// A Plea to Stop Cycling Road Rage
Posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
I want to tackle the issue of road rage. Both of the car and cycling kind, and how they can intermix to create disastrous results.
I’ve often seen too much of cyclist road rage–and it scares me nearly to death because the Trusty Boyfriend has a bad case of it. It seems to me that it tends to happen in cities where there is a large community of cyclists. Because there are so many, they develop some sense of entitlement beyond the basics. Of course cyclists have legal protection in some ways–they have bike lanes in some places, and they are allowed to ride in a traffic lane whether there are bike lanes or not. But that doesn’t mean they should be disrespectful or dangerous.
I’m thinking of a typical altercation. I saw it a lot when I lived in Madison, WI–and I see it in Berkeley and Oakland too. It happens when there’s something in the bike lane or parking lane–usually a car pulled over, or maybe a bus. So a cyclist has to go around that parked object. This forces the cyclist into the normal traffic lane, and usually one of two things happens. Either the car in that lane honks and yells because the cyclist swerved without signalling, or the cyclist feels as though the car got too close, and the cyclist pounds on the car with his or her fist. I’ve seen it happen, and I’ve seen angry drivers follow cyclists while yelling at them. I’ve seen those drivers spit, honk, and throw things. I’ve seen the cyclists pound on cars, yell, spit, and even kick at cars. What I haven’t seen (yet), is an accident resulting from these behaviors. But I imagine the accidents all the time. It makes my heart rate quicken, and nearly causes a full on panic attack when it’s the Trusty Boyfriend engaging in these behaviors.
And now, there’s been a serious road rage caused accident in Canada. Really serious. The cyclist died.
You can read the full story, but the gist is that the driver (who happens to be a former Attorney General from Ontario) and the cyclist seem to have been involved in a minor collision that damaged the cycilst’s bike. The cyclist got angry, and somehow managed to hold onto the car as it drove away. It’s unclear whether he grabbed the driver, the steering wheel, or just some other part of the car. The cyclist suffered severe injuries when he continued to hold onto the car as it ran him into a mailbox and a tree. He died later that night in the hospital.
Thankfully, the Trusty Boyfriend isn’t quite this intense about his road rage. But some cyclists are. And I think it’s scary.
So what can we do?
I know I get angry when I signal a lane change, and cars continue to whizz past me at 50 miles per hour. It’s hard to be a cyclist when you can’t make a lane change to turn left. Or when cars drive too close, and you’re nearly forced into the line of parked cars on your right. Or when they honk because you’re not going as fast as they are. And once, while I was riding south on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, some kid in a parked car reached out the window with a stick and tried to hit me. I’m not kidding. I had to swerve.
But despite these hardships, I try to remember my manners:
Manners are nice simply for the sake of being polite–but these things can help keep you safe, too.
–I look for breaks in traffic when I can (if I need to turn, make a lane change, etc.)
–I always signal.
–I try to remember to have front and rear lights if I’ll be riding after dark.
–I make eye contact with drivers, and wave at them if they let me go first.
–I ride far to the right, but leave enough room between myself and parked cars–and I hold this line so my movement is predictable for drivers around me. (Except when being threatened by a stick from a parked car. But in fairness, I did turn to look for cars behind me while swerving, and would have signalled, had there been any cars)
What about car road rage?
It seems to me that road rage is something that can’t totally be avoided. We all want to go first, and frustrated drivers tend to get angry. But maybe they don’t have to be angry because of cyclists. If we could all remember our manners, and all be a little more respectful, maybe drivers would be more willing to share the road. I don’t know if it will work for everyone, everywhere. But I’m going to try. Let’s give peace a chance?