Thick Skin
It’s not good to honk at a cyclist because, well, it’s startlingly loud:
I can understand the need to communicate, but horns don’t do the trick. But even when some folks use their words, they don’t really do much better…
So when find myself the target of horns or yells, I simply don’t respond.
They’re not looking for a reasonable conversation. And engaging with them might make it worse. I don’t really want to see how unreasonable things could go.
After all, does this ever happen?
So I try to let it go.
Like everyone else, I’ve gotten any number of rude or obnoxious comments or aggressive horns, but I also get the occasional “nice legs!” so it all balances out in the end.
OK, bikeyface, I need your advice. I’m curious about what the best way to have handled the following situation would have been:
I was riding my bike home at about 2:30 in the afternoon. I was riding in a bike lane on a street that’s not particularly busy when a car drove by with the passenger leaning out the window yelling, “Get a Skateboard!”
That was two years ago, and I’m still baffled.
I always think to myself, if they honk, at least that means they have seen you!
The weirdest one for me was the passenger of a monster SUV asking me to “skooch over to the right some more so we could share the road.” The thought “get a smaller car so we could share the planet” occurred to me, but I didn’t say it.
Among the rudeness and a-holery, occasionally someone actually thanks me for stopping at a light.
I actually had one of those conversations once.
I had accidentally cut off a car at an intersection becuase it appeared to be turning. When we got to the next red light, I pulled up and calmly apologized and explained what happened, and the driver, who had been angry, totally calmed down and it was actually a pretty pleasant experience. And I think he even gained some respect & awareness of cyclists!
ps love Bluebullet’s comment. I need that bumper sticker for my bike.