Well, I admire your guts to tell off the jerk who was tossing garbage. As another denizen of the Northern Virginia traffic wars, I have to say that I have given up on other drivers. The other day I was doing 65 in the right hand lane of I-95 (4 lanes) and a truck behind me was flashing his brights because I was going too slow for him. Well, I have decided I cannot afford a ticket or an accident, so I just got over to the left and let him pass. Unfortunately, people aren’t going to change; there will always be ones who will drive like jerks no matter what, (and most of them around here seem to have diplomatic immunity anyway).
I can’t drive, and sometimes I think I don’t want to … seeing all the idiots driving in the Los Angeles area. I had someone cut me off while I was on a bicycle. Now, I’m a chick, but being a liberated chick I didn’t bother to get a female frame bike. Holy freaking GODS that hurt. If I were a guy I think my chances of having little Dragonblinks would’ve ended right there on the crossbar in a scream of pain. The worst part was limping the half mile home, wheeling my bike.
Anything smaller than a Lincoln Navigator or Ford Excursion (Fordasaurus Rex) just doesn’t exist here. You might as well bring your own crosshairs. But I do my best to not even flip people off, because you never know who’s got a gun.
So, despite regularly engaging in two dangerous driving activities (talking on your cell phone and changing lanes without signalling), you are “always driving defensively”? Your definition of “driving defensively” must be a lot different from mine.
I think the term for the above is “Driving OFFENSIVLY”… Sheesh! What’s wrong with going with ‘hands-free’? You can keep the dang earpiece in your dang ear even when the phone is OFF! That way your HANDS are FREE to SIGNAL! DUH!
Same thing happens to me all the time. Except if someone cut me off that badly, the boys would not be injured. For you see, I’d rather fly headfirst over the handlebars than land 'tween the legs. I’ve done it. 
Of course, this just might get me killed, but so might most of the things I do.
I don’t drive. Not (mainly) because of other idiot drivers, but because I don’t trust myself. When I’m out on lessons, occasionally I’ll catch myself and think damn, I didn’t check here or there or in some direction. And I realise what might have happened if someone had been in the place I didn’t check. So I don’t drive. But many people seem to have far less attention span than I do, and don’t think twice about risking the lives of many people. I don’t get it.
Besides, what with cycling everywhere, I’ve got tree-trunk quads.
That’s a fantastic quote. Mind if I paint that on the speedo of my bike? It’ll remind me of this wisdom whenever I decide to ride it.
I’m not going to add anything that hasn’t been said already, but my two cents:
Consider giving up the bike, or at least restricting where you ride it. I used to live in a rural area and had a motorcycle that I dearly loved to ride, and did nearly every day that the weather wasn’t crappy.
Then I moved to the city, and even though I never had an accident I had several near-misses. The level of risk was higher than I’m willing to accept, so I sold the bike. There are times I really miss it, but where I currently live it’s just too risky to ride. Of course this is a very personal thing, some people have a much higher tolerance for risk than I do.
If you do continue riding, either pretend you’re invisible to other drivers and ride accordingly or (as I used to do) pretend that all the other drivers are actively trying to kill you. Of course it sounds like you’ve been doing well in avoiding potential accidents already so you’re probably already doing this. If you aren’t already, buy and wear the best protective gear you can afford - some good leather can make the difference between some bumps and bruises and serious skin grafts if you do have an accident.
And if you haven’t already done this, consider taking a course from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. I think they’re nationwide so you should be able to find a course that’s close by. They generally offer two courses, one for beginners and one for experienced riders. Lots of info on how to get the most out of your bike, including swerving to avoid accidents and maximum performance braking, and lots of time on the practice range honing your technique. I can’t recommend this highly enough.
Lastly, although you certainly weren’t being unreasonable, just consider the risks involved in chasing down and chastising a driver before you do it again. There’s lots of wackos out there and they just might be driving the car that just cut you off.
The above post constitutes conclusive proof I’ve now become your mother.
Related article I ran into this morning (no pun intended):
The road more perilous for state’s bikers
Scary stuff. I especially enjoyed this anectdote:
I don’t ride a motorcycle but I do bicycle on streets and have been run off the road myself by an oblivious jerk who made a right turn into me. Many drivers are ignorant morons. Look before you change lanes.