“Swimming with the sharks” on a bike in Missouri

I don't know anyplace where bicyclists are immune to getting honked at or verbally assaulted while out on a bike ride. I've had my share of run-ins up here in the “laid-back” Pacific NW.

Some places are worse than others, though. In the 20 or so states I've bicycled in, I'd say Missouri — on my cross-country bicycle trip in 1984 — scared me the most. I even wrote about it in my TransAmerica journal at the time.

The Missouri Bicycle Federation came across this letter in the Joplin (Missouri) Globe from a cyclist whose had his share of bad experiences:

I'm writing to those knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who think they own the road, shouting expletives and thinking that honking their horns is some sort of photon energy ray that will disintegrate the bike rider in front of them.

So, if you can stop slobbering on yourself long enough, I have a news flash for you, brainiac – You don't own the “honk”ing road.

 There's plenty more from the writer. It also brought out some responses, all of whom lamented the state of cycling on Missouri roads.