NYTimes article on history of cycling and incidents with other vehicles

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Permalink Reply by Dave Jacque on November 4, 2009 at 10:55am

Heh. I love that illustration. But yeah, plus ça change ...

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Permalink Reply by mattbikes1 on November 4, 2009 at 7:45pm

I love it! Thanks for the post!

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Permalink Reply by JD Churchill on May 27, 2010 at 12:40pm

hey people
i would like to revive this thread as a discussion of how you handle confrontations with motorists who view the cyclist as an obstacle, rather than another vehicle. this morning riding on grand east coming to the intersection with western i entered into a lively discussion with an agitated motorist. this man told me that next time he was going to run me over to which i replied oh well then it's called murder so that's wise and we both exchanged insults. i am sure i am not the only one to which this happened and also that i could've responded more intelligently. what do you do?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on May 27, 2010 at 12:57pm

Ignore them.

JD Churchill said:

hey people
i would like to revive this thread as a discussion of how you handle confrontations with motorists who view the cyclist as an obstacle, rather than another vehicle. this morning riding on grand east coming to the intersection with western i entered into a lively discussion with an agitated motorist. this man told me that next time he was going to run me over to which i replied oh well then it's called murder so that's wise and we both exchanged insults. i am sure i am not the only one to which this happened and also that i could've responded more intelligently. what do you do?

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on May 27, 2010 at 1:10pm

I tell them to go fuck themselves, ask them if they feel strong, etc., even though I'm small and can't fight. (I don't do this if it's a dude who looks liable to shoot me.) If I'm getting into a tiff with a driver it's almost by definition going to be in traffic, meaning he's not going to be able to gun his car at me and run me over, and if he hops out of the car and looks violent I can always just ride away quickly like a coward, while he can't abandon his car to chase me.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on May 27, 2010 at 1:15pm

By the way, thanks for dredging up this hilarious piece. I think people should start bringing out horse drawn coal carts for riders to collide with to make tweed rides more authentic.

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Permalink Reply by JD Churchill on May 27, 2010 at 1:54pm

yea dr doom that's basicly how it went down. the intersection is set up so as to create problems cuz there's a right turn lane that forks off and then traffic that would continue east on grand or want to turn left go off another fork.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on May 27, 2010 at 2:15pm

Seriously. Don't do this.

If a driver does something that puts you in any kind of peril, by all means make them aware of it. If they insist on escalating the situation leave it at that and be upon your way. You'll be forgotten by the time they make it to wherever they're going anyway. If you partake in the escalation and manage to get away, they may very well just save up that anger and resentment to unleash on another cyclist and with potentially far worse consequences.

Dr. Doom said:

I tell them to go fuck themselves, ask them if they feel strong, etc., even though I'm small and can't fight. (I don't do this if it's a dude who looks liable to shoot me.) If I'm getting into a tiff with a driver it's almost by definition going to be in traffic, meaning he's not going to be able to gun his car at me and run me over, and if he hops out of the car and looks violent I can always just ride away quickly like a coward, while he can't abandon his car to chase me.

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Permalink Reply by JD Churchill on May 27, 2010 at 3:34pm

yea i know, but it's so hard when some d-bag in an suv starts telling you to get the hell outta the way when i was doing the correct thing and dude was speeding and not paying attention.

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