My commute today

[Chuffmonkey]

I'm still pretty mad about this almost 2 hours later. I was riding on the freeway to work and I was in the carpool lane. Up ahead all of the traffic starts to slow to a crawl and stuff in my lane starts moving over to the right, which generally means there's been a wreck (there had; a Civic got hit by a semi and had spun). I'm riding alongside a space so I put on my blinker and start to move over. I've already crossed the white line when the guy in the Tundra in the lane I'm moving into suddenly speeds up and completely and blatantly closes the gap. I had to swerve back into the lane I had just left to avoid hitting him. I pull into the lane a couple of cars behind Tundra dude.

I still want to move further to the right as my exit is about a 3/4 mile ahead, and stuff on the right is moving quicker, so I spy a gap and put on my blinker. All of a sudden the woman in the Impala behind me accelerates through the space I'm occupying to change lanes - we were briefly side by side in the same lane.

So now I'm wary of the idiot cagers who appear to want to kill me. I'm in traffic - we're moving at about 15mph when all of sudden the woman in the Rav4 to my left decides she's moving over - I'm not talking about cutting me off here, she is literally alongside me and moved over - we are now lane splitting (illegal in UT sadly), but I'm at her rear quarter panel in the right of the space we now share. Now I'm pissed off - and in a blind spot - so I pull up alongside the front window and give the universal WTF hand signal. The two occupants give me the 'like-we-care' shrug.

In any case, I let it go and keep moving over to the right so I can get my exit - the real anger came later, with thoughts of 'wish I'd punched the side window, or mirror, or something'.

Just watch it out there people - I've never had so many demonstrations of a lack of respect and a complete disregard for the safety of others in such a short space of time. Yes, we were, for the most part, moving relatively slowly - but that's no excuse for some of the behaviour. There, got it off my chest

[Motofool]

Did you notice the many demonstrations of respect and a regard for your safety from the rest of the cagers?....Give those some credit.......

.....And I believed that Floridians cagers were the absolute worst !

My experience is that motorists in general go crazy whenever the habitual conditions change (speed of traffic, road distractions, fog, rain, etc.).

In such conditions we need to foresee these crazy inconsiderate behaviors, being extra alert and yielding more room.

As a general rule: you may be perfectly right but you will be the looser if anything bad happens. Turn your justified anger into extra attention, and not the other way around.

Nobody else around you is in charge of your own safety; train yourself to have a cool, smart and smooth approach about it.

Best !

[oblivion007]

Originally Posted by Chuffmonkey

I'm still pretty mad about this almost 2 hours later. I was riding on the freeway to work and I was in the carpool lane. Up ahead all of the traffic starts to slow to a crawl and stuff in my lane starts moving over to the right, which generally means there's been a wreck (there had; a Civic got hit by a semi and had spun). I'm riding alongside a space so I put on my blinker and start to move over. I've already crossed the white line when the guy in the Tundra in the lane I'm moving into suddenly speeds up and completely and blatantly closes the gap. I had to swerve back into the lane I had just left to avoid hitting him. I pull into the lane a couple of cars behind Tundra dude.

I still want to move further to the right as my exit is about a 3/4 mile ahead, and stuff on the right is moving quicker, so I spy a gap and put on my blinker. All of a sudden the woman in the Impala behind me accelerates through the space I'm occupying to change lanes - we were briefly side by side in the same lane.

So now I'm wary of the idiot cagers who appear to want to kill me. I'm in traffic - we're moving at about 15mph when all of sudden the woman in the Rav4 to my left decides she's moving over - I'm not talking about cutting me off here, she is literally alongside me and moved over - we are now lane splitting (illegal in UT sadly), but I'm at her rear quarter panel in the right of the space we now share. Now I'm pissed off - and in a blind spot - so I pull up alongside the front window and give the universal WTF hand signal. The two occupants give me the 'like-we-care' shrug.

In any case, I let it go and keep moving over to the right so I can get my exit - the real anger came later, with thoughts of 'wish I'd punched the side window, or mirror, or something'.

Just watch it out there people - I've never had so many demonstrations of a lack of respect and a complete disregard for the safety of others in such a short space of time. Yes, we were, for the most part, moving relatively slowly - but that's no excuse for some of the behaviour. There, got it off my chest

Wow that's just crazy! Is the general population there where you had this incident rude and careless of motorcycles?

[Stingray1000]

When I lived in MD even driving a car is dangerous, people tailgate and vcut you off every chance they get..... Maryland has the worst drivers in the world!

[toua70]

Originally Posted by Stingray1000

When I lived in MD even driving a car is dangerous, people tailgate and vcut you off every chance they get..... Maryland has the worst drivers in the world!

I live in California where lane splitting is legal.. its a good thing but sometimes, it can be dangerous. Nearly hit a idiot pedestrian taking his time crossing the street even though my light was green. I've had A LOT of close calls recently.. more than I've ever had in all the 4 years i've been riding. My friend got his motorcycle towed recently because he lane split to the front and some guy started yelling at him saying he scratched his car (he wouldve lost control of the bike if his handle bar did in fact hit the idiot's car) he thought it was just some crazy guy yelling and cursing at him so he took off when the light turned green. Next thing you know, cops came over, towed his bike and said its for evidence. If he had his gopro on that day, none of this crap wouldve happened. Now he hired a lawyer, got his bike back, and now in the process of counter-suing. Thats why I started to record my ride every day. Its a good investment incase sh!t happens.. then no one will be able to bend the truth. I'm glad you're okay though... there are TONS of stupid drivers on the road

[Minikin_Jo]

Originally Posted by Stingray1000

When I lived in MD even driving a car is dangerous, people tailgate and vcut you off every chance they get..... Maryland has the worst drivers in the world!

I couldn't agree more! I hate Maryland drivers...and I will admit that I hate Maryland WOMEN drivers even more!

[Stingray1000]

Originally Posted by Minikin_Jo

I couldn't agree more! I hate Maryland drivers...and I will admit that I hate Maryland WOMEN drivers even more!

Next time I see you on the road I'm jsut gonna start screaming at you because you're a woman and your driving something... LOL j/k!

[Chuffmonkey]

Originally Posted by oblivion007

Wow that's just crazy! Is the general population there where you had this incident rude and careless of motorcycles?

I'm not sure that they're any more careless than anywhere else - standard of driving is generally low but I've not had many close calls on my bike - in fact only 1 springs to mind, where I was in a steep lean getting onto a freeway onramp and a large truck merged into my lane.

We do tend to have a high proportion of young people driving, given the local demographics, and the young girls *seem* to be the most aggressive on the freeway - but none of the people that were out to kill me in these incidents fit that demographic.

Tundra - guy in his 30's
Impala - Woman in her 60's
Rav4 - Middle aged couple (40+) with Colorado plates.

[EthioKnight]

Originally Posted by Chuffmonkey

...so I pull up alongside the front window and give the universal WTF hand signal.

Please tell me you did this

[Chuffmonkey]

Originally Posted by Motofool

In such conditions we need to foresee these crazy inconsiderate behaviors, being extra alert and yielding more room.

As a general rule: you may be perfectly right but you will be the looser if anything bad happens. Turn your justified anger into extra attention, and not the other way around.

Nobody else around you is in charge of your own safety; train yourself to have a cool, smart and smooth approach about it.

Best !

Which is all fair - and I felt that this is what I was doing. I wasn't tailgating, I did all my head checks, I wasn't weaving in and out of traffic.

I think the only thing I could have changed about the last one was my lane position - place myself in the center of the lane maybe, so that there was less room for her to pull into - but, I was attempting to move right, so I'd moved over in the lane so that I could see further back in my mirror. I was riding in space at a low speed, and the Rav4 was in a lane moving slightly quicker. Other than the lane position I'm not sure what I could have done - there was no warning, no signals, no hesitation on her part - it was just 'see space-swerve-brake to not hit the car in front of me'.

It reminds me very much of the random bitch-slap that I go to the face in Venice beach a few months back. I was with a group of people and we were crossing the road, and some random guy walking the other way just smacked me in the mouth. No warning or anything. He then accused me of being able to do something very obscene. Could I have foreseen a random smack in the mouth? Not really. Could I have done something to prevent it? Well, maybe not going to Venice Beach at night. Anyway, I digress.....

Maybe that's two warnings for the day, readers:
1. Watch out, out there
2. Don't do drugs

[Chuffmonkey]

Originally Posted by EthioKnight

Please tell me you did this

Lol - close enough.

[Minikin_Jo]

Originally Posted by Stingray1000

Next time I see you on the road I'm jsut gonna start screaming at you because you're a woman and your driving something... LOL j/k!

I'm an awesome driver!

[Stingray1000]

Originally Posted by Minikin_Jo

I'm an awesome driver!

lol uh huh....

[Minikin_Jo]

@stingray:

Originally Posted by EthioKnight

[Stingray1000]

Originally Posted by Minikin_Jo

@stingray:

LOL that wasn't me...... I'm Stingray1000 and put your mouse over each smiley in sequence to understand LOL

[DennyV]

Originally Posted by Minikin_Jo

I couldn't agree more! I hate Maryland drivers...and I will admit that I hate Maryland WOMEN drivers even more!

so true, welcome to Maryland where people slow down for no reason, where people like to go 20mph below the speed limit because it rains, where people dont signal and cut you off... I can go on and on...

[Malicious Logic]

That sucks man. I think I would've honestly just taken the quickest route out, whether it be lane splitting or riding the shoulder. I'd rather break the law and live than try to comply in a herd of frustrated cagers in a hurry.

[Miles_Prower]

lol i had a bad return commute yesterday.
riding towards a dark cloud i was like oh boy. then "tink, tink, tink." then I pulled back the curtain and entered a torrential downpour and was soaked in 5 seconds. It literally was flooding the streets... I decided just to ride the rest of the way home since I was already wet. It was my first time riding in the rain, and I was soaked head to toe. Fortunately my backpack is water resistant so my new expensive phone didnt get fried lol!!

[Minikin_Jo]

I got caught in the rain once and at least I was less than a mile from home but I have to say that was a scary experience. You weren't scared??

[Miles_Prower]

Originally Posted by Minikin_Jo

I got caught in the rain once and at least I was less than a mile from home but I have to say that was a scary experience. You weren't scared??

No not really..just very uncomfortable and cold. There were a few moments I felt my tail end slide a bit, but I just remembered to go slow, not be sudden on the brakes or throttle, and to keep my lean angles at a minimum!

[Minikin_Jo]

That's what I did...whew, I never want to be caught in the rain again!

[Miles_Prower]

haha me neither. my gear was soaked..and i think my boots are still drying (i rode to work today with timberlands on..wasn't a very good feeling).

[broken neck]

Originally Posted by Motofool

In such conditions we need to foresee these crazy inconsiderate behaviors, being extra alert and yielding more room.

That's a good idea, but whenever I try to give me little extra cushion, someone decide to get it and keep it... So I end up with less space that I had... And go see If the Lincoln Navigator owner care about that...

[ai4px]

Man, what a sucky ride to work! More than the usual number of close calls. wow. Make no mistake though, the other cagers around you are watching. Despite someone doing something stupid to you, be cool about it. The other cagers will see that near miss and will be certain to pay more attention. At least the ones who are looking at the road and not txt'ing.

[Toly]

Haven't been riding much, eh? The name of the game is to anticipate and predict the idiocy around U... then U won't be surprised or pissed, just entertained... and safe.

[dirty nasty]

Sounds like you need to get some better gloves and start punching out windows. Nothin' like draggin' someone out of their window by their throat to brighten up your day! I take personal offense to almost being ran over.

[ai4px]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[Motofool]

Not a good idea.

Believe me, violence does not work; I have tried everything during my years of riding.

You are just one fragile target, while the supply of mean or brainless offenders is infinite.

Traffic is just a social activity, so it works by the same laws of any other social thing.
Ignorant users of the road tend to make it a competition, but they wouldn't perform in a real race.

If road justice is your crusade, don't ride a motorcycle: drive a 4-ton vehicle.

[dirty nasty]

I'm not after road justice, but I've had drunk ****s chase me down for no apparent reason a few times. Maybe I accidentally cut them off, maybe they just didn't like how I rode by them. Everyone makes mistakes and I even cut a lot of cage drivers slack for almost running me over. However, I've got no tolerance for someone who repeatedly and aggressively tries running me over. I wouldn't do something stupid like throw a spark plug at their car, I'd be dragging them to the ground and keeping them there as I phone the police.