Bad Cycling Experience - Should I Quit?



OGRICHBOI

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Feb 16, 2015
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Hey. I've been cycling for a couple of months now, and I absolutely love it. I have just come across this forum and it has helped me with races, information, and bikes in general. :)

Today I had a bad experience on the road while commuting to work. Why don't drivers just respect cyclers? A man was driving extremely close to me, and almost hit me at one point. When I got to work, I was in a bad mood. I think this mood has effected my coworkers and my work in general. Should I quit commuting to work?
 
No no, you should not quit commuting at all, it's just a part of being on the roads. Once I was commuting too, I was approaching a red light and a woman stopped in a car opened the door without looking in the mirror so bam, me for one side and bicycle for the other, her fault of course, but this sort of things happen.
 
Indeed. You shouldn't call it quit just yet for just a first bad experience. But even that tells you one thing, and that's just to be more aware of bad drivers and develop ways to spot them. These things tend to happen, so don't let it get to you just as Gelsemium pointed out.
 
That is the fact, both with bikes and motorcycles we don't have a bumper, we are the bumper ourselves, so we need to be more careful, but no reason to be afraid or to fear the roads imo.
 
I stopped commuting by bicycle in urban areas after too many accidents. The last straw was a hit and run in Seattle that destroyed my two front teeth years ago. To this day I'm still paying off for the amount of dental work that had to be done. I can take a broken arm fine, but teeth are a special kind of hell once they're destroyed in a traumatic manner.

I still ride in rural areas but that's it.
 
I am really sorry to hear about that Rhodolite, that was unfortunate. I have been lucky I guess, but I ride with care too. I've been on the roads with my 7 year old with no issues too...
 
You can't let one bad experience on the road stop you from doing something that's healthy and also something you want to do. Commuting comes with its inherent dangers and annoyances, including crappy drivers for both of those issues. You're going to have some days where commuting is ruined by rude or disrespectful drivers, and it happens to most people at least once. You can't let that prevent you from proceeding on, though.
 
You shouldn't quit just because of that. I'm sure anyone that rode a bike before had a close call with a motorist. Cars will pull up and ride right next to you. I t comes withe the territory. Now that it has happened, you can better prepare for it next time out on the road. Mentally prepare yourself for inconsiderate drivers on the road. I do that when I drive a regular ca, hence road rage. It's gonna happen.
 
Comes with the territory. We are little ants to some of these motorist. We are just a nuisance to them. If they are cutting each other off, what do you think they are going to do to cyclist?
 
OGRICHBOI said:
Hey. I've been cycling for a couple of months now, and I absolutely love it. I have just come across this forum and it has helped me with races, information, and bikes in general. :)

Today I had a bad experience on the road while commuting to work. Why don't drivers just respect cyclers? A man was driving extremely close to me, and almost hit me at one point. When I got to work, I was in a bad mood. I think this mood has effected my coworkers and my work in general. Should I quit commuting to work?
consider all the cyclists who get in accidents and break bones etc...that continue to ride. May have been a close call but it goes with the territory. You'll be fine...
 
I mean it's personal preference. Sometimes past experiences might cause you to quit because you see it's good enough. Make a decision based on what you think is true.
 
Did you quit driving a car because of someone expressing road rage towards you? I somehow doubt it, so why would cycling be any different? What? a car could run you over and kill you, really? lets see driving in your car someone takes a gun and shoots you to death...which dead is better, the one on the bike or the one in your car? Now what is the chance that either of those situations would happen? so close to zero you might as well say zero chance.
 
Don't quit! Yes, there are drivers who don't care, but there are lots of people out there just doing their best. If enough people start cycling to work, maybe they will begin to expand bike lanes for us. Some cities are better about that than others, but don't quit just because of a bad experience!
 
Please don't quit! Just think of what riding to works makes you. It makes you fitter and richer!
You might have a bad day no matter what method of transport you take to work. Bus could be late, highway could be jammed, car could break down ect. Sometimes you just can't engineer the **** out of your life, but you can control how you react to it.

It's unfortunate reality of the bike commute crowd to be hated on by the car commute crowd. Maybe they are concerned we could make them 1.25 seconds later than they expected (this is a fault their own terrible time management skills. not our choice to petal to work) or perhaps they are jealous of how fit you are getting while they are driving gas guzzling debt mobiles. Maybe they are just angry with their own lives and are taking it out on you.
Whatever the case, just keep doing your thing you are on the right path.

Just remember Illegitimi non carborundum
 
If you like doing it, you shouldn't quit. Like everyone else is saying, you run into similar situations while driving. It's just that the car insulates you from some of the abuse. Honestly, any type of activity or hobby is going to have jerks that make you want to quit from time to time.

You have to remember it'll get better over time with more experience. I haven't been riding for a super long time but I've already noticed that people are more receptive to cyclists in certain neighborhoods in my town so I plan my routes around that. It might be possible that your town is similar so maybe you can make your commute better.
 
Of course not, why would you quit for something like that? I went through all this as well, but eventually I got used to it. You have ro realise that not all drivers will respect you as a cyclist, but that shouldn't stop you from using your bike.
 
I know it might have put you off it but don't quit whatever you do. You enjoy cycling so don't let one idiot put you off of doing something you enjoy.

Give that moron the middle finger, get back on your bike and ride away into the sunset :)
 
If you honestly enjoy commuting to work, I think you'd regret quitting. I think that commute might make getting to and from work more enjoyable, which can improve your overall morale at work. You just have to change your way of thinking. Think about how nice it is to ride to work instead of how terrible some people can be. You can always find reasons to hate on people if you're looking for it but trying to stay positive might be more helpful. I think a lot of road rage related issues are based on absurdities that can be kind of funny if you think about it. I'd much rather laugh about someone getting being a jerk to me than let them make me feel bad about myself. Obviously you're not gonna laugh off someone almost injuring you, but it can help if someone honks or yells at you.

You just gotta let some things slide. It's part of riding a bike. You'll get used to it.
 
I’m sorry that happened to you but no you shouldn’t quit cycling your commute to work. What you should do is try to find another route that is better suited for cycling or brace yourself for these kinds of happenings. Drivers don’t respect walkers (not the Walking dead kind Lol) either. Maybe you can try to remember the driver’s plates and call the police station and give a report about what happened over the phone, that way it will at least get looked into.
 
Look at things like this: I assume you've experienced days while riding where it improved your day as a whole. Maybe just enjoying the ride or making eye contact with a kid in the backseat of a car looking at you like you're the luckiest person on Earth or passing a line of traffic so long the first car you pass will never catch up with you again or being able to smell the apple blossom tree you would have never gotten to smell in the car or so on & so forth. One jag should not steal that opportunity from you.
 

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