Can't we just all get along?

I was on my way home from work yesterday, cycling along a familiar stretch of road in Sacramento.  The last intersection before I get onto the bike trail is not really set up in a cyclist's favor.  In my direction of travel, there were two left-turn lanes and one narrow lane for traffic going either straight or to the right.  In order to get to the bike trail, I needed to go straight.  Unless one is heading to the bike trail or the wastewater treatment plant, there is little reason that one would go straight at this intersection.  Here I was, nevertheless.  I got there just as the light turned red, so I was sitting right behind the crosswalk, in the middle of the lane.  Ordinarily, I try to scootch over to the left-side of such a shared lane, but there really isn't any extra space here.  It is a narrow lane.  I believe that the CVC would call it "substandard width". 

After sitting there patiently for about thirty seconds, a car pulls up behind me.  It was a small car.  I looked over my right shoulder to see if its turn signal was on.  Nope.  If it was, I might have considered crowding the car next to me--the one in the nearest left-turn lane--to allow this compact to pass me.  No turn signal, though.

So I sat for a few more moments.  Behind me, I hear a shout.  "Get out of my way!"  I get hollered at from time to time, but this one seemed a little unusual.  Nobody was going anywhere, after all, and I double-checked--no turn signal.  He saw me look over my right shoulder.  "Get out of my way, let me turn!" 

So I looked a third time.  "Use your turn signal!" I responded. 

"What?!" was the driver's retort.

"Your turn signal!  Use your blinker!" I made a hand gesture suggesting a flashing light, opening-and-closing my right hand. 

He shouted some explicative and gunned his engine several times.  I faced forward, choosing not to crowd into the left-turn lane on this fellow's account.  After all, his turn signal was still not flashing. 

He gunned his engine again and put it into first gear, roaring right up behind me.  Then he put it into neutral, returning to his original position, still gunning his engine. 

How am I supposed to respond to this?  I sat calmly, watching for the light to turn.   There were probably ten cars waiting to turn left--I had plenty of ready witnesses, should this guy decide to use his vehicle as a weapon. 

The light changed and we all went.  I went straight, the impatient shouter turned right (still gunning his engine, of course), and everyone else turned left. 

I am not clear as to how anyone benefitted from this situation.  If I had been on a motorcycle or in an automobile, me getting out of his way wouldn't have been even an option--and if I drove such a vehicle to work each day, I might have been sitting right there in my motorized rig waiting to go home, just as I was yesterday on my bike.  He gunned his engine and got his hackles up, burning a little extra petrol--which annoys me a little.  I'd rather he'd saved that money to fix his turn signal, if it truely didn't work. 

I certainly didn't benefit and neither did the cause of cyclists.  If I had cowered over onto the sidewalk or into the left-turn lane, I would have only encouraged his future similar behavior toward cyclists.  By doing what I did, I only angered him which probably leads to more aggressive behavior toward cyclists.  It is difficult for me to communicate with every such driver that, if they follow the rules and use their turn signals, I will go BEYOND what the law requires and give extra space.  They don't realize that by giving this extra space, I am endangering myself a bit and probably making the folks in the left-turn lane nervous. 

It's a no-win, but whos-it in the beat-up little compact probably feels slighted that I didn't allow him to get onto his destination twenty seconds sooner.  Gunning his engine, I wonder if he considered killing me over those twenty seconds?