Commuting: The strange. The Odd. And the FUN

Let’s share some of our more entertaining commuter stories. Here, I’ll start it off with my ride home tonight.


On my commute home tonight a Black Mercedes changes into the left lane on the interstate where traffic was flowing along nicely and I am following a truck at a safe distance. He did signal (so in my mind no harm no foul I roll off the throttle to give myslf more following distance behind my new lead car) I doubt he looked or even saw me until his lane change was completed. All is right and OK and we are all flowing along nicely…Then he looks in his rear-view sees me and slows down. I have no idea why. ??? It is not as if my DR looks a cop bike.

I slow some more to keep a safe following distance as he pokes along beside a truck in the center lane as the Left lane traffic rolls off into the distance. Slowly... Ever so slowly Mercedes dude gets past the truck...When I clear a truck, I signal… Move to the middle lane… Pass said Mercedes dude then signal (both hand and turn signal as is my standard practice) and move back to the left lane when the Mercedes dude decides he doesn’t like that so he punches it and pulls up next to me to force me back into the middle lane. :huh I think he was a little surprised that I did not play his game and held my line. He thought he could intimidate me but was unwilling to have my foot peg scratch up his pretty Black car. I was laughing so hard I almost teared up.

Quite silly actually but I did have an escape to the right if I needed it. Once he learned I did not wish to participate in his game (about a ¼ mile) he backed off to a safe following distance and I move to the center of the lane to discourage him from doing it again and I did one of these:

This seemed to anger Mercedes dude as he sped up again flashing his headlights. buy this time I am nearing my exit so I signaled and changed lanes to the right and slowed to match the slower speed of the traffic in the right lane when Mercedes dude zooms up beside me again thinking he is scaring me. If he had known how hard I was laughing behind my Full-faced helmet I think he would have exploded.

It was the most entertaining commute in the last year!!! Damn riding is fun.





OK, your turn. Any road rage, folly, humorous stories about your daily commute? Share away.



　
　
　

Don't play games with cagers.

I ride around them, put other cars between an aggressive driver and myself, or just let them go.

Car or m/c, I like "laying eggs" but my GF trips out so that's out when she's on-board... (in the car)

Apperantly in Middle TN, the left lane, no matter where it is, is for the blocking and cutting off others when their right turn nears...


So I just give them back what they so graciously give to others.

I just get up front and slow right on down, to parade speed. Getting a WTF hand flip for my troubles.

Seems you have to be retarded to a certain point to drive around here.


Commuting follies? only every time I ride... Welcome to the 3rd circle of mc riding hell where only the billy bad asses on Harley's get the ok to sit at lights they can legally go through, and ride how ever and where ever they want, cause they might beat yer ass!

The guy on the mopedcrotchrocketdirtbike?

fawk him!

They blow rant rave and cuss when you filter or split here too, but not so much when you tuck in behind the asshole that doesn't obey ANY traffic laws, pays no wheel or road taxes and doesn't have a tag or even insurance... The bicyclist...

I don't ride in a lot of rain. Tonight I had to get home from work in northern Illinois. Light rain, strong winds, but wow. The lightning was AWESOME! Got to be one of the greatest ways to see lightning!

I love lightening. Growing up in Central Alberta I used to watch truly amazing lightening storms, that to which nothing that I have witnessed in my current area (Bitterroot) can compare. Man do I miss that .

Anyways.... Lightening is fun when you know its going to be there. But, while blasting down a local fire road in what seems to be just a cloudy day to have lightening strike virtually right beside you, well that is another story. That scared me worse than possibly anything that I have ever experienced. The light was blinding, the sound was so loud that I did a sort-of fetal position while still on the bike . It was a check your pants moment for sure. What got me the most was it was completely out of nowhere, no warning BANG! Rain followed, as always does for the ill-prepared .

These are always fun. Caution, I'm very long winded.

I was coming home from the Orlando area a week or two ago on I-4 (my job has me all over the place, and I-4 is commuter hell in this area) and traffic was moving at a decent clip. Well I was passing most of everybody in the left lane, with a few cars following me. Of course I come up on a left lane hog in a pickup truck...the cars in the middle were doing 75, I was probably doing 80 until reaching this guy...going slower than the guys in the right. UGH.

But the traffic was so condensed in the right that it wasn't very wise to try and squeeze in to pass him...especially since he just sped up. And then slowed down again. And then sped up again. UGH. Well, this whole time there was some jackass in a Toyota tailgating me. I passed him using the middle lane earlier, and he tried to get on my tail until I did my little blast off routine, and he realized that I was going a bit faster than he was willing to. But of course, in Florida, if you tailgate the person in front of you, the people in front of him will speed up!!

So anyhow the traffic in the middle lane loosened up a bit, but I decided to try and hold my line in the left as the truck *may* wise up and move over (very very unlikely). Around this time, someone from the middle gets in front of the truck, going about the same speed. Then we caught up with another driver, effectively forming a line of fail in the left lane. The Toyota then suddenly changes into the middle lane (another reason I decided to stay in the left) and then gets up right next to me in time for traffic in the middle to slow...he tailgates the hell out of the guy in front of him, then forces his way in front of me.

So the next few miles he's stuck behind the truck, and I'm stuck behind him...he gained absolutely no time. All of that effort just to get one car ahead....ah, Florida drivers. As I realized I was only 3-5 miles from my exit, I pulled into the slower middle lane and saw him get pretty far ahead. Then I realized that nobody was in the right lane, so I changed, and rocketed forward....as I passed him, he switches into the middle lane, and then into the right to get behind me, just as we're approaching a little old lady in a Buick doing the minimum of 60.

I changed into the middle lane just in time for the inevitable chain of people in the left lane trying to pass the earlier moron in the truck were changing...making Toyota man stuck in the right lane. I waved as I accelerated into a nice cushion in front of the clusterfuck I was just stuck in, and then pulled off onto my exit.

Eh, just usual Florida drivers. I've had worse happen to me, but this is the most recent that gave a :huh reaction.

You noticed this too, huh? Another favorite is the person who speeds up to get in front of you, just so they can slow down and block you from passing anybody else by pacing the vehicle next to them. I figure they were overzealous hall monitors in their school days.

And then there are the guys with full-size pickups, who seem to have bought those trucks so they can decapitate people driving behind them (brake-checkers).

If it wasn't for the music scene and all the beautiful women in this town...

Coming back from dinner one evening.

Road goes down a hill into the valley ~1/4mi, stoplight with streets into subdivisions on either side. Keep going straight another 1/4mi, then come up the hill to one of the major intersections (with stoplight) in the neighborhood. Not a lot of traffic this evening, between the light at the bottom of the hill and the light at the top there were 3 other cars.

I'm just passing through the intersection at the bottom of the hill when I see the light at the top goes yellow. The other cars in front of me slow down and coast to a stop at the light. I roll up behind the car in the right go-straight lane, with two cars in the go-straight lane to my left and nobody in the right-turn lane to my right.

Light's still red, car in front of me shifts into reverse and starts rolling straight backwards. I start honking, flashing lights, and get no response. They keep coasting back. Lady in the car closes within 5ft of my front tire and I slide over to the right just as the light turns green. She keeps coasting backwards, right over where I was waiting. I go through the intersection and never saw her go through.



First time i've ever almost gotten run over by the car in front of me.

Commuting: The time when the people fit into three categories.

1)Actively trying to kill you
2)Absentmindedly trying to kill you
3)Mindless obstacles that refuse to change lanes or pass anyone, and are best passed efficiently.

Someone tried to mer into me today when they assumed I was going to enter a turn lane, heard my horn, looked, and kept on moving into my lane. SOP, move on, get over it. Two responses. Get up in her grill and get angry, or get the hell away from her. Today I chose option 2.

Sometimes I do enjoy either giving dumb people the stare, or the WTF palm up and shrug about why they are in the fast lane with a parade of cars behind them. Of course the same could be said of the people blissfully following along with the other two lanes clear.:huh

There is a speed bump at the guard shack at work, and my car is just the right size that I'll stop with my back wheels on the speedbump. Some genius decided to climb right up my ass (come on, you that eager to get through the gate?), only to freak the hell out when I roll backwards off the bump a foot or so.

Some times in my car, I'll intentionally roll back a foot or two if someone keeps creeping up on me both to stop them, and to discourage them from getting so close in the future.

I was cruising along peacefully on my KLR650 on a twisty VA 2-lane one afternoon. I was minding my own business doing about 60 mph when a lady in a Geo Tracker heading my direction intentionally swerves in my lane. She was probably doing 60 or so as well.

She had a big smile on her face the whole time she sent me into the ditch. Luckily I was on the KLR and it handled the deep gravel at 60 mph with more ease than I would have expected. I kept my speed and managed to hop back onto the pavement with relative ease.

I had just read a very nice book on VA gun laws because I was thinking of carrying concealed, but wanted to know all of he ins and outs before making my decision. That day I decided NOT to carry. Had I been carrying, I know in my heart that I would have turned around and shot at her. I'd like to see my kids grow up without bars between us if you know what I mean.

I have 2 other really good stories, but I'll save 'em for later.

Driving down the HOV lane coming home in Atlanta and I see a beat up old chevy full of young folk. I notice they are passing something and smoke coming out' of the windows, like lots of smoke. A second later I smell the indistinguishable odor of cannabis. They keep steamin that car up the road and I wonder (hope) if I'm going to get a contact high.

Not sure why attempted murder entertains cagers so much. :huh

Maybe she was stroking out.


What I don't get is how often commuters want to "race" me. Does a vstrom with a barn door and side cases look that fast? (maybe it doesn't and that's the point?)

I wouldn't mind as they're free to go ahead and look for cops, but as often as not they'll pace me waiting for the race to start. I hate having cars right beside me.

Shouldn't a Strom be able to leave most cars standing anyhow? I know that my CX can and it's 30 years old. I've had ricers in their civics callously change lanes to try and get around me at a light...just for me to take off as soon as it turns green. I hear their little engines screaming, and I'm shifting before I even need to and still lightyears ahead of them.

It -can- but I don't like to, most days - at least not when already 7mph over the limit surrounded by traffic.

Stoplights are a different story.

Thanks for the morning chuckle.

Me too.

Sometimes I'll play briefly to appear to be "in the race," then fall back to let them think they've won against the bike, just to let them run point for me.

Every now and then I get the satisfaction of seeing how they have successfully used their most excellent racing skillz to lasso themselves some attention from the local constabulary.

I must admit it feels pretty good when that happens.

I leave my house pretty early in the morning to get to work. I have a somewhat flexible schedule and I'm a morning person.

I work at Duke U and it's really quiet and slow in the summer anyway, but this morning on my way in I didn't see a single car on my favorite stretch of road through Duke forest, so I pushed it a little. There are some fun little curves on this road, nothing great or worth bragging about, but fun. It was really neat having the road to myself. . Dappled sunlight shone through the trees and on the road. There was a light cool early morning mist.

When I got to work, I parked my bike and came inside and exchanged pleasantries with the security guard, who's also a rider. Then I had a hot cup of coffee and wrote an email to my wife about my wonderful ride in.