Chris516

On Wednesday, I was riding along the right shoulder of this small one lane rural road: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl. When you see the map, make it zoom in as far as it will go. Pan along East Diamond Avenue, until you get to the intersection of East Diamond Avenue and, North Summit Avenue.

The blue building on the corner with the shade reflecting off it, is where the accident occurred. At the time of the accident, the weather was like that, without the shade.

I was heading towards the intersection, on the side of the street, where the building with the blue roof is. I was 'taking the lane', of there being no 'bike lane' in the road, even though, the state law says to ride to the right hand side of the road. A female(I would have expected behavior like this from male drivers, not female drivers) driver was following too close so, I moved close to the curb so she could pass me before getting to the intersection. Instead of passing me, she gets even with me and, does not pass me!!!!!! While continuing towards the intersection, she starts to drift towards the curb!!!!! As a result, I started to lose my balance and, while I didn't fall on the car, I fell, off my bikehttps://www.theped.com/bikes/05AllezSport27_Blk_l.jpg!!!!!
I landed on the brick sidewalk, hitting my head and, almost feeling like I had broken my elbow, from the impact with the sidewalk.(thankfully, I did not break any bones) I immediately got up an berated the woman for her idiotic driving when she obviously saw me!!!! The bartender in the bar(the building with the blue roof) saw it happen because, he was on the 2nd floor outdoor bar of the building, that had a perfect view of what happened. He called 911. Both, a city and, county police officer showed up. Along with a BLS(Basic Life Support) ambulance and, 'Tower/Ladder' truck. When they got there, they started looking for the accident, as if it had involved two cars. I had to use hand motions to, point out I was the one that was hit. When the officers ask the idiot driver, if she saw me, she had the gaul to say she didn't!!! I chose not to go to the hospital but, apparently, because of that, the police did not file a report!!!!

I am still steamed!!!!!!

Christopher

damnable

Just because you didn't feel the need to go to a hospital does not mean that you are not hurt (minor scrapes and such) and or that your property wasn't damaged as a result. Try and get the police to file that report.

10 Wheels

Go to the Police Station and file a Report.
The woman may have had more accidents.
I did that once and found that I was the Fifth Accident in 1 month from the guy
that hit me. She may be realteed to a judge or police officer somewhere.
Stay in touch.

I-Like-To-Bike

Your report is unclear, did you or your bike make any contact with the car?

Pig_Chaser

This one is a good lesson for a couple of reasons. There were 2 things you coulda done differently
1) You had the lane... keep it.
2) While you were beside her, you could've slowed down so she passed you by.

Now you were in the right, but unfortunately being right on a bicycle can also be pretty dangerous if you know what i mean. And yeah that driver was a moron.

darksiderising

Why is there a need to bring gender into this?

I-Like-To-Bike

Because the OP is and "still steamed!!!!!!"

cudak888 

I second ILTB here. Furthermore, Pig_Chaser was right in saying that you should have taken the lane. Tough luck for her.

Sounds to me as if you rather stupidly acquiesced to this driver by pulling to the left - far left enough to be either unsafe or past the extent that you are capable of handling your bike, for it certainly sounds as if you wiped out as a result of the curb - and your poor riding decisions as a result of interaction with a bad driver - rather then the result of an impact from the automobile in question.

That said, we all know that idiots come in every shape, form, gender, ethnicity, city, state, or country. Making a federal case of it only improves the chances that you appear less then bright in the eyes of others'.

-Kurt

P.S.: Comment by the O/P in another thread:

A loud noise causes you to wipe out?

More comments:

Got nothing better to do? How about getting plates and reporting it to the police before being your own Dragnet?

The Human Car

I'm a firm believer in letting your local bike advocates also know about the accident and in your case that would be WABA or MOBike

The Human Car

While I agree with the last sentence but sorry I am almost constantly amazed at some of the acts of violence directed at cyclists from some very unexpected demographics. The fact that so many kinds of people have no qualms about endangering a cyclists has me very concerned. This type of stuff really should not be a universal phenomena.

cudak888 

One human being is no different then the other. Every individual is capable of the same actions, positive or negative, if they desire to do so. Actions do not discriminate amongst man's own self-created differentiations of his own kind.

-Kurt

tippy

I'm sorry that you got hurt and I know that you are angry .... however ... let's use this as a life lesson or you will have gotten hurt for no good reason

Are you trying to place blame on the roadway? Are you inferring that the absence of a bike lane contributed to the incident?
Are you trying to convince us you were obeying the traffic code? Most states (probably Maryland too) require you (cyclist) to ride as far to the right as practicable with exceptions. You seem to be unclear about the exceptions and misinterpretting the code in a way that requires you to "hug the curb" in ALL situations concerning your safety. You may want to revisit the code.
OK ... following to close might be an issue but you were not REQUIRE to move over if one or more of the exceptions existed. If you moved over to share the lane, then the driver was not obligated to overtake you. That's why they call it "sharing the lane".
You "expected" something of the driver that the driver didn't necessarily have to do.
If you moved over as a slow moving vehicle would do (out of courtesy), then generally the slow moving vehicle slow enough to allow the vehicle to pass. Your post wasn't clear on this. Your post seems to imply you held your ground against the curb.
If you want someone to "overtake you (" ... so she could pass me ..." ), then YOU slow down ... don't rely on them to sped up.
You moved over to "share the lane" ... right? So why are you so upset that the driver didn't overtake you.
If you want to share ... move over and maintain speed. If you want to be overtaken ... move over and SLOW DOWN.
Ok ... the driver was following to close and drifted over without ensure it was clear. I agree that the driver could have done better at this but this does not leave you inocent.
A little inept in driving skills but if the driver drove "idiotic", you probably would be dead.
All the world is full of idiots except for you ...
Vehicles have blind spots ... sometimes big ones. At the very moment the driver "drifted", you might have been in one ... so in that instance of time ... the driver might possibly didn't see you. You could have gotten out of the blind spot by slowing down and the driver go ahead.
One injured person decided not to get a check up and one police officer didn't file a report because the injured person didn't get checkout??
Seems idiocy comes in different makes and models ... not just female and in cars.

cowtown_cowboy

"In one incident, I was on a main street 'taking the lane' when, a middle-aged mother of two teenage kids(who happen to be in the backseat) who, started honking at me. I pulled over only long enough to, immediately start chasing her after, she passed me, whereupon, she did a sudden u-turn. I promptly caught her because, she had to stop at red light.

I stared at her, while she had her window closed. Then I tapped on her window. She lowered the window and, started berating me while I told her about the state's driving manual and, what it says, not only about respecting cyclists but, that the motorist doesn't get to decide, if the cyclist should move or not.

In another incident, a man(who was also a cyclist at times) was driving his car and honked at me, insisting I move over. Just before, I pulled over long enough so, I could immediately start chasing him.

I chased him for about 15blks. before, he turned into the parking lot of a grocery store where, I caught him and, told him the same thing I told the woman."
This grammer is appalling.

Chris516

Well, I talked with my aunt who has been a nurse for 25yrs. and, described the pain, in relation to, a hairline fracture I got in my wrist when hit a parked car, as to the extent of the pain.

Can you give me some pointers on how I would go about, getting the police to file a report, since I didn't go to the hospital? I am not trying to sound flippant. I am just looking for advice, since the police said(on the phone), that my not going to the hospital was the reason a report was not filed.

Christopher

The Human Car

On one hand there is truth to that and on the other we do expect better behavior from the well educated or the mature. There are century old social mores that are breaking down when it comes to cyclists. So it's not just people being people it is things like a well educated old man decking a young women on a bike because she asked him not to block the sidewalk that I found truly shocking. Just because most of us have been around the block a few times I think there is always the first time when someones first groks the depth of this illness in our society.

I will also note that just because violence toward cyclists has such a persuasive and all reaching grip on to all segments of our society is not a reason to poo-poo concerns over it, it should be all the more reason for us to demand that something be done about it.

Chris516

Thank you for mentioning that. I just now called them but, got the same attitude from the police(on the phone) that I got from them, when I first found out about, a report not being filed.

Also, They have a skewed definition of what the word 'injured' means. My guess is, they won't say I am injured, unless I have a compound fracture, courtesy of the police department's policy on filing a report.

Chris516

No, Because I suddenly feared the possibility of getting run over by her and/or, the car behind her, had I landed on the car.

Chris516

In terms of #1, you are absolutely and, unequivocally right......I hate hindsight, don't you?

As for #2, I actually thought about that, right before it happened but, I didn't want to suddenly cause the car behind her, to swerve into oncoming traffic.

Chris516

I mentioned her gender because, I never thought a femaile driver could be equally as stupid, as, some of the male drivers I have encountered. This proved me wrong. They are all idiots behind the wheel.

Chris516

1. You are totally right about aquiescing to dumb driver.

2. It was on the right hand side of the road, not the left yet, the essence of what you said is justly noted..

Chris516

When I am on my bike, sudden loud noises do give me a bit of jolt.

This time I didn't have to, the bartender in the bar did call the police.

Chris516

Thankyou

Chris516

That certainly is true.

I was not trying to blame the road, at all. I was only illustrating what I had to deal with.

The code in Maryland says the same thing about, riding on the right hand side. It doesn't go into the exceptions. It is very ambiguous about it.

For all intensive purposes, I agree with you. Just as a driver is not obligated to overtake me, I am not obligated to stop 'taking the lane'.

Good point. It is to get the driver to move, than the curb.[/QUOTE]


I only moved over, so she would pass me. I won't 'hope' next time. I will stick to 'taking the lane'.

Essentially, I agree with that. What worried me about doing that is the traffic behind her.

Just that, I will continue to 'take the lane', instead of being generous.

I thought about, 'hanging back' but, I didn't like how close, the car behind her was.

cudak888 

That is so, but there is little you can assume in regards to maturity or education from a cursory, visual glance at anyone. Age is a virtually worthless factor to determine maturity; I can show you multiple individuals of 20 years of age or younger with better sense then most adults. That said, the maturity of the average 30 year old today is appalling at that - it is as if their sophomoric character of their college years never left them.

Indeed, I am not contesting that there is a lack of awareness/prejudice against cyclists that unquestionably needs to be dealt with - my point is that profiling of any sort is not going to assist in gaining us any friends, and serves only as an utterly ridiculous mindset to remotely consider basing one's argument upon.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Not good. You could go down right under a tailgating driver if he/she honks at you.

Try to become less startled - but still alert - by those sounds. Practice in an open lot with a friend armed with any number of loud instruments to randomly blare towards you if it makes any difference.

Anything so that you remain vigilant of the sound, but also remain seated firmly on your machine without undue diversion from the route you were taking at the time of the sound.

-Kurt