Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
I move over in the lane to the left edge, which usually gets the idiot to just go around me, but not this clown, he pulls up beside me and gives me the finger. I return the favor, so his next move is to run me off the road. The crazy thing is as he is pulling into my lane with his left rear tire next to my right front,
HE HAS HIS TURN SIGNAL ON!
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It's still unwise for a motorcycle operator to return the hostilities being projected by an overly aggressive driver, regardless.
I routinely drive anywhere from 6 to 15 miles above the speed limit, following the flow of traffic as much as I can. When traffic is light, I generally settle for 7 miles above the speed limit. Even at those speeds, I still on a daily basis manage to get somebody who apparently loves my rear end. What to do? I generally ignore them.
It used to be that I did not like having somebody riding my butt. However, I got stationed in Italy for a good number of years. Over there, I quickly learned that riding one's butt isn't aggressiveness, as such. It's just how they drive. Also - straddling lane lines, backing up on a highway to turn off at a missed exit, being passed by motorcycles because they didn't even pretend to follow the lane markers, using the breakdown lane as a driving lane, having an Italian-style conversation on the cell phone (lots and lots of gesturing)... All sorts of things happened there every day, and Americans driving over there would either quickly get used to it, or get into a serious car wreck trying to respond to what they perceived as aggressive behavior. (I did mention that I was stationed there? That implies a continuing presence of some 10000+ American servicemembers and their families.)
Point is, responding in kind to aggressive behavior seldom solves anything on the road. Better to just ignore it or get out of the way. I know it's sometimes hard to ignore such behavior from the occasional jackanape. However, it surely beats getting plastered all over the road, especially if you're driving a motorcycle.