Attacked

Every single driver who endangers my life or someone I know, or someone I love gets to find out how their lack of consideration makes me feel.

Most of the time it *is *just lack of consideration (or more likely lack of concentration)- I'm not sure that warrants any sort of violent confrontation. If someone accidentally cuts you up/pulls out in front of you whilst you are driving a car is it a proportionate response to smash their windscreen/wing mirror/face in at the next set of lights? I would argue not and think I am not alone in considering those who do consider that behaviour reasonable to be fairly reprehensible.

Because you/me/we happen to experience this regularly on a bike it doesn't alter the original intention of the car driver - which I honestly believe is *not *to try and kill me. People, and that includes me, all make crap decisions - I do regularly and on occasions whilst cycling - I'm not sure physical violence/intimidating behaviour is the most effective way of delivering a sustained improvement in general road user behaviour. I would also have to factor an extra 20 minutes in to my commute to accomodate all the windscreen smashing-in I would have to do an a daily basis.

Of course there are exceptions - people who really don't care if they injure you or not - in these circumstances whilst they remain in control of the 2-ton steel killing machine and I remain on a bicyle I would exercise the utmost restraint. If they didn't kill me with the first attempt I'd rather not give them a 2nd shot at it.

I fundamentally disagree with the assertion that a calm considered approach somehow perpetuates bad driving and passes on a greater problem to other cyclists - I believe the opposite is more likely and that by resorting to agression *you *are passing an even graver problem onto the subsequent cyclists that motorist encounters.