Threatening driver registry

I had something happen today that I've never seen before.

On my way home from work, I was riding in the left lane on Franklin and just before Washington, a guy in a black BMW came up from behind me and almost pinned me between him and a parked taxi. I yelled and he swerved and passed me calling me a pussy- then he stopped about 50 feet ahead at the stoplight. Here is where things got weird. I passed him on the left just before Randolph and as I passed him, he reached out and tried to grab me. He had to stop at the light again and when he did, he slammed on his breaks and I think he took off his seatbelt and reached into the backseat and showed me a baseball bat. The whole time continuing to calling me a pussy and hurling gay slurs.

I ride hard, but I'm safe and way more considerate than 90% of people out there. I've also been riding year round since 2003 and have had my share of yelling matches with drivers. As and "older" guy with a family, who has seen a lot, I've been riding more cautious and safer than ever, but things keep getting weirder out there. This is the first time someone has tried to grab me and the first to threaten me with a baseball bat.

It's really disheartening, everyone is getting more aggressive and less respectful out there. And more than anything, I kind of feel sorry for a guy who has a baseball bat at the ready in his back seat.

I am assuming that the police can't really do anything. Besides being a giant A-hole and a homophobe, I'm sure the law doesn't really care about his threats like this. What I am more concerned about is if this guy has a habit of doing this and if he turns those threats into action sometime. There should be some record of his pattern of threatening behavior. I am the first to forgive people, and I know that we all make mistakes, but the more I think about this situation, the more concerned I get about this guy actually hurting someone. So is there a place to report this kind of activity? maybe we should start a threatening driver registry if it doesn't already exist. in the meantime...watch out for a black BMW SUV with Illinois plates R24 1979

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Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on June 28, 2016 at 3:13am

not trying to call you on that just trying to understand the situation. I haven't biked in the city since the early nineties and there were a total number of 0 bike lanes at that time. I am interested to know how left turns are done from bike lanes. I understand that in Europe they tend to turn right and then U turn and wait at the light again, but I know this is not Europe.

I ride in the suburbs where there seems to be total confusion on bicyclist road behavior. I often have oncoming cars begin to stop as I take the lane (for a left turn as example) which throws off timing and confuses everyone. It's like "oh no, A cyclist in the road, let's all stop and let the crazy person ride through" when all they really need to do is just keep driving because I'm not crazy or ill behaved (but they don't know that) so not wanting to hit me they just stop unless I wave at them to continue.

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Permalink Reply by Tim on June 28, 2016 at 7:14am

I understand, Irvin! your question made me question what I was doing, which I think is a good thing. You comments about the suburbs are right on. I lived in Buffalo,NY for a few years and sadly ended up driving way more than biking just because of the reasons you wrote. There were so few bike commuters that cars just didn't know what to do when they encountered a cyclist.

I moved back here about 5 years ago and I hear that things are progressing in Buffalo, hopefully it will everywhere but with recent cyclist/vehicle news, I fear that things are going in the other direction.

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Permalink Reply by V W on June 25, 2016 at 7:21am

Just today around noon or just before noon, I'm biking down Division going east crossing Ashland, and I see a cyclist in front of me who had taken the right lane (as the bike lane disappears there and there was a cyclist to his right).

Some guy in a Jeep Cherokee (I think) takes offense to a bike in front of him impeding his progress so he decides to try to teach the cyclist a lesson and swerves to go around the cyclist but when the car and bike are parallel the driver jukes right in a threatening manner, veering right and then left as if to prove a point.

Afterword they stop at the next light and some words are exchanged before the guy in the Jeep speeds off. I approached the cyclist and told him the plate number (215 110) and also about the close call database (I may report this myself when I'm back at work where I can retrieve my login/pw for it).

Turns out the cyclist was Adam from Pedal to the People, who has done work on my bikes before, btw.