A lot of time to think, because I just kept getting honked at.

I’m an experienced road cyclist. I ride on the right, as close to the fog line as safe and reasonable; I signal my turns and stops, and generally crank a straight line. I do not ride with an iPod or anything else in my ears. So I don’t think the honk is meant as scolding, unless it’s scolding for daring to be a cyclist. In which case, the sound of your horn, while unpleasant, will not cause me to stop cycling, or stop cycling on the road.

Usually the honker is somebody who is passing me, so perhaps the honk is meant as a courtesy to say “hey, I’m passing you!” You know, in case I didn’t notice the deafening clatter and roar of your big machine coming up behind my relatively silent bicycle. I don’t think it’s that either, because the honk nearly always happens at the end of the massing manoeuvre, when the motorist is already in my field of view. Here, there is no further information that the honk can add.

I should add, in fairness to these motorists: they all passed me properly, by going at least partially into the left lane to leave lots of space between my elbows and their wing mirrors. This is unfortunately uncommon enough to be remarkable. There are some of motorists in the wold who think that as long as a stationary car and bicycle could fit side to side in a travel lane, they can pass at 40 mph without moving to the side at all. Here, it is a good thing that Mass drivers think lane lines are only suggestions.

Here’s what happened tonight:

I’m coming home from an aborted bike ride, my rear dérailleur having failed about a mile out of town.  The bike is still rideable, but not terribly shiftable.  At the top of a hill, I have a left turn back onto my street, and a stop sign.  Oncoming traffic also has a stop, cross-traffic has right of way.  I am slowly creeping towards the intersection, backpedaling and trying to keep balance without putting a food down and losing momentum.  I don’t particularly want to put a foot down because my feet are clipped into my pedals, and it’s a pain to unclip and recliip when you don’t have to.  Also, I would lose some of that precious momentum if I came to a full and complete stop.  There’s only one car coming from the right, and at the rate he’s going, I can crawl up to the intersection and then sneak in behind him without having to make a full stop.

As the car approaches the intersection, the driver slows down, to a creep, much like what I am doing.  Almost as if waiting to make a left turn, except that 1) he doesn’t have his blinker on, and 2) if he wants to turn left, he  can do it–hee’s got no oncoming traffic.  As he comes to a slow rolling stop in the MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION, he makes eye contact with me, as if to say “why aren’t you going anywhere, moron?”  Maybe because I have a stop sign and you don’t?  Had he waved me across as he approached the intersection, I could have gotten in in front of him.  Had he proceeded at a normal rate, I could have gotten in behind him.  What actually happened due to his utter failure to either follow the rules or communicate an acceptable deviation, was that I nearly fell over sideways, and did perform an utterly graceless dismount and walk my bike the remaining block home.

This just baffles me. Yielding when you don’t have to I understand, IF YOU SOMEHOW COMMUNICATE.  It can be nice.  Stopping in the middle of the intersection, expecting everybody to know what you’re thinking, and making me look like a moron who doesn’t know how to ride his bike is ärgerlich.