If you ride a motorcycle on the street you have dangerous encounters with cars. If you
started riding yesterday you can expect it to happen soon. If you’ve been
riding a while you know that surviving distracted or just plain dangerous
drivers is part of the game. We have to deal with it or stay off the bike.
For me, having some one pull out or cut me off barely raises my heart rate after so long in the saddle, a well developed set of instinctive reactions are my friend when surprises come along.
For me, having some one pull out or cut me off barely raises my heart rate after so long in the saddle, a well developed set of instinctive reactions are my friend when surprises come along.

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My solution, developed long ago when I was a news film courier on a
motorcycle in Los Angeles, was to give as few opportunities to car drivers as
possible to shorten my life. I move around a lot on in a lane, choose my lane
positions respective to the changing positions of cars around me, and
always have an escape route. I have shaken my fist at idiot car drivers, and
when I was younger and less charitable given them the 1 finger salute on very
rare occasions. Generally I made sure they knew I was mad at them, but in
truth, there's not much you can do against an idiot behind the wheel of a 4000
lb car or truck. If someone cuts you off, even hits you, and you strike back,
you've escalated the situation and become partly at fault.
I was on a group ride a few years ago with 18 other large bikes and some
clown in a car tried to do a slow lane change right into the middle of our group. A few of
the guys pulled up along side and with their fists "waved" him back into his lane and the idiot
backed off. 18 against one is one it took to get his attention and remind him
that he didn't own the whole road.
If you ride a scooter or a bike you've chosen to put yourself lower on the
"food chain" of the highway, you can try to work around it, develop survival
strategies, but you should never, ever be expected to be treated as an
equal.