Thank You - You're Welcome!

Commuting home today..

Bumper to bumper. Unusually heavy traffic for the 101 in Central Kali.

Oh, wait, the MidState Fair is on. No wonder traffic is heavy.

Splitting errr, LaneShaaaaaaring, the observant cage driver on the RHS saw my ClearWater's on full blast..

....and promptly moved over to the right to allow plenty of room.

As I rode aside, I noticed his driver window was down..

..and as I passed, almost as a loud thought to a whisper to full voice, I said:

"THANK YOU!"

To my chucklement, I heard, even with ear buds in,

"You are WELCOME!"

Made my freaking day.

Some Kali drivers rock.

That's awesome. When that happens to me, I snap to with a sharp salute. They smile as I pass by. There are some nice cagers out there.

yup, it CAN happen! I wave at motorists almost daily during my commute which requires a modest amount of splitting. Most of the time I have plenty of room but folks still move over so I give' em a wave.

It's very easy to be courteous to other motorist instead of acting like an entitled knucklehead through horns, fingers and revving engines (aka "rev-bombing" I've learned) if the path is not clear.

Regards,

Mr. BR

I moved from Western NY to SoCal this past January. Part of my decision to make the jump hinged on the fact that I could make OC commuting tolerable by sharing lanes legally. I've logged 15k miles since then and I gotta be honest, the respect for two-wheelers and willingness of Cali drivers share the road are orders of magnitude better than anywhere else I've ridden. Maybe it's the pot....

Anyways, I always give the particularly courteous driver a nod or a wave.

FrankD said:

Maybe it's the pot....

Click to expand...

I think that's a strong possibility... :yes:

majicmaker said:

FrankD said:

Maybe it's the pot....

Click to expand...

I think that's a strong possibility... :yes:

Click to expand...

Then Colorado must have the best cagers.
It's always great to hear about 'aware' cagers, unfortunately they're rare here in Flatistan.

That would certainly be a "made my day" sort of experience.

I do a fair amount of lane splitting (lanes here in the UK are generally not wide enough for sharing). Whenever a driver moves over to give me room I will always attempt an acknowledgement, but because of the tight clearances I'm working with (often only an inch or two either side) I daren't lift a hand off the grip. What I often do, on the side of the driver, and as I'm just going into his forward sight line, is raise my four fingers* while keeping my thumb firmly hooked under the bar. It's enough for the driver to see assuming he's looking (curiously generally a "he", "she"s seem very unlikely to move over - also I've never had a "she" try to impede my passing, unlike a few "he"s).

The best "made my day" occasion I had, I was on a motorway, three lanes of congested traffic, I'm in the middle lane. On my off-side, a car slowly passes me. In the passenger seat is a girl, probably 12 or 13, obviously bored (as only a young teenager can be), presumably daddy driving. Anyway, as they pass me, she looks over to me, and gives a bored wave. At this moment, I have to brake sharply (possibly because I'm looking at young girls instead of at the road). Anyway, maybe ten minutes later, my lane is moving faster, and I come up to this car. I turn my head, take my hand off the bar, and give an exaggerated arm wave.

The excited grin that comes over her face was that special moment.

Never saw them again.

(It's a pity I can't make the ladies grin normally.)

* Not to be confused with "raise my forefingers", which would give entirely the wrong message. Unless he was an impeder. (Actually, I never show my displeasure to another road user when I'm on the bike, I feel too vulnerable.)

Yesterday a very slow car pulled out in front of us. My thumb was sent to the cruise control button to turn it off but it went wayward and accidentally hit the horn instead, I felt bad about honking at the car, it was unintended. However, as soon as I hit the horn the car immediately pulled over and waved me by. I had pillion wave nicely at the people in the car.

Yesterday I had a slow, smokey, stinky garbage truck pull over and wave us by, pillion waved nicely at the driver.

Yesterday I had two very slow tradesman trucks in front of me, they were unrelated to each other. Every time we came to a passing lane the rear truck would pull out and block the passing lane. When the opportunity arose, pillion did not do a nice wave at the driver, using only one finger.

We have pictures of a very dented car with the blond driver furiously texting away as she drifted completely into out lane. We have a picture of a large gravel filled dump truck that kept charging our rear bumper (as soon as the driver saw the camera he did back off). We have pictures of the bung hole that blocked the passing lane yesterday. I was thinking about starting a Hall Of Shame page where we could post up pictures of drivers behaving badly but perhaps Don shows that we need a Hall Of Fame page that shows drivers behaving nicely.

Note the cigarette, the phone and the empty lane to the left of her car where she is supposed to be.

Let's get back to things that make you smile.

Sunday, I was riding around 150 miles of dirt roads up through New Hampshire on my Vstrom. These are, for the most part, just unpaved country roads, though a few are not maintained for winter use, meaning they are more remote and have no houses on them. Those that are maintained often do have houses, but usually at a much lower density than areas with paved roads.

Naturally, riding through these areas one is bound to come upon folks out near the road, some walking dogs, some pushing strollers, some just walking along or standing in their own yard or driveways. Without exception, everyone that I came upon that day either initiated a wave first, or waved back when I initiated it.

Maybe it's because my ManStrom still has the quiet stock exhaust? Or maybe it's 'cause I tend to slow down a little bit when passing by any houses or people close to or in the road? But everyone off the beaten track sure seems more agreeable than the butt heads in the city or suburbs that wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire.

The one encounter that really made my day was a young couple walking along on the opposite side of the road pushing a stroller and with a young boy walking alongside. When the boy heard the bike his head turned on a swivel and his eyes lit up. A big old grin came across his face and he waved to me with both arms. Of course I gave him a thumbs up back.

Fred W said:

The one encounter that really made my day was a young couple walking along on the opposite side of the road pushing a stroller and with a young boy walking alongside. When the boy heard the bike his head turned on a swivel and his eyes lit up. A big old grin came across his face and he waved to me with both arms. Of course I gave him a thumbs up back.

Click to expand...

Of course Fred leaves out the part where the boy's parents yanked the kid by the arm scolding, "How many times have we warned you about those strange men out here!?!"

No, no... this was in rural New Hampshire, not out on Long Island, Mike !

Here's another thing I like.

Going down a backroad, and you see up ahead a car pull up and stop at a stop sign. You think they're going to 'go for it', but they wait for you to pass by. They could have made it, and I would have had to slow down, but they didn't...they waited.

I always give them a wave in acknowledgement and thanks.