On Jul 25, 4:00 am, (Tom Keats) wrote:
snip
Let's
say that that number is .01%, or 1 in 10,000. That may be high or it
may be low, but until they start giving psych exams to drivers we just
have to guess as to how high the number of sociopaths and psychotics
with licenses is. I ride in a densely auto populated urban area, the D/
FW Metroplex, and I estimate that there are times when I get passed as
much as 2,000 times an hour.

That seems like a fairly steep number. Being passed by a car every
second works out to 3600 car-passes/hour, disregarding traffic light
stops. That would be like a 60 MPH stretch of freeway.
Being passed 2000 times/hour is roughly between 2/3rds and
3/4ths of that, or an ambient traffic flow of between 40 and
50 MPH. That hardly sounds like a densely auto populated
urban area, unless it's inflicted with cross-town freeways,
or doesn't have traffic lights. Dallas/Ft. Worth, eh? Do
you get to ride on the cross-town freeways?

That's the speed they drive on the through roads, my end of the county
doesn't have low speed through roads just speed limits of 40-45 MPH
which means actual speeds of 50 or so. That is what I have to ride on.
There are traffic signals every mile or so, half mile in residential
areas so that people can get out of their houses and on the roads.

That's another SWAG, as I'm too busy
trying not to be killed by the people on the bottom end of the bell
curve in driving skills to count everyone else. So using those
assumptions you would expect to face a psycho- or sociopath about once
in 5 hours of cycling in heavy traffic.

There are also drunk drivers, and drivers who've dropped
a cigarette under the bench seat, and have to reach down
and fish around to find it, while taking their eyes off
the road. And women wearing shoes with high heels that
get snagged in the gas pedal so they accidentally shoot
their cars into store fronts or bus stops populated by
elderly people with canes and walkers.

That would be the "bottom of the bell curve" I mentioned. Those people
can kill you with Stupid, I was referring specifically to the drivers
that will use their cars as weapons.

The good part is that cycling
in heavy traffic actually prevents the nutjobs from hitting you, the
bad part is every once in a while they catch you on a deserted road,
like what happened to me in 2001.

As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, the most common threats are
drivers who can't drive, in spite of having a license.

The most common threat in city traffic is me-firstism.
No matter what vehicle. The second most common threat
is a long stretch of dry weather followed by rain or snow.

I would include me-firstism as a characteristic of people that can't
drive, like the ones that barge around me to be first at a red
light...

Jason from Friday the XIII, Hannibal Lecter and famous
wealthy blonde chixs who don't really do anything to
deserve their celebrity are way down the list.

The discussion was not how prevalent they are but the fact that they
exist and are a threat.