why do drivers hate cyclists so?

today, like most days, i road my bike to work (which was a meeting at thomas circle). just kinda tootling along. happy as a clam on a warmish december morn. i was riding in the bike lane and got to a stop light (on 7th and rhode island nw). a woman in a car honked at me. i was certain the honk wasn't at me because i was just sitting there in the bike lane not doing anything.

nope, she honked again and started to gesticulate.

i was totally baffled.

one nice thing about being on a bike is you can be more interactive. so i pushed my little bianchi back to see what all the fuss was about. she wouldn't roll down her window at first, but was saying so many not-so-nice words (the kind with four letters, or at least their root is four lettered) that i knocked on her window. she rolled it down and i said:

"what seems to be the problem?"

she was yelling all crazy like and told me that i needed to pick a lane that i was in the middle all over the place and needed to pick a lane.

"this is a dedicated bike lane and you actually are not supposed to be here"

well this really made her unhappy because she decided to pull her car forward, turning towards me, nearly hitting me.

for some funny reason, i was still totally unruffled. (i am on some weird happy buzz this week. totally not normal for this time of year it being country operational plan time and SUPER dark all the stinkin time) but i realized it was a loosing battle to try and explain to this idiot what it meant to have a bike lane. so i just pulled away and the light turned green.

she made a pretty aggressive move to cut me off, but you know i am a good cyclist so i was yet unphased. this apparently really bugged her.

she stopped her car, turned around and chucked a brand new bottle of juice at me (top still on). good thing she throws about as well as she drives. it just hit the road and sat there.

but seriously, why all the animosity?

i still made it to my meeting with plenty of time, and then got to tell the story. this got me some great accolades. someone told me that i was a "bad ass" but then someone else corrected him. apparently my glasses made me a "nerdy bad ass" then a "wonky bad ass".

i think bad ass would have been just fine thanks! but i take what i can get.

still, throwing your juice and getting all crazy because you are so stupid you don't know what a bike lane is. that, my friends, is a sorry state of affairs!