Think of this as a Missed Connection.

You blew the red light east bound on Lawrence at Damen at 5:26 pm this evening.

 

There was enough time for the biker in front of me to make it half way into the intersection, northbound on Damen, before you came whizzing past my front wheel.

 

I yelled "You're an idiot!" at your big haired chick, self, and you looked back at me. I meant it!

 

I woulda testified for any of the cars, that managed to not kill you, if they had.

 

Keep riding like a tard!

love,

gabe

 

Witness bad behavior during your commute? Feel free to post. Maybe that lovely human can read it and think they are famous. Maybe you can also inspire the whole generation of kids to shower but we can start with small things.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tim S on May 19, 2012 at 11:36am
Take it offline fella's, this is one of my favourite threads and you are killing it.
Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 19, 2012 at 11:45am

I love how the more I ignore you, the longer and angrier your posts get.  lol  


notoriousDUG said:

Let me be the first to call you a liar here. In your first post you said they 'passed and honked,' your second post stated they 'sped past me on a very narrow stretch of pavement and was using the horn,' and now it is that they ran you off the road into a car; which one of these is it because those are all very, very different things.

Regardless of any of those what you did was the very definition of assault.  An assault you cannot even get away with saying was self defense because you were out of danger at the time and the driver was no longer doing anything to threaten you.  When you attempt to scare somebody or damage them or their property after the fact you are not defending yourself you are not only assaulting them but you are escalating the situation.  This has nothing to do with courteous behavior and more to do with not making a bad situation worse; what if they got angry and chased you down after?  What if they had been a big dude who got out and beat you senseless?  Actually scratch that last one because I seriously doubt you would have pulled a jackass stunt like that if it had not been somebody you knew you could bully...

The main thing that driver is going to take away is that cyclists are violent asshats.  Depending on how severe the whole thing actually was, and I place very little value on your word after all the changing of your story, there is a good chance the driver never even knew they had done something; did you know a lot of driver honk as they pass a cyclist to let them know they are there?  Yeah it's obnoxious but they think they are being nice.

One would think you would take the hint on this one when every response here is calling you an asshole.  You can justify this to yourself all you want but it will not change the fact that you are an asshole.

Zoetrope said:

So you don't view a car running a cyclist off the road with their 2 ton vehicle and a horn blast to be assault then?  I'm still from Earth, where people tend to protect themselves against violence with like-minded actions.  Too bad that your head is so far up your self-righteous faux courteous ass you missed it.      

The main thing the driver will take away is it's not OK to run cyclists off the road and honk at them antagonistically, and that's what I wanted.      

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on May 19, 2012 at 11:49am

Doug is neither loud or angry yet.  I haven't even seen him smash on someone's window with his hand hard enough to almost break it and scream obcenities in someone's face.

THAT is loud and angry.  These are just words in an internet forum.  Mere electrons and shapes on a computer screen.


Zoetrope said:

I love how the more I ignore you, the longer and angrier your posts get.  lol  



Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on May 19, 2012 at 12:05pm

I think you are mistaking me trying to explain to you that you are an asshole and make others on bikes look bad for anger.  I am not so much angry as disappointed; behavior like yours is never productive.

The fact that you responded shows you are not ignoring me, think about it....

I am still waiting for you to clarify what, exactly, the driver did to you so we can tell which one of your three different stories are the truth.

Zoetrope said:

I love how the more I ignore you, the longer and angrier your posts get.  lol  


notoriousDUG said:

Let me be the first to call you a liar here. In your first post you said they 'passed and honked,' your second post stated they 'sped past me on a very narrow stretch of pavement and was using the horn,' and now it is that they ran you off the road into a car; which one of these is it because those are all very, very different things.

Regardless of any of those what you did was the very definition of assault.  An assault you cannot even get away with saying was self defense because you were out of danger at the time and the driver was no longer doing anything to threaten you.  When you attempt to scare somebody or damage them or their property after the fact you are not defending yourself you are not only assaulting them but you are escalating the situation.  This has nothing to do with courteous behavior and more to do with not making a bad situation worse; what if they got angry and chased you down after?  What if they had been a big dude who got out and beat you senseless?  Actually scratch that last one because I seriously doubt you would have pulled a jackass stunt like that if it had not been somebody you knew you could bully...

The main thing that driver is going to take away is that cyclists are violent asshats.  Depending on how severe the whole thing actually was, and I place very little value on your word after all the changing of your story, there is a good chance the driver never even knew they had done something; did you know a lot of driver honk as they pass a cyclist to let them know they are there?  Yeah it's obnoxious but they think they are being nice.

One would think you would take the hint on this one when every response here is calling you an asshole.  You can justify this to yourself all you want but it will not change the fact that you are an asshole.

Zoetrope said:

So you don't view a car running a cyclist off the road with their 2 ton vehicle and a horn blast to be assault then?  I'm still from Earth, where people tend to protect themselves against violence with like-minded actions.  Too bad that your head is so far up your self-righteous faux courteous ass you missed it.      

The main thing the driver will take away is it's not OK to run cyclists off the road and honk at them antagonistically, and that's what I wanted.      

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on May 19, 2012 at 2:33pm

I'm not condoning any type of violence, but the argument that drivers are going to think that cyclists are all assholes because of the actions of one person doesn't make any sense. Of course there are ignorant people out there that would think that, but are we calling all drivers ignorant? That's quite ironic. Likewise I don't think all drivers are assholes because there are bad apples out there (i.e cage rage, etc) . It's the person, NOT the form of transport they choose that one should judge.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on May 19, 2012 at 4:27pm

You seriously don't think that actions like that do not reflect horribly on cyclists and promote the image that cyclists are assholes?

I do not think that it is a stretch, in the slightest, to say that the view those two women have of cyclists is a bit more negative than it was before that interaction.

MagMileMarauder said:

I'm not condoning any type of violence, but the argument that drivers are going to think that cyclists are all assholes because of the actions of one person doesn't make any sense. Of course there are ignorant people out there that would think that, but are we calling all drivers ignorant? That's quite ironic. Likewise I don't think all drivers are assholes because there are bad apples out there (i.e cage rage, etc) . It's the person, NOT the form of transport they choose that one should judge.

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on May 19, 2012 at 4:37pm

You didn't read my whole argument notoriousDUG.  Like I said, the actions of a few DON'T reflect on a group at large. Would it be reasonable for me to say that the actions of a few drivers reflect horribly as the entire group of drivers? For example, a person texting on an SUV and cutting me off, honking and flipping me off (un unlikely scenario all at once, but for the sake of argument) Also, why is the opinion of an ignorant minority of drivers (i.e. "bikers are all assholes")  trump the opinion of an ignorant minority of bikers (the counterargument?  Both opinions  are just as ignorant. Do you see that?

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on May 19, 2012 at 5:20pm

But does the person doing all three of those things at once diminish you opinion of drivers in general?  I know it does mine,especially those who do thing on purpose.  Personally I believe that one or two negative interactions have the power to strongly influence a person far beyond hundreds of interactions of a nuetral persuasion.  Think of retail and service industry situations. People will frequently stop patronizing an establishment they have gone to time and time again over one or to instances of poor service; now amplify poor service with outright aggressive and threatening behavior. 

There is an old maxim regarding the impressions we leave people from the service industry that I have always liked and I think it applies here: 'People who have a negative experience will go out and tell people about it of their own volition, those who have a positive experience will recount it only when asked.'  People very rarely go out of their way to tell others when good things happen, even less to nuetral things (nobody ever tells a story about how average an interaction was) but they are always willing to share the bad.  When things like this happen the victims, and those girls in that car were indeed victims, will tell the story of the 'crazy cyclist' over and over to all of their friends spreading the ill will.

We can argue all we want over the issue of how much damage it does to the image of cycling but I think we can both agree that it does some measure of damage.  I also hope we can both agree that the actions in question here are not appropriate regardless of the effects on cycling's image.

MagMileMarauder said:

You didn't read my whole argument notoriousDUG.  Like I said, the actions of a few DON'T reflect on a group at large. Would it be reasonable for me to say that the actions of a few drivers reflect horribly as the entire group of drivers? For example, a person texting on an SUV and cutting me off, honking and flipping me off (un unlikely scenario all at once, but for the sake of argument) Also, why is the opinion of an ignorant minority of drivers (i.e. "bikers are all assholes")  trump the opinion of an ignorant minority of bikers (the counterargument?  Both opinions  are just as ignorant. Do you see that?

Permalink Reply by Nick Butterfield on May 19, 2012 at 6:17pm

we all see that. on some level, everyone sees that. a thought's ignorance rarely stops it's creation or spread. to think otherwise is more than a little naive. a person can be thoughtful, insightful, and reasonable. people, together, rarely exhibit any of those qualities.

also, i tend to suspect that someone who reacts to honking so violently likely wasn't riding along, completely innocent of any cycling wrongdoing, exhibiting an obvious awareness of his surroundings, and a gentle disposition to those with whom he shares the road, with songbirds alighting on his shoulders and small mammals scurrying about his frame at every stop light. seems a touch more likely he gave them some kind of reason to honk, as we all have to some degree or another.

MagMileMarauder said:

snip

Both opinions  are just as ignorant. Do you see that?

Permalink Reply by Vilda on May 20, 2012 at 8:25am

Douchebag hippie riding a bike that is louder than most cars, that called me a racist for saying the West Side (where we were) was a bad area, and "if I wanted to see a bad area i should go down to 120th and Halsted." It wasn't an either/or ya fuck face. Now get a job and buy a bike that isn't banging around like your pulling cans for your new stinky hippie bride.

Permalink Reply by S on May 20, 2012 at 4:24pm

The drivers probably don't realize why you are where you are and just think you're slowing them down for no good reason.  When driving a car, it's really easy to ignore potholes and rough surfaces unless it's really bad. 

Also, and this touches on Zoetrope's experience, it seems like there's a sizable percentage of drivers that think they they need to honk to warn you that they're passing.  I guess they figure you can't hear them and want to make sure that you don't end up drifting in front of them.  That may actually be a valid concern if they're driving an all electric vehicle or a hybrid that's running on battery power only.



Jeff Schneider said:

The few times drivers lay on the horn at me, it's usually because I am not where they think I "belong".  Example - sometimes the right side of the lane is full of huge potholes, and I have to ride in the middle of the lane for a stretch to get around them.  Most drivers have no clue with what I am doing, and it does annoy me that they are so dense.  But I don't have any illusions that I can educate them, so I let it be.

Nick Butterfield said:

we all see that. on some level, everyone sees that. a thought's ignorance rarely stops it's creation or spread. to think otherwise is more than a little naive. a person can be thoughtful, insightful, and reasonable. people, together, rarely exhibit any of those qualities.

also, i tend to suspect that someone who reacts to honking so violently likely wasn't riding along, completely innocent of any cycling wrongdoing, exhibiting an obvious awareness of his surroundings, and a gentle disposition to those with whom he shares the road, with songbirds alighting on his shoulders and small mammals scurrying about his frame at every stop light. seems a touch more likely he gave them some kind of reason to honk, as we all have to some degree or another.

MagMileMarauder said:

snip

Both opinions  are just as ignorant. Do you see that?

Permalink Reply by Reba 4.0 mi on May 20, 2012 at 6:07pm

Dear Pack of Fresh Young Things,

You four were heading south on Damen Ave., just about to hit Satan's waiting room at North/Milwaukee. I was pedaling hard to follow cars north on Damen and avoid left turning not-from-around-here drivers. The most sharply dressed of you, in flowing dress and lovely hair was flying at me, on the wrong side of the street. I looked back, after narrowly avoiding being killed and stopping my bike, to see your three playmates riding in the same direction IN THE CROSSWALK, nearly plowing down several parents with children. 

What the hell? Please call home and tell mom and dad they had it wrong: ride WITH traffic. 

Or else some old broad like me will be forced to chase you down to keep you from killing the rest of us.

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