Almost hit, Guy deflects blame to state!

Triathlon Forum
1

I am not sure what my goal is with posting this, but maybe some of you will get a good laugh and everyone will be more vigilant on rides.

I was finishing up a 30 mile ride this morning when I was approaching and intersection consisting of a two lane road on my left and a new subdivision on my right. Traffic traveling the road I was on does not have to stop or yield and may continue through the intersection at normal legal speeds. I was traveling approximately 21-22 mph and saw a big Yukon or some other SUV stopped at the intersection to my left. I could tell the driver was wanting to cross the street into the new subdivision, so I came out of my aerobars and onto the base bar. Sure enough the driver starts to cross the street approximately 100-150 feet in front of me. I slam on my brakes and somehow managed to maintain control as my rear wheel left the ground and my front wheel started to skid out from under me. Thankfully, I was able to come to a stop before barreling into his front fender.

Extremely shaken up and pissed, I followed the guy into the subdivision. He started to pull into a parking spot at the community center, but then saw me and backed out and started to circle the parking lot as if he was going to leave. For some reason he circled back around and ended up parking. I approached his vehicle and as he got I out simply asked him, “sir, you do realize that you just nearly hit me?”

He replied, “Yeah, but I didn’t see you until I was mostly through the intersection and I looked in my mirror.”

He then went on, “I am not from around here and am not used to seeing bicycles on the road. You are lucky that I am not in Congress.”

I gave him a very quizzical look.

He said, “I would pass a law that would either outlaw bikes on the road, or would force cyclists to have license plates and pay road taxes just like car owners pay.”

Again, I gave him a WTF look and said, “that’s not the point. You almost hit me and could really injured or killed me. I have every legal right to be on the road on my bike. I had the right-of-way and you failed to yield.”

He then apologized and went on to state, “I know that there are a lot of cyclists on the road here. I’ve been told cyclists like to ride on these road because there is little traffic and there are lots of hills. I’ve seen lots of cyclists riding around here the past several days.”

I am not sure what his point was with that last statement and found it ironic that he previously told me he is not used to seeing cyclists.

I told him, “You’re right! I have a lot of friends that ride these roads and do so in a safe and legal manner. I would hate to see one of them get killed because you failed to see him or her. PLEASE BE MORE CAREFUL AND AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS!”

At that I turned around and left.

I love riding and love competing in triathlons, but at some point I have to ask myself if it is worth risking my life, even on very low volume roads, riding my bike for pleasure and fitness. I guess it is because I intend to ride again on Sat. Be safe!

2

Been there, but I never bothered to confront the person. Only some semi-near misses that I just count myself lucky I was paying attention because the driver wasn’t. I’ve been honked at, swerved at, flipped off, and harassed in general while minding my own business hugging the curb as close as possible.

My favorite are round-a-bouts. Car or bike, if it’s in the round-a-bout, you still yield when entering.

It comes with the territory. They only way to avoid it is riding your trainer in the basement.

Didn’t someone post on here the cyclist that confronted a jerk in a corvette with a rock? He got a 30 day suspended sentence. Good times.

3

I would have put a water bottle into his face at fast ball speeds.

4

Riding indoors isn’t even a 100% guarantee given the number of cars that have been plowing into houses and other buildings and killing people inside.

5

Have you ever considered getting some counseling for these anger issues you seem to have? This is the third thread today I see you demonstrating serious anger issues. Why so much hate?

6

…I was traveling approximately 21-22 mph …Sure enough the driver starts to cross the street approximately 100-150 feet in front of me. I slam on my brakes and somehow managed to maintain control as my rear wheel left the ground and my front wheel started to skid out from under me.

No wonder roadies complain about triathletes bike handling skills…

Kind of makes me think of the episode of Futurama where they are trying to find Bender’s program in the Central Beauracracy - “OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH, I’m going to crash my slow cart…”

hehe

Glad you are OK.

7

what a dickhead. also, a very common reaction on his part. i’m glad you confronted him.
kind of hoping that you let the air out of one of his tires, and just were smart enough not to post that here!

8

Simple solution - dont want to take a bottle to the face…dont cut off cyclist and give a smart ass respose.

What are the other two - or were they just pointing out ignorance?

9

I think he has anger issues.
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10

I was finishing up a quick 32mile (50km) ride last week and trying to get home within the half hour before susnet before lights are required. I was in my subdivision and riding in the nice new bike lane that has been added for me on the roadway.

I stop at ALL stopsigns, but I usually don’t unclip unless there is a car that I need to give right of way to. Most times the traffic is heading the same way as me so I do a short track stand to make sure I’m seen and safe before proceeding. I have technically stopped and if there is anyone turning I will always unclip and yield to them.

Anyhow on this particular night a lady sees me do this same routine at two 4-way stops. The then pulls up along side me and starts yelling that she’s calling the police on me for breaking the law. She has her cel phone in hand and says I have to stop. She then pulls in front of me and cuts off the bicycle lane.

Being a block from home I agreed to wait for the police (15 minutes). She told them that I was not allowed to ride since it was rush hour and that I was not stopping. I mentioned that she used her handheld phone to call them while she was driving and proceeded to demonstrate how I could hold a track stand on my bike.

The cop laughed and then asked her if she used her hand held phone. She said yes, he gave her a ticket for using a hand held cel phone in traffic and told her to leave cyclists alone. She went nuts…I went home.

Triathletes are strange…but people are stranger.

Dave

11

THAT is an awesome story!

12

Your story is much better than mine. I thought about calling the cops, but since I didn’t hit him I decided to confront him instead. Who knows, maybe by confronting him I will have prevented him from actually taking out a cyclist in the future!

13

I always love the taxes arguement - because everyone knows that if you currently ride a bike on public roads you are exempt from all taxes.
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14

Your story is much better than mine. I thought about calling the cops, but since I didn’t hit him I decided to confront him instead. Who knows, maybe by confronting him I will have prevented him from actually taking out a cyclist in the future!

Good on you for keeping your cool - from your description you actually made some progress in humanizing cyclists and steering him away from his unreasonable attitude. Most of the times where I go semi-ballistic, I end up regretting it. Your guy may remain a dick, but maybe not - at least you gave it a shot, and had you just laid into him, that would have guaranteed that he remained a dick.

15

That’s fabulous.

16

On the days I commute, I’m still paying taxes and my car is still registered, I’m just not using it to tear up the roads.

That excuse is the worst on the planet. It’s pure stupidity.

CS

17

I always love the taxes arguement - because everyone knows that if you currently ride a bike on public roads you are exempt from all taxes.

Yeah that always irritates me. Even more than normal near my house, where the main boulevard was explicitly paid for not just by general income and property taxes as most local roads used by cyclists are (which should be a strong enough counterargument by itself), but by a massive bond that was levied on just the lots in our development. The developer bought it down some (and cooked that portion into the house prices), but there’s still a line item on my annual property tax bill for many hundreds of $ which will be there for 15 years. This is a major road which mostly carries traffic through, not to and from, our development. So compared to the average commuting motorist passing me as I ride along, I do “own the damn road” in a manner of speaking. But by the time I explained that, they’d be long gone, hence my unfortunate propensity to simply flip them off when they endanger me or chastise me for being there.

Some good stuff on road funding:

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/advocacy/free.htm

18

That COMPLETELY rocks, Dave! The cop that gave her a ticket needs a high-five too.

19

Your story is much better than mine. I thought about calling the cops, but since I didn’t hit him I decided to confront him instead. Who knows, maybe by confronting him I will have prevented him from actually taking out a cyclist in the future!

I think it’s great too that you kept your head and didn’t go nuclear on him…I’m not sure I could have been so calm.

20

Good job on keeping your cool and delivering an “educational” response! We need more discussion and less confrontation to further our cause for “sharing the road”.