Rudeness

I don't know which is more surprising that a guy in a truck took time out of his busy commute to tell me how much I was slowing him down or that it hadn't ever happened to me before.

My ride from the office to the train station passes over the freeway crossing both onramps. As I approach the freeway, the bike lane becomes two car lanes that both get on the 5 north. I ride in the middle of the left exit lane. I figure that way any cars that can't wait the 30 seconds it takes me to get past the first onramp can always just get into the other lane and pass me, meanwhile I stay out of the one lane that becomes the onramp for the 5 south.

Today as I did that section of the ride I kept an eye out for cars behind me (to know how much effort to show) and I noticed a truck behind me, biding his time. This is not uncommon, so I thought nothing of it. That is, until he shouted at he passed me "Get out of the lane, idiot!"

Unfortunately, I cannot claim to have taken the high road or chased him down to explain the law (he was getting on the freeway). I shouted that he should F off and then after a little bit shouted an explanation that he should just use the other Fing lane.

I'm not known for my modesty of language.

Once I was able to gather myself from this interaction, I found myself flummoxed on how I could've better dealt with the situation. I like to think that I subscribe to the idea put forth in the The Cycling Dude blog post about "Shake don't Wag." (Link) But what could I have done here?

(Honestly, I've been sitting on that article for awhile. I've wanted to write about it but not until after I had a chance to try it out, which never came up.)

-Matt




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