"Claire Petersky" wrote in message ink.net...
Dear fellow Bellevue residents:

snip some excellent reminders from Claire regarding honking

I'll share a minor annoyance I suffered the other day at the end of my
commute home.

I should preface this by saying that the amount of outright hostility
I experience in general is far outweighed by the kindness of most
drivers, but nonetheless:

The last short streatch of my commute home involves one of those
intersections which weren't really designed so much as they just kind
of happened. I crest a hill and roll down the other side for no more
than 50 yards when the road curves sharply down and to the right and I
must turn left across traffic on a blind intersection. There are cars
coming the other way, so after signaling I slow down at the far left
of my lane to sort of roll/trackstand until the traffic clears. The
car immediately behind me slows to be sure of what I am doing and then
passes safely on my right (there is plenty of room), as does the car
behind them. The guy behind that (in a huge Cadillac SUV, of course)
winds the window down and honks and screams at me as he rolls past.

This strikes me as odd for a few reasons.

1) I accelerated out of the last light faster than the line of traffic
he was in and had already been sitting at this intersection for a few
seconds by the time they caught me. So clearly I wasn't slowing
anyone down.

2) Had I been in a car, they would have had to wait for me to turn,
but because I am on a bike they can safely pass me, so I am slowing
them less than I would otherwise.

3) In slowing to honk and scream he takes up more of his apparently
precious time than he would otherwise.

What is it with people in expensive SUVs?

-Tim