Road Rage

Last Monday at just after 7am, I was riding along Heidelberg Rd and had just
crossed the Chandler Hwy intersection at about 35km/h or so and then a car
pulled out from the next Rd on the left, cutting me off and forcing me to
swerve to brake fairly hard. I ended up in the bike lane to his left and
took my right hand off the bars and gave a "c'mon mate, give me a break"
gesture and said "have a look mate". The guy was probably early 20s and
dressed in a suit, with a female also dressed in business wear in the
passenger seat. The guy sped up and swerved across in front of me but I
managed to avoid him fairly easily. The car then sped up to the servo that
is another couple hundred metres on the left and pulled into the driveway
fairly quickly. As I rode past, the guy had gotten out of the car and was
heading back towards the road and presumably was going to have a go at me.
He was a bit slow in getting there though but he did manage to impress me
with his inventive use of the english language.....I think it was "fckn cmon
then you fckn cnt". The guy was very agitated and I was quite surprised
given that it was 7am on a Monday and my reaction to him cutting me off was
deliberately very moderate.

Anyway, I kept riding towards the city, expecting him at anytime to scream
past again and either cut me off or try to get out of the car again. He
must have had some trouble getting back in the traffic or got stuck at
lights because I made it all the way to Wellington Rd before I heard a car
coming at speed and, sure enough, he hung off the horn and swerved to within
a foot or so of me. Fortunately for me, I turn off there and that was the
last I saw of him. When I got to work, I immediately wrote a stat dec and
had it signed by a JP so that I have a record of the event. I am not sure
if I should put in a police report or not as I really don't want anything to
do with this guy as I think he may be mentally unstable. He wasn't a real
big guy and usually I would have pulled in at the servo to see what it was
he wanted to talk to me about but I had a commitment on Tuesday for which I
couldn't afford to be sporting any facial injuries.

I am not someone to hold a grudge but this one has gotten under my skin a
bit. He fails to give way to me and then has the nerve to threaten me with
his car, threaten physical violence, and then threaten me with his car
again?!? If someone threatened me with a knife or gun I am reasonably
confident that I could get a result from the police but being threatened
with a car just doesn't seem to be regarded in the same light. I may be
totally wrong and I am not having a go at the police but I have read too
many similar accounts in this forum where cyclists have not been taken
seriously when reporting such incidents.

I am still sticking with my "softly softly" approach to communication with
drivers and I just hope that I don't end up with this guys car pointed at me
at any time in the future.

Gags

Gags Wrote:

I am still sticking with my "softly softly" approach to communication
with
drivers and I just hope that I don't end up with this guys car pointed
at me
at any time in the future.


Crikey! Send him my way... so I can tell him how f'kin huge you are!
Take away his car, my money is on you 100%

On a happy 'car' note - the drivers back home were awesome this weekend
most giving me a whole lane when over taking. I might make more of an
effort to head back there (and through the Grampians) this summer.

Anyone up for 'Camp BR' in Halls Gap one weekend?

cheers,
GPL


--
gplama

Gags wrote:
Last Monday at just after 7am, I was riding along Heidelberg Rd and had just
crossed the Chandler Hwy intersection at about 35km/h or so and then a car
pulled out from the next Rd on the left, cutting me off and forcing me to
swerve to brake fairly hard. I ended up in the bike lane to his left and
took my right hand off the bars and gave a "c'mon mate, give me a break"
gesture and said "have a look mate". The guy was probably early 20s and
dressed in a suit, with a female also dressed in business wear in the
passenger seat. The guy sped up and swerved across in front of me but I
managed to avoid him fairly easily. The car then sped up to the servo that
is another couple hundred metres on the left and pulled into the driveway
fairly quickly. As I rode past, the guy had gotten out of the car and was
heading back towards the road and presumably was going to have a go at me.
He was a bit slow in getting there though but he did manage to impress me
with his inventive use of the english language.....I think it was "fckn cmon
then you fckn cnt". The guy was very agitated and I was quite surprised
given that it was 7am on a Monday and my reaction to him cutting me off was
deliberately very moderate.

Anyway, I kept riding towards the city, expecting him at anytime to scream
past again and either cut me off or try to get out of the car again. He
must have had some trouble getting back in the traffic or got stuck at
lights because I made it all the way to Wellington Rd before I heard a car
coming at speed and, sure enough, he hung off the horn and swerved to within
a foot or so of me. Fortunately for me, I turn off there and that was the
last I saw of him. When I got to work, I immediately wrote a stat dec and
had it signed by a JP so that I have a record of the event. I am not sure
if I should put in a police report or not as I really don't want anything to
do with this guy as I think he may be mentally unstable. He wasn't a real
big guy and usually I would have pulled in at the servo to see what it was
he wanted to talk to me about but I had a commitment on Tuesday for which I
couldn't afford to be sporting any facial injuries.

I am not someone to hold a grudge but this one has gotten under my skin a
bit. He fails to give way to me and then has the nerve to threaten me with
his car, threaten physical violence, and then threaten me with his car
again?!? If someone threatened me with a knife or gun I am reasonably
confident that I could get a result from the police but being threatened
with a car just doesn't seem to be regarded in the same light. I may be
totally wrong and I am not having a go at the police but I have read too
many similar accounts in this forum where cyclists have not been taken
seriously when reporting such incidents.

I am still sticking with my "softly softly" approach to communication with
drivers and I just hope that I don't end up with this guys car pointed at me
at any time in the future.

Gags



Definitely report it to the police. They won't take kindly to someone
threatening a cyclist with a 1.5+ tonne lump of steel.

Ben

gplama wrote:
Gags Wrote:
I am still sticking with my "softly softly" approach to communication
with
drivers and I just hope that I don't end up with this guys car pointed
at me
at any time in the future.


Crikey! Send him my way... so I can tell him how f'kin huge you are!
Take away his car, my money is on you 100%


That was my thinking too. Actually I think it was all just a mistake
caused by the fact the guy was blind. You'd have to be blind to not see
Gags is a fairly large lad to be picking a fight with.

And I'll submit a vote for reporting him. If it was an isolated event
then no harm done, but if he does it all the time it is more likely to
be picked up.

DaveB

Gags Wrote:

I am still sticking with my "softly softly" approach to communication
with
drivers and I just hope that I don't end up with this guys car pointed
at me
at any time in the future.

That's a very wise option, staying neutral, monitoring the situation
and reporting it if you see fit.

On a happier note, while riding around the Yarra Boulie area, Chandler
Hwy, Clifton Hill, inner 'burbs on Sunday, I was damn impressed with
the behaviour of drivers and peds. Much goodwill, waving on, "no you go
through", smiles, nods, yielding for cyclists, polite ringing of bells
as a advance warning, calls of "passing" etc. Even had two seperate
incidents of little kids waving & smiling, one in a boat while crossing
Kanes Bridge and the other in a pram at the Rushall Station underpass.

Kinda made up for almost losing my breakfast on a mild Yarra Boulie
climb, but hey, when you're convalescing that's the sort of crap you
have to work through.

Back to road rage and reporting incidents, Fiona from Sydney's MASSBUG
penned this brilliant article on dealing with road incidents et al,
it's NSW specific but there's plenty of good tips and headsups for all
cyclists.

Bike Tips: Reporting traffic incidents to police:
http://tinyurl.com/f65xf


--
cfsmtb

Gags Wrote:

-- snip --
I am not someone to hold a grudge but this one has gotten under my skin
a
bit. He fails to give way to me and then has the nerve to threaten me
with
his car, threaten physical violence, and then threaten me with his car
again?!? If someone threatened me with a knife or gun I am reasonably
confident that I could get a result from the police but being
threatened
with a car just doesn't seem to be regarded in the same light. I may
be
totally wrong and I am not having a go at the police but I have read
too
many similar accounts in this forum where cyclists have not been taken
seriously when reporting such incidents.
Gags

well not quite road rage, but following on from my near death
experience and subsequent mawling at the hands of our insurance
company. Then finding out the girl who hit me earns $200 a week and has
no insurance what so ever. I have decided even though I am fully aware I
will probably not get any money from her, that we are going to go ahead
with action to sue her and if not anything at all teach her to take
responsibility for her actions. We are hoping that best case scenario
she will have to declare bankruptcy and have that mark against her for
a few years. When I found out she did not even have the decency to
have Third Party insurance to cover damage to other peoples property I
just lost it.

Moral of the story, always try and get hit by a person driving/owning
an expensive car with good insurance, but make sure you survive.


--
MikeyOz

cfsmtb Wrote:


Bike Tips: Reporting traffic incidents to police:
http://tinyurl.com/f65xf
Does BV have a similar guide to this for victoria?


--
pase

pase Wrote:
Does BV have a similar guide to this for victoria?

Probably not in as much detail, although it wouldn't take much to rejig
it. I'll suggest to ask Fiona for permission to use her material as a
basis, I've already quoted & linked the pdf here as part of this WoJ
page: http://www.woj.com.au/crankbusters/state-police-links/

Maybe broader-themed article, with a national perspective could be
beneficial?


--
cfsmtb

Gags wrote:
snip
his car, threaten physical violence, and then threaten me with his car
again?!? If someone threatened me with a knife or gun I am reasonably
confident that I could get a result from the police but being threatened
with a car just doesn't seem to be regarded in the same light. I may be
totally wrong and I am not having a go at the police but I have read too
many similar accounts in this forum where cyclists have not been taken
seriously when reporting such incidents.
snip

I'm one of those cases. The explanation I received was, "If
someone said they were going to kill you, and they were
weilding a knife or a gun, then we would be able to charge
them, but they weren't weilding a dangerous weapon."

I asked them to explain how that differed from someone
driving a car, saying, "I'm going to run you over, I'm going
to fscking kill you" - given they had indicated their
intent to kill me using their car, and they were driving at
the time.

They saw my point of view, which was nice.

Gags Wrote:
Last Monday at just after 7am, I was riding along Heidelberg Rd and had
just
crossed the Chandler Hwy intersection at about 35km/h or so and then a
car
pulled out from the next Rd on the left,

SNIP

Gags


Knowing that area, there is a good chance Mr Agrodriver lives in that
side st.
Did you get his rego?


--
Bikesoiler