In other words, Larry, if you hate cyclists so much, go change the laws. Repeal every measure designed to designate new bike lanes and areas, and overturn the old laws making provisions for bikes to coexist with traffic and pedestrians. Push through your own special Larry-law, maybe, that grants everyone second-class citizen status whenever they're on a bicycle--that way, when you cut across two lanes of traffic in order to hit a cyclist in the bike lane, you'll only get charged for the violations associated with cutting through traffic.

But seriously, I've been biking in New York, granted only for a couple months, but I've knocked on cars plenty of time to wake them up before I got run over, and never been threatened. I've been honked at plenty of times, but that gets easier to ignore the more it happens.

And then there's the fact that, in 99% of Denver (i.e., outside of the very separated downtown area), if you decide to walk somewhere, you're liable to walk for blocks without passing another person. Sometimes the sidewalk will just disappear. It's bad.

Have you ever seen someone with the right-of-way, in a crosswalk, run because cars were waiting to turn right? Pedestrians in Denver actually do that. They run to get out of cars' way when they, the pedestrians, have the right of way. I used to see that several times a day. It's standard practice. Which may explain why I was honked at so much--for crossing at a walking pace. Again, this may be hard for long-time New Yorkers to imagine.

Anyway, with respect to the above poster, I just couldn't let that Denver comment pass. I hate walking in Manhattan as much as anyone (sidewalks too narrow, etc.), but after living in Denver, Brooklyn is a pedestrian paradise. The no-right-turn-on-red thing is particularly heavenly.

Motorists do the most damage and destruction not only in their law-breaking but in the regular operation of their vehicles.

Cyclists merely seem to annoy some people the most.

New York City has we've spent the last 70 years designing streets and traffic laws almost entirely for the benefit and accommodation of motor vehicle users. Despite the DOT's recent work, many of our city's street designs and traffic laws don't make sense and aren't safe for people who use bikes as transportation. Cyclists, first and foremost, need to make sure that they ride safely and that they don't scare, intimidate or hurt pedestrians. But cyclists don't need to follow the letter of the law if it doesn't make sense and isn't safe for them.

Let's be honest here, the bikers disobey the laws far more than the cars do.

Let's start by hearing your basis for that statement.

This blog occasionally defends pedestrians and mass transit, but for the most part bikes are detrimental to pedestrians and mass transit. Sure, dedicated bike lanes would be a noble gesture toward giving less money to ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia but on Broadway you guys are just as annoying as the cars.

If you spend all your time in a very small number of neighborhoods, like Park Slope maybe, or Williamsburg

Uh, no. Condescend much?

I assumed you meant US cities, because I've heard similar rants about the harshness of New York that have ended with "I'm going back to Akron!" or maybe "I'm so glad I moved to Florida!" (okay, whatever). But I have lived in Paris (under Chirac, not Delanoë) and spent time in plenty of other places. Certainly, Santo Domingo and Bamako are not much more relaxing.

The difference is that the drivers in the five boroughs exert themselves more forcefully than in a lot of other places, through speed and noise.

Again, I just don't see it. Plenty of speed and noise on the Raleigh Beltline, or on Menaul Boulevard in Albuquerque, or on the Champs-Elysées (where a charming Frenchman told me he would break me in two for banging on the trunk of his car). Sure there's a certain nervous energy, but you get that in most big cities.

Could we improve things? Absolutely. I think that Delanoë has in Paris, and I've been told that Livingstone did in London, and of course Gehl in Copenhagen. Maybe Portland and Davis have a more relaxed attitude. My point is that I don't think New York is hopeless.

If you've always been here, then you don't know that a lot of places aren't like this.

Funny you should say that, but it took living in places like Albuquerque, NM and Greenville, NC for a few years to realize that, yes, most places aren't like New York, and I like New York better.

Living, walking and biking in those places I used to almost get hit by taxis, delivery vans and private cars on a regular basis. I got plenty of honking and drivers violating the crosswalk and acting like I wasn't there. If they didn't run red lights, they practiced jackrabbit starts. There were the sidewalks that just abruptly ended, or were closed for construction with no safe, reasonable alternate route.

When I was riding my bike, there were also the charming "shotgun" riders who would scream at me out the window to try to startle me. Oh, and the people who hit my wife with an egg when we were out for a walk one evening.

In short, I found drivers to be just as rude in other parts of the US. Perhaps even more oblivious because of right-on-red. I didn't spend much time in Denver, but I didn't feel all that much more comfortable there as a pedestrian. If it's at all better than NYC, it's probably because of all the Barnes dances. So I don't know what you three are talking about.

I hear you, Erin. I just got back from Denver. It has a nice pedestrianized area called the 16th Street Mall. But even away from the Mall, walking can be a pleasure -- because motorists are much more courteous than in NYC. They obey red lights, don't violate the crosswalk, and don't honk.

It was a bummer to get back here and readjust to rude, loud, dangerous drivers and all the rage and craziness they generate. New Yorkers have a lot to learn about civilized behavior from people in other cities -- even car-dominated American cities that we look down on.

I keep my keys out and my suit well-pressed. If a car gets close enough to me to get keyed, well... sorry. That's too close for comfort.

For now, however, he is under tremendous stress due to the debts accumulated to pay for the Escalade and other bling, and ready to crack.

If our financial system doesn't crack first.

Unfortunately, taking the lane is not a panacea. Many drivers will see it as an act of aggression towards them and their hurry which is oh so important. The last time I took the lane, on a very short crosstown block and heading toward a red light, two scumbags in a huge Escalade (naturally) threw two bottles of soda at me.

Basically what you have to practice if you want to keep your life in this city is complete non-resistance. Someone want to menace you with their automobile? Just stop and let them go by. Wait till all the other "my hurry is more important than your life" people have passed. Then carry on.

The sad reality of life in NYC is that so often we are powerless. How many of us are just rats in the race? Our resentment towards that builds up within us. So when we see a chance to exert power (as a driver can with a cyclist), it's unconscious and irresistable to do so.

I have a crazy war story too. On an unusually warm December afternoon I was finishing a nice 40 mile ride through the Jersey countryside on said roadbike. As I returned to the old transit oriented town where I live I found myself on a residential street sprinting towards a green light in the center of the lane to avoid the potholes on the right. Now the road I was on only has a 25mph limit and I was approaching Main St which is narrow, full of businesses and only has a 30 mph limit that no one can ever even do due to the traffic. I was going at 18mph (uphill) and when I 50 feet from the intersection, this lunatic driving a brand new sports coup crosses the double yellow, recklessly flies past me on the left side of the road and then immediately cuts across my path to make the right turn onto Main St. Since he was so close and nearly hit me I slapped his car with my open hand to let him know how close he was. To make his maneuver all that more pointless he immediately gets stuck in bumper to bumper gridlock only 20 feet past the intersection.

Of course he immediately pulls over and goes ballistic on me for daring to touch his car. I too exchange "pleasantries" with the psychopath. I must admit that I have a very bad temper myself. When I realized that there was no reasoning with this maniac and that he wouldn't be able to go anywhere due to traffic, I kicked with all my might the rear quarter panel his brand new $80,000 car with bottom my cleated feet and sped off into the gridlock.

I'm not proud of what I did but if anyone deserved it, it was him. Afterwards, I didn't ride my nice roadbike nor that outfit for many months to avoid being recognized but then again it was winter anyway.

On my rides up the greenway to get home, though, I do occasionally see cars in the 40s and 50s that needlessly block the bike path while waiting for a light to get onto/past West street. Even knowing the outcome, sometimes it's too hard to resist knocking on their rear windshield as I go by. (Particularly in the case where the tail of the car blocks the northbound side of the path but nobody's coming on the southbound side at that specific moment.)

Turnabout is fair play here, though. I can think of an incident where I've had my bike parked outside a restaurant, where I can see it. Cue young kids approaching marginally supervised by their chatting parents, idly putting a hand on my bike. It did put me on edge a little.

When I was helping paint the Century route waaay back in 2000, my friend Diana and I were painting the route in Astoria. She had to paint a directional "C" and got off her bike and leaned it ever so gently against a nearby car. She walked away and suddenly this 200+ pound moron starts sprinting towards her screaming at the top of his lungs from the basketball court nearby. "GET YOUR F***NG BIKE OFF MY CAR!" As she returned to the bike he was a few feet away and spitting saliva and continued yelling mean things. We zipped away around the corner where I gave her a big hug since she was shaking so much. She was very shaken up.

THe number of scrapes on bikes are too numerous to count. I just got my first of what I would call an expensive bike. After two weeks it already has a scratch. Big deal.

What is it with people and their cars? I mean it is JUST A CAR!! And from what we both remembered, it wasn't a brand new car, wasn't all shinny, nor did it seem like a model that was very popular.

It's funny how drivers are so sensitive about the car-touching thing. I once had a car on Chambers following me, leaning on its horn, yelling at me for absolutely no reason. I had nowhere to go and gave him the finger, then it drove past me. I wanted no trouble, but as I went to go around it at the next light, I lost my balance and fell a bit and bumped into the car as I came to a stop. The guy in the passenger seat (woman driving) started freaking out and screaming at me. The funny thing was, the car was an absolute piece of shit. It was an old, crappy Chevette type car. Also, the guy was pasty and scrawny - couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds, no exaggeration. They rode alongside me in front of Tweed and he kept screaming, telling me to pull over. It was the strangest thing.