"I'm going to knock your head off with a baseball bat"
 

This for riding my bike in traffic today. I was riding down the street
that runs from my home to the intersection of the main artery towards the
light rail. I was in the right lane, waiting for cars to pass, then
signaled to get into the left lane to turn onto the main artery. Pretty
mundane stuff. I look behind me with my mirror, then over my shoulder to
make sure the car behind me (which is moving back and forth aggressively)
isn't going to pass me on the left as I get into the left lane. He doesn't
and I get into the left lane.

This is where it gets weird. He starts yelling at me to "f***ing get on
the sidewalk". This, also, is typical. I'm used to hearing this on an
almost bi-weekly basis from the citizens of Beaverton, Oregon. We live in
a bicycle friendly community. Right. I guess that's relative (i.e. they
don't throw things at us, they only threaten to kill us). Anyway, he's
yelling at me to get on the sidewalk calling me an "f***ing idiot" (with
no hint of irony). Finally I try to explain to him (and I seriously mean
explain, I'll be the first to admit that I've given the finger or shouted
back at someone before who was road raging) that bikes are allowed on the
road. Then he says "I'm going to knock your head off with a baseball bat".
Of course, I shout back that I'm going to call the police and he'll go to
jail for assault, I pull my cell phone out and start to dial, he starts
cussing loudly to himself in the car staring forward.

In the end he drove off, I road off, but I'm really starting to get tired
of this garbage. This happens far too often and I do everything you're
supposed to do when it comes to riding. And yet still it happens. And it's
never "damn you for passing me" or "how dare you take the lane". The road
raging is always because I'm on the road period. Period! Nothing more.
Nothing less. You don't deserve to be on the road, so I'm going to
threaten to kill you. What can you do when faced with this? I'm so sick of
it. I want to carry a camera with me and just photograph the hell out of
these people and take them to court. I wonder if I should carry mace with
me at all times. I don't want to. I'm not a fighter. But at a certain
point when not only are you being threatened by their vehicles, but
they're threatening to wield weapons, what do you do? I'm at a loss.

Preston

Preston Crawford wrote:

[story of flagrant automotive bullying snipped]

Of course, I shout back that I'm going to call the police and he'll go to
jail for assault, I pull my cell phone out and start to dial, he starts
cussing loudly to himself in the car staring forward.

Preston,

I'm sorry you had this experience. Many of us have. If you started
the dialing process on your phone, that (IMHO) is the best and only
thing you should have done.

Cyclists taking on cars is a high risk, low reward proposition. If
you have a camera in that phone of yours, take a pic of him, his car,
and his license plate if you can, then go to the Police station with
all of that.

Here's one received on the ListServ for San Diego County Bicycle
Coalition:

"On Tuesday, 3/22 around 3pm, I was biking along Nobel, past Lebon,
toward Genessee, when a passenger from a passing car leaned halfway
out the window and bashed me over the head with a baseball bat, then
sped away. I did not crash. The license plate started with "3P" and
I think the 3rd character was "W." I could not get the make or model
of the car, but it was a color about pink. I have reported the
incident to the police."

Be careful out there.

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:42:47 -0500, Preston Crawford
wrote:

In the end he drove off, I road off, but I'm really starting to get tired
of this garbage. This happens far too often and I do everything you're
supposed to do when it comes to riding. And yet still it happens. And it's
never "damn you for passing me" or "how dare you take the lane". The road
raging is always because I'm on the road period. Period! Nothing more.
Nothing less. You don't deserve to be on the road, so I'm going to
threaten to kill you. What can you do when faced with this? I'm so sick of
it. I want to carry a camera with me and just photograph the hell out of
these people and take them to court. I wonder if I should carry mace with
me at all times. I don't want to. I'm not a fighter. But at a certain
point when not only are you being threatened by their vehicles, but
they're threatening to wield weapons, what do you do? I'm at a loss.

Preston

Preston, also accept my sympathy and empathy for what happened to you. If
these people knew what a kind and wonderful person you were they would
never think of talking to you like that. We need more great guys like you
in the world.

I think you did the right thing. Get the phone out, get out of this guy's
way and be prepared to call it in with the license number. A camera phone
that could resolve a license number would be ideal. No need to actually
complete the call, though if there is an online 'bad driver' dB it could
help if they get other road rage calls.

Once you got the cell out, this mere fact caused the guy to realize he was
out-smarted and thus was thwarted.

As far as carrying mace. You only really need to have mace if you think
that someone will confront you and this is very unlikely. The chances that
you could get it out and spray them are very small. You're vulnerable on
the bike and by getting out mace you might risk escalation. However there
have been instances where people got out of cars and walked up to cyclists.

In that event the first thing you want to do if you can't immediately
escape and ride off down a side street is get off the bike. (Sitting on the
bike makes you a sitting duck for getting punched with one foot clipped
in.)

Put the bike between you and them and at the first opportunity get out of
there. It's really not a personal attack. It's actually an anonymous thing
- they don't know you. It's best to avoid, because it's extremely unlikely
that you will ever see this person again.

What worries me about these kinds of guys is that if you provoke them then
the next guy that has to confront them on a bike might have a much harder
time with them. Who knows you might have been a victim of such an event
where he had a minor encounter with a biker and the guy flipped him off and
rode away before he could say something.

But don't let it get to you, man. Come on rbm and tell your buds and we'll
give you hugs and props and then blow it off. Keep riding.

In fact you helped me today with your post to appreciate how nice (in
comparison) everybody is in my town... ;-)

jj

"jj" wrote: (clip) In that event the first thing you want to do if you
can't immediately escape and ride off down a side street is get off the
bike. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
However, keep in mind that if he starts to get out of the car, you may be
able to position yourself to ride off. That's going to leave him looking
pretty stupid. This is one circumstance where I believe everyone will agree
that riding on the sidewalk or against traffic would be justified.

Preston Crawford wrote:
... But at a certain
point when not only are you being threatened by their vehicles, but
they're threatening to wield weapons, what do you do? I'm at a loss.

First, what you did was fine. It worked, and the guy is probably
frustrated in knowing that the law is on your side. He may even learn
from the experience. At this point, let it go. Don't fret about it.
Don't accept the negative energy.

I keep thinking there must be a way to use psychological jiu-jitsu in
situations like that - something other than "my weapon trumps your
weapon," even if my "weapon" is a cell phone. I'm thinking (vaguely)
of something that confuses them, then makes them see how silly they're
being.

Such experiences are very, very rare for me. I just seem to get along
with drivers. (Is this because I live in a "cyclists ignored" town?)
But when it comes up, what I normally do is just slowly shake my head,
as in "I can't believe you're that dumb," followed by ignoring them.
Admittedly, I've had times where I've briefly lectured the yahoo, but
it does entail the possibility of escalation, and I doubt that type of
person really learns from a standard statement like "Cyclists have a
legal right to the road."

But again: while I daydream about some "perfect" response, I think
what you did is fine. How does that pseudo-latin go? Something like
"Non Illegitimi Carborundum."

- Frank Krygowski

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 21:48:31 -0700, frkrygow wrote:


Preston Crawford wrote:
... But at a certain
point when not only are you being threatened by their vehicles, but
they're threatening to wield weapons, what do you do? I'm at a loss.

First, what you did was fine. It worked, and the guy is probably
frustrated in knowing that the law is on your side. He may even learn
from the experience. At this point, let it go. Don't fret about it.
Don't accept the negative energy.

It happens to us all, and I know very well that it is sometimes hard to
let it go. I can list a half-dozen instances that _still_ gall me. But
I will not even relate them, since that only makes it worse.

After several instances within a week at one intersection, I altered my
commute route to avoid it. No problems since. Some roads tend to
generate this crap. Am I being cowardly by avoiding the confrontations?*
Should we seek out, or seek to avoid, situations that lead to
confrontation? For me, the two routes are more-or-less equivalent. The
new route involves a left turn onto an artery without benefit of a light
(avoiding that was the reason to take the road-rage route), but since
traffic is usually backed up at this point, it's not a problem usually.

BTW, just taking pictures is not enough. All you see is pictures of a
red-faced fool giving you the finger. Hardly a death threat there. You
need full-motion video with sound to get their ass in jail. Until your
phone has that, you flat-out will not win in court, and we all know it.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
_`\(,_ | mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so
(_)/ (_) | that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. [1 Corinth. 13:2]

On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 00:01:32 -0400, jj wrote:

In that event the first thing you want to do if you can't immediately
escape and ride off down a side street is get off the bike. (Sitting on the
bike makes you a sitting duck for getting punched with one foot clipped
in.)

Put the bike between you and them

This advise works better for dogs than for rednecks. But then, the dogs
are less belligerent, and smarter.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Some people used to claim that, if enough monkeys sat in front
_`\(,_ | of enough typewriters and typed long enough, eventually one of
(_)/ (_) | them would reproduce the collected works of Shakespeare. The
internet has proven this not to be the case.

In article ,
Preston Crawford writes:

The road
raging is always because I'm on the road period. Period! Nothing more.
Nothing less.

Yer durn tootin'. But without cyclists to get mad at,
they'd just get mad at something/somebody else. Some
people just ain't happy unless they're angry.

You don't deserve to be on the road, so I'm going to
threaten to kill you. What can you do when faced with this?

I figure those red-faced fools with the bulging neck veins
are more likely to end up killing themselves, getting all
worked up to the point of having cardiac episodes.
It's pitiable, really.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

This happens all the time and i know, i know...don't respond to it...

recently though my racing son on a training ride had a good rejoinder...

It was suggested to him that he get on "THE SIDEWALK" by an RV driver (in
this instance an idiot)...

He responded "I hope gas goes to 8 dollars a gallon"

Kinda proud of him for that both because it was pithy and also off the
cuff...




"Preston Crawford" wrote in message
...
This for riding my bike in traffic today. I was riding down the street
that runs from my home to the intersection of the main artery towards the
light rail. I was in the right lane, waiting for cars to pass, then
signaled to get into the left lane to turn onto the main artery. Pretty
mundane stuff. I look behind me with my mirror, then over my shoulder to
make sure the car behind me (which is moving back and forth aggressively)
isn't going to pass me on the left as I get into the left lane. He doesn't
and I get into the left lane.

This is where it gets weird. He starts yelling at me to "f***ing get on
the sidewalk". This, also, is typical. I'm used to hearing this on an
almost bi-weekly basis from the citizens of Beaverton, Oregon. We live in
a bicycle friendly community. Right. I guess that's relative (i.e. they
don't throw things at us, they only threaten to kill us). Anyway, he's
yelling at me to get on the sidewalk calling me an "f***ing idiot" (with
no hint of irony). Finally I try to explain to him (and I seriously mean
explain, I'll be the first to admit that I've given the finger or shouted
back at someone before who was road raging) that bikes are allowed on the
road. Then he says "I'm going to knock your head off with a baseball bat".
Of course, I shout back that I'm going to call the police and he'll go to
jail for assault, I pull my cell phone out and start to dial, he starts
cussing loudly to himself in the car staring forward.

In the end he drove off, I road off, but I'm really starting to get tired
of this garbage. This happens far too often and I do everything you're
supposed to do when it comes to riding. And yet still it happens. And it's
never "damn you for passing me" or "how dare you take the lane". The road
raging is always because I'm on the road period. Period! Nothing more.
Nothing less. You don't deserve to be on the road, so I'm going to
threaten to kill you. What can you do when faced with this? I'm so sick of
it. I want to carry a camera with me and just photograph the hell out of
these people and take them to court. I wonder if I should carry mace with
me at all times. I don't want to. I'm not a fighter. But at a certain
point when not only are you being threatened by their vehicles, but
they're threatening to wield weapons, what do you do? I'm at a loss.

Preston

On 2005-04-06, Leo Lichtman wrote:

"jj" wrote: (clip) In that event the first thing you want to do if you
can't immediately escape and ride off down a side street is get off the
bike. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
However, keep in mind that if he starts to get out of the car, you may be
able to position yourself to ride off. That's going to leave him looking
pretty stupid. This is one circumstance where I believe everyone will agree
that riding on the sidewalk or against traffic would be justified.

I've replayed this over and over again and I thought of the above
scenario. And the first thought that popped into my head was that I'd head
for his car, pull the keys and call the cops. Don't know why. Maybe I just
haven't gotten over it yet.

Preston