In the last few weeks of riding in the Cincinnati area I experienced two incidents of road rage. One guy close to the downtown area started cursing at me out of his car window. He quickly pulled over got out of his car and starting chasing me on foot. He was running fast and I could see him in my mirror starting to gain on me. I was riding my 36" and was able to out run him, but it gave me quite a scare. Then two days ago I had another driver who honked at me pulled over and started also cursing at me telling me to get my ass out of the street. If there had been sidewalks I could have done that!
Does anyone else have any road rage stories?
not unicycle ones but it seems to be more of a problem in the US. Guessing it is often something to do with an entitlement complex meeting lifelong underachievement.
When cycling i was on a road where it was only safe if I stayed in the middle of the lane. At the time I was probably only going ~5mph under the speed limit. At the time the road was pretty quiet. Guy in (~10 year old) low end sporty car gets right on my rear and starts honking. He then pulls a dangerous overtake on a blind bend, brakes and tries to side swipe me forcing me to slam on my brakes and almost leave the road.
This was in a city where cycling is the norm (more so than London) and drivers are much more understanding of when lane dominance is necessary. I didn’t report it as i had no footage and cambridge police aren’t interested in anything short of an open and shut case of road rage against cyclists.
On the other hand pavements are much more common in the UK but are illegal to cycle on. I have had a PCSO (read wannabe rentacop) try to threaten me with a fine for riding a 20 on an empty pavement before.
I always ride with music and being a retired dancer I move my arms around and tend to dance a bit. I think maybe this is pissing people off. I may look a bit silly doing what I do but frankly I don’t care what people think, I’m having fun and not hurting anyone.
Good for you, keep it up!!! Just be careful.
When they see someone having fun, living life, they look in the mirror and get pissed off that their own life sucks so much… Obviously they want to chase you down and beat you for that 
But really, that sounds pretty scary. I’ve never had someone chase me. Just teenagers and their being teenagers… Honking, swerving towards me, yelling at me, thats about the worst of it for me. Much more positive than negative situations for me thank goodness.
I’m curious what your doing in the photo? Are you riding one footed, with your other leg up in front? How far can you go like that? Impressive whatever it is.
On a 36er by the looks of it too!!
I’ve never been chased by a real road-rager, the most I’ve been chased by are kids on BMX’s hoping to beat me to the end of the road or up a hill.
I do routinely get yelled at/honked/generally angry responses to riding on the road though. This is both on a Uni and 2-wheeler. My neighbourhood is just not very bike friendly I guess - It gets better in whichever direction I ride in though. I live in the crap-valley in the middle of some great towns 
My town’s full of the usual chav-types, the early 20-year olds who have been driving 2 years and think they own the road in their beaten up Micra’s, so I can’t really expect too much, though it’s funny when I go on my town’s facebook pages and see all the usual ‘BIKERS DON’T PAY ROAD TAX SO SHOULD GET OUT OF MY ROAD’, there’s almost always someone who posts something like ‘Not to mention that idiot with the unicycle’
Even on the uni, I tend to take a fairly ‘dominant’ road position, which I suppose must annoy some drivers because obviously no one’s allowed to clog up their roads apart from other drivers who can break the speed limit if necessary. But I’ll take abuse all day if it means I don’t have to ride 2 inches from the curb, and avoid all the underage mums pushing prams into the road without looking.
Is there practical room for both cars and unicycles on the road? If not, and if you’re out there riding in an entertaining way, I can understand why drivers would get upset. I’m a friend of cyclists but when I’m driving and a cyclist is causing dangerous conditions it definitely irritates me. I don’t want to hurt anyone or have life-long legal issues because someone else chose to to take risks.
That being said, I wouldn’t yell expletives or chase someone down. I honk sometimes, but that’s how you communicate when you’re in a car. How would you like people to tell you you’re too close to traffic?
Maybe you can have someone take a video of you as you dance ride on the street in question and post it.
With the seat up that high. If that’s a 36er I’m guessing David will pull off to the side of the road one day to sling a rock at him.
This is a good point.
When I’m on my uni, I try to ride as much like a vehicle as possible. Most places I seem to have plenty of room.
The only road I’ve actually stopped going up due to traffic was actually while riding my bike. I was attempting one of our local climbs on my single speed, and got the the point where I was going so slow, and felt so wobbly, that I was a road hazard. I ride my unicycle there every other week and feel much more comfortable.
With 40 years of riding experience, 25 years of that on Big wheels (got a Tom Miller 40" in 1988) I can ride inches from the curb. When I’m dancing I’m not all over the road. In my mirror I can see all cars approaching and I’m extra careful when I see a car coming often dismounting if I see they are not moving over. I have survived this long riding in Europe and all over the USA by being careful. Of course I have had tons of positive feedback from drivers over the years and I must have thousands of pic’s in cell phones. It just less than 1% that are full of rage.
Do you have video footage of you riding? I’d like to see:
This. It might give us a clue as to what’s actually happening.
I haven’t ridden nearly as much or as long as you have, I would imagine that it would be emotionally shocking for lack of better term to have a such situation and still be able to ride on right after. I’m pretty thankful, like most of the people here, I’ve only had a very very small percentage of people reacting badly. Usually people are amused at the sight.
Damn.
It’s a bummer to hear about abuse on the other side of my state. I can’t think of any real incidents aside from the occasional passing teenage shout.
I think that summarizes the problem. I’ve seen several times that four bicyclists would occupy all four lanes of a road ! I don’t think unicyclists are ever that disrespectful toward other road users, but unfortunately we get may get lumped in with the bicyclists.
Personally, I’ve never experienced any road rage from motorists. I make sure to give them plenty of space, and they seem to respond in the same manner.
Some people are just A-holes. Or having a very bad day. But, if I may put on my Devil’s advocate hat, they may be put off if your riding looks “unbusinesslike” enough that they may think you might not be paying attention and could at any moment swerve in front of them. That would be sufficient reason to get annoyed. When riding in the same road as cars, better to keep it straight and be as predictable as possible. But I’m sure you already know that.
I’m fortunate to have a world-class bike path nearby, and lots of great places to ride where I don’t have to share the pavement with cars. I still get nervous when going on organized rides, with lots of shoulder-riding. Having a glasses-mounted mirror helps a lot though.