Crazy Drivers

So this guy in a car runs a stop sign and almost hits me yesterday afternoon. He honks at me for being in the was and i say you had the stop sign asshole. So he decides to get out of the car with a baseball bat. I unlock my chain from around my was and continue to get cursed out. how do you deal with these fucking crazy people.

 

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Permalink Reply by Patrick O'Connor on March 21, 2010 at 9:15am
Obey the lugnut rule, and always presume someone else is not going to stop.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on March 21, 2010 at 10:00am
A phone call to 911 in your situation. Really, the guy got out of his car with a bat because you yelled at him? Wow, summer should be fun.
Permalink Reply by dav on March 21, 2010 at 10:03am
"Go f*** yourself." and pedal away.
Permalink Reply by Aaron Mooney on March 21, 2010 at 10:48am
Yeah i guess your right i was in defense mode, this guy was out of his mind out raged because i was trying to explain to him there im a person to just because you have a car and im on a bike doesnt mean i dont have something important to do. I was just on my way to work luckily this situation happened as i pulled infront of my restaurant so within seconds i had four cooks outside and the guy left, but wow that guy must of had a really bad day. I respect drivers i dont ride like an asshole i stop a lights and slow at stop signs. Riding is a life choice and something i do and love. I just wish the other side could see this.

H3N3 said:
This is good advice, but there is so little in place at this point to rein in reckless and aggressive driving, I don't think we should just put our heads down and submit to threatening driver behavior without at least some token effort to send a message that it's not OK.
That said, I think you often weaken your case (not to mention increase your chances of getting seriously hurt) when you respond to a show of violence with the same. Especially if there are witnesses, you stand the best chance of prevailing if you maintain your appearance of being "the victim" in the situation.
In this particular instance, reading between the lines it sounds like the driver did not grab a bat and come at Aaron swinging, but rather was holding it to appear threatening. I probably would have kept my distance but leveraged the situation to play up the fact that the driver was being bizarrely aggressive. I'd keep my hands at my side (or on my handlebars if I was still on a bike) so there could be little likelihood of any witnesses getting the impression that you were the aggressor, and in terms of verbally engaging, I've come to the conclusion that your only real chance of getting anything across that might make a difference in this particular aggressor's future dealings is to appeal to some sense of humanity-- avoid anything that feeds into "I'm right, you're wrong,", and stick to general messages that remind them what it would be like to not behave anti-socially towards others-- "be nice to people,", "I'm worried you might hurt someone, sir", "it's not cool to threaten people with your car,", something along those lines.

Patrick O'Connor said:
Obey the lugnut rule, and always presume someone else is not going to stop.
Permalink Reply by wig [ isaac ] on March 22, 2010 at 5:21am
I say " I love you "
Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on March 22, 2010 at 7:03am
This is most effective when shouted and accompanied by a frenzied removal of all clothing, pants first.

wig [ isaac ] said:
I say " I love you "
Permalink Reply by Barbra Mann on March 22, 2010 at 10:45am
Pull out your camera.
Permalink Reply by JeffB on March 22, 2010 at 11:08am
In this specific case I'd think that would only give him a convenient target to hit, assuming he wasn't going use your head as one. If his original intent was to threaten and intimidate, but he wasn't going to actually hit you, you might be inadvertantly escalating the situation. His thinking being "I won't hit a person, but I'll sure smash a camera"

Barbra Mann said:
Pull out your camera.
Permalink Reply by Aaron Mooney on March 22, 2010 at 4:21pm
yeah i reall didnt know what i was going to do i thought about the camera but i just got a brand new one and like you said i didnt want it to get smashed. the only thing that surprised me was how angry this guy was. angry enough to pull out a bat and hit someone with it i wasnt that worried i will take a hit to put a bad driver with road rage in jail.

Jeff said:
In this specific case I'd think that would only give him a convenient target to hit, assuming he wasn't going use your head as one. If his original intent was to threaten and intimidate, but he wasn't going to actually hit you, you might be inadvertantly escalating the situation. His thinking being "I won't hit a person, but I'll sure smash a camera"

Barbra Mann said:
Pull out your camera.
Permalink Reply by Erin on March 22, 2010 at 4:32pm
You might recall that there was a driver who pulled out a gun and shot a cyclist a few years ago over some traffic altercation. There are some crazy people out there, which is what keeps me from expressing myself as frankly as I would otherwise. "I love you" is probably the way to go.
Permalink Reply by Michael A on March 22, 2010 at 4:40pm
I usually just smile and wave, But I have been known to pound on a fender or door if a cab gets too close

Erin said:
You might recall that there was a driver who pulled out a gun and shot a cyclist a few years ago over some traffic altercation. There are some crazy people out there, which is what keeps me from expressing myself as frankly as I would otherwise. "I love you" is probably the way to go.
Permalink Reply by S on March 22, 2010 at 4:43pm
Erin said:
You might recall that there was a driver who pulled out a gun and shot a cyclist a few years ago over some traffic altercation. There are some crazy people out there, which is what keeps me from expressing myself as frankly as I would otherwise. "I love you" is probably the way to go.

This may or may not be the incident you're talking about but last year a firefighter in SC pulled out a gun and shot a guy in the head because he was mad that the guy was endangering the guy's son's life by putting him in a bike trailer. Luckily, the guy's helmet stopped the bullet!

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