Normally, when people yell at me from cars, it’s because they think I’ve gotten in their way by obeying all traffic laws. You know, yielding to oncoming traffic at a left turn, that sort of crazy thing.
This evening, while I was cruising along in the marked shoulder lane, a guy yelled out his window “get a damn car!!”. An older guy, too; not some egg-throwing punk being silly. Does this mean this man actually objects to the idea of bike riding?
I’m going to bed obscenely early, because I have a very early Important Meeting™ tomorrow.
I’ve gotten that before. I think it’s that they object to bicycles being on the road at all. Or possibly they’re just assholes. (Well, they’re assholes either way, but you know what I mean.)
Most clueless folks tell me to get on the sidewalk. Maybe your dude took a lateral approach and thought that you should stay on the road and just get a car.
So many drivers don’t seem to know that cyclists are allowed (and sometimes required) to ride on the road. My friend got reamed out by a police officer for taking up a full lane, which is totally legal.
There are three major places where I ride regularly and take up a full lane: Mt Auburn St. west of Aberdeen Ave (it’s two lanes + parking, and I stay in the right lane); Harvard St. between Trowbridge St. and Prospect St. (not busy at all; last Sunday was the first time I had to signal a jerk around me); and Mt. Auburn St. between Hawthorn St. and Eliot St. (no bike lane or stripe, lots of jaywalking peds, and Massbike’s maps have it marked that way).
I have also used the middle lane of the Cambridge St. tunnel, as that lines up with my bizarro-left onto Mass Ave. heading for Brattle St. in Harvard Square, but that one even freaks me out a bit, because the tunnel messes with my ability to hear accelerating cars from behind.
Maybe I’ll make myself feel better by yelling “Chapter 85!” at people. Sometimes I yell back “Share the Road”, based on the signs one sees.
You should yell back, “Get a bike!”
You should have called back, “MY DEMI-CAR IS POWERED BY SATAN!!!”
Alternatively, you could move to Seattle, where the motorists are more civilized than in any other city in the country (save maybe Portland). I ride in three-lane, rush hour traffic on the way to work every morning, and have had remarkably few problems, save one police officer who was driving the wrong way on a one way street and causing all hell of confusion.
Moving to Seattle – an excellent suggestion for cyclists.