Thursday, September 07, 2006
Cyclist Behaving Badly
A few days ago I was driving up River Road to borrow a bike from a friend. I saw some commotion at a stop sign. It was a guy wearing a full Grand Performance team kit, circa 1995, riding helmetless on a celeste Bianchi. He stopped, stepped off his bike, and was yelling and screaming like a lunatic, challenging a motorist to a fight. He looked silly enough riding without a helmet-- but picking a fight?
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3 comments:
Oh man, I despise that, especially for piddly stuff. However, I think sometimes a stern talking to is warranted. However, no matter how it looks to the cyclists involved, to every other driver it just looks like an angry cyclist.... Im with you. I wear a helmet, and sometimes lash out... if necessary.
The latest one a guy in a work truck tried to squeeze off two or three riders in a pack when he had the entire road to go around. Instead he slowed down and tried to pinch off the riders to the shoulder. I was up ahead and at a stoplight and he started hollering at me... I didnt know what the heck was going on. Then the guys he had pinched pulled up and they were furious. Just so happens one was an ex Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and the other is 6'4" and a complete hothead who had just sued and won a suit against an aggressive driver, so this guy is lucky he chose to drive away. Funny thing though. Even though he got called out by these cyclists on this occasion, does it make him more apt to drive aggressively at other riders, or does it make him give them room. Food for thought. I would doubt the later. Thanks for the blog.
I believe it is human nature to stop listening as soon as the other person starts YELLING. So I guess I don't see that anything constructive can come of it. I know I have tried talking to a few drivers in the past--- but I have never yelled at someone to get out of their car, etc... and I can assure you that these drivers would hear nothing I had to say.
Once my wife and I were almost run over as pedestrians by a woman driving an SUV, and I slapped her fender... she came back to yell and scream at us for touching her car, threatened my wife, etc.... had no interest in wanting to hear that we had the right of way. It happened in a nice US suburb.
Funnily studies found that cars will leave more distance to a cycler w/out a helmet. See this post: http://pedallingmythoughts.typepad.co.uk/
pedallingmythoughts/2006/09/a_syrup_is_more.html
Crazy world...
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