Passive aggressiveness-let me know how i did!

So today on my ride to work i was almost run down by a 2010 mercedes that gave me about six inches while he passed me in the same lane on sheridan (no shared marking or bike lane)

He then proceeded to turn into the same parking lot i was heading into and the thought crossed my mind to let him know in a friendly manner that he should give a cyclist 3 feet when passing. )I have heard rumblings that the 3 ft passing law exists here so correct me if I am incorrect) But anyways I let it go and rode on to work.

About 30 minutes later I get a request from one of the graduate students in the lab that I need to call parking services to have a car towed because a family has come to participate in an experiment and they have no where to park. (I manage a developmental and adult cognition lab at northwestern) So i give them a ring, tell them the plates and they respond that they CANNOT tow the car because the individual is a trustee of the university. My initial reaction was to kick his side mirror off and after that i have provided a visual progression...

and finally

So considering these guys must wield some kind of power around here to be able to literally park *wherever* they want, I felt like the message was tempered but crisp. I am interested to know the cyclist point of view. Too much, not enough?

btw he drives the same car that douche hit and run guy from colorado drives, do they do mercedes on bike stats?

he is second from the bottom....

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by igz on November 11, 2010 at 12:25pm

give him hell.

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Permalink Reply by garrett on November 11, 2010 at 12:31pm

btw the third iteration of my note made it to the wiper if that wasnt clear

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Permalink Reply by Ryan L on November 11, 2010 at 12:45pm

I have come to learn that folks who drive really nice cars are the most dangerous drivers. They truly feel like kings of the road and that others should bow down to their awesomeness because they drive such a cool and expensive car giving them the right to drive like assholes.

For some strange reason it's BMW's and Audi's that scare me the most. I don't know why but 9 times out of 10, the cars that almost kill me are one of the two. These two types of cars also hold the record for not using turn signals, something I will never understand.

I have a feeling this person will read the note, crumple it up and laugh. After all "I drive an expensive car so I am king of the world!" I really hate the human ego :(

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Permalink Reply by igz on November 11, 2010 at 12:51pm

since you have this photo, use it in a memo that goes out to the board.

Serge Lubomudrov said:

Some trustee, eh? I think you should let the Board of those know . . .

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Permalink Reply by BalloonBiker on November 11, 2010 at 2:11pm

I agree with Ryan that Audis are horrible. Probably half of the cars that nearly kill me are Audi's. Almost any luxury SUV is horrible. I know that many of them have proximity sensors and likely some drivers rely upon that way, way too much.

Also, note the guy's parking job.

PS...I think I know that parking lot, i know someone who works in Kresge Hall.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on November 11, 2010 at 2:29pm

Though not excusable conduct, I would be willing to bet he has no recollection whatsoever of passing you with less than 3 feet of clearance. The inclusion of that tidbit splits your message and makes it sound personal. I would have left that off.

He is parked illegally and should be subject to towing. Members of the public who are participating in research at NU (and responsible in part for the research-grant feedback loop) are unable to park where they've been instructed to park. Your account implies that DPS has a list of license plate numbers for cars which are allowed to park wherever the hell they want. If that's true, reporting him to the rest of the board probably won't help much-but I'd do it anyway.

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Permalink Reply by BalloonBiker on November 11, 2010 at 2:34pm

Actually, even better would be to leave two notes....one about how the car almost ran you over this morning. Then a second one, written on a bright piece of paper by someone with different handwriting about how they are interfering with university business.

Then it will seem as though multiple people are mad at them!

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Permalink Reply by garrett on November 11, 2010 at 2:37pm

is there a nasty drivers/be on the look out/wall of shame list somewhere on the interwebs?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Keating on November 18, 2010 at 9:35pm

A Mercedes S600 STARTS at about $125,000. And, NO, I'm not exaggerating.

garrett said:

is there a nasty drivers/be on the look out/wall of shame list somewhere on the interwebs?

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Permalink Reply by garrett on November 11, 2010 at 2:45pm

yea the folks around the office felt the same way... it was really hard to leave that bit out

i agree as well that letting the board know we are upset that they can park wherever they want and our participants were inconvenienced is probably not going to change any policy or cause them to censure this particular member

Kevin Conway said:

Though not excusable conduct, I would be willing to bet he has no recollection whatsoever of passing you with less than 3 feet of clearance. The inclusion of that tidbit splits your message and makes it sound personal. I would have left that off.

He is parked illegally and should be subject to towing. Members of the public who are participating in research at NU (and responsible in part for the research-grant feedback loop) are unable to park where they've been instructed to park. Your account implies that DPS has a list of license plate numbers for cars which are allowed to park wherever the hell they want. If that's true, reporting him to the rest of the board probably won't help much-but I'd do it anyway.