topaz

Everyone seems to be amazed that I bike to work practically every day and don't consider it that dangerous. The legendary character of the Boston driver seems to play a big role here. Lots of people think Boston drivers are so malicious, incompetent, or both, that it's suicidal just to step on a road dressed in anything less than full body armor.

I don't actually think that's true -- really, not at all -- and I have the stories to prove it. I think that bicycling safety on the road has more to do with how you interact with the other drivers than any other single variable.

Here's an anecdote I posted to the massbike list (er, the BayStateCycling list) earlier today:

A couple of weeks ago, on my way in to work, above Arlington Center, I passed a truck on the left hand side of the street. This is a section of Mass Ave in Arlington that's more than wide enough for two lanes, although it's not marked as such. The truck was traveling where the left lane would have been and I was traveling in the middle of the right. I prepared to pass at about 18mph when the truck started to pull into the lane where I was. I yelled "Hey!" to get their attention, veered to the right, and pulled in front of them.

(As an aside, I think this was a mistake on both our parts: their mistake for not paying attention to a passing vehicle, and mine for not braking and letting them take the lane. That would have been much less dangerous. Split-second decisions.)

The truck driver accelerated and passed me on the left, and his passenger yelled out the window at me, "What the f-- are you doing?" and waved angrily. They stopped at the next light. I filtered up to the front of traffic, and when the light turned green I took the lane and went ahead of them.

They followed me, honking, yelling:

Them: "Pull over!"

Me: "No thanks!"

Them: "You ain't a car!"

Me: "Neither are you!"

Another half-block or so ahead they were able to pass, and they did so. I waved as they passed, but in a friendly way, not an aggressive one.

This being Arlington at the end of rush hour traffic, they spent more time waiting at lights than I did, so I caught up with them at the light at Mass Ave and Alewife Brook Parkway. As I passed the open window I shouted, "How're you guys doing this morning?"

This time one of them yelled back, "Hey, what took you so long?" I laughed.

On the way up toward Porter Square they passed me again, and the passenger waved, but at this point I didn't get the sense that they were angry at me any more.

Here's the thing: this isn't an isolated event. It's unusual for drivers to harass me while I'm on my bike, but when they do, this is a completely typical way to resolve it.

You don't escalate. No matter how scared and angry at them you are, they're probably at least as scared and angry. No, seriously, they are. And they're the ones with a two-ton steel vehicle at their command. Use some common sense.
Be cheerful. Most of the time when someone yells at me it's because they're scared or unnerved, either because I've done something they didn't expect (like move into a turn-only lane when I'm about to turn) or because they assume I'm going to. Showing them that I'm not angry with them and I'm not going to get angry almost always helps defuse that.
Show them you're paying attention. 92% of road rage incidents are the result of a driver who thinks the other people on the road aren't paying attention (this number brought to you by the Division of Made-Up Statistics). Make it clear that you're paying attention. Eye contact, waving, and hand signals do this most of the time. Replying cheerfully to a yelling motorist does it the rest of the time.
You can always get the last laugh. If all else fails... you can always fill out a road rage complaint with the RMV.

That's all there is to it. Three years of bike commuting have convinced me this is absolutely the best way to defuse tension with motorists if you're on a bike. Probably even if you're not on a bike, frankly.