Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Defusing Road Rage

Bill Schneider writes some good cycling-related articles over at the NewWest.Net. I almost always find myself enthusiastically agreeing with his opinions, at least on cycling.

The current fare: Five Ways Cyclists Can Defuse Road Rage.

His suggestions (expanded upon in his article):
1) Attitude Adjustment
2) Obey Traffic Laws
3) Hold Your Line
4) Be Bright
5) Safety in Numbers

Great suggestions all.

Unfortunately, there seem to be a few souls out in their motorcars (and big ol' pickups) who have concluded that cyclists have no business on the roads... and it's their job to properly intimidate cyclists. Almost universally, these are the same folks who resent everybody else on their roads, not just the cyclists. So I try not to take it personally. We may not be able to change their viewpoint... only stay out of their way when possible.

The vast majority of folks, I believe, just want to get to their destination and are willing to share our limited infrastructure. We can do much to leave them with a favorable viewpoint of cyclists... or we can reinforce the uppity-cyclist (or almost as bad, clueless-cyclist) stereotype.

(Schneider is promising a column about ways motorists can defuse road rage. I'm looking forward to reading it.)

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