From: http://austincycling.org/forum/

A Post by Stuart Dupuy

Today I was driving westbound on Southwest Parkway at 8:15 a.m. and I came up on 2 riders, in the lane and not on the shoulder, during heavy rush hour traffic. I was patiently following them and another car roared around them and honked. Incredibly, one of the cyclists flipped off the driver. I then pulled up next to the 2 riders when they moved to the shoulder, and asked the guy to please not flip off cars while riding on Southwest Parkway, since that is where I also ride (I live there), and I do not want to encourage hostility from cars to cyclists. He told me to f-ck off, called me an a-shole, and then flipped me off as well. I pulled over and we had a fairly heated conversation, which fortunately ended up without coming to blows, but really disturbed me prompting this post.

I am a long-time Austin cyclist, shaved legs and everything to prove it, and I just had a successful 10:44 finish in Leadville for my 3rd time last month. I have done probably 70 local bike races over the last 10 years, and love riding around town both on and off road.

Honestly, I am scared of riding on the roads around Austin because of behavior like this, and because I saw a dead cyclist on 360 a couple of years ago. Are we trying to make car drivers resent us so we can risk our lives?

If you are going to be irresponsible enough to ride on a major road like Southwest Parkway during rush hour, can you please keep your finger to yourself and not taint all other cyclists in Austin by being a jerk? I'm all for sharing the road, but I also don't particularly feel like creating a battle between cars and bikes, because we the cyclists will lose that one.

Thanks.

Stuart Dupuy

p.s. The middle finger man would not tell me his name, although he took my picture and a picture of my license plate. I told him my name was Stuart Dupuy, and asked him his name, and he said "Stuart Dupuy."

Nice.