How To Deal With Road Rage

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GodHatesCleveland

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I had a car deliberately try to side swipe me the other day. He wasn't trying to actually hit me, just send me a message. I guess he didn't know that in Ohio a bike has the same right to the road as a car, as long as you're not on the freeway.

I sure wish I was on one of these at the time:

43101493.jpg


But I'd prefer to have a different guy as the co-pilot. That guy on the back looks kinda heavy.
 
This is where the term "U-lock justice" comes from. The reason car drivers behave like this is because they feel safe in their tin boxes and they know they can outrun you. It's amazing though, if someone's easing over, just squaring your shoulders and not giving way and/or raising a hand will make these smartasses back off. Typical Bully behavior, when met with resistance they back down. My lock is a piece of tow chain covered with a rubber tube, with a round lock. I keep it in my bag with the lock locked on one end specifically so if I had to I could use it in self-defense. This is of course a last resort, my prefered course of action is to get the heck out of there, as cars can run you over and kill you.

So basically, send the message back (I have as much of a right to the road as you do) and if that doesn't work, get away fast.

Although, most of the time when I am on a "kooky" bike, the reaction is positve :D
 
I commute every day, and I've found that as long as you confindently and strongly take the lane when you need to people tend to leave you alone. Also, I have also noticed the "kooky bike" effect, people tend to give me more room if I am on some crazy cruiser or something.

This also would help:
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Knock on wood, but I've never been aggressed upon by drivers. However, they are a dull lot, and if you aren't two tons of metal they don't see you. I've been cut off by drivers when I had the right-of-way, I've had drivers hound my fanny because I was going the speed limit (my personal favourite, actually), et cetera.

As xddorox says, ride like you're invisible.
 
tikiharl said:
When riding in public areas I always have the attitude that everyone is trying to hit me and I need to stay very aware of the situation.I also try to take a route that has bike lanes. :wink:
Click to expand...

In Cleveland I assume that every driver is an ex-con on crack withdrawls and packing heat. And as far as I can tell, there's only two bike lanes in the entire city, and one of them is only 1/8th a mile long, behind a shopping mall, and terminates with a major roadway on one side, and I kid you not, a chemical storage facility on the other. I would say "God, I hate this place" but I'm sure he and the rest of you already know that. Cleveland is awful. Freakin' awful.
 
The cops have the kickstand down, you'll notice.

You need something on the Cycle of Violence to cover the side. One idea I've had is a Spike Strip Ejector. If the car passes too close to you, it shoots a spike strip out to the right just as they go by and flattens their tires.
 
One time I seriously thought about connecting my airsoft gun to my handlebars. That way if a motorist acts like an idiot, I can just hold the trigger and watch a stream of BB's dent the back of their car. :mrgreen:
 
schwinnmesa said:
One time I seriously thought about connecting my airsoft gun to my handlebars. That way if a motorist acts like an idiot, I can just hold the trigger and watch a stream of BB's dent the back of their car. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

I dunno the laws around your neck of the woods, but around here that would be a felony.

Not that it matters but a few years back I was following a motorcycle, and the car next to him tried to merge into his lane, of course he swerved, but had nowhere to go, so he planted a couple well placed kicks on the passenger side door to get their attention... it worked!
 
Ratfink1962 said:
schwinnmesa said:
One time I seriously thought about connecting my airsoft gun to my handlebars. That way if a motorist acts like an idiot, I can just hold the trigger and watch a stream of BB's dent the back of their car. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

I dunno the laws around your neck of the woods, but around here that would be a felony.

Not that it matters but a few years back I was following a motorcycle, and the car next to him tried to merge into his lane, of course he swerved, but had nowhere to go, so he planted a couple well placed kicks on the passenger side door to get their attention... it worked!
Click to expand...

Now that's style. Although... I might prefer a hand sledge myself. 8)
 
out here in rural norhtern california, i don't get too much crap from people, and i ride some pretty kookey looking bikes somewhere. if i wanna ride a pink and yellow cruiser with superhigh ape hangers, handlebar tassels and rainbow colored rims while wearing pink riding shorts and eating green jello, then it's my right to and nobody can take that away, (but i don't go to that extent). i will get the occasional stupid highschooler or farm yard LOVIN redneck that will say something slick as they drive by me yelling. i just concider the source (ignorant adolecence or accidental inbreeding) and dissmiss it. luckily in my town of 5,000, id be more likely to identify who the person was that showed me road rage, find their car parked somewhere in town and wait for them with a lead pipe, but im not trying to condone violence.

bottom line, what (or who) people don't understand, they fear or see as stupid. surrounded with a few tons of steel and four wheels that can out run two, the ignorant moterists are ch*&(en sh&* and would probably b*tch out without their car when confronted man to man.
 
roadmaster said:
out here in rural norhtern california, i don't get too much crap from people, and i ride some pretty kookey looking bikes somewhere. if i wanna ride a pink and yellow cruiser with superhigh ape hangers, handlebar tassels and rainbow colored rims while wearing pink riding shorts and eating green jello, then it's my right to and nobody can take that away, (but i don't go to that extent). i will get the occasional stupid highschooler or farm yard LOVIN redneck that will say something slick as they drive by me yelling. i just concider the source (ignorant adolecence or accidental inbreeding) and dissmiss it. luckily in my town of 5,000, id be more likely to identify who the person was that showed me road rage, find their car parked somewhere in town and wait for them with a lead pipe, but im not trying to condone violence.

bottom line, what (or who) people don't understand, they fear or see as stupid. surrounded with a few tons of steel and four wheels that can out run two, the ignorant moterists are ch*&(en sh&* and would probably b*tch out without their car when confronted man to man.
Click to expand...

I've thought about the kooky bike route or riding a tallbike/freakbike would be more noticable, but with today's generation of iPod/texting/cellphone drivers, I don't know if that will make a difference when those drivers are involved. Just today I was on the bike and pulled up to the curb at a red light and sat there for about 10 seconds or so. Then a car pulled up into the space to my left, it was a female driver who was texting as she pulled up to a stop, while she was stopped, and when the light turned green. If the light was green all the way she would have been texting before and after she passed me. I don't think it would have mattered what I was riding.

Bike paths are really the only safe way to go, but since it's so hard to find them, maybe JoeyMac was right. Ninja stars are the way to do it.
 
jackrock would be my suggestion but never lost my temper or had many close calls riding my bike (basically beacause i know the cars dont play with bikes around here)

ive even been yelled at for riding my bike on the sidewalk in front of a bar, couple of patrons outside that saw me comin about 100 ft away, made eye contact the whole time, and decided to yell at me for riding on the sidewalk instead of the road when i stopped and asked to get thru. i then told them gettin yelled at by a drunk hurts less than gettin ran over by one ...the must of had enough brain cells to process that and they agreed and let me thru :mrgreen:
 
Out here where I'm at you get the reverse case scenario. I had just dropped my daughter at school one morning and was getting ready to pull out on the main road.I'm looking both ways to make a safe merger and a young dude on a mountain bike zips in front of me at a good clip(the wrong way).He was in no danger from me as I always look around! But riding into traffic rather than with traffic flow caused him a close call as a car was pulling into the same driveway he was crossing (the wrong way)He was slinging quite a few little beligerant profanities! When he picked up his bike I told him he was no better than that guy ,you were both suffering from craniul rectal inversion! Neither one of you should really be on the road! The look on his face was hilarious,he was'nt sure if he had been consoled or kicked in the butt! Cops DO NOT enforce any traffic laws, except, speeding! And they will issue a drivers license for 20+ years w/no testing of any kind to keep it! So what you have is an entire roadway of people who have forgotten all, and could care less! Its insane! :shock: Later & PEACE!!!
 

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