Chongoman had a good post in response to someone asking for commuter advice. his message was stay away from road rage at all costs, do not engage the drivers at all, be defensive and have fun.

it made me think about a situation yesterday – I got cutoff so a guy could turn into a Lowe’s right in front of me, instead of 2 seconds and letting me get by the entrance. And i thought for about as long as it took to go by the parking lot how easy it would be to watch him go in, then have at his SUV for a couple blows. No one would have caught me hauling out into an urban area on my bike. No one would hardly have even cared.

But nothing good would have come of that. I had not thought about it until just now, which was good. if i had pursued that, at the very least it would have eaten at me over and over for a few days. And me getting away clean with an ulcer is the best possible outcome – someone attacking me with their car, running me down, pushing me off the road etc etc etc are all more likely.

In the car, you can be a little agro and not really get into anything as long as you don’t get carried away. But on a bike, you are completely 100% naked and vulnerable. You might get a shot in and vanish, but you’re a target from then on. But the upside of commuting blows away anything in a car – other than tired, i usually am in a good mood when i’m done commuting.

Its too easy to let the general agro nature of a commute make you take offense at stuff that had no effect – getting cut off sucked, but I saw the whole thing play out and avoided it. Can’t say I won’t ever give someone the finger, but the reminder to avoid avoid avoid confrontation really can’t be heard too often.