Honking your horn at a cyclist is not just rude, it’s unsafe!

The premise of this discussion is about drivers who honk their horn as they pass cyclist.  I live in a fairly rural area and it never ceases to amaze me how some (a minority for sure) can be so inconsiderate of others. Today a semi came by me and honked from the time he was about a hundred feet back until he had passed me.  The act was simple harassment, there was no other explanation. I was biking down the highway about a foot off the gravel shoulder and a foot right of the white line that designates the shoulder when the incident happened.  I did not get the license plate number, or I would have called the authorities (cell phones are so handy).

Why does this bother me.  I am an experience cyclist who has dealt with poor drivers on nearly a daily basis since I was in grade school, I know how not to react in such a case, but other cyclist do not.  Just before summer after my sophomore year of high school, I was talking to another kid and he asked me about a bike route I had taken before in Door County, Wisconsin a popular tourist spot which drew thousands of vacationers each summer.  I told him it was a beautiful route, but taking the main road was dangerous.  Unfortunately, you had to take the main road at a couple points.  What I heard about his trip has haunted me to this day.

He was biking along the main highway on the right hand side of the road when a motor home who was about to pass him honked. He turned his head to see the vehicle and when he did his shoulders turned, which in turn drew the left arm towards him causing his bike to vier to the left. His death was instant. The driver did not give him enough room, three feet of clearance is the law, and he honked but did not give the kid time to react, and a son, a brother, a friend was stripped away from those who loved him.

The driver was reckless and probably just wanted to get started on his vacation. The man who honked at me today was just trying to do his job and get his load of whatever to wherever it needed to go. I was just going to work to earn a little money to take care of my family.

Driving rural roads

It wasn’t long after I moved here from Milwaukee that I started noticing that I was becoming more patient with slow moving vehicles.  In Milwaukee a slow moving vehicle was some idiot who did not know how to drive in the “big city”. Here they were farmers just doing their job, or an elderly couple I knew from town out for a little ride.  They became real people.  In Milwaukee life was fairly anonymous.  Here, nothing seems anonymous. If someone doesn’t know who you are, they can easily find out.

I doubt the driver this morning was from around here (I am making this assumption but don’t know for sure) because I was anonymous to him, someone he would likely never see again.  Most semis are very courtious and go out of their way to pass me safely as I am sure they do to the farmers driving their tractors and the amish in their buggies.  But then there are those few who just don’t seem to get it.

On the third day of my bike to work for a week goal, two events on my morning bike ride have prompt a morning post!

Pickup Truck too close to bicyclist

First, the mirror of the same driver who has passed me far to close many times in the past few weeks came within three inches of me today.  The driver (of the two tone, I think blue, pickup truck) looks like he is taking his kid to school in Fennimore.  I suppose I am assuming it is a guy, but I have only seen the passenger who looks to be a boy about nine years old.  This morning’s near miss led to a diatribe of expletives erupting from my mouth, and me not being calm enough to read any part of the plate number.

When biking, and a driver does something stupid like that, get the plate number.  As I am color blind and frequently wear tinted sunglasses, I cannot rely on my getting the color of a vehicle correct, but if I catch even part of the plate number, the police have a much better chance of educating the person driving the vehicle.  I will try to remain calm enough to get the plate number (or at least part of it) the next time he passes me too close.  Perhaps I should use one of those small camcorders mounted on my handle bars to show how close these few drivers get, and to catch the plate numbers?  To bad my budget doesn’t allow for such things.

My boss biked to work today!

When I got to work I noticed my bosses car was not there, but his bike was! I was thrilled.  OK, yesterday his car was taken to the shop and it is not back yet, so he HAD to ride the bike.  That said, I am hopeful that he may find that biking around town and the mile to and from work, is really not such a big deal, and is actually nice. I will keep you informed on my progress at coaxing him into commuting by bike, but send encouraging thoughts.

Well it happened again, another driver came dangerously close to me while passing this morning. This time it was a big white coach bus that passed me with less than a foot to spare. The air stream pushed and then pulled on the bike. SCARY! Please, Drivers, give use no less than three feet of distance between us!

I immediately pulled over and called the Grant County Sheriffs’ department, who forwarded my complaint to the Fennimore Porice Department.

Later in the day I contacted the Fennimore Police and spoke with officer Streeter, who had pulled the bus over and talked to the driver. The driver he explained did not realize how close he was. Hmmm, perhaps he shouldn’t be driveing a bus then.

Well it was a beautiful bicycle ride to work until I was almost hit by an on-coming car passing another car.

I was biking to work for the first time this year without tights on.  Shorts, a jersy and a shell.  Wow, what a beautiful day.  But then, as I was just over half way to work, a car decides to pass a truck a short distance in front of me.  I knew it was too short of a distance for her to pass the truck safely before getting to the point where I was so I started waving my left arm so that the driver would realize that they were passing another vehicle with me in the other lane.  The driver saw me and did not pull back in behind the truck but excellerated past me coming within three feet of me.

OK, at that point, still waving, I screamed out a WTF (hopefully heard by the driver).  I couldn’t figure out what was so important that she couldn’t wait the 1/4 mile distance to where her lane became two lanes for passing, while going up a hill.  This happens a couple times a year and I have always wished a police officer would be there to see it and pull the person over to educate them on how illegal and dangerous that is.  Today there was a Grand County sheriffs car just three cars in back of the car that pulled out and passed nearly hitting me. Seeing the sheriffs car there gave me a feeling of satisfaction knowing that the officer would pull the woman over and educate her on just how dangerous that was and she would reassure the officer that is would never happen again.  She would then think better about passing while approaching a cyclist, taking safety into mind. 

Now waving to the sheriffs car a wave of “go get her” he passed the point I was at he waved to me and continued.  I stopped the bike and looked back thinking I would now see flashing lights, but he did nothing.  He didn’t pursue the car who had passed illegally and with total disregard to my safety.  I was appalled!  Wasn’t that his job, to promote safety, to educate, to act on behalf of citizens who only want to feel, be safe?!

The place where we were at gave the officer a complete view of all the cars and me on my bike and the entire incident (as the southbound traffic is taking a large curve to the left).  He saw what had happened.  He did nothing about it!

As he drove out of distance up the hill I called the Grant County Sheriffs department on my cell phone.  I was mad! Mad as hell that the one time a law officer is there to see such a thing, the police officer totally ignored it.  A dispatcher answered the phone and I angrilly told him what had just happened.  They asked for the color of the car.  Being color blind and wearing yellow tinted sunglasses, I said I thought it was silver.  He asked me to explain what had happened, and I wondered why he just couldn’t ask the officer who had moments before waved at me as he ignored the situation he had just wittnessed.

This is not my first encounter with the Grant County Sheriffs office, I have had contact with them before.  Once, in the middle of winter, I had a flat.  I was struggling with getting the tire back on when an unmarked sheriffs car came past heading south.  He turned around and then gave me a lift to my office in Fennimore.  That was a very pleasant experience.  I know a few of the officers in the area and by and large they seem very nice and are looking out for people.  But why is it that if an incident happens involving a cyclist I tend to think they really don’t care?  Are they the same way with the Amish I see riding in their buggies around the area?  I hope not.  Are they the same way with the farmers who travel with their equipment up and down every road in the county?  I doubt it.  So why the attitude with cyclists?

Well the conversation with the dispatcher continued for five minutes and the police officer (once called) did not see a silver car in front of him. Hmmm?  I was told they would look into it.  What does this mean?  Look into what?  A car that may or may not be silver that may be anywhere in the county by now?  I’m waiting on pins and needles to find out what they call back with.

I’m betting now that there will be no follow up what-so-ever, and that seeing the same thing happen in front of the officer will elicit the same response.  NOTHING!

WTF!?