Because, lemme tell ya, when I'm driving to and from work on roads where the speed limit is either 60 or 65 mph and having to watch carefully to avoid literally DOZENS of bicyclists, it annoys the hell out of me. Just the other morning I was coming home at around 430 AM and right as I reached the intersection of [60 mph Farm to Market road] and [65 mph State Hwy] I had to stop for a red light. Not so, apparently, for the two bicyclists who rode the length of the first road on the shoulder before slooowly rolling out into the intersection as they repeatedly glanced both ways for traffic approaching the green light (probably at a speed of 70 mph or more, downhill and coming out of a curve) and nonchalantly ran the light. In the dark, no less. It's right up there with the packs of bicyclists riding those same roads side by side on the shoulder: 1) It's illegal to drive on the shoulder and 2) when you insist on riding abreast it means I have to either get over a lane (when that's possible) or cruise my ton of 65 mph steel by you a lot more closely than either of us would like. So, to a point, I hear what MK and others are saying. A few years ago, last time I took defensive driving, the guy teaching the class spoke about driving a VERY high traffic state highway where the speed limit is about 60, only to have to evade bicyclists riding in a pack and taking up THE ENTIRE RIGHT LANE. Freakin' bike convoy doing half the posted speed limit on half the road: Please try not to get too upset with the person who inevitably kills several of you (surprising how often that happens in this bike crazy town. ) It's sad that down in Houston they actually have to put up SIGNS on the FREEWAYS saying bikes are prohibited by law, but I see why they do. Impeding the flow of traffic is such a bad idea they made it illegal, folks.

Yet this was not your situation, not at all. You weren't one of those idiots riding in packs of a dozen down interstates and state highways. You were in a residential neighborhood; it's quite likely if you'd been traveling as fast as you could on your bike you would've been SPEEDING. Maybe since "it was late" and there was no one else around the guy DID think he had the "right" to speed a little, but a passing cop would probably have disagreed, and the fact darkness reduced visibility of things like bicyclists, children and animals is one reason why the limit is so low there. Maybe he thought you should've been on the sidewalk, but, as you say, the law also disagrees with him there: A bicycle is a vehicle, and it's required to travel on the street, not the sidewalk. I'm not going to lie and say I've never gotten annoyed by a bicylist on a downtown or residential street--but I recognize that that's MY problem, because they have not only the right but, as long as they're on a bike, the RESPONSIBILITY to be there.

So, yeah, in your situation I'd have been tempted to get his plate number and report him to the cops; sorry you had to put up with that.