Originally Posted by Matt L

I'm not sure about my current home-state, but MO was my last one. It's illegal to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk or on a pedestrian crosswalk in MO. Same offence as doing so in your car, of course. It's also illegal to ride opposing traffic, for the same reason.

Just how many minutes of your life do you spend behind a bicycle? And would you really get to your destination that much faster if it were a slow driver in front of you?

I've spent years commuting exclusively on a bicycle, and have had a lot of close calls, due to cars thinking that I don't need even half a lane. I have banged my fist on a number of car deck lids, when the driver was close enough. But at least I did no damage.

Some people I knew back then hated car drivers. Two stories come to mind:

1: A car passed very close to the rider, who saw it coming and retrieved a tool out of the back pocket of his jersey. Put a nice scratch down the side of the car. Driver stopped, and the cyclist offered to put a matching scratch on the other side, no charge!

2: Similar situation, but the cyclist reacted after the car passed. Grabbed a glass beer bottle out of his water-bottle holder (it was actually legal in MO to drink while driving then, so no law broken by having the beer while riding), threw it at the car and shattered the bottle on the back window. The driver stopped and started to look menacing, until the cyclist retrieved a rather large chain from his bag. The driver got back in his car and left.