Pam, I think you have got this figured out. I admit I have let a few rides be ruined by obnoxious drivers. A close scrape is scary, and then it makes me angry, and then I am bothered by this feeling that I need to restore balance to the universe by waving a middle finger. That's the feeling I want to let go of. I don't need to think about fixing the universe all the time . . . when I'm riding my bike, my purpose is to enjoy life and get somewhere.
But I also am sure that your example, the way you handle yourself on the bike, is educational for drivers and probably inspires some of them to take the bike instead of the car next time. So maybe you are fixing the universe somewhat. Jim in Rochester On Monday, October 10, 2022 at 1:40:22 AM UTC-4 Pam Bikes wrote: > I haven't read all the posts except the first one but couple of things... > I teach Cycling Savvy ( > https://cyclingsavvy.org/event/3-part-workshop-charlotte-nc-oct-21-23/2022-10-21/) > which > teaches communication and cooperation. I never use the one finger salute, > I always use the friendly wave and smile tactic. (I don't give anyone the > power to ruin my ride.) But before that I communicate in four redundant > ways. 1) Lane selection - using the lane for my intended direction, i.e. > the left lane if I'm making a L. 2) Lane positioning - positioning myself > for my direction of travel, i.e. in the left side of the lane if I'm > turning right. 3) Shoulder check - this helps build empathy by humanizing > yourself. You have a life which is valuable. And this acknowledges the > motorists presence. 4) Signaling - your next move. In the original post, > I'd have signaled either R or L. If I'm not making a turn and I do not > want to release the lane or can't release the lane, I'd hold up my pointer > finger indicating I need a second. Communicating helps defuse a possibly > tense situation. While this is not fool proof, it generally works most of > the time. I ride daily. I ride wherever I need to go. And mostly I have > 95% good experiences. The bad ones I chalk up to people who are frustrated > being trapped in a car. And they'd be having a bad day and honking at me > even if I were driving a car. Aggression is not b/c you are on a bike. It > may be b/c they are in a car. Of course, I get a few honks. But I've > never had anything thrown at me. Please come to Charlotte, NC and ride > w/me and you'll see. I take people riding all the time and they say > they've never had such a good experience. And when I rode the last 5 days > across NC (365 miles), it was basically the same. And my goal then was to > get full lane change passes and I think I got about 90%. > https://ridewithgps.com/collections/58792 > > I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way. We have all experienced > aggression. It is real. I hope this helps. > > On Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 10:01:54 PM UTC-4 Berkeleyan wrote: > >> RBW content - I owe my 1998 Rivendell LongLow Custom to getting doored in >> west Berkeley. I was coming back from (high carbohydrate) lunch at >> Jack-in-da-Box and was pedaling my lugged steel Centurion past parked cars >> when a door swung open and caught me in the ribs - immediate full stop. A >> painful injury, entirely not my fault. Long story short, the car driver's >> insurance company agreed to a cash settlement, and I poured it it into a >> custom RBW frame (and full set of components). The LongLow is still in the >> stable. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a3055443-4603-495a-a94c-4f2b1ef65639n%40googlegroups.com.
