Just read this on roadbikereview, I ride the same roads, can you believe this crap … this is San Diego for F- sake, the birthplace of Triathlon:
**"Assaulted while riding 2Jul03..."** 
Posted by: HAL9010 Jul-03-03, 08:48 AM
Here in San Diego yesterday, I was JRA (just riding along), in front of West View High School well within the bike lane. The car lanes are quite wide along this road as well so being in the way was not in question. A bottle of liquid was thrown at me and just missed luckily. But it did whiff by quite close. The pick up truck with two teenage(?), young guys saluted me with the single finger gesture of (dis)respect. So I have no doubt that I was intentionally aimed at. I wish I could have been able to get even a partial license plate # as I always carry a cell Ph. I wonder if these punks heard those Texas radio jerks advocating bumping Cyclists?
To pile on additional cyclist indignities some other half wit(s) broke bottles in the bike lanes every 75 Ft. at six or so places along Black Mountain Road.
Well It won’t keep me from riding and it won’t keep me from stopping and cheerfully giving directions to the drivers (of all ages) who have been asking me for directions lately (five times in the last week alone). I will always strive to be a good and decent person.
I was riding in Olean NY last month and someone through watter or somthing on me. Wackos are all over the place I guess. He gave me the finger to. Those mechanized couch potatoes are nuts. Live free or die !
Dirtball
Just read this on roadbikereview, I ride the same roads, can you believe this crap … this is San Diego for F- sake, the birthplace of Triathlon:
I live up the road in North Orange County and it’s no better. A couple of years ago I was hit with an egg on the back of the arm. Now an egg hurled out of a car doing 50 mph or so hurts like hell, leaves a big bruise and lots of small cuts. I saw the van the scum were in but by the time I realized what had happened they were too far to get the license number. About a month ago I was riding home from work and was just a few blocks from my house when I felt a sharp pain just behind my left knee. I thought a car from the other side of the street had thrown a rock. I put my hand down where it hurt and it was wet. My hand must be covered in blood. I was afraid to look but I had to. What I saw was a thick, pink liquid. Paintball. I knew it came from across the street but had know idea which car and they were all gone anyway. Over the years I’ve had someone trying to slap my ass from a moving car, a small bag of trash thrown by some high school punks, counteless things yelled at me, and, of course, idiot drivers trying to run me over. I’m still riding and wondering what’s next. Larry
just because we live in paradise (North SD county) doesn’t preclude us from idiot drivers. There are young kids with a DL and no respect for anyone let alone themselves, all over the country.
When I lived in LA (lower Alabama), there was a roadie that I rode with a couple of times, until I found out that he carried a Derringer in his seat bag. Nice to have the protection, but that is a recipe for disaster.
I loved the pump shot gun idea. You need a swivel mount on the handlebars to help control recoil and make aiming and firing a 1 hand operation. Remember to aim just in front of where you want the pellets to hit to compensate for the cars velocity. Maybe we should get a group ride together, an armed posse out for a fast 50 miler.
It’s a complete lack of consequences being associated with poor behavior that have brought our country to this point.
While the American ideal of independence and freedom is a good one, it presupposes that freedom for all, and so we are responsible so see that our actions do not interfere with the freedom or welfare of others.
Sadly, due in large part to litigation that would hold no one responsible for their actions, many, if not most, Americans feel they can do whatever they want and there will be no consequences for their actions. Nothing except clinical detachment from the laws of physics and causality else can explain Boston drivers.
As far as the mean-spirited nature of pop culture today is concerned, I can only see that it is founded in the meaninglessness of these people’s lives. The only way they can validate themselves is to do something bad to someone else. Back in the good old days there was natural selection and/or lynch mobs. Now we’re all victims of broken homes and cough medicine, with no large dumbass-ivores lumbering around thinning the herd.
I’ll stop before my rant really gets going.
As a post script, I think my favorite is the lit cigarette butts that I get flicked at me on my Sunday morning runs. Apparently, everyone who drives in Ashland, MA on Sunday mornings smokes cigarettes.
The day some dick on a Yamaha sportbike buzzed me while doing around 70MPH, passing about six inches from my handlebars. Three miles later I found the guy laying in the middle of an intersection, being peeled off the asphalt by paramedics. Karma’s a bitch; don’t ignore her.
New Year’s Day 2003. Some a**hole in a black Benz E-class lays on his horn, hits the accelerator, and drifts into the bikelane, trying to push me over for some perceived slight. I saw that car traffic was stopping at a bottleneck up ahead, so I spat on his shiny Mercedes and started hammering (I was close to home.) I never saw him again. Punk.
Sadly, due in large part to litigation that would hold
no one responsible for their actions, many, if not
most, Americans feel they can do whatever they want
and there will be no consequences for their actions.
In this case, I don’t think that’s it. Cruel or sociopathic behavior is not the result of a rational decision based on observations of litigation.
Show me a teenager who assaults cyclists and I guarantee at home you will find parents who encourage that behaviour through either actions (at worst), attitude (most likely), or apathy (at “best”).
Where does the resentment of cyclists come from? I have no idea. The only logical conclusion I can reach is that many people are fuckwits.
Furthermore, this particular asininity is definitely culturally biased. In Switzerland (and I suspect much of continental Europe) drivers are not thrown into homicidal rage at the site of a cyclist on the road.
“still i have found the best way to handle most situations with agressive drivers is a smile and friendly wave”
That’s the best advice – just rise above it. Sometimes it’s very hard to do that though. Here in England a guy hanging out of a van tried to push me off many (about 10) years ago and this year a t*sser in a van spat out banana flavoured milk all over me as he passed. In these situations I couldn’t just smile and would have happily killed both these people had they had the guts to stop and face me. These situations are hard to rise above tho…
Of course you’re right, I can’t blame everything on lawyers. A lot of the blame rests with parents who never should have been allowed to breed. (This is part of the rant I spared you last night.)
The wisest thing Keanu Reeves ever said: “You need to take a test before they let you drive a car, but any swinging dick can be a father.” from Parenthood.
Concerning drivers singling out cyclists, I don’t think they do. I think that runners and cyclists offer an attractive target, one that can’t give chase, and one that can’t retaliate. (Unless you own the 2004 Kestrel Talon SL Viper edition, with fork mounted Phalanx-Series Vulcan cannon. Sure it weighs 1400 lbs, and you can’t ride it, but it can cut a semi in half in about 2 seconds.)
By way of proof, I find that I get more crap thrown at me on main roads than on side roads, so most likely these people would be throwing stuff out the window anyway, but we offer them something to throw it at.
My suggestion: A $1.00 deposit should be placed on ALL cigarette butts, drink bottles, and of course McDonald’s packages. This would accomplish two things: First, we could make some money while we ride, and second, all those stupid people would be walking at the side of the road picking the stuff up…then we could throw empty CO2 cartridges at them.
Even a $0.10 bottle deposit like they’re got in Michigan works remarkably well. And I’m all for a cigarette butt deposit too. Those suckers can cause wildfires when they’re chucked out still smouldering.
The wisest thing Keanu Reeves ever said: “You need to take a test before they let you drive a car, but any swinging dick can be a father.” from Parenthood.
Concerning drivers singling out cyclists, I don’t think they do. I think that runners and cyclists offer an attractive target, one that can’t give chase, and one that can’t retaliate.
snip
By way of proof, I find that I get more crap thrown at me on main roads than on side roads, so most likely these people would be throwing stuff out the window anyway, but we offer them something to throw it at.
I doubt that my assailants were just coming back from the grocery store or the paintball range. They were out cruisin’ for someone to assault. Cyclists are easy targets but it’s not always a crime of opportunity.
It’s just plain ignorance and bad upbringing especially in the prankster incidents.
The punks are the ones you want to strangle. The hostile jerks are probably best left alone. It’s impossible to know what’s taking place in their squirming little minds but there’s no good that cn come from a confrontation with a pissed off head case.
Don’t I love my third world country? Lots of people here have to ride bikes to work and while nobody loves me for being out training on the roads, they at worst just plain ignore all of us and move on with their little lifes…
And my country is nothing compared to, say, China. I often wonder how can a civilized (?!) nation such as yours could be so low on road manners… well, GwB and all that texas oil… yada yada…
All I can say is that this stuff doesn’t happen in TX.
Sure, I get harassed - people at convenience stores treat me like I’m Lance b/c I’m riding 50 miles today. The’re always trying to buy me gatorade, or if I’m near the end of my ride, a beer. Damn it, every time I stop beside the road to fix a flat or make an adjustment some redneck (or 3) has to stop and ask if they could help. What really sucks is the car full of girls that pulled up next to me at a stop light. One of them whistled and another had the nerve to ask if I wanted to join them in their trip to the beach. Man, I hate all this harassment.
Get out of CA, I can’t imagine living in all the pollution, crowding, socialism, rudeness, high cost of living, …
I could rant here–I have had two close calls in the last week. Both were similar to the accident TriBriGuy had 2-3 weeks ago–cars shooting into parking lots or roads from the other side of the street right in front of me. The first time, I had almost no time to react, hit my brakes, and my training partner hit me from the rear. Luckily, we both managed to keep upright. Yesterday, a lady and her son pulled across the road in front of me into a convenience store. I hit the brakes and yelled, “Watch where you’re going.” Thought that was the end of the story, but they passed me later, and sonny boy threw a doughnut at me.
Before we blame all this on President Bush (wickert), didn’t this stuff go on before he was elected too? Out of all the cars that pass us on the road, what percentage act this way? I would estimate that less than 1/100th of one percent actually make some overt act. Usually, it is the unintentional stuff that gets you. While I am a novice rider compared to many on this forum, I agree with some of the posters above–(1) Ride with a group when possible, (2) Stay off heavily traveled roads, esp. during rush hours when road rage rules, and (3) A friendly attitude does seem to reduce road rage.
We are blessed to live in a country where people can afford to spend $3,500 on bicycles (above the average per capita income of most of the world) and throw away food (doughnuts, milk, etc.).
Here in San Diego yesterday, I was JRA (just riding along), in front of West View High School well within the bike lane. The car lanes are quite wide along this road as well so being in the way was not in question. A bottle of liquid was thrown at me and just missed luckily. But it did whiff by quite close. The pick up truck with two teenage(?), young guys saluted me with the single finger gesture of (dis)respect. So I have no doubt that I was intentionally aimed at. I wish I could have been able to get even a partial license plate # as I always carry a cell Ph. I wonder if these punks heard those Texas radio jerks advocating bumping Cyclists?