So I was riding on Beacon Street right before Park Drive, 2 lanes there, nice and wide, giving myself a little space from the parked cars to also get better pavement. I am riding my fixed gear. All this honking (red light ahead) behind me and a white truck runs me off the road. I come up next to him at light he starts screaming calling me a stupid c-nt that I was taking the whole lane, which I tried to tell him legally I can…
he continues his expletive streak so I go to take a photo of his plate and he rams me!!!
me and the bike are both fine - a bit of back strain for me that I am sure will feel great tomorrow.
Just a bit freaked. Reported to the police but am posting this everywhere I can.
I drove a rental car in Boston and still have nightmares about the drivers ya’ll got up there. I got the finger from a 17 yr old girl for reasons still unknown to me.
Anyway, looks like that plate is commercial…any chance of ID’ing the company and reporting the driver to the company, assuming the driver isn’t the owner of aforementioned company?
Glad to hear you weren’t seriously hurt by this. There are a ton of a-holes in Southern California as well. I’ve had similar incidents happen to me as well–so much so that I am considering carrying pepper spray with me on longer rides. Although probably very illegal, I would get a kick out of riding away after pepper spraying some 18 year old punk after he instigated a confrontation with me.
You should definitely file a police report, even if nothing comes of it for you. Because the next bike that gets attacked by this idiot and files a report, that will be two strikes against the driver and all of a sudden the law enforcement are much more diligent.
Sorry about the horrible experience. I had one about a month ago. A young woman was driving her convertible VW with her one year old in the car-seat, gave me the finger because I was riding the middle of the lane on a blind curve due to cavernous potholes on the right side. She passed me on the blind curve and nearly had a head on collision with oncoming traffic, then drove another mile before turning off into the playground. Stupid me, I followed her into the playground and made a comment about her obscene gesture; her tirade went on for at least five minutes before she took a breath. I felt stupid for even attempting to talk to her in a reasonable way; she was irrational so I rode away. It made me realize that you can never win in-the-moment confrontations with a motor vehicle encounter; but if you file a police report, and every other cyclist intimidated or threatened by the same driver also files, suddenly that driver is in deep trouble.
I don’t think it’s specific to Boston though here in the greater Boston area the drivers are really aggressive. Glad you’re ok, and be sure to file that complaint with the police. It may save the next person.
In the event of a lawsuit and a police report, you may want to remove the picture of his plate since it’s clearly identifiable…He might sue you for libel otherwise (just a guess…I’m not a lawyer, but there have been some pretty stupid lawsuits based on internet posts).
