BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Heh, I prefer a slow clap or a wave with a thank you.

I usually wave. Unless they say something that implies I'm gay.

Then I blow them a kiss.

Yeah, wavingignoring works best. I've decided if I can't have a constructive conversation (which is hard when a car is passing you at 20-xx miles per hour) there's no point of conversing at all

Ringing my bell sometimes is also utilized

I usually give a big "thumbs up", but I suspect it probably gets confused for the gesture I really want to make regardless.

i like the wave, especially after someone honks at me. whenever it's a holiday, i yell "happy ______!" and ring my bell.

i usually feel so much better after saying or doing something more positive than when i say something mean. when i say something mean, it sticks with me all day.

+1 rachel. I am the same way.

I look confused because I am usually so flustered that throwing my hands up like that is my first reaction. I don't yell much.

Most of the time I just take appropriate action to avoid an accident and ignore it, but when something is especially bad, I've let people know about it. I've been guilty of being one of those A-hole cyclists and yelling at people and waving a certain finger sometimes. If its purely accident, I'm usually pretty chill about it though.

I've told people their brake lights were out - which they were - and did the hand phone thing, after they passed me too close and/or honked and yelled profanities.

a guy in a subaru was on a phone and didn't like that I was talking on my hand phone after he honked/passed/yelled profanities, so he ended the call, stopped his car in the intersection of neville and ellesworth and came after me. Too funny.

Moral of the story is don't feed trolls, they bite in real life - or will unsuccessfully make chase.

I love the system.

This happened to me just this morning - right before I got to my office, a guy passed me way too close and fast, but of course then he got to a red light, so I caught up to him and was in the lane right next to his car. I gave him a serious death glare for about thirty seconds while he was texting, and then as the light turned green he rolled down his window and told me to go f___ myself. I yelled back something about giving me a little more space when passing. Afterwards, all I could think was how unproductive that interaction was; I was pissed off, he was pissed off, and the road probably wasn't any safer for cyclists. I'm still not sure what the right way to deal with those situations is - maybe I'll try the singing thing.

Off the bike, I have been known to rant and rave in a mix of foreign languages, it takes quite a lot for me to swear in non-English, so it's usually clean. Perhaps I'll try that.

On the bike my most successfull responses involved waving or saluting (the polite military kind) and singing show tunes or tv show theme songs (belt the "Love Boat" song or Rondstadt's "Love is a Rose" at people at the top of your lungs and they get confused or afraid quickly).

My lease successfull responses have involved profane languages and gestures. Doing nothing somehow never feels very good either.

I measure success not necessarily in the receptiveness of the other person to receiving information from me, but in how I feel after the whole thing is over. tough to feel too bad when belting out "The Pha-a-a-antom of the Opera is the-e-e-re, inside my MIND...".

I sing in my car to deal with traffic too, so maybe it's just me. I also sing when happy and cycling. Hmm. I sense a larger trend.

one should always feel bad when belting out andrew lloyd weber.

ESPECIALLY echos, er i mean phantom.

what's wrong with weber's ear candy? I mean what's more wrong with him than any other show tune? he's no sondheim, but man cannot dine on musical broccoli alone. at least it's not philip glass.

what i do is just use my body as a projectile and roll onto people's hoods.

cheap healthcare for the win!

listen to echoes. that's pretty much what's wrong with him.

if you aren't a big pink floyd fan, its the entire b-side of meddle.

Sometimes I wave my hand with ring finger extended. I doubt they notice which finger I am using, but in case they do......

^ heh. I was pretty pleased this winter to discover that the Novarra "lobster" gloves still allow you to flip the bird. Not all brands of lobster gloves have that feature