Many cyclists look on automobile drivers as THE ENEMY. This requires a certain schizophrenic state of mind, since all but the most hardcore gearheads are also drivers themselves. But, as soon as you jump out of the Chevy and onto the Masi, it's us against them.
Despite how it may appear, not all drivers are homicidal maniacs. Massachusetts does have more than its fair share of homicidal maniacs, but there are a far larger number of drivers that are just plain inept.
Case in point, I was at the registry to renew my driver's license a while back. The place was filled with pimply faced teenagers, queuing up to get their learner's permits/licenses. When they do, These kids are going to spend most of their waking hours driving. I know this for a fact, since, hard as it is to believe, I was a teenager once myself. Getting your license was the next best thing to losing your virginity (and a lot more attainable at that stage in life). I had one friend who convinced his parents to buy a GTO for the family vehicle. He should have gone into politics. So your basic teenager is out for the sheer joy of the road, and may not have figured out that small two wheeled vehicles are not designed to be hood ornaments.
On the other end of the age spectrum, you have little old ladies and gentlemen. They are generally smallish creatures, but nonetheless insist on driving the largest vehicles known to man. Some of them have actually owned them since oil was $2 a barrel, and conventional wisdom dictated you couldn't be safe unless surrounded by at least two tons of Detroit iron. So small aged person in big car can barely see over the dashboard, assuming their glasses' prescriptions are up to date. The flagship of the breed, the MGM (Mercury Grand Marquis) has been described in detail by our ex-editor Bob Strossi. There are many similar models that in sheer mass and girth are the equivalent of about two sports cars. So driving one of these beauties is kind of like being on the bow of a ocean vessel, and said driver has only a very vague idea of where the right side of the car ends. It's enough keeping from careening off parked cars, without worrying about these tiny vehicular interlopers (barely a blip on the radar screen).
In the numerous times I've become a hood ornament, by far the largest reason is not malice but stupidity. Still, no matter what a driver does, they are never wrong. When I yelled at a driver who pulled out in front of me a few years back, he said "I was watching for traffic." "I'm traffic" I screamed at him. A long long time ago, I got "doored" and the driver's response was "you were going fast." So if I was going slower, you wouldn't have opened your door in front of me? Needless to say, the rest of the conversation was not very productive.
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