Hey guys,
So I made this account for this one question. I am 17 years old I live in a suburb to Dallas, Texas and I wanted to get a cheap road bike to get around with. I only travel about 10 minutes away by bike at a time, so not far at all. I have cycled through the streets of Chicago and it was a great experience overall, no problems. I have found that cars in this area are absolute assholes to cyclists. Every single time I have gone out on my bike, maybe 20 times in all now, I have had a car get within a foot of me, or drive up on my ass honking their horn. I am riding down two lane streets, keeping to the right. I don't even take left turns, I do a box style turn when I get to intersections.
The past two rides have been the worst. Today I had a woman LITERALLY a foot away from my bike behind me honking her horn for a good 3 minutes while I rode. I was going as fast as I could and keeping right but she was way too stubborn. I had to pull off to the sidewalk after to process what the hell just happened. Then the last time before that I cycled, I had a guy switch lanes into my lane the second I pulled out onto the street without using his blinker. He flies less than a foot to my side, to where if I had even slightly raised my arm I would have broken my arm. He was going maybe 35 miles per hour, probably faster.
What do I do? I am a confident rider, I use hand signals, I keep right. I just am tired of going out and worrying that a car will get too close to me and hit me or that an asshole will blow my eardrums out with their horn.'
Thank you!
So I made this account for this one question. I am 17 years old I live in a suburb to Dallas, Texas and I wanted to get a cheap road bike to get around with. I only travel about 10 minutes away by bike at a time, so not far at all. I have cycled through the streets of Chicago and it was a great experience overall, no problems. I have found that cars in this area are absolute assholes to cyclists. Every single time I have gone out on my bike, maybe 20 times in all now, I have had a car get within a foot of me, or drive up on my ass honking their horn. I am riding down two lane streets, keeping to the right. I don't even take left turns, I do a box style turn when I get to intersections.
The past two rides have been the worst. Today I had a woman LITERALLY a foot away from my bike behind me honking her horn for a good 3 minutes while I rode. I was going as fast as I could and keeping right but she was way too stubborn. I had to pull off to the sidewalk after to process what the hell just happened. Then the last time before that I cycled, I had a guy switch lanes into my lane the second I pulled out onto the street without using his blinker. He flies less than a foot to my side, to where if I had even slightly raised my arm I would have broken my arm. He was going maybe 35 miles per hour, probably faster.
What do I do? I am a confident rider, I use hand signals, I keep right. I just am tired of going out and worrying that a car will get too close to me and hit me or that an asshole will blow my eardrums out with their horn.'
Thank you!