I wouldnt want to lay claim its a better or worse experience than anyone elses experiences, we all encounter varying degrees of prejudice & abuse in our lives to some extent,and Im sure there are others who have it worse than me, I simply look at my bike commuting experiences to be not terribly positive for most of the time, though I must still get something out of it as else I wouldnt still be doing it after all these years. But you know after a week of being put through the meat grinder with it sometimes as I call it, it does take its toll.
obviously most of the abuse, which is fortunately rare but does happen occasionally, is always from the sexist/misogyny angle, but when someones just close passing you like an idiot, I dont think you register to them as anything but just a cyclist, they dont pick on me particularly because they see a middle age woman riding a bike, theyre just not thinking conciously about that aspect, if theyre even thinking at all, youre just something thats in their way and their perma road rage state almost blinds them to the fact youre a human being too. Which is where that more than a cyclist campaign comes from.
