Cars will always be a problem, you can't win a fight against a car and you can get hurt even if you are in the right. It's a necessary evil of cycling

I would not do anything and forget about it, it will happen again and hopefully youll never get hurt. Youll just end up spending time, money and effort on attacking one person when there are a million more out there. Jan Frodeno even had a story years ago where a Mack truck purposely tried to hit him and called him a "Lycra wearing f**got"

This is why I made an investment and got into indoor cycling. It's just not worth it

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Strava

Yeah I have been cycling more indoors lately as I got a trainer, but my bars and derailleur broke on my trainer bike, so am more limited with options.

It really just scares the shit out of me getting run over and breaking bones or being paralyzed and I just can't comprehend how some drivers treat deadly weapons with such recklessness and foolishness. Where is the empathy? I got rained on today and they are sitting in their nice warm seats in an enclosed space and choose to nearly kill me? The world is fucked up. Yeah I like indoor trainer sessions greatly. Outside riding just riles me up sometimes too much. I guess I can only pray for them - you're right, it would be tough chasing someone unless they did serious harm to me.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Driver was definitely in the wrong here, but I guarantee you that 9 times out of 10 that will happen to you or any other rider in the same situation, where you are riding too far to the left because of debris or puddles, etc.

The issue here is that the roads have conditioned car drivers to drive like they own all rights to the road. As cyclists, you unfortunately have to live that reality. So I definitely wouldn't get outraged over it, even though it sucks.

If it were me, I would have slowed down until I could ride through the puddles without completely splashing myself to death, and assume I'd be honked and bullied by any cars behind me to no end if I decided to take the road. And I don't consider this cowering like a sheep - I'm more than capable of taking lanes (was a full time bike commuter for 2 years in very busy Los Angeles) - there are just some battles you will never win and this is one of them.

I hate to say it, but all of my friends and even my wife (!) would have honked you big time in that situation even though I consider them to be in the wrong. It's hard to understand us cyclists if you're a driver that never really rides on roads (my wife refuses to ride on any road, even our empty neighborhood roads.)

Can’t really do much about it.

While you have camera footage, since it only shows the car from your rear view it wouldn’t be enough for police to do anything with.

Everyone in a while I’ll experience something similar. It’s tough, but you just have to let it go. 99% of the motorist that I’ve encountered have been fine(if not very accommodating), but the 1% of douche-bag drivers will always be out there

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M.S. x 2; CSCS; ATC/LAT, Functional Movement Specialist, USA Track and Field Level 1

Unfortunately, you have described an incident that happens to most cyclists if not all at some point.

i live in nedneckville, tx. there are only a handful of people that cycle around here, and even less that jog on the roads.

i am constantly buzzed by cars that think its cute to get as close as they can to me. its so bad for a while i quit riding outside completely and just did everything on zwift.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

That sucks :/

Depending on how dense your area is, you could try to go for social-media shaming (e.g., post with video/details and ask if anyone knows the driver who almost killed you). Not sure what the endgame of this looks like but possibly virtual or irl confrontation with the douche. Cops probably won't do anything.

The best I've ever gotten back at a car was when I was a pedestrian and a driver threw a banana peel out the passenger side window. I picked the peel back up and put it in the passenger side seat and said "Here, I think you dropped this." Hilarity ensued!

It would be nice to have some kind of device that automatically squirted cars with paint or a smelly chemical if they buzz you while riding.

Yeah a paintball gun pistol strapped to your back or thigh for quick use - overkill? lol

Also, it would make you less aero ...

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Yeah I was headed home because it was raining too hard and too much. It was 0% chance of rain when I left and 15min into the ride it turned into a downpour.

I was on my last road and near home and the roads were just flooded. I wasn’t avoiding the puddles to avoid getting wet - I was completely soaked from head to toe. I was avoiding the 6in+ deep puddles that might make me crash. These puddles are the kind you avoid in your car as you’d hydroplane, so this dude would have probably driven around them too.

I checked my rear before taking a line further into traffic and that’s when the guy started honking at me.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Yeah I miss Zwift - I should be on it again this week.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

thats a lot of effort to put into something with zero reward. redneckville, tx has redneck cops. i hate where i live.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

as much as zwift sucks, its been a godsend. ive logged a lot of miles cycling that i wouldnt have probably logged without it. its so much easier to throw a pair of cycling shorts on for a quick 20 mile ride and watch a show (or watch an online lecture session for school) than it is to gather all my cycling gear up and actually go for a ride. sometimes the convenience is wonderful for balancing out life.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

In additional to all of the other comments, every one seems to be double amped up right now . . . some are looking for a fight anywhere they can get it. I have added more lights, modified my routes and hours, and am doing everything possible to avoid hostility. The world is crazy right now.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

I saw a moped today that had a pool noodle strapped across the back of the seat (sticking out ~3ft to each side). It was clear the rider did this so that cars would go wider around her (and if they hit the noodle it wasn't going to crash her).

Some a-hole might try to hit the noodle (like a ski gate), but you could technically put something on the end that could scratch paint (ex. crumpled tinfoil) to deter this.

IME the best thing for not getting buzzed is my USA jersey. Cars give me notably more space when I'm wearing it. There is a contingent of drivers that don't respect cyclists, but do respect the flag.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

man, its sad you have to strap an american flag to your ass just to avoid being killed. :(

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

My conversations with the police in Pennsylvania is a driver pretty much need to hit you before the police will do anything.....plus you pretty much need to get picture/video of the driver for identification. Anything less and you’re pretty much wasting your time.

I just sent a video of 3 cars about 12” and less from hitting me. Police ran the plates and said 2 were not from this area so they would do nothing. One was a local car but with no image of the driver they would still pretty much do nothing.

So I recently learned that video is pretty much for my wife to use to hopefully ID a driver that kills me.

First off, I would always encourage everyone to phone in anything that they think is significant. At worst, you create some sort of pattern that may identify the driver in future situations. When I rode the roads a lot more I would have an incident about every six months or so where I thought some sort of action was necessary. My last one was in November, I got clipped by a car on my bike. Driver continued on driving. Police didn't even want to write a ticket because I didn't need to go to the hospital and it was on my commuter which is beat to hell already and I couldn't readily identify any new damage. Ironically, I ended up having an ankle injury from this for a long time post incident. Of course at the time I couldn't feel anything because of the adrenaline.

In the end I pretty much demanded he at least write it up knowing they wouldn't even pursue the lady, even though there was a bystander witness, we had a good description of the vehicle and a partial plate. How hard would it have been to run that thru a database. In addition, I really felt like the officier was judging me and I always get a little worried when it is a officier versus myself in those sort of situations. I felt like the officier had a secret hatred for cyclists and anything was possible up to an including some sort of corruption and ending up in handcuffs or worse, dead. I did speak up about contacting a bike lawyer and that is when I noticed additional hostility but he did at least put it down on paper. Of course they didn't pursue this hit-and-run other than just giving me my slip of paper documenting my claim.

So that was about my most demoralizing situation. I have had a few other ones that went better including one time in Tucson where a guy cut me off. I was very lucky I didn't go flying over his windshield or head first into his vehicle. I figured he was under the influence of something based on how obvious it was... hard right turn in front of me off a major city street in Tucson into a subdivision on sunny mid-morning day. In this instance, I got more police than I could have asked for. Actually a whole bunch of officers showed up and they were "fighting" with each other over whose jurisdiction it was. Apparently, the guy had some outstanding warrants. The police thought I was nuts and said I could have been killed. No idea what ended up happening beyond the man boxing himself up in his house, calling someone he knew to come over and act as some sort of lookout for him and relay the external police information back to him as the police were trying to figure out whose jurisdiction it was.

That is probably the extremes with another dozen cases in between there. I had a gun pulled on me and pointed directly at me and the cops did nothing, another one for the demoralizing bucket.

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Happens down here in Australia as well.If I wear an Australian flag jersey or drag my trailer with a little Aussie flag flying people never bother me.That flag on my trailer has helped me out while cycling in more than one dodgy country as well but that is a different topic.

You should contact the police and report it as an assault. They will try to talk you out of it but they have to take your report. They will most likely not pursue it, but it does two things. One is it makes a record in case the guy does something bad in the future, and will make future charges more likely. Second thing is it shows up in the local area crime stats. Nothing they can do about that. If all of us reported these crimes eventually the crime stats would look bad and they would be forced to respond. Since you have documentation you should definitely report it even though it's a hassle.

I'm thinking of logging a case against this guy. I have a definitive plate on video.

Also, I did post to FB, and some local politicians have become involved. I just want this person to face the music in their life and I feel a part of them being on that journey - if you know what I mean.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Nearly identical situation. Empty road with no shoulder and a guy laying aggressively on the horn behind me. I waved him around and he pulled next to me screaming and yelling about getting off the road.

De-escalate.

This whole lockdown thing has been horribly destructive and you don’t know what others may be going through. Take care of yourself.

funny, i actually considered making a MAGA jersey, TRUMP jersey, confederate flag jersey, don't tread on me, harley davidson, NRA, 2nd amendment etc jersey. the usa one you posted might get the job done.

been riding many years, many miles. 99% of the people that are dicks, are definitely redneck truck driving trump supporters, all happen to be white too, coincidence? who knows.

// in addition of being a symbol that is actually wide spread recognized, it is a really nice jersey ..

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___/\___/\___/\___ the s u r f b o a r d of the K u r p f a l z is the r o a d b i k e .. oSo >>

I do the same to people with vegan kits all the time. 😜

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