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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Bikers: Even the most attentive miss something which could have turned into someting far uglier... DO NOT TAUNT A CAR! (http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto/street_savvy/122_0908_open_letter_angry_motorcycle_rider/index.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Cloud_Finger.jpgMarcus Roark - Motorcyclist (Motorcyclistonline.com) - Aug. 8, 2009

Dear Angry Rider:

I am a lifelong motorcyclist, and have been riding on- and off-road for more than 30 years. As such, I make it a point to watch out for motorcyclists whenever I drive my car. But something you did today disturbed me...

Driving to work, I decided to move from the right (slow) lane to the middle lane to avoid a slower vehicle. Before doing this, I checked both side mirrors as well as the rear-view. Not seeing any vehicles in the vicinity, I changed lanes. Once in my new lane, I looked in my rear-view to find you a scant few feet away. It was obvious that you were running considerably faster than the other traffic. Being a motorcyclist myself, I was shocked and ashamed that I came so close to taking out a fellow rider! As I tried to figure out how I failed to notice you, you came up on me in the left (fast) lane. I was sorry for my apparent inattentiveness, but unsure how to express that while driving down the freeway. Then you moved your helmet in an "I'm-staring-mad-at-you!" manner and shot me the finger!

I tried not to judge you harshly; after all, I had nearly flattened you. After giving me your "salute," you sped on by and I thought that was the end of it.

Instead, you moved to the right lane and slowed down so you could flip me off again! This is the point at which I no longer cared about your safety. My adrenaline flared and I returned your "show of affection." In the heat of that moment, I was tempted to show you how foolish it is for a motorcycle rider to taunt a car driver. I was angry and ashamed-angry that you goaded me, and ashamed that I bought into it. I could not believe how infuriated you were able to make me! Did you not think about how utterly defenseless you were and how much protection I had? Why would you try to instigate hostility in someone who could end your life with a simple twitch of the steering wheel?

I spent the next hour fighting the emotions from our encounter, and only now am I able to clearly think about what went wrong:

1. I could have looked twice before making my lane change. Knowing full well that here in California many motorcycles lane split at stupid-fast speeds, I should have looked farther behind me.

2.I could have refrained from returning your second salute, and held my emotions in check.

3. You could have avoided speeding up to me in my blind spot. If you can't see my face in the mirror, I can't see you! The traffic was light, and there were no cars in the fast lane to impede your progress.

4. You could have assumed that my trespassing in your zone was an honest mistake (it was), and be happy that everyone was okay.

5. Barring that, you could have avoided the second encounter altogether. Had I been a less well-adjusted individual, you might not be reading this now. What is most alarming to me is how your handling of the situation caused a downward spiral. When I violated your road space, you presented such a bad image of a motorcyclist that even I-a fellow rider-momentarily wished you harm. Imagine what someone who already has a negative view of motor-cyclists might feel after such an encounter!

I deeply regret my handling of this situation. It has taught me quite a bit about how motorists see motorcyclists, and how our actions can reverberate in their minds much longer than we realize.

Sincerely,

A Fellow Rider

This seems to reflect a bigger problem as in Experts: Gym shooter a classic mass murderer (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24125)


A speeding biker acts as though everyone is supposed to clear from him like he is POTUS
A driver did not see his warp signature in time
He goes into road rage and gives bikers a bad name. :mad:At the lowest common denominator, bad driving and wasting gas is not technique, but behaviorial.

The author didn't signal, and still doesn't appear to realize this fact.

Delta, maybe it's not just the biker. Isn't it possible that Marcus' perspective on the incident might not be the whole truth? I've seen LOTS of people change lanes without adequately checking, with cars next to them, let alone motorbikes. Sometimes even trucks. Rarely have I seen the motorbike be the problem. Almost always it's the cages.

Look, I have no idea what actually happened. But maybe Marcus deserved the finger. Maybe Marcus almost killed someone because he couldn't be bothered to look properly. I don't know, just playing devil's advocate.

But those fantasies he had about "a simple twitch of the steering wheel"; there's another word for that - it's called "premeditation".

Oh, and Marcus, maybe be careful - some of those riders aren't as "defenseless" as you might think. I've had a couple people intentionally "twitch" their steering wheels at me. They both regret it very much.

A road raging biker is an idiot.

A road raging biker is an idiot.
+1. When I worked at a company that had a very large number of electric forklifts, we were told that pedestrians always had the right of way. They also told us that as pedestrians, we still needed to take precautions and pay attention to our surroundings. Because, even though we would always be in the right, we could end up being dead right.

The author didn't signal, and still doesn't appear to realize this fact.

If I was writing this story, I'm not too sure that I would have mentioned anything about using the turn signal..
Since, it's an integral to my driving. Done without thinking about it.

I'm a pretty experienced biker myself. However, I drive a motorcycle much more conservatively than I drive a car.

What drives me crazy is when a motorcyclist will ride the dotted line inbetween lanes so as to thread between two cars. This is usually done at a speed differential of 30 MPH or more (thus, if the flow of traffic is 60 MPH, the biker does 90 MPH).

Also, please consider shifting your transmission out of 3rd gear once in a while. Most bikes are of the 6MT variety, so there is no reason to have your engine whine at 8000 RPM all the time.

Oh, and red lights? They apply to you too.

The author didn't signal, and still doesn't appear to realize this fact.
I see that since no one has addressed the fact that the motorcyclist was speeding, I'll go ahead and tackle it. If, even as Rich has noted, using the turn signal is such an integral part of our driving, it still may not have been enough. If the motorcyclist was traveling significantly faster than he should have been, it's very possible that you could look, see the cycle while signaling, and based on what the speed of all of the other traffic/what the cycle should have been traveling at, make the lane change and still have an accident. So Traal, I hope by your comment that you weren't in any way trying to justify the cyclist's actions.

Since the author admitted that he got out of hand and became an idiot himself, I hear the beginning of a joke coming:

"Two idiots are driving on the road...."


Either way, I don't see enough information here to tell me who has the original fault. As the writer admits, both of them ended up wrong.

To me, who's at fault is somewhat irrelevant to the point in the OP. Flipping people off solves nothing and may simply escalate the situation, irrespective of where the blame lies.

When riding, I divide these situations into two categories:
- simple mistakes that the person probably would not repeat if they had it to do over
- intentional moves to put me at risk - for example, coming up from behind me in the left lane and then changing lanes into my lane when they are next to me, even though they are well aware that I am there

I'd just shrug off the first: after all I make mistakes too. I get more upset about the second but still try not to flip them off even in this case. The best tactic is to get them well in front of you so you can counter any more dangerous things they do. Second best tactic is to leave them well behind, which is do-able in traffic but on more open roads may simply lead to a race. But never stay near them: you already know they're dangerous so you don't need any more proof.

As for lane-splitting, I don't do it unless traffic is stopped or nearly stopped, and then mosey through at 25-30mph. Just fast enough that they don't have time to plan a nasty lane change or door opening.

Delta, maybe it's not just the biker. Isn't it possible that Marcus' perspective on the incident might not be the whole truth? I've seen LOTS of people change lanes without adequately checking, with cars next to them, let alone motorbikes. Sometimes even trucks. Rarely have I seen the motorbike be the problem. Almost always it's the cages.

Look, I have no idea what actually happened. But maybe Marcus deserved the finger. Maybe Marcus almost killed someone because he couldn't be bothered to look properly. I don't know, just playing devil's advocate.

But those fantasies he had about "a simple twitch of the steering wheel"; there's another word for that - it's called "premeditation".

Oh, and Marcus, maybe be careful - some of those riders aren't as "defenseless" as you might think. I've had a couple people intentionally "twitch" their steering wheels at me. They both regret it very much.Of course it's the writer's side of the story and we don't have the biker to respond. While a court could never make a decision in such an instance, is it that likely the writer was being dishonest in his story?

While you are not accepting the writer's story at face value, neither should the biker be assumed blameless.

About twenty years ago, something like that happened - a biker was enraged at me, and I was in a car....in that instance I probably was not careful enough and could not blame him getting hissed.

Bikers are harder to see and it's one of the challenges they face every ride.

I post this at Saturday night...is there reckless biking going on now? Yes, and I've seen it. I could be on the freeway and I hit the ceiling when a biker is going well over 100mph....how do you anticipate that? It's not that rare an occurrence.

Of course it's the writer's side of the story and we don't have the biker to respond. While a court could never make a decision in such an instance, is it that likely the writer was being dishonest in his story?

While you are not accepting the writer's story at face value, neither should the biker be assumed blameless.

Bikers are harder to see and it's one of the challenges they face every ride.

I post this at Saturday night...is there reckless biking going on now? Yes, and I've seen it. I could be on the freeway and I hit the ceiling when a biker is going well over 100mph....how do you anticipate that? It's not that rare an occurrence.

THough I don't a biker who behaved in that manner would have many useful things to say anyway.
If you choose to lane split at high speed (which isn't legal here but happens all the time), or weave through traffic at high speed, or behave in some other idiotic manner, you deserve what you get. I remember a fatality bike accident awhile back. A child died a very gruesome death because an unlicensed relative was operating the bike at close to 100 mph in a 45 zone, along a road lined with various industries (read: heavy and slow traffic). ABsolutely preventable.
I have no empathy for such idiots, just as I have no empathy for the same idiots that drive their cars in a similar fashion. IF the author used reasonable caution, he did not do anything grossly negligent.

There just needs to be some well-known societally accepted
recourse against anyone who causes fight-or-flight responses
in anyone else they encounter on the road. Regardless of what
either vehicle is.
.
_H*

The root of the problem is that people shouldn't drive angry. Remember when Californians used to be "laid back?" Time to cut back on the double espresso's people.

Flipping off somebody is just pointless if you're never gonna see them again and stupid, if, say, you end up working with them later. When people gesture rudely at me these days I point my finger at my temple and mouth "think" at them. Of course if they really want to fight I'd generally be willing to oblige, but that's knuckleheaded too.

BTW. Was the cloud pic photoshopped? It's a good thing we don't get to set our own computer backgrounds at work.:)

A road raging biker is an idiot.

Kind of like this...

http://www.youtube.com/v/aHfNwgYOM88&hl=en&fs=1&

A road raged biker against a road raged car driver is like taking a knife to a gunfight.

There just needs to be some well-known societally accepted
recourse against anyone who causes fight-or-flight responses
in anyone else they encounter on the road. Regardless of what
either vehicle is.
.
_H*

Unfortunately, that's what the middle finger is becoming nowadays.

The root of the problem is that people shouldn't drive angry. Remember when Californians used to be "laid back?" Time to cut back on the double espresso's people.

Flipping off somebody is just pointless if you're never gonna see them again and stupid, if, say, you end up working with them later.

Wouldn't that be just great, to end up sharing a cube, or reporting to, the person you flipped off on the way to your first day of work?

I had a college friend who's father resisted the urge to flip off an atrocious driver while on vacation. When both cars pulled off at the same rest stop and her dad prepared to fill the person's ear he discovered that the individual who was driving a vehicle different from his usual one was in fact a valuable client of his business. Good thing he kept his month shut and hands down. Incredibly random chance, but you never know when a poorly thought out action will come back to haunt you.

Wouldn't that be just great, to end up sharing a cube, or reporting to, the person you flipped off on the way to your first day of work?That would be the best revenge, with the exception of a handful that would be unfazed, but if they don't want to survive the probationary period - fine. :p

Recently, some one did not allow me to move left to do a U-turn, so I got out of the car....can you imagine how embarrassed he would be if co-workers saw him screaming abusive language, threatening to call the police, then peeling off over that? ;)

I'm certainly guilty of changing lanes and then wondering....where did that car come from. Its never happened with a bike, and I have never been so close as to have been a danger, yet I have wondered....how did I miss it.

That aside, there are a lot of things in the letter that clearly put some blame on the biker....presumably speeding, passing on the right, and didn't use his horn when the car started to move over (assuming enough time);

For the car....did he use a turn signal and did he use it properly (not blink move....or worse move blink); Did he change lanes nice and gradually or did he pop to the right;

Like most stories, not enough detail; But really this wasn't about the near accident or who made the mistake. It was an appology and a warning. He was sorry about his actions (right or wrong), and warning the other person just how dangerous their own behavior was. The biker can't even claim his behavior was an accident....he was being agressive and doing things that can get you pulled over for road rage in some states.

Its a shame we can't actually talk to the people around us on the road. I think we would remember we are all humans who make mistakes and spend more time laughing with each other than cursing at one another. Then again, a lot of fist fights start with words first.