I've had drivers intentionally swerve into me because I'm an "asshole" for taking up some of the right side of the lane. A lot of people are jerks to bicyclists. Even had a guy yell, "pay registration like the rest of us." To which I yelled back, "I do!"

In LA it was common to give extra room to lane splitting motorcyclists, and they'd give you a wave to show their appreciation. Rarely do I ever experience the kind of courtesy afforded to motorcyclists I observed while living in LA as to bicyclists in the city I live now. I did have a gentleman with a bike rack on his car move over for me while stopped at a light to give me some room, but of course, he understood as a fellow cyclist.

My out-there suggestion is to force any able bodied citizen to ride a bicycle on the road prior to getting a drivers license so they at least know what it's like.

Or best of all, cities should model their bicycle infrastructure like Portland, as I can't even recall an incident between myself and a vehicle while living there because of how they designed and implemented bike lanes.

This is absolutely not a "fact of life" in the USA. At various points in my life, I have spent a lot of time riding my bike on the streets. I have never had anybody throw anything at me.

Although this is probably because I am courteous and acknowledge that my bike going 15 mph is essentially an obstacle to all of the cars which are going 45 mph.

Thanks. It did seem to be an offhand mention to me, something like "well, that's just how life is: water is wet and cyclists get pelted with trash." Glad to hear this is not universal.

I don't appreciate your victim-blaming.

"A lot of time" is probably not enough. I've spent enough time riding to have had at least 3 objects thrown at me, including a beer bottle, a wet wad of something, and some unknown object. On all three occasions these were juveniles having "fun", not someone angry about my cycling courtesy.

I like to ride my bike. I have had beer bottles and garbage thrown at me before.

Oh and people yelling get off the road...

I have had a phone book thrown at me (among other things) while cycling and this is in California, USA.

Lot of angry people live in this country; when they are driving cars it really comes out.

Of all the places I've lived, California was the absolute worst as far as anti-cycling sentiment is concerned. While riding to work, I'd regularly have people roll down their windows to yell abuse at me. This was outside Sacramento; I can't speak to the rest of the state. Where I live now, I occasionally get yelled at, and I've had people roll coal on me, but it's less frequent.

I rode a bike back when riding a bike wasn't very popular. People who owned "10speeds" only had them so they could take them out on the weekend and show their friends they had a "10-speed".

I rode shoulders and shared dangerous roads --no shoulder a bike could ride on alongside a 40/45mph road.

I never had things thrown at me. Now, I never intentionally tried pissing drivers off, that's for sure. Or maybe I was lucky, or those drivers were especially nice. Possibly as well, since I was only the odd bike, it wasn't irritating drivers.

On the other hand, I do recall a few other odd cyclists "advising me" to keep some D-cells with me in case I had to hurl one at a car. I never carried one.

That said, people thought it was peculiar that I would ride a bike and not own a car. Basically, I just could not afford one at that time.

I moved to the US for grad school (in the south). Biking to school, I remember people yelling at me, and people driving pickup trucks feigning to run into me and honking very loudly. Very confused as to the thought process going on in the mind of those people.

They’re just being assholes. No seriously - this is all you need to know about their thought processes, because this is all they know about their thought processes.

Some people think cyclists don't belong on the road.

I've been riding a bike to work on and off for several years, and I pretty much also think cyclists don't belong on the road. The road is dangerous, far better to ride on sidewalks.

In the Northern Virginia suburbs where I live, there aren't a lot of people on the sidewalks. When I do pass a pedestrian, I slow down and give them a wide berth so they aren't startled. Sometimes I'll even ride into the street to give them more room, especially if they're walking a dog. And then, I get back on the sidewalk where my life isn't in the hands of aggressive or distracted drivers.

The issue with riding sidewalks, outside of pedestrians and it being outright illegal in most states, is driveways and curb cuts. At any reasonable cycling speed drivers will not see or react to you in time, because they're almost always focused on the road looking for passing auto traffic.

Far better in some cases, but far more illegal in others.

Since sidewalks in many places are rarely used by actual pedestrians it'd probably be better, and cheaper, to install paved bike paths instead.

Never had anything thrown at me, but I have been close passed and sworn at more times than I would like to count.

It happens pretty regularly in the Midwest although I haven't had anything thrown at me in a long time. I pretty regularly get honked at, yelled at, cutoff, or buzzed by passing cars. I have thought about using a camera but I am already bad enough about keeping things charged.