Well......Last week while riding down Southport Ave. in Chicago w/ a friend of mine we came up to a four way intersection and there was an older guy about to cross and my friend went by just as the guy started to cross,apparently startling the ped.I was about 15ft. behind and the ped started to cross again and I tried to go between him and the sidewalk....this moron moves over and purposely gets in my way and I whipped around him trying to advoid an accident...well,the ped takes a swing at me and clips me in the arm,so naturally I turn around , ride up behind him and smack him in the back of the head doing about 25mph nearly making him faceplant the concrete...

my question:If a ped gets physical with you,is it inappropriate to smack them?

If it was an old guy obviously you should not hit him like that ahole. He was probably senile and it doesn't sound like he did much damage "clipping you in the arm." It's the law to yield to peds and just common decency to go around older adults.

Actually....if you are able to read english you would've seen the line about how I tried to move over but he jumped in front of me...also,he was in his fourties(maybe) and was completely aware of what he was doing.If someone nearly causes me to crash and then takes a swing at me,they should expect some sort of reaction...am I wrong?

I'd be careful about the following:

1. Retaliation: It's a lot like hockey; never throw the second punch, since the first one might go unnoticed.

2. Headshots: You can do grave or serious injury to a person introducing a 25 mph trauma to the head, either a brain injury or spinal column injury. While you might say, "He did it first", he only hit you in the arm. You're going to look like a complete jerk if you were to end up on court on that one.

Slap him where it will sting. If you really want to insult him, slap his butt at 25mph. Not only will it sting like a whip, but his overactive machismo will be insulted. :-)

Interesting ethics question. First some facts was the guy in a crosswalk? If so what was the light/right-a-way? Who had the “go”. If he is jay walking then he is at fault.

If you’re clean and in the right of way and if the guy tries to take you out you need to defend yourself. But then it gets gray in my mind.

As right as you might have been to have the road, what is he going to do to the next biker going by? What if it is a kid or someone less skilled? Did you just set up the next biker for an attack by this guy?

Hindsight is great….what if you had stopped just past him and asked What was that for? It might be you scared the **** out of him and he thought you tried to hit him first.

Without talking to him you’ll never know.

I’m not taking the guys side but here is something that happened to me. A good friend called me a couple of years back and told me his wife had just called and told him that she had cancer. He asked me if I could drive him home. When we were walking to my car he was in a daze and he started to cross the street without looking and I grabbed him or he would have stepped in front of a car. It could have been a bike.

Do I have a point….well you never know what is going on in the other guys head or life.

If you had talked to the guy he might have just told you to F*** off. Then use the Cell to report an assault which is what it was if you were in the right.

Isn’t hindsight great!

Cheers

So fourties is "older"? You smacked a guy in his forties almost to the ground from a bicycle by smacking him on the back of the head?

Four way intersection...stop lights? Who had the light? Stop signs? Were you and your friend blowing through?

You do realize that, assuming he was at the corner and not crossing against the signal, that even stupid pedestrians have the right of way, right?

I'm from Chicago....lectures can be reduced to ***** slaps and still provide the same outcome.

It just really pissed me off because I was trying to avoid him....oh well.I'm sure he'll never try something like that again.

Either that or he'll crack the next guy's skull.

Close Call,

What you did was assault and battery and you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It was also extremly cowardly to hit him riding at 25mph running away from him. At least you should have confronted him like a man rather than a hit and run.

as far as I know the right of way was his.that's why I moved to the right...I could've gone by unnoticed but he lunged at me purposely...he actually had to turn around and take three steps to swing at me.

I almost went over my bars because of it....in Chicago when someone takes a swing at you,that person has just welcomed an ass whipping.I'm tired of trying to bike through Chicago peacefully....I've been lunged at,I've had cars purposely try to take me out.......if someone wants to throw punches at bikers,they shouldn't be suprised to see a 25mph punch coming there way.

extremely cowardly......more like extremely funny.let's not forget that i'm slightly more vulnerable on a bike and could've been in a much worse position had i lost control and smacked the curb.i consider what i did " instant karma".

If he had the right of way, you were wrong. Period. Swerving away from him does not constitute yielding the right of way. You and your friend violated his right of way. Between the two of you, you instigated a confrontation, then upped the ante to assault & battery. Congratulations.

I believe that in all states pedestrians have the right of way over bicycles and that bicycles must obey road laws - also in most states a cross walk is implied at all intersections, marked or not. This means you should fully stop (and your friend should have too) and waited for the pedestrian to cross to the midline of the road as soon as they had step out into street (just as if you were a car) before you started again - well actually you should have stopped anyway given the 4-way stop.

As I read you were totally in the wrong.

Al

i find it funny that everyone is saying assault and battery....if i'm not mistaken,he upped the ante by swinging at someone who was not in his way....also,he hit me unprovoked.i simply returned the favor.

If you had already convinced yourself that you were right and that it was funny to "ride up behind him and smack him in the back of the head doing about 25mph nearly making him faceplant the concrete", why did you ask the question "If a ped gets physical with you,is it inappropriate to smack the **** out of them?" You obviously didn't want to hear the answer, and you thought that other cyclists would hero worship you. You just made the guy a time bomb for other cyclists in Chicago.

if i'm not mistaken it kind of already seems he was a time bomb and i got a taste of it for no reason.

From his point of view (the valid point of view since you concede that he had the right of way) he was nearly run over by not one but two vehicles that failed to follow traffic law. You seem to be handily ingoring where this all started, so I'm not going to bother any more.

riding in va. and riding in downtown chicago requires two different types of bikers apparently.

i think you overlooked the part about how he turned around and walked towards me....

Right of way only gets you so much. You cannot step into a crosswalk suddenly, or reverse direction, and expect to have your right-of-way remain.

The guy took three steps back to hit close_call. Were that to happen to me, I'd have lifted a foot and used it like a lance to the belly. Bet he would have moved out of the way, rather than take a swing.

thank you^^^^

finally someone agrees.....

if he wasnt a threat to you then you were wrong to smack him down to the floor. You can kill people doing stuff like that. When the moment has passed and you are left with the reality that you have killed someone´s son, brother or father just for a moment of stupidity then I dont think that you would feel too good about the whole thing.

It is not clear from the descriptoin if this is a 4-way stop sign or a four way light. In any case, if the light was red or there was a stop sign the cyclist should have fully stopped and waited for the pedestrian to cross to the mid point of the road. If the cyclist had done this none of the following would have occured.

Al

he was a threat to me...he nearly made me crash into a curb..possibly causing physical harm to myself but more importantly severe damage to my bike.i'm not sure how some of you pansy's survive on two wheels. if someone hits you and for no good reason,you should return the favor....in Chicago anyway.

bikers are constantly ignored and harassed in my area and i'm only trying to protect myself.

four way stop sign intersection.......and i rolled up to the right side and in between him and the curb.he was halfway across the street when he turned around.