Usually, I take that as an opportunity to just go ahead and sharpen my wit on the guy’s pointy little sandpapered head, but I guess I’ve been infected by the calls for moderation from folks like Tom Bowden and I decided to take a different tack. My side of the conversation went something like this:

“Really?” I said, “Let me ask you a question: how much better would it be if you had 20% less traffic on the road when you were driving your truck, leading to less chance of an accident and fewer traffic jams? What would it mean to you if there were 20% fewer cars on the road, making potholes and causing other damage which in turn causes damage to your truck and costs you much more money to run it?

“Bicycles take up hardly any room on the roadway and do virtually NO damage to it, so wouldn’t it benefit YOU, personally, if the roadway facilities for bicycles were improved so that we could encourage just one person out of five to ride a bike rather than drive their car?

“As a professional driver, then, aren’t bicycles really your friend and not your enemy?”

I hold no illusions about changing the guy’s mind and making him a cycling advocate, but he had started out really critical and sarcastic, and finally he just sorta disappeared out of the conversation.