I now take active, positive, and if necessary, aggressive
control of my driving situation. If I sense even the
slightest hint of danger (the list of hints is huge),
then I do something to remove that danger from my presense.
I now have the attitude on the road that I *DO* own it
and to hell with everybody else and to hell with the
laws.

I agree with you...to a point.

There are many, MANY hints of impending danger when riding, and many
little tricks that I've learned to spot it well in advance. These
hints, when detected, require action to be taken NOW, without
hesitation -- whether it means flashing your bright lights, beeping
your horn, or hitting the binders. He who hesitates is lost,
especially when you're surrounded by brain-dead motorists.

Luckily, my only riding since the kids were born (16 years ago) has
been largely rural, cross-country cycling -- and damned little of that.
Of course, there was a guy my age that was killed here last week when
a deer jumped out in front of him -- so "rural" doesn't always mean
"safe", either...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"