Maxximum

Anyone ever have bottles, or other objects thrown at you by passengers in cars and trucks while you are cycling legally, and obeying all the traffic laws?

How do you react? Can you report them when you get the plate? Does it even work? Do cops even care?

Dchiefransom

Doesn't work, and the cops can't really do anything unless they actually witness it. I had a water bottle thrown that missed.

swskeptic

A deflated basketball was thrown at me the other night, to bad it had a large slash in it.

Romans8:28

IMO (based on extensive experience)........

Cops could care less about what happens to road cyclists and they won't do a thing to actually help you or address your complaint. I challenge one person at this forum to share an example of a LEO actually taking the bull by the horns and offering actual meaningful, fruitful assistance

randya

It's all Critical Mass' fault!!!!!

kidonabike

I have never had anything thrown at me while on my bike, on my motorcycle it's a different story.

With the amount of gear I wear the items thrown don't usually do any damage, sometimes they are a bit messy (someone drenched me with a slurpee once while I was on the freeway) but thats all. That being said, having slurpee thrown onto my EXTREMELY expensive riding gear did not make me happy.

But like the others said there is nothing I can do. I'm not about to get into a fight with someone who can run my butt over.

fetad

Someone in a big 4x4 threw a full beer can at me while riding on a low traffic road at night. I couldn't make out the plates or vehicle other than it looked like an old lifted Blazer type 4x4. I relayed my experience to a retired cop a month later just chatting. His response? "What were you doing riding at night?"

Great.

Bikepacker67

I've never had a bottle thrown at me.
But when I was in my early teens, I did have a pound of butter (?) thrown at me, while I was climbing a hill.

It was a hot summer day, and it hit me square in the middle of my back with greasy "splooch".

After the initial shock, I sorta found the whole thing pretty funny.

JeffB502

I had a nearly full 20oz. plastic bottle of orange soda thrown at me a long time ago (riding on the side of the road in a residential area, plenty of space for cars to pass). I think the bottle passed under my frame between the wheels. The car was going too fast for me to get a plate # and when they saw me trying to catch up sped up even more and ran a stop sign. I saw a police officer running radar a couple miles up the road and let him know what had happened and where. He said he'd go check the neighborhood and immediately headed that direction...he seemed to genuinely want to go catch them assaulting some other road user or speeding through another stop sign. FWIW if it's a glass bottle that counts as assault with a deadly weapon (a felony) and the police should definitely take that seriously.

randya

I had eggs thrown at me once, but they missed

Vodalus

i stopped, picked the bottle up, and threw it back in their passenger window at the next light.

Rex G

I was hit by a nearly-full can of Dr Pepper, which struck the bill of my cap, fortunately, while riding on the grass well off the pavement, by a farm-to-market road in SE Texas. (Why no helmet? This was the 1970's, and I did not yet know cycling helmets existed.) I did not bother reporting it, because the speeding vehicle was too far away for me to see a plate or even exact model by the time I recovered enough to take a look.

Objects thrown from vehicles that cause injury are prosecuted around here. Minor injuries merit a Class A misdemeanor, which is up to one year in jail, plus fine. If a bone is broken, or other serious injury occurs, it is a felony. Yelling a statement that indicates a hate crime will bump it up one degree. A thrown cookie, that left a welt on a pedestrian, resulted in a third-degree felony that way, a while back, in a Houston PD case, because the bad guy yelled an anti-gay statement. Bicyclists are not a "protected" category, so there is no upgrading of the charge simply because the victim is riding a bike.

If I managed to catch a motorist or passenger who had thrown an object at a cyclist, I would treat it like any other assault or attempted assault. I would have to review the case with the D.A.'s office, of course, but I do not anticipate any lack of cooperation.

Cyclaholic

I've had a bunch of stuff thrown at me over the years, some I've had to dodge or they would have connected. So far nobody has scored a hit, and unfortunately I haven't caught a thrower yet.

I reported several incidents with plates, description of driver, and even the retrieved object. Every time the police treated me with complete indifference to the point where they appeared openly annoyed by my presence. They couldn't give a rat's rear. If I ever catch a thrower there will be no words exchanged, it will be a very short and violent encounter, and I won't hang around to wait for the cops.

grayloon

Do you have a cite for that case? In the past, the Harris County D.A. has been reluctant to prosecute under the bias law. I've not been aware of it being used in Harris County, nor much of the rest of the state.

cyclezealot

Coke cans, fruit , and spitwads.

Snowsurfer

I don't advocate violence, but I agree with you sir.

Rex G

In response to grayloon: I knew the officer who said he filed the charge, but he is retired now, and we don't keep in touch. It was when the hate crime legislation was new. After the legislation was passed, I actually never filed a charge involving bias, as I have yet to have facts supporting it when I had a person in custody. (I have taken a few reports involving bias.) I'd bet that the bias enhancement has been used as a bargaining chip, to get a defendant to plea to the basic charge, an especially attractive deal at the level of Class A Misdemeanor Assault being enhanced to a felony. Anyway, I am just a peon with a city PD, and don't know how to get into the county's system to look this up.

5kdad

Only once, it was a hard plastic cup. Missed.
Was a bunch of kids in a car, Sunday afternoon. Car came up behind me as I entered a small town, was a narrow country road with no paved shoulder. I was meeting traffic, so the car behind me had to slow down to pass. Someone shouted from the car as they drove by, and hear came the cup.
Couldn't read license plate, since had on sunglasses, not my prescription glasses.

genec

Several times... from your basic soda in a cup to beer bottles... in over 30 years of cycling I have pretty much experienced it all.

I have only been hit once, and that was a cup of beer by sports enthusiasts leaving a game in a bus. I was riding by the stopped bus and they just dropped the beer on me. I had been to the same game, but on bike. So much for team loyalty.

The funniest thing was having a can of beer tossed my way during a commute and watching it smash on the curb just in front of my front tire, just missing me... but it sprang a leak and just took off like a rocket spinning around spewing beer everywhere. (I wish they'd just offer the thing rather then launching it... )

Bacciagalupe

Never had anything thrown at me.

Maybe the New York area isn't so bad for cycling after all....

SingingSabre 

Never had anything thrown at me, but I've had my fair share of "Rawrr rarr rrarr rarr, F****T!" I always assume they're saying "get off the road," but it's hard to understand with the Doppler effect.

I get more cheers and whistles, though.

fcormier

Wow, I'm surprised I'm not the only who had this happen to him. It happened to me twice this week and it was the first time I got stuff thrown at me.

The first was last Tuesday. I do a 40 km commute to and back from work and I have to cross a long bridge to get there and the bridge has a cycling path on the West side. As I was coming home and going up the bridge at about 15 km/h, the passenger of a car rolling at 70 km/h (it's a 50 km/h zone, but everybody drives at 70 km/h) threw one cent (or a penny if you prefer) at me and I got it in the face. I suspect he was trying to get it in my mouth to simulate a toll or something. When it happened, I lost my balance and let out a couple of swear words. I could have fallen and hurt myself or I could have choked if I got it in the mouth.

The second time was Wednesday (the next day), when I was going to get my girlfriend at work in the evening, the passenger of a car threw me a water bottle. It had some water in it, but the cap was on. Even if it was in the evening, he did see me as I had my flashing red light on the back of my bike and a flashing white light in front. I could have picked it up and threw it back at him as I could have easily caught him because of the number of traffic lights on that street, but I had to go get my girlfriend and I was running a little late. When we got back home, the water bottle was still there in the street.

I wonder what people have against cyclists?

Wino Ryder

I love it.


That said, I've had several objects thrown at me over the years with only one 'connection'. A car load of poor, misguided youths (punks) threw an ink pen at me and hit me in the side. I thought I was stung by a bee until I saw it skittering across the road from me. I hammered to catch up with them when they stopped at a traffic lite, but unfortunately they saw me coming and ran the light.

A year ago, while riding to work at 11:00 at night some other misguided youths threw a full 'Big Gulp' cup at me that whistled past my shoulders and tumbled into someone's yard. I hammered after them too, to their distant laughter in the night.

Another time several years ago someone threw a half empty beer bottle at me while I was walking along the side of the road (on a 5-mile walk just to see if I could do it). The bottle whistled over my head and tumbled into a ditch. If the bottle would've hit me, it would've probably killed me.

Snowsurfer

Has anyone ever had things yelled at you by a motorist, or a passenger in a car or other automobile, profanities, or non-profanities (e.g. "NICE BIKE!!!!")? What do you do? How do you react? What if you catch up to them at a red light up ahead?

donnamb 

I am sure much of the advice from this thread will apply.