...so shouted the person on the sidewalk the other night while I was biking down Butler. Drivers are bad enough, but pedestrians too? In fact it seems 99% of the harassment I get is from pedestrians, people on their porches, etc.
Guess I should start darting through pedestrian traffic now. After all... I ain't a car...
I was jawed at by some guy driving a truck or SUV vehicle downtown yesterday. Shouted something like "Get of the *#@$!'n road!"
The thing that made me so puzzled was that I did nothing directly to impact his driving experience, like riding in front of him. I was stopped at a traffic light, between cars, and he shouts this at me as he speeds off going the OPPOSITE direction.
What an adam's apple... must not have gotten his happy hour in that day!
100 years ago, it was "Get a horse!"
@Impala26 -- The thing that convinced me to stop crossing the Ranking bridge: Biking along in stop and go traffic, stopping and waiting with the cars. I hear to my side a window roll down and turn and look. Guy on a cellphone says to the person on the other end "Excuse me" and then screams "F***ER!" at me in his best crazy-cat-lady voice and then continues his conversation as if nothing had happened. It was so shocking and surreal that I just started laughing.
After that I realized that if the guy had escalated I really had no where to safely go except into the river... so until the construction is complete Rankin is off limits for yours truly.
oh my, I'm hoping I'm not so new or oblivious that I've only noticed the shouts of encouragement and full five fingered waves and smiles... Maybe I've gotten good at filtering out the negative... Maybe people in my area (east 'burbs) are just too shocked to be mean... Maybe it helps that I'm a girl...
This morning I had someone wait to make a left after I'd passed even though they could have made it in front of me safely, I waved and shouted thank you, she waved and smiled back. I had the only two pedestrians I've ever seen on the road in Plum shout "you go girl!" as I huffed up a hill. I had people actually follow the law for yielding to traffic (Me!) when they normally refuse to do so when I'm in a car.
Actually, as a rule, people so far have been nicer to me when I'm on my bike than when I'm in a car. Maybe when they get used to me and I get used to them we'll all get ruder.
I see way more positive than negative reactions. I think we complain about the negative ones because thats what sticks with us, and you never have a happy, smily, friendly person try to run you down and kill you after they shout something nice.
@dwellen -- I agree. In going on a year of a half of cycling in Pittsburgh, I've had maybe 3 bad incidents TOPS. I long ago lost count of the encouraging smiles, thumbs ups, shout outs and so forth.
Agree with dwillen and myddrin. I think the interactions I have with fellow commuters are better when I'm on a bike than in a car. I like how its much easier to make eye contact with people while on a bike rather than in a car. I feel that eye contact goes a long way in establishing yourself as a human in the motorized landscape. I've only had a couple of people shout the obligatory "get on the side walk".
Best shout out I ever received:
Riding up Greenfield Ave. 2 girls on their porch, maybe 10-13 years old start singing "Push iiiiittt....Push it to the Limit!"
As per the positive comments, that same day as I described earlier, I was coming from the Giant Eagle Market District back to my apartment in South Oakland when I was stuck in stop-and-go traffic on Fifth Ave inbound at Craig Street. I filtered cautiously to the front of the line beside the curb. The woman in the car that was stopped next to me actually had the courtesy to roll down her window and basically and politely asked if I was going to go first when the light turned. I politely said thank you and said that I was just going to go through the "all walk" at that intersection.
Another time when I was biking around Herron Hill a woman said basically while chuckling, "I don't know how you people can do that and make it all the way up here." I just smiled and curtly responded, "it's fun, and I have a nice low gear."
People, when put in cars, are generally jerks.
They are mean to each other, they are mean to
pedestrians, they are mean to cyclists. I would
say on average I have somebody say something
ignorant to me 2x a day. Think of how awful
somebody's life must be to scream at a stranger.
Joke is on them.
Yesterday I was climbing up Geyer road out of
millvale. Some dude honked and gave me the thumbs
up. That is worth talking about, its not even
worth discussing shit life humans that are
basically a cancer on the world.
