This morning at about 10:25am, eastbound on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge approaching Porter Square.  Guy behind me honks and yells, then roars past me on the left, waving and screaming at me to get out of the road.  Of course, we're approaching a red light, so he swerves in front of me and comes to a stop anyway, but he's still yelling out his window at me.  The conversation went something like this, though I regret that I can't recall his exact words due to his near-total incoherency:

Him: "Are you crazy?  What the hell are you doing riding in the road?"
Me: "Sir, cyclists are permitted to use the roads."
Him: "What are you talking about?  Everyone knows bikes don't belong in the road!"
Me: "I'm sorry, sir, but the law disagrees with you."
Him: "Bikes don't belong in the middle of the road!  Whaddya think, you can go faster than me?"
Me: "Look, man---"
Him: "Oh, no, I'm not your man, okay?  I'm not your buddy, get it?"
Me: "Okay, sir.  I apologize for upsetting you.  But Massachusetts state law does permit me to take the travel lane."
Him: "Massachusetts state law?!?  What are you talking about?  Everybody knows you shouldn't ride in the street!"
Me: "I am sorry, sir, but if it upsets you then you should take it up with your congressman."

He could not seem to figure out a response to this.  As the light turned green I called at him that I hoped he had a more pleasant day.  About a block further on he pulled into a parking space, and yelled as I passed, "Someone's gonna hit you!"

Oh well.  It's been a while since I've been to the RMV, I guess it was about time.

(This is a slightly edited version of something I posted to the massbike list earlier today.  Crossposted to my journal and bikepirates.)

So last Memorial Day weekend I had a hilarious bike encounter with a guy in a SUV.

Background:

I was biking in Lexington, MA on a road that splits into a straight-through lane and a right-turn-only lane.  I looked quickly behind me to make sure the way was clear, and moved to the left, into the straight-through lane.  Almost immediately I heard an insistent honking immediately behind me, apparently someone traveling faster than I had realized who came up directly behind me.  As I pulled up to a red light, the driver pulled alongside me in the lane, rolled down his window, and we had ( the following exchange: )

I took down his license plate number and called the Lexington police for advice.  They told me that I could fill out a "road rage complaint" on the RMV web site, so when I got home I did.

( Then.... )

It seems to have been a successful endeavor, from the point of view of making the bozo sit up and understand that they have to take cyclists seriously on the road.  I would love it if more cyclists took this route with harassing or unsafe drivers.  If nothing else it would provide the state with a means of collecting statistics about how badly drivers need to be educated about cycling issues.

But the process is far too inefficient -- it seems to have been designed to maximize the probability that complainants will just give up and let the matter die.  It seems unlikely that more than a few bullheaded cyclists would navigate the bureaucratic maze to its end, and therefore will probably not amount to a useful tool for anyone any time soon.