@83(b) 76847 wrote:
The part that really got me was that I hadn’t even yelled at this lady. I’m so anesthetized to stupid drivers at this point all she got from me was a WTF gesture and a dose of stink-eye. I was pretty zen about the whole thing until the yelling. But like the second she vacated her big metal box to threaten me my adrenaline flooded brain went, “This is now a winnable confrontation, cease fleeing, DESTROY!”
Biology is some crazy stuff. Even Pandas will occasionally act like proper bears.
In a number of confrontations, the only times that I’ve gotten a good response is to channel my inner Dirt, stay calm, and explain the situation. The points that have had effect are:
(1) I don’t want to get hit, and I don’t think you want to hit me.
(2) I’m just trying to explain what the situation is like from the cyclist perspective, so you won’t actually hit someone.
(3) If you do hit a cyclist, it will cost you WAY more time than the time you saved by . It may have lots of other costs.
(4) If you do hit a cyclist, you could kill that person. You would have to live the rest of your life with that.
(5) I’m upset/rattled because I honestly believed that you were going to hit me/cause me to crash. I have two little kids that I love, and I don’t want to crash.
.
And if you’re not feeling up to it, just keep pedaling.
