Apparently the story behind this footage is that a cyclist yelled at an idiot driver to slow down and long story short, said cyclist ended up going for a ride on the hood of the idiot driver. The driver was arrested on attempted second-degree assault, driving under the influence of intoxicants, third-degree criminal mischief and reckless driving. Cute.
Naturally, there will always be the potential for static between cyclists and drivers as the roads are shared by both. The only difference is that one is in a 4000 lb vehicle, the other, 15- if you've managed to drop some serious dinero. I regard myself as a responsible cyclist. I obey all traffic signals, use hand signals when necessary, and ride the white line as if it's my religion. The roads I ride are off the beaten path. Some rides I may see 10 cars- on a busy day. The only problem with the off the beaten path routes is that you correspondingly increase the RF by 10000%- That's Redneck Factor for those of you reading at home.
I can only imagine the angst one might feel driving back to your humble abode, Skynyrd blaring, when a couple of spandex-clad homos keep the ice cold Bud from hitting your lips by a whopping 30 seconds.
This is all stemming from an incident yesterday in which a guy buzzed me and my buddy. I swear the sideview mirror was less than a foot from my shoulder. We were riding in the shoulder and noone was coming the other way. Now, in the roughly 2 1/2 years and over 10000 miles I've logged during that time, this is only the 2nd time I've had a near miss or near hit whatever way you look at it. Hilljunkie can attest to the other encounter at D2R2 2008.
I remember reading the Benidorm/Eastern Bloc forum (a local cycling club in the area) over the summer and several cyclists chimed in to say they've been buzzed by a red utility truck with license plate 27285. I was surprised to hear this as I've logged hundreds of miles in the area of said encounters and never had a problem- until yesterday. As I've said, I always ride in the shoulder or on the white line at worst so if I get clipped it's going to because someone is juiced to the bejesus or is a douchebag getting a thrill out of endangering the lives of others. Or maybe it's combination of both. This guy clearly has an issue with cyclists and why something hasn't been done legally against this guy after being positively id'd (plate/vehicle description) on several occasions is beyond me. It appears he will not be happy until he foments a fight with a buzzed rider or unfortunately, hits someone. I'm not a fighter by any means nor is my 150lb frame something to write home about, but when my life is endangered by blatant recklessness, we have a problem.
I don't condone the behavior of irresponsible riders. Blowing lights, stop signs, riding down the middle of the road, etc. is just asking for trouble. The real problem is that the general public is completely ignorant in regards to the rights of cyclists. Drivers honestly think "bikes don't belong on the road". Scary. The law (at least CT anyway) clearly states that bikes are vehicles and recently there was a "3 ft. law" passed which frankly, I don't know how that would ever be enforced. There needs to be serious repercussions for the actions against cyclists by negligent drivers. I suppose one can chalk it up to that 2% of the population that thinks the world belongs to them and generally are just misanthropes. In the meantime, I'll keep riding as safely as I can, carry a cell, do some more mountain biking, and pack heat. Ok, I'm kidding on the last one.
3 comments:
What makes you think they're waiting until they get home to crack the Bud Ice?
Yeah, this is true.
The RF is a huge problem in NH. Our lunch riding group had many encounters with a particular individual. He drove a Rav-4, NH plates X-HITE. Does that tell you something right there? We reported him multiple times, but until he physically does something to you, it is not prosecutable. His favorite was to lock up all fours coming up behind you, then hurl a stream of profanities at you before pealing off. I had a particularly troubling incident with him riding alone on a busy road one winter day. There were large snow banks. I was riding as close to them as possible. Nobody was coming the other way. Yet this guy nearly clipped me. He then stops. I stop. He rolls down his passenger window so I could hear his verbal tirade. He is about 30ft ahead of me. I scream WTF is your problem. He throws Rav-4 in reverse, throwing up rooster tails of slush coming right at me. He nearly hit the car that came up behind him. Had it not been for that guy, I might not be here today. Don't know if I could have gotten over the bank in time being half clipped in to my bike. He is either in jail or must have moved out of the area. We haven't had an encounter with him in at least 2yrs now. So yeah, there are some people out there that think in scary ways.
Post a Comment