Reply #5: It's reminiscent of the hostility that some drivers have toward cyclists [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

and pedestrians, to the point of literally wanting to run them down.

I've actually seen an SUV "tailgate" a furiously pedaling cyclist on a city street, and when I was in Austin, Texas a few years ago, there was a letter to the local entertainment weekly paper from a driver who bragged about deliberately trying to scare "candy ass" cyclists. (Yeah, the he-man encased in a 2,000 pound vehicle picking on an unprotected human. Just who is the "candy ass" here?)

I think people like that are motivated by such supreme selfishness and obliviousness and are so frequently surrounded by like-minded people that an example reminding them of alternatives is deeply threatening on a gut level.