Why John Curley empathizes with angry bike riders

It wasn’t long ago that KIRO Radio’s John Curley was a soldier in Seattle’s ongoing road war.

He was in the middle of his 27-mile bike ride to work when a driver decided to teach him a lesson.

Curley was near Eastgate, riding on the white fog line on his bicycle, instead of on the side of the road with all the broken glass. Everything was going fine until he pulled up to a stop light.

The driver next to Curley told him to move over while he was riding. Apparently, he was too close to the car lane.

“Then he comes up beside me and shakes his finger at me,” Curley explained. The driver then began inching his car closer to the 160-pound Curley to prove his point.

Curley could have let it go, but he didn’t. He followed the driver down to a parking lot and proceeded to pound on the driver’s-side window.

“Excuse me, you got a problem with me?” Curley asked. “Are you trying to teach me a lesson by trying to kill me?”

It’s why Curley understands the anger cyclists feel against drivers. There are plenty of lanes to drive in, there’s no reason to bully cyclists, he said.

“If you ride your bike in traffic, you’re riding like you’re in a war,” Curley said. “It’s a series of incidents of almost being hit. So when someone almost or does hit you, you go absolutely nuts on them.”