I've considered making little leaflets of this picture, and placing it on windshields or antennae of cars who honk at me. Because, you know, I almost always catch them at the next intersection.

billd:Video no longer there Serge.

That's really strange. It was there yesterday, and had been posted since I think 2009. I wonder what prompted Preston to remove it.

Here's another one (bonus: sound track is Rolling Stone's Paint it black!). If this one disappears I call conspiracy!

Beat an hour on the way home today for the first time this year: 59 minutes on the Mapei Colnago.

Riding past the on ramp to Kearny Villa Rd. from Miramar Way I see a car way back up the ramp. I cross over to the other side and suddenly brakes are locked up right behind me and the car slides past me on the right with inches to spare and lurches to a sudden stop in the bike lane in a cloud of tire smoke. It took a long time for it to get started again and the driver had trouble merging back into traffic. She flipped me off as she passed. That was too close!

Got assaulted by a psycho on Morena today. I didn't get the plate. He brake checked me and I couldn't stop. I've got a bruise on my shoulder and scrape on my leg. He got out and came at me but I got my pepper spray out and sprayed it in his direction when he was still about 10 feet away and he didn't come any closer. He threatened to get a gun out of his truck and shoot me but by that time there were about 10 cars backed up with all of the drivers staring at us. What is so hard about changing lanes?

As usual it was a red neck white guy, maybe 30 or so, in a pickup truck....screaming like I had just kicked his child.

Thats terrible billd.

Very glad to hear injuries were minor.

It was on north bound Morena.

According to my GPS data (it shows me stopped for a while mid block), it happened between Napier and Milton at about 6:50pm. He started honking. I started wobbling. He passed close anyway, pulled in front of me and hit the brakes. Light brown pickup. Didn't catch the make. I was freaking out and yelling that I had a right to use the road under California state law.

I almost stopped in time. I think I scraped my leg on the handle bars. The scrape is very superficial and just got the upper layer of skin. No blood ran but it's red. The shoulder bruise is not showing (at least not yet) but I can feel it pretty strong. I hit the shoulder on his tail gate. Very minor as injuries go but also completely unnecessary.

Disney captured the essence of the psychology of the crazed driver in this classic animated short over 60 years ago.



I think keeping this in mind can help explain much of the otherwise inexplicable behavior we encounter on the roads.

The problem of the unreasonable angry driver has not been solved in the last 60 years, and I have no reason to believe it will be solved in the next 60. The only way I know to deal with it is early identification of a potential flare up and taking appropriate measures to nip the rage in the bud. If I'm habitually controlling lanes, I don't know how to establish and maintain the rearward situational awareness necessary to make this early identification without a... mirror.

There. I said it.

billd:This guy did not seem like the Jekyll and Hyde type. He seemed more like the type of guy who's all Hyde. I'd bet money that he has a criminal record.

My perception of human nature is that the Jekyll/Hyde model applies to everyone to some extent. Even the gentlest and most compassionate among us can be pushed into engaging in some pretty ugly behavior (that always seems justifiable to us at the time, but usually not to others), and the most heinous criminals have some capacity for generosity and caring. If the first time we encounter someone is when they're way past the line, it might be hard to imagine, but I bet his or her mom and friends would insist they're not really that kind of person.

True or not, my philosophy in life is based on that premise, and I find it to be effective in allowing me to anticipate and accept all kinds of human behavior in just about any situation. It's especially useful in traffic. And business. And marriage.

Anyway, my point is that with a mirror you would have seen the scenario unfold behind you... what lead up to him honking? I can't tell you how many times I've observed someone approach from behind, and, while most people would change lanes at a certain point, such a person does not and continues not slowing as much as I'd like, if at all. So, before they get too close (including the point at which a honker would honk), I turn around and look at them (in a friendly way), and/or issue a slow/stop left-arm signal, and, like clockwork, they change lanes, practically without exception. I wave thank you as they pass and 90% of the time they nod or wave thank you back. How many of those times did I nip a honk-to-all-out-road-rage situation in the bud? No way to tell. But I can tell you I stopped experiencing undesirable situations like that once I learned to use my mirror effectively like this, 7 years ago or so.

W O W ... speechless. glad you are ok though! hope your shoulder feels better soon

Serge2:

wpstoll:Beat an hour on the way home today for the first time this year: 59 minutes on the Mapei Colnago.

Riding past the on ramp to Kearny Villa Rd. from Miramar Way I see a car way back up the ramp. I cross over to the other side and suddenly brakes are locked up right behind me and the car slides past me on the right with inches to spare and lurches to a sudden stop in the bike lane in a cloud of tire smoke. It took a long time for it to get started again and the driver had trouble merging back into traffic. She flipped me off as she passed. That was too close!

Congratulations on the great time, but I'm confused about the incident. Are you talking about riding here? (what's particularly cool about this street view is there a cyclist in it! Is that you by any chance? lol!).

Are you saying the car was going much faster than you realized?

Per that google street view, the bike lane is broken at the ramp. When she stopped in the bike lane, do you mean the bl segment after the ramp merges in?

Glad you didn't get hit!

That rider is not I. He is where I turned to look back and saw the car way back up the ramp. I had the right of way
since the car was merging onto the road from another and I assumed, apparently wrongly, that I was seen in my brightly colored Mapei kit. I ride through here practically every day and have never had anything like this happen in that spot. Her car slid to a stop just to the right of the bike lane on the other side, in front of the white road sign at the other end of the smooth new asphalt. Evidently she wanted to pass me at speed on the right. When I continued to move across the ramp to the other side of the bike path, she apparently lost control of the car.

I use a mirror and feel uncomfortable without it on the road. This happened as I was scanning in my mirror speeding overtaking traffic on my left and preparing to make the transition across the high speed on ramp (another example of how dangerous these devices are for both cyclists and pedestrians) as well as acknowledging the presence of the merging car by looking back over my right shoulder. The entire transit of the on ramp took place in a very short period of time and for the amount of time I spent looking ahead I failed to see the approaching hazard in my mirror, which is on the left. She was trying to come around me on the right.

billd:
Nevermind the fact that CVC 21202(a)(3) AND (a)(4) both allow me to control the full lane there.

About (3), which states:

When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a "substandard width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

One confusing aspect of this is that the definition of "substandard width lane", "a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane", applies to the vast majority of lanes, and so "substandard width" is a misnomer. In fact, a standard lane, which is usually 11-12 feet wide, is "too narrow", since a lane has to be about 14 feet for safe side by side travel within the lane.

How did this come about? Well, according to John Forester, when this language was added everyone involved agreed in principle with the idea, but no one realized how wide a lane had to be for safe travel, much less how rare they are, and, that, actually, standard lanes are not wide enough. Here are his words, as posted to the Yahoo! chainguard list yesterday:

The legal language about substandard width lanes being those which are insufficiently wide for a motorist and a cyclist to safely share side-by-side was concocted by the motorists of the California Statewide Bicycle Committee, charged by the legislature with working out how to restrict cyclists as much as politically possible. I was there. When asked, I stated that a 10-foot lane was certainly too narrow to share, but that's about all I said on that matter. At that time I did not know much about actual lane widths, and the then California standard for two-lane state highways was a 40-foot paved surface with two 12-foot lanes and shoulders (gone the way of all luxuries, now). Later on I worked out a list of lane widths that I and my associates had found suitable for sharing at different traffic speeds, and published it in Bicycle Transportation. For example, for two-lane roads, 25-44 mph, 14 feet; 45-65 mph, 16 feet.

Now we have learned that the widest standard lane used by traffic engineers is 12 feet, while 11 feet is allowed where necessary (and even 10 feet in very exceptional circumstances). Therefore, we know that all lanes except those which are unusually wide (typically the outside lane where excess space is available) are unsuitable for lane sharing.

Think about that. All lanes except those which are unusually wide (typically the outside lane where excess space is available) are unsuitable for lane sharing. When you really think about it (which few people do), it's indisputable, and has the remarkable ramification that on all but those roads with bike lanes, and the few with wide outside lanes, the only safe place for a cyclist to ride is in the outside lane, controlling it.

This is ultimately why there is so much demand for bike lanes. But almost all of the "easy" and relatively inexpensive bike lanes are in place. In many places, like all over downtown, there simply is no more additional space to carve out for lane widening or bike lanes.

This is why I have so much hope in sharrows and BMUFL signs. Imagine if Morena and W Morena had sharrows in the outside lanes both directions the entire length - wherever there is no bike lane - and accompanied by BMUFL signs. I bet you would get fewer stink eyes!

I just love the sharrows on Mission Blvd in PB. I always controlled the lane there, and only once got flack for it, but now somehow it feels a bit more righteous or something.

Sharrows and BMUFL signs are so (relatively) cheap, even compared to bike lanes when there is space, maybe a DeMaio administration would support them?

I finally went over the Rose Creek bridge this morning. Woo hoo!

@bikingbill: Isn't that nice? : - )

I was riding down to old town this morning and had a scruffy-looking salmon headed my way. There were two roadies going his direction, but on the proper side of the road, so I pointed at them and yelled, "You really should be riding over there!" He looked at them, smiled at me, and replied, "Oh! Thanks man. Sorry!" And then started looking to get over.

I like it when it doesn't seem like the world is conspiring against us (even if it is! :face-devil-grin:)

slow & weird, but it was ON A BIKE!!! :D thanks to a very good friend who is loaning me one (hippie, you da-man!) seriously weird riding a commuter hybrid type bike... i does not move the same, not in the slightest! but it was comfy & smooth... like riding a couch with handlebars. :face-devil-grin:

gavilan:Ooooh... a couch with handlebars sounds comfy! heh

I was pretty slow this morning. A guy on a MTB/commuter-type bike passed me on the slight uphill by the brewery on Santa Fe road and I lost him almost immediately. Usually I can see the blinkies ahead in the distance before the first bend on the bike path, under the 52. Not today!

Was the dead squirrel still there, under the 52? Saw it yesterday.

HAHA!! exactly!

My bunny rabbit buddy is back. He sprints alongside me on the shoulder of Alga for 50 ft at 21mph or so and then goes into the bushes.

loooooooong ride home yesterday... about 30 min more than normal. but as a plus, i was able to see a rabbit on the stadium path run face first into the curb while trying to run across. i guess he was focused on me a lil too much. maybe you just had to have seen it, but i was laughing my ass off! ... but then again i am the kinda jerk that still giggles when i see kids fall.
:face-devil-grin:

billd:This morning, while on the way to work, the bike lane on Linda Vista road (south-west) was blocked by signs saying "right lane closed ahead" so I moved out into the lane around Glidden St.

Some idiot comes up behind me and can't bear the thought of changing lanes, leaning on his horn. He realizes that I'm not moving over so he changes lanes and quickly moves back right and almost plows into the line of cones ahead and has to jerk his car back left. No real danger but it was hilarious with the stupidity. He HAD to be in the slow lane, in spite of several signs saying that the right lane was closed ahead and almost plowing through a bunch of cones. The obsessive compulsive right lane idiots never cease to entertain me.

I bet it's almost always someone on a route they take almost daily on auto-pilot. They habitually take the right lane and it feels like their lane. Having to alter their routine -- even for something as minor as a lane change - is irritating and annoying enough. Having to do it because of what they perceive as totally unnecessary (a bicyclist in the middle of the lane! Can you imagine!) is simply intolerable.

Or something like that.

Crap. I read the map wrong. It was actually Via Las Cumbres where I moved out into the lane.

No, I don't recognize that guy.

lol... got cursed with a dub-step ride home last night :( got some cheapy tires till i can get continentals again, & one of them thought it would be cool to start bubbling out at the seem. big ass blob of tire about 1/4 of an inch out the side = wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub... almost 20 miles, errrrr!

on a lighter side, since i've been riding the Torpado, about every other day a woman will yell out of her car "i LOVE your bike!"... me too lady, meee too.

I had an early meeting, so I set off at 5:20AM ... before dawn.

So pleasant. Very few cars. Even the air smells better. By the time I got to the coast it was getting light out.

Also, the Lumotech light does a fine job of lighting the road. Good thing as I avoided a dead possum on a descent.

On the way home from work tonight riding down university at 6th a cat was turning, I was behind it so I veered left, a guy and his girlfriend went to the right of out for some reason. The girl had a neer miss the guy got right hooked. Stopped, seemed like the guy was okay. Never really a good idea to do that so I'm not sure why they did. A very shitty thing to see none the less.

Ride safe.

PacMUle:i see that all the time though... i don't get why people would pass on the right in those situations, it seems like such an obvious disaster.

I like that it wasn't me or Serge pointing that out. :)