be on my bike. Homer simpson said it best "gas, break, honk! gas, break, honk!"

Randon insanity although we always notice that here in DC any kind of change in the weather (good or bad (these folks can't even drive in wind)) brings out the madness in those stuck behind the wheel of a dino-burner.

We have commuting routes available to us that keep interaction with autos to a minimum but every year the MUTs get a little more crowded and a lot crazier so in good weather we often opt to mix it up in traffic where for the most part we are the fastest vehicles.

I HAVE TO HURRY UP AND GET HOME SO I CAN RELAX!!!!!!!!!
:mad: :crazy: :eek: :mad:

I HAVE TO HURRY UP AND GET HOME SO I CAN RELAX!!!!!!!!!
:mad: :crazy: :eek: :mad:

And Friday afternoon is even worse. Got to get home and enjoy the weekend, so get the hell out of my way. Oh, and some of those drivers stopped at the work-locale watering hole to have a few TGIF pops, so you got that goin' for ya, too.

Be careful out there.

And Friday afternoon is even worse. Got to get home and enjoy the weekend, so get the hell out of my way. Oh, and some of those drivers stopped at the work-locale watering hole to have a few TGIF pops, so you got that goin' for ya, too.

Be careful out there.

That, and it seems like the worst, most impatient, drivers are young guys driving company vehicles, usually vans. Nuts.

Worst drivers?

Company vehicles -- completely nuts (not their insurance or vehicle at risk, and it's just a minimum wage job, anyway)
Kids in hot rods or jacked up pickups
Moms in minivans
Moms in SUVs
Foreigners with no clue about our driving customs
Old people who just go and look straight ahead

Best drivers?

City bus drivers (extremely cautious and deferential here)
Government vehicle drivers (in no hurry)
Other cyclists in cars

........Best drivers?
City bus drivers (extremely cautious and deferential here)
.......

Alas DC Metro bus drivers have a nasty history of killing peds in crosswalks.......:mad:

City bus drivers (extremely cautious and deferential here)

Take a trip away from laid-back Fresno and see how MTA's bus drivers in L.A. operate. I think the first rule driver trainees hear must be, "You're driving something bigger than just about anything else on the road--don't take any Shiite from anyone!". Woe to the unfortunate cyclist coming up on a bus stop at the same time the bus gets there--the drivers have no qualms about running you into the curb. ...and it's always fun to pass a bus when the driver's pulling away from a stop--they don't care about cars, so do you think a cyclist is gonna get any respect? Whenever practical, I avoid riding on the streets where buses operate.

I remember reading something years ago that the majority of cars hitting bikes occurs between 4:30pm - 6:00pm.

I will try to find the link and post it.

City bus drivers (extremely cautious and deferential here)

Take a trip away from laid-back Fresno and see how MTA's bus drivers in L.A. operate. I think the first rule driver trainees hear must be, "You're driving something bigger than just about anything else on the road--don't take any Shiite from anyone!". Woe to the unfortunate cyclist coming up on a bus stop at the same time the bus gets there--the drivers have no qualms about running you into the curb. ...and it's always fun to pass a bus when the driver's pulling away from a stop--they don't care about cars, so do you think a cyclist is gonna get any respect? Whenever practical, I avoid riding on the streets where buses operate.

Here, someone must have told the drivers "be very nice to evreryone." Bus drivers will move to the left lane to pass me, even when I'm in a bike lane. They'll wait to pull out from a stop until I go by (having an HID light probably does not hurt). They'll wait behind me to pull into a stop as I go by it.Couldn't be better. Plus, they are either natural gas or hybrids, so they don't even spew out a bunch of obnoxious diesel soot at you.

The CapMetro bus drivers here in Austin have a Prime Directive...pull into traffic and let whomever is behind the bus deal with the consequences.

These boys actually wait for you to close the distance and THEN put the beast into motion. And they know you're there 'cause they're staring at you in the mirror and smirking...

The Second Directive is: Hey, I outweigh you bigtime, eat curb.

Mostly it's a matter of sharing the shoulder reasonably. I don't pass them unless I'm pretty certain they won't have to pass me a few hundred yards down the road. In, turnI find them to be among the most consistently courteous drivers on my route. They leave me space, don't cut me off and share the shoulder graciously.

I liked your list of best and worst drivers. I agree with all of it, but I remember trips with the boys fighting in the back seat or screaming about something that make me wonder if you were fair to list moms but not dads. Parents dropping kids off at school are almost as bad in their own way as the late for high school kids screaming down my street in the morning.

Mostly it's a matter of sharing the shoulder reasonably. I don't pass them unless I'm pretty certain they won't have to pass me a few hundred yards down the road. In, turnI find them to be among the most consistently courteous drivers on my route. They leave me space, don't cut me off and share the shoulder graciously.

I've had the same experience. Mostly they watch for you. I'm not quite as careful as Dave about passing them: I'll go by unless they're about to pull out, but I try to signal clearly and give them plenty of room to pass when they catch up. On most of my route they have pretty frequent stops, so after a couple rounds of leapfrog I usually leave them behind. Last summer in the middle of one of those games the driver pulled up next to me at a red light, opened the door and complimented me on riding courteously, signalling and stopping at the lights. I thanked him in turn for his courtesy and care. That's a driver who will probably remain a friend to cyclists.

In the worst of the winter I commute by bus, and I get to know a few of the regular drivers, at least well enough to chat about the weather, and for them to know my stops. About 6 weeks ago when we had our first snowstorm I got caught riding home in the snow, and it was building up pretty fast. At one of the stoplights on Main Street in East Hartford a bus pulled alongside. It was one of my "regular" drivers, and he offered to let me put bike inside and ride the rest of the way. It was a nice gesture.