PSA on doorings: check your mirrors:

[Lee Levitt]

As a motorcyclist you should understand that while your safety is indeed
your business, others around you can either help or hurt in the quest to
ride without getting killed.

To your point #3, that's simply wrong for anybody but little children (who
are better off somewhere else). The speed differential is too great when
traffic moves in opposite directions and virtually nobody counsels riding
against traffic anymore.

On a side street where traffic is doing 30 mph, I'm doing 20. A car can slow
down and wait for a safe place to pass. If I'm coming at them, they can't.

To your point #4, with almost 35 years of paying road, excise and income
taxes, I've paid my fair share of construction and maintenance costs. Am I
supposed to ride in the grass when I choose to bike to work rather than use
a finite resource to fuel my car? Perhaps it's the cars that should be
relegated to the shoulder!

I ride to keep myself safe. If it means taking the full lane and slowing a
car behind me so that you don't try to squeeze by, I will. I may give you
the finger, but I will also report you to the local authorities for
aggressive driving.

Some drivers seem to be personally angered by the sight of a cyclist. I
think it has less to do with being delayed by 8 nanoseconds or
inconvenienced in having to lift their foot off the gas, and more that the
cyclist looks like he or she is having fun, or maybe is doing something that
reminds the driver of an earlier age. And I think this pisses them off. 

It would be great if we could all just get along, but in the meantime, I'll
continue to ride with my rear view mirror, my cellphone and a can of Halt
dog spray.

Lee

MXHOWES at aol.com writes:

3. A hole bunch of years ago, when I was a little boy, we were told to  
ride on the wrong side of the street, that way you saw the cars coming and
got 
out of their way.
4. I have an issue with a lot of the bicycle riders on the open road. They  
ride like they own the road yet don't pay a nickel for the construction or  
maintenance. The don't ride on the paved shoulder (too many rocks= flat  
tires) so their 'lane' is the white stripe that denotes the shoulder. This 
makes  it very tight if a car happens to be passing you at the same time.  
Generally, I lay on the horn, they flip me the bird, and both of us are
happy.
5. When I went to college the only means of transportation I could afford  
was a small motorcycle. Several years of daily commutes in the LA area 
taught  you that sixth sense to understand that every car, whether or not
being 
driven  was a potential trip to the hospital. This ends up making you a much

better  driver. Also owning a '69 Lotus Europa (with the biggest blind spots

of any car  on the road) taught you to know the location of every car 
around you, at  all times.