Bike rage
Bike rage can consist of shouting at other road users, making obscene gestures or threats, hitting or punching, or in rare cases, even more violent acts.
According to University of Hawaii professor of psychology Leon James, "bike rage is a common occurrence, and quite predictable", because urban commuting causes "tension, anxiety, and anger – in drivers as well as cyclists".
[1] Charles Montogomery of Momentum Magazine Ltd claims some cyclists hit cars using a "classic U-lock bash-and-run" tactic.
Montogomery claims the "... problem is that city planners have mixed bikes and cars together in ways that offer little certainty about how each should operate, and lots of chances for conflict".
"[1] An article in Toronto Life magazine argues that the "... source of the problem [bike and road rage] is neither the arrogance of drivers nor the militancy of cyclists, but the environment in which they interact."
After an altercation between cyclists and police, an observer noted that "The sheep—like the man who was just riding to the gym and decided to join and have a little fun—were bewildered, angry, defiant.
"[4] A 2008 New York Times article stated that "... overwhelmingly, on blogs and Web sites nationwide, drivers and cyclists routinely describe shouted epithets, flung water bottles, sprays of spit and harrowing near-misses of the intentional kind."
"[7] A New York Times story stated a 41-year-old cyclist, Dan Cooley, was injured by a driver who became angry at him after an exchange of swear words.
Mr. Cooley thinks that the anger between cyclists and drivers might be due to the relatively new arrival of bikes on city streets: “We’ve had a car culture for so long and suddenly the roads become saturated with bicyclists trying to save gas"; however, he added, “No one knows how to share the road.”[5] According to the UK Guardian, a cyclist named Jefferey Guffey from Indiana told a driver to slow down.
[10] A 2008 Newsweek article entitled "Pedal vs. Metal: A surge in bike ridership spurs a new kind of road rage" described an altercation which began after a driver named Patrick Schrepping told cyclist Adam Leckie to wear a helmet.
After hearing this comment, the younger cyclist felt "extremely insulted" and allegedly tried to force the older man off the road.
