The Chainlink

New Chainlinker needs to vent..

So, I'm a few months new to Chicago and the chainlink community and have been using transportation alternative to driving for many years while living across the U.S. As I was commuting to work on my foldable this morning, a passenger door flung open into my path and struck me and my bike. I didn't fly off the bike, but my arms hit the ajar door and were scraped up fairly bad. My immediate response was shock, but I honestly had a strange last minute suspicion the door might fly open. 

The screwy part was that the guy getting out of the car was dropping off his wife who was driving. They were switching places at her supposed usual spot to go to work. I got into a bit of a scuff with the guy because all that he could do was immediately lie, brush off the incident, and try to drive away. I replied, "Is that all you're going to do? Are you serious?" to which he gave me hostility.

I told his wife that he needed to stop, assess any damages, and apologize appropriately (w/o his outlandish lies that he was in the right). She agreed and said he had anger issues and she didn't want to see us get into a fight. I assured her that wouldn't happen on my end and that she needed to get him to anger management counseling asap. She again agreed, apologized on his behalf, and pleaded that I didn't press charges or file a complaint with the police.

As I approached the guy, he changed his tune entirely (pretending to be kind and polite) and mentioning that he was sorry, but he lacked any feelings of genuine remorse. All I wanted him to do was admit that he never looked out of his window for a passing bike. All I wanted was for him to look out for bikers and pedestrians, but the whole thing has got me thinking that people will resort to automatically pleading innocence because of our litigious society.

I wasn't going to sue him for a few scrapes, but he had no idea of knowing this. As for me, I get to face the expenditure of getting my front wheel aligned. I'm only glad I'm not badly hurt. I'm also glad I'm not one of those dishonest litigious fools who want something for nothing. The truth is, all I want is justice and if it takes getting a guy riled up at 8 a.m. to feel justified, I'm game.

Happy Car-Free day to you all and thanks for welcoming me to the community!

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Permalink Reply by Gin on September 22, 2010 at 12:36pm
Argh!!! Frikkin door zone!!! The sound of a door clicking gives me the shivers every time. . . .even when I am totally out of danger.

I am so glad you were not badly injured and hope tomorrow tells the same story. I too have wondered if people hide behind fears of liability and "admitting guilt" when sometimes a simple: "Oh! I am soooooo sorry. I can't believe I did that. I will never do that again! Is there anything I can do for you?" type of response would help so much.

Take care and hope to meet you soon!
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on September 22, 2010 at 12:54pm
Where's Superman when you need him to protect truth, justice and the American way - of suing the pants off of you for something that wasn't done with malicious intent?

It sounds like this guy genuinely has anger issues, but it also is quite possible that he didn't want to risk getting sued (in this ridiculous country of ours where "I'm going to sue you!" is scarier than "I"m going to shoot you!") or having the police involved.

Still, a simple "I"m sorry." can go a long way. Bravo to his wife for handling the situation in a calm manner and to you for not flying off the handle like him.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to call my lawyer - I think I might have a libel case on my hands shortly brought by Lady Liberty (see ridiculous country remark above).
Permalink Reply by Davo on September 22, 2010 at 1:58pm
You should have notified the police and filed a report anyway. Just to insure that your bike gets taken care of and in case you actually do have injuries that you get taken care of. This is no different than a car accident with another car. I'm glad that you aren't hurt though.
Permalink Reply by Rick norris on September 22, 2010 at 4:41pm
I gotta agree here, you suffered damage to your bike...it is against the law to open a car door like that....I would have taken a pic, with my phone. If I was going slow and no big deal for damage, like a SLIGHTLY bent rim I would have let them try to work it out on a cash, on the spot, no cops, deal.
But even the problem with that is after the accident you have a bunch of adrenaline pumping and might miss something, like a tweaked (or cracked if carbon fiber) fork. Or a few hours later when your calmed down you might feel some real pain that might be a cue for some real damage you might miss, again this all goes back to how fast you hit the door.....

When I was younger, in the late 70's I got doored by a beater toyota ( or somethng like that) Did WAY more damage to the car than my bike, and I had this gnarly cool scar across my chest. If that happened to me today, I would be a real mess for sure.

I hope all your damage is REALLY minor and you still feel good

Davo said:
You should have notified the police and filed a report anyway. Just to insure that your bike gets taken care of and in case you actually do have injuries that you get taken care of. This is no different than a car accident with another car. I'm glad that you aren't hurt though.
Permalink Reply by Josh V on September 22, 2010 at 4:50pm
I'm glad you are (more or less) OK. Getting doored is my personal biggest biking fear and why as a relatively new biker I'm reluctant to do a lot of riding on city streets. A few years ago I saw someone get doored and they looked like they were hurt pretty bad.
Permalink Reply by cutifly on September 22, 2010 at 5:05pm
if you have his plates I can get you a name and address ...
Permalink Reply by Dr. E. Cruz Eusebio on September 22, 2010 at 5:39pm
As you already know, this whole sort of thing seems to go down in slow motion, but then (as someone already stated) the adrenaline kicks in and, if you're anything like me, the brain sorta shuts down by going into overdrive. My mind was thinking of all the sort of scenarios that you've all mentioned. However, fortunate for me and my body, I've been staying in good physical health, so I think I braced myself fairly well from the impact. A colleague earlier today noted that I had cement markings on my arm from running into the wall (ha) and my mind's been a little off throughout the day. Other than that, I'm good. So thanks for the support on this one folks. I hope to see you on the streets w/o any doors in your grill. Now, I'm off to the bike shop to assess the damage!
Permalink Reply by Vilda on September 22, 2010 at 7:40pm
Glad you are ok! Sorry about your ride. Call the cops next time for your own protection as noted above. Or if your bike is still rideable. VENGEANCE! ;-)
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 22, 2010 at 9:12pm
Ibuprofen is your friend -it works wonders on me. You're probably going to be sore & stiff in the morning if you are anything like me after a good hit. I try and drink plenty of water and stretch out before going to bed after a spill and then again in the morning followed by more ibuprofen. I used to race motorcycles and took some pretty good crashes in my day -and a few broken bones too.

I hope this guy is going to spring for a new wheel or truing if your property was damaged. It's the least he can do for being at fault. I'd have gotten his license number and insurance info at the very least even if I wasn't going to do anything about it. Perhaps it'll make him sweat a few days waiting for the hammer to drop. And if you ended up with some serious problems down the road you would have a chance of getting some compensation.

Here's to your speedy recovery and getting your wheel fixed ASAP and back on the road!
Permalink Reply by mike w. on September 22, 2010 at 9:35pm
i love it.

"...he was sorry, but he lacked any feelings of genuine remorse." FAIL.

The guy's a dirtbag and an (edit)hole. What? AND he depends on his wife to explain away his "anger issues?!!" B-effing-S. He's a LOSER and fully deserving of u-lock justice. This guy'll probably wind up killing some innocent with his "anger issues." Possibly even his wife.

Saying someone has "Anger issues" is just a nice way of saying someone's a psychopath/sociopath.

Sorry. This kind of story just burns my cork. Wish you would've called the PD, but maybe that wouldn't have helped much. i don't think they'd've taken it too seriously.

Glad you're okay. Keep safe out there.

End of rant. Peace. out.
Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on September 22, 2010 at 10:11pm
Sorry this happened, glad you're OK and glad you stood up for yourself.
I'm not getting the litigative thing in my read-- I think it just as likely the guy is an entitled jerk who doesn't think you should have been riding your bike in his street, and/or someone who is pathologically unable to admit fault . . .

Consider West Town Bikes for help with your wheel. Open shop usually Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.
Permalink Reply by milesperhour on September 22, 2010 at 10:24pm
I'm glad to hear you're safe. It's sad that he couldn't even apologize, when that is all you needed.


Sometimes I wonder why people go through life being so angry. How do they live like that? I will never understand.

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