Permutations of road rage

[Flea]

When I sold off my car a few months ago, I naively thought I wouldn't encounter road rage any more. Ha!

I've had two incidents in the last couple of weeks that were ... quirky. One night I was on my bicycle and merged into the left turn lane for obvious reasons. I was first in line at the red light. As the light changed and I pulled out with a hand signal, a woman in the next lane (not even waiting to turn!) started shouting at me. YOU'RE ON A BICYCLE! YOU SHOULD BE IN THE BICYCLE LANE ON THE RIGHT! THAT'S FOR CARS! GET BACK OVER WHERE YOU BELONG!!! The whole thing was just silly - the illogic of me cutting across two lanes to make a left turn from the shoulder, and the passive-aggression of waiting to yell at me after the light changed. I just chuckled, shrugged it off, and kept pedaling.

Had another one today. I was standing at a downtown bus stop of all things, in my own world with my music, doing some people watching from under my cavernous jacket hood. Some random guy walked past at a fast clip, thrust a middle finger at me under my hood, and cruised on by without skipping a beat. I was careful not to laugh this time in case he was paying attention. But it was so quick and so random I couldn't get mad either. It was just too weird.

The phrase "road rage" is completely ubiquitous now, as is "air rage." Maybe it's time to add "bicycle rage" and "bus stop rage." It's a fact that even when we're on our best behavior we still aren't immune to others making us a convenient canvas for their personal dramas. What were these two people playing out? I'm curious, but I can't really take it personally. It's just a shame that doing all the commonsense things like being polite and keeping a low profile still don't cover us from others' aggression.

[mook jong man]

You get dickheads everywhere unfortunately , I remember being out on a run years ago and a car went past and some quarter wit threw a half full can of beer at me and hit me in the back.

Some people are always looking for a target to vent their pent up latent aggression on and they will basically do what ever they think they can get away with.

[Flea]

Quite so. The thing is that everyone has a dark side, complete with the pent-up or free-floating aggression. The only difference is how we handle it. 90% of us find healthy outlets, or we're just really good at repressing it.

[seasoned]

And the other 10% are the ones we have to be aware of, although they do sneak up on us. I find it most morning, with people late for whatever, and me and my car are in their way.

[girlbug2]

Flea you just illustrated the reason I am afraid to ride my bike down the main road to the grocery store. It would be healthier for me to get out on my bike more often and it would save a bit on gas, but those idjits on the road around here don't know how to share the road with bicyclists.

[Flea]

Girlbug, you just need one of these (http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-angerpowered-cars-may-revolutionize-the-way-we,1118/).

[Steve]

I'm not sure I understand why someone would just flip you the bird. That's a strange one.

[Carol]

Sounds realistic to me. I haven't been a bike commuter since college, but even at that time (back before 'road rage' was part of the lexicon), there were plenty of motorists in Boston that absolutely despised bicyclists, and were happy to show how much they loathed you.

[jks9199]

Not to point a finger at Flea (sounds like she was in the right!) -- but I see plenty of bicyclists doing stupid things on the road. Many don't seem to understand that they are subject to the same rules of the road as a car when they're on the road; they blow stop signs & red lights, move without signalling, and generally cause headaches on the road. On the sidewalks, they blow past people without warning, disregard pedestrian control signals, and, again, generally cause chaos. And I say this as a certified police bicyclist. And I didn't even mention the idiots riding a bike at night in dark clothes with no lights or reflectors...

The guy who flipped her off? Sounds like random nuttiness.

[Flea]

Given a couple days' perspective, I think that on one level the guy at the bus stop may have been in the right. Sort of. Given a big miscommunication.

After 6 years living in a crack hood I still find myself on high alert sometimes, and standing at a downtown bus stop at rush hour is a good time to be on one's toes. I noticed as he walked towards me that he had one hand tightly wrapped around his torso, and I did a double-take. Was he holding anything in that fist? Nope. Back to my regularly scheduled program ...

That was when he flipped me off a moment later. In retrospect that tight arm configuration might have been a disability, prompting him to construe my second look as getting an eyeful. I would have been angry too. Or maybe he was just belligerent. I'll probably never know, and I'm not losing any sleep over it. But it's a good general reminder to be aware, because there are angry people in this world. Regardless of how they got that way.

[Flea]

And yes, JKS, I'm touchy about stupid cyclists too. They make life harder on us serious commuters by making us all look bad.

[chinto]

all you can do is practice awareness... and well keep your eyes open and listen to your gut about any situation if you just get that feeling its going sour.. .get out.