What would you have done?

While riding home last night (about 10:30) on the Lakefront path, I saw a pedestrian ahead of me and I called out "on your left". The woman turned around and started cussing me, after I passed she threw a bottle at me and hit me in the back.

I got off of my bike, confronted her, asked her why she hit me with a bottle. At that point I realized that she had mental health issues and let her be.

But my shoulder really was hurting. I started to call the police, but I thought of the long wait involved waiting for them to arrive. I really was tempted to retaliate, but the woman cried out " I have issues!" and that really defused my anger.

Now I considering purchasing pepper (bear deterrent strength) for similar situations , it's legal in Chicago and Illinois.

Now I ask "WHAT WOULD YOU DO?"

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Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on May 5, 2015 at 6:41am

The issue that I have with yelling "On your left", is that you must trust the person to react as you intended. You introduce a variable and leave it in the control of others. If I can trust myself to ride safely, I don't find it's necessary to yell "on your left". In fact, most of the times I hear people yell it out to me, as courteous/safe as they intended to be, I find it mostly unnecessary and somewhat disturbing. I also agree with making no noise, give lots of space, and ride very slow until it is safe to speed up. A friendly bell could work from a distance, but when getting close in a tight space, an "excuse me" should be enough.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on May 5, 2015 at 7:25am

I hate trying to pass people on skates or roller skis for that very reason. I've sometimes encountered skaters who were actually paying attention and slowed down (with a narrower stride) to let me pass. A little bit of courtesy goes a long way.