A recent article on edmonds.com outlines 10 rules for motorists to coexist with cyclists. Â I read them more as guidelines or advice, and these points could really apply to interactions with any slower moving vehicle.
3. Adjust That Attitude:Â Motorists tend to think of cyclists as ”in their way,” Clarke says. Rather, they should think of them as equals, just as entitled to the roadway as drivers are, says Clarke and other experts in the cycling community.
Drivers who get impatient with bicyclists might want to stop for a moment and think about the human being on that bike, says Bob Mionske, a Portland cycling attorney and cyclist: What if that rider was my friend, a friend of a friend, or a neighbor? Somehow, seeing bicyclists that way makes people a little more patient, he says. When drivers don’t humanize cyclists this way, he finds, they often perceive riders as mere objects.
If you can pinpoint the moment when a bicyclist is starting to irritate you — because you can’t see where he is going or because he’s moving slowly and is making you late — picture him as a family member or friend. That might calm you down, Mionske says.
Discussing these rules with your cycle-annoyed friends may be the first step to convince them that most cyclists are more like them than they think.