Why drivers hate motorized bikes

[Nutcracker]

This was actually yesterday:


Late this afternoon while driving into the bright setting sun, on a busy four lane divided road I found myself behind a motorized bicycle. The rider was a guy about 55 or 60, no vest, no light or reflector and wearing dark clothes. The moron was in the right traffic lane instead of the clearly marked bicycle lane. He had the little Chinese two stroke, on a wally world bike, at the legal 19 mph. He suddenly (at 19 mph sudden is relative) swerved into a right turn only lane and blew through the red light and turned right.
No hand signal, no look over his shoulder, blissfully unaware or apathetic, he was a DOA waiting to happen. I slowed down to allow about three mistakes distance and stopped at the light.
He continued, in the traffic lane, not the bike lane, now going the same direction I was and suddenly (again it's all relative) swerved from the far right lane across two busy lanes and into the middle turn lane, all with no signal, look or care.
If I had not slowed to allow for a stupid factor, he would have swerved into my car or directly in front of me.
Motorized bikes have had a dubious reputation since their recent popularity. The majority of the riders are clearly meth addicts and drunks. This guy was a classic example of why drivers hate on conscientious riders of mopeds and reasonable polite motorized bikers.

 

[steampunk]

ok so the guy was an idiot............ive seen just as bad behavior out of car drivers....but im not finger pointing either direction here, all i have to say is that the majority of the people i talk to that ride these things are concious of everything else going on ........as far as i knew im not suppposed to be in the bike lane while motoring in co myself...maybe its the same in the location you speak of...the red light thing....this guy is a paticular brand of idiot...he will eventually get hit......reflective vests and such...an awesome idea..but not always available.... i ride my bicycle or m-bike as much as i can instead of driving my car...ami i going to wear a full gettup everytime..no...late at night /or dusk etc...yeah im going to wear whatever reflective stuff i can....but alot of these meth addicts and drunks you speak of...yeah i know tweekers like to build these to are probably not even close to the frame of mind that it takes to operate any motor vehicle lol......always remember that a few bad apples spoils the batch...but turn it around...watch out for idiots...because most of us are paying attention......grew up on 2 wheels know thats when on a motorcycle of any kind including our motorized bicycles its when not if you fall or get hit by an idiot not paying attention


basically all im saying is dont let an idiot make you think we are all like that

 

[bairdco]

sad thing is, i've seen the same thing happen around here all the time.

even sadder, is i run into guys on bikes that are tweekers and drunks all the time, too.

on the bright side, though, natural selection should take care of them and i won't see them around anymore.

 

[biknut]

It's better for the idiots to be driving a MB than a tank-uv.

What I do when encountering a idiot on a bicycle blocking traffic on a busy street is, I pull my tank-uv up right behind them and stand on the horn as they ride along. I don't pass them either, just follow and blow.

They have a right to ride on a busy street, and I have a right to blow my horn. You wouldn't believe the nasty words that come out of their mouths, but you have to read lips to tell what they're saying over my loud horn lol.

 

[Nutcracker]

I didn't want to make it a condemnation of MBers. I'm an MBer. Yesterday I saw three other MBers on various bikes around the city. Two were teens or college age, both shiny, sickly and scruffy in appearance. One had a badly warped rear wheel that looked almost like a circus act. One of the young guys I saw yesterday also blew through a stop sign at a less busy intersection.
I thought about chasing them down and lecturing them but the old axiom goes: "You can't argue with a sick mind"' Yes it is sad when the most noticeable ones are the drunk-a-holics and addicts. I see regular MBers frequently as well, they don't stand out like the idiots though.
I get fed up with people yelling or finger waving at me when I'm riding at legal speed in the bike lane. They probably have had encounters or witnessed MBers being stupid and vent their anger on me, and other MBers, I suspect.
Edit: The worst accident I've been in was when a Lincoln driver ran a stop sign and T-boned our little Datsun, putting me in the emergency room. Stupid Lincoln drivers!