Got screamed at for the first time today

Sandy: I'd suggest writing to your local paper. Of course, you're going to get a whole lot of car
folk trying to tell the "other side" of the story, but the dialog might still be a good thing.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

"Sandy Christmus" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've been riding to and from work for 3 months in lovely Vienna, VA, USA. The ride is part W&OD
trail, and a small bit on roads. I've been impressed with how cars have treated me for the most
part. I'm a conscientious cycler regarding the rules of the road. I was on the road this morning
heading up a small hill at about 17-18mph, keeping up with traffic coming to a 4-way stop. I slid
into the lane where there was a large gap so that I could make my left-hand turn at the stop. I
signaled appropriately and this 40-ish woman in an SUV sped up to come to my right and stop next
to me at the stop sign. I couldn't help but look over, chuckle and tell her I'm stopping at the
sign and turning. As I turn, she rolls her window down and yells, "Stay on the trail,

idiot!"

Quoted message said:

I have to laugh a little, but it's still disturbing to me. I think I'm doing such a good thing
riding my bike: reducing local congestion, reducing pollution, losing weight, getting heathier,
etc. and then this chick really brings me down. I know others have had similar events, but I just
wanted to vent a little.

Thanks.

Sandy

Quoted message said:

I've been riding to and from work for 3 months in lovely Vienna, VA, USA. The ride is part W&OD
trail, and a small bit on roads. I've been impressed with how cars have treated me for the most
part. I'm a conscientious cycler regarding the rules of the road. I was on the road this morning
heading up a small hill at about 17-18mph, keeping up with traffic coming to a 4-way stop. I slid
into the lane where there was a large gap so that I could make my left-hand turn at the stop. I
signaled appropriately and this 40-ish woman in an SUV sped up to come to my right and stop next
to me at the stop sign. I couldn't help but look over, chuckle and tell her I'm stopping at the
sign and turning. As I turn, she rolls her window down and yells, "Stay on the trail, idiot!"

Well, for passing idiots in cars, this one seems to have been remarkably polite. Most of the ones
that have yelled at me tend to be less polite. In fact, their statements usually are not terribly
logical. One carfull of passing geniuses suggested that I get off the copulating road. Only they
didn't say copulating. I was a bit surprised that the road could do that -- that asphalt certainly
doesn't look like it reproduced that way. This was on Maple (I also live in Vienna). Another person
yesterday seemed to mistake me for a female dog, thus getting both my

to these people.

Peter

Ahh, Vienna, Virginia: where cyclists and SUVs do battle in glorious array on some of the most
congested roads in the county.

You get a few hot-headed people out on the road there, particularly on 123 when it fills up. The
worst idiots are the ones that never say anything to you. Last summer I was riding back to Fairfax
through Vienna in a summer downpour. An enormous Lexus SUV rumbles next to me, then, totally
oblivious of my presence, begins edging right without signalling. Thankfully traffic was crawling
slowly enough for me to get his attention by banging on his door a few times.

The logical case for anything doesn't move people driving through Vienna. They just want to get
where they want to go as quickly as possible, damn everybody else. Just smile.

As to staying on the trail, well--I do, if I want to get from Fairfax to Reston on a bike. Beats
mixing it up with the SUVs on Hunter Mill Road (I know someone who commutes over that regularly, but
he used to be a pro cycle racer, so he keeps his speed up a lot better than I do). Otherwise, I'm
taking my lane. I actually like 123 through Oakton just before Vienna. It's fast enough on a bike
with few enough hassles to be even enjoyable.....

-Luigi

temporarily in Fairfax

Peter Gardner said:

... In fact, their statements usually are not terribly logical. One carfull of passing geniuses
suggested that I get off the copulating road. Only they didn't say copulating. I was a bit
surprised that the road could do that -- that asphalt certainly doesn't look like it reproduced
that way. This was on Maple (I also live in Vienna). Another person yesterday seemed to mistake me
for a female dog, thus getting both my

Quoted message said:

to these people.

I have been called a bundle of sticks quite a few times by passing motorists, who then indicate that
I am number one by extending their middle finger vertically with their palm facing inwards.

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side)

draco.acs.uci.edu6.1.htmlOpen ↗

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

"Sandy Christmus" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've been riding to and from work for 3 months in lovely Vienna, VA, USA. The ride is part W&OD
trail, and a small bit on roads. I've been impressed with how cars have treated me for the most
part. I'm a conscientious cycler regarding the rules of the road. I was on the road this morning
heading up a small hill at about 17-18mph, keeping up with traffic coming to a 4-way stop. I slid
into the lane where there was a large gap so that I could make my left-hand turn at the stop. I
signaled appropriately and this 40-ish woman in an SUV sped up to come to my right and stop next
to me at the stop sign. I couldn't help but look over, chuckle and tell her I'm stopping at the
sign and turning. As I turn, she rolls her window down and yells, "Stay on the trail, idiot!"

I have to laugh a little, but it's still disturbing to me. I think I'm doing such a good thing
riding my bike: reducing local congestion, reducing pollution, losing weight, getting heathier,
etc. and then this chick really brings me down. I know others have had similar events, but I just
wanted to vent a little.

I would not take this personally, or even as a slight against cyclists. People who go around
screaming anything at anyone, except in self-defense, are insane, at least temporarily. Feel sorry
for them, they're pathetic. Imagine what they're like in the rest of their lives.

Matt O.

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sandy: I'd suggest writing to your local paper. Of course, you're going to get a whole lot of car
folk trying to tell the "other side" of the story, but the dialog might still be a good thing.

Mike, I disagree. Such "controversies" ought to die before they're born.

Matt O.

Sandy Christmus said:

As I turn, she rolls her window down and yells, "Stay on the trail, idiot!"

On a tour over Tioga pass in Yosemite National Park our group pulled over to the edge of the road to
regroup on the long climb to White Wolf. As we waited we saw a huge Southwind RV with trailing jeep
roll up the road with an old lady hanging out the right side of the cab yelling something. She was a
white haired skinny gal repeatedly yelling at the top of her frail voice "Git off the raeode
aesshoule" with a strong country twang. Oh ain't retirement a joy!

Quoted message said:

I have to laugh a little, but it's still disturbing to me. I think I'm doing such a good thing
riding my bike: reducing local congestion, reducing pollution, losing weight, getting healthier,
etc. and then this chick really brings me down. I know others have had similar events, but I just
wanted to vent a little.

Ah ah ahhh! The self righteousness you express here may have been visible to this driver. I can
understand how such smugness can overwhelm anything else you were doing. I see this on occasion with
bicyclists who show how safe and law abiding they are by looking back for following traffic and
finding none, before raising their right hand, as if to be called on in class, before, during and
after executing a "perfect" right turn exactly four feet from the curb.

My thoughts are "Stay on the trail, idiot!"

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

Quoted message said:

draco.acs.uci.edu6.1.htmlOpen ↗

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

"Europeans seem able to accept bicycling as a proper activity for all ages. That is to say,
motorists do not treat bicyclists with apartheid"

UK must have been excluded from your definition of Europe. It would appear that, once more, where
the US leads, the UK follows.

Quoted message said:

As I turn, she rolls her window down and yells, "Stay on the trail, idiot!"

Quoted message said:

I have to laugh a little, but it's still disturbing to me. I think I'm doing such a good thing
riding my bike: reducing local congestion, reducing pollution, losing weight, getting heathier,
etc. and then this chick really brings me down.

I have mixed feelings about bicycle trails. One of the big reasons is if I am riding on the road
within a couple of miles of one of these, I tend to get more harrassment from mentally deficient
drivers. Drivers seem to thing that once some money was spent on a trail used by children on
tricycles and people walking unleashed dogs, then all cyclists should confine themselves to these
substandard facilities.

I do a predawn ride during the week and the early morning drivers are very courteous. I wonder if
using a headlight and tail light makes me an honorary motorist or something. I would have
predicted that early morning drivers would be crankier but in 4 years I have received only one set
of obscene epiphets.

On the weekends, I ride secondary roads in the morning and hardly a weekend goes by without obscene
epiphets from some motorist. Shoot, just last Sunday I was given the honk and slice by a guy driving
to church. This is not to denigrate church attendence or church goers. Such behavior just seems
striking for its lack of consistency.

People like this are either ignorant or trying to yank your chain. Either way, the best thing you
can do to get back at them is to smile and wave like they're a long lost friend or one of the nicest
people you've ever met. It drives them crazy.

Chuck Davis

"Sandy Christmus" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've been riding to and from work for 3 months in lovely Vienna, VA, USA. The ride is part W&OD
trail, and a small bit on roads. I've been impressed with how cars have treated me for the most
part. I'm a conscientious cycler regarding the rules of the road. I was on the road this morning
heading up a small hill at about 17-18mph, keeping up with traffic coming to a 4-way stop. I slid
into the lane where there was a large gap so that I could make my left-hand turn at the stop. I
signaled appropriately and this 40-ish woman in an SUV sped up to come to my right and stop next
to me at the stop sign. I couldn't help but look over, chuckle and tell her I'm stopping at the
sign and turning. As I turn, she rolls her window down and yells, "Stay on the trail,

idiot!"

Quoted message said:

I have to laugh a little, but it's still disturbing to me. I think I'm doing such a good thing
riding my bike: reducing local congestion, reducing pollution, losing weight, getting heathier,
etc. and then this chick really brings me down. I know others have had similar events, but I just
wanted to vent a little.

Thanks.

Sandy

John's Cat said:

"Europeans seem able to accept bicycling as a proper activity for all ages. That is to say,
motorists do not treat bicyclists with apartheid"

UK must have been excluded from your definition of Europe. It would appear that, once more, where
the US leads, the UK follows.

Yes, well, the UK never considered itself to be in Europe, leading to the invention of the phrase
"mainland Europe" for use by people who got confused about that, ie, non-UK residents.

But anyway, you get morons anywhere. Cars here tend to be aware that such a thing as a bicyclist
exists, though, and thus are generally better at looking for them. Okay, so we stand a good chance
of not surviving a collision at speed, but their bodywork hardly gets away unscathed, plus it's a
major hassle (and of course the 90% of the people who are sane just don't to kill people, rather
than being put off by consequences).

Jasper

Sandy Christmus <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I've been riding to and from work for 3 months in lovely Vienna, VA, USA. The ride is part W&OD
trail, and a small bit on roads. I've been .............. chick really brings me down. I know
others have had similar events, but I just wanted to vent a little.

Thanks.

Sandy

Go ahead and vent, you've earned it. And ignore trolls like Jobst, who talk down to you about your
"self righteousness" and "smugness".

Your doing a good thing, commuting to work and doing it safely. I commute to work also, across the
city of San Diego, and I have to deal with traffic all the way. Like you, I also encounter bonehead
motorists. I don't have any recommendations other that what has already been said. Just keep riding,
your doing a good thing.

Tom

In article <[email hidden]>, Thomas Reynolds

Quoted message said:

Like you, I also encounter bonehead motorists. I don't have any recommendations other that what
has already been said. Just keep riding, your doing a good thing.

The way I figure it, you're one tiny little step on the way to their enlightenment. Especially if
both you and they are commuters, you probably take roughly the same routes at about the same times
every day--so they may see you once a month or so, and as a cyclist you're easy to remember.
Eventually they can't help but realize that you aren't causing anybody any trouble.

If I get a chance to talk back, I try to keep it light. In person they don't always seem so
interested in pressing the point anyway.

--Bruce Fields

Jasper Janssen said:

John's Cat said:

UK must have been excluded from your definition of Europe. It would appear that, once more, where
the US leads, the UK follows.

Yes, well, the UK never considered itself to be in Europe, leading to the invention of the phrase
"mainland Europe" for use by people who got confused about that, ie, non-UK residents.

Always heard it referred to as "continental Europe", and the Brits themselves always seem to promote
the view they are not "European".

SMH

x-no-archive:yes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

UK must have been excluded from your definition of Europe. It would appear that, once more,
where the US leads, the UK follows.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Yes, well, the UK never considered itself to be in Europe, leading to

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

invention of the phrase "mainland Europe" for use by people who got confused about that, ie,
non-UK residents.

Always heard it referred to as "continental Europe", and the Brits themselves always seem to
promote the view they are not "European".

SMH

Yes, they have called it "The Continent"--- that is, the British called it that. The US had nothing
to do with what the British want to call anything. The larger question is: Why don't you know that?

Pat in Texas

In article said:

I have to laugh a little, but it's still disturbing to me.

Don't worry about it. There'll be plenty more where that came from.

The last time I got yelled at was for not being far enough to the right. I was stopped over a
traffic light detector loop.

cheers, Tom

--
-- Silence is Foo -- Daffy Duck Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats
[curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Peter Gardner <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

One carfull of passing geniuses suggested that I get off the copulating road. Only they didn't say
copulating. I was a bit surprised that the road could do that -- that asphalt certainly doesn't
look like it reproduced that way.

No, no, you misunderstood their intentions. The road does not copulate with itself. Rather, it is
*you* who is partnered with the road.

Have you not had a day, where you get out there on your bike, and there is the road before you,
warm, inviting? It feels good, it smells good, it almost seems to taste good to be on it. Some days
you start out eager, knowing what lies ahead. Other days you start out a little reluctantly --
surely you have better things to do -- clean the house, mow the lawn -- but here you are anyway,
your bike and the road together, and after a little bit you know its going to be a good time.

There are days when you dominate the road. It does your bidding. You groove on your control. There
are other days when the road is your master. You submit to its demands. You get a perverted pleasure
from the pain of your burning legs, your oxygen-starved lungs screaming for air.

In any of these instances, though, you with your bike, and the road, are lovers. The term, "get
off" as we all know, is a slang term that means to "derive pleasure". Thus, the encouraging, if
crude, words,

and the road make beautiful love together".

To take this a step further -- in many mystical traditions, the physical act of love is understood
as a metaphor for the spiritual union of human with the Divine. Can you ride as if you and the
Road are One?

The mudra of the single upraised digit is a reminder of this oneness: unity in Christ Consciousness,
being at one with the Tao, La illaha Il' Allah, Adonai Echad. Thus, when someone makes this gesture
at you, you should understand that they are wishing you the experience of this ecstatic union.

The horn that is honked as the mudra is made is a meditation bell. Like a church bell, like the call
of the muezzin's voice, it calls you into this sacred space of union, of you, your bike, and the
road, as One.

Thus, when the motorist honks his horn, raises the single digit, and makes his sincere invocation,
you have but one response: to smile, to wave, and return to the joy of riding your bike.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky ([email hidden])

Home of the meditative cyclist: home.earthlink.netWelcome.htmOpen ↗

Singing with you at: tiferet.nettiferet.netOpen ↗

Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: bookcrossing.comCpeterskyOpen ↗

Jasper Janssen said:

Yes, well, the UK never considered itself to be in Europe

"Fog in Channel - Continent cut off"

Guy
===
** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony. chapmancentral.comchapmancentral.comOpen ↗ Advance
notice: ADSL service in process of transfer to a new ISP. Obviously there will be a week of downtime
between the engineer removing the BT service and the same engineer connecting the same equipment on
the same line in the same exchange and billing it to the new ISP.