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 Tomas Jacobi on September 23, 2010 at 9:16am
That sucks! This has happened to me twice...I think its incredibly important to file a report with the cops on the spot. Doesn't mean you have to sue them, but with a report they at least get the inconvenience of going to court to get an incredibly minor fee if any....they'll think twice next time...and their insurance would most likely pay for the cost of fixing your bike (after 9 months of repetitive phone calls).

If you don't report...then its just another incident that doesn't count towards any statistics....and we all love pie charts
Permalink Reply by Green Machine Cycles on September 23, 2010 at 10:27am
I've been doored twice and was laid up for over a week each time. Even if you don't think you were hurt badly, some injuries have a way of manifesting over a longer period of time and you want to make sure you have legal recourse if they do.

Always get a police report and press any applicable charges regardless of how nicely, angrily, or indifferently someone behaves.

Ignorance and irreverence are no defenses for a motorist regardless of whether or not their vehicle is in motion. Operating a car is a privilege, not a right, regardless of what most people seem to believe.

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