Advocacy & Safety - Should I Call The Cops?

I was in the left lane of a two lane street, heading towards a red light to turn left when some guy in a blue Cavilier came from behind, cut into my lane and cut me off, just to advance in front of me. He honked at me from behind, and once in front of me, gave me the finger. When I arrived at the red light behind him, I pulled up close enough behind him to have a few choice words. The conversation went like this:
Me: "If you're going to pass me, do it legally"
Him: "You're gonna get hit by a car..."
Me: "If I get hit by a car, it's going to be by a ****** like you"
Him: "Dude, you're on a bike. You should be on the sidewalk"
Me: "This isn't a bike for the sidewalk" (an OCR2)

At this point, the light turns green, we both turn left, and I follow until I reach the next light. At this light, he thought it would be fun to have a quick drag race with the pick up truck to his left. When the light turned green, he put his pedal to the metal and raced the truck through the intersection.

So, should I call the cops on this ******* or not? His plate was AYLT 620. I live in Brampton Ontario.

Illegal lane change followed by a drag race? *Might* be reckless driving, and *maybe* the cops would like to know about this clown. Can't hurt to call in a complaint. Worst the cops can do is act disinterested. You're a witness, but unless you have corroboration, it would be your word against his in court, and the cops would likely be disinterested in issuing a citation on that basis.

Be careful. You'll be called a busy body, dudley do right do gooder who should mind his own busness by certain people in here.

Aside from that you may want to give the police a heads up on this guy. Does Ontario have a way to report drivers like this, like a hotline? If not just call & talk to traffic enforcement. The worst they'll do is nothing, the most is take down the info. that if he is in an incident & they have his plate number on file they can use it to put 2 & 2 together.

No. He's clearly an idiot, but he didn't harm anyone, and my guess is the police won't bother to pursue your complaint.

I can pretty much guarantee the police won't mess with it unless you live in Mayberry and there is no other crime to deal with. It is strictly your word against his. Just keep riding and enjoy yourself.

I was in the left lane of a two lane street, heading towards a red light to turn left when some guy in a blue Cavilier came from behind, cut into my lane and cut me off, just to advance in front of me. He honked at me from behind, and once in front of me, gave me the finger. When I arrived at the red light behind him, I pulled up close enough behind him to have a few choice words. The conversation went like this:
Me: "If you're going to pass me, do it legally"
Him: "You're gonna get hit by a car..."
Me: "If I get hit by a car, it's going to be by a ****** like you"
Him: "Dude, you're on a bike. You should be on the sidewalk"
Me: "This isn't a bike for the sidewalk" (an OCR2)

At this point, the light turns green, we both turn left, and I follow until I reach the next light. At this light, he thought it would be fun to have a quick drag race with the pick up truck to his left. When the light turned green, he put his pedal to the metal and raced the truck through the intersection.

So, should I call the cops on this ******* or not? His plate was AYLT 620. I live in Brampton Ontario.



No harm, no foul.... The guy was a just a frigging idiot. If he had threatened you or physically harmed you, I would not hesitate to report him and ensure that he was probably prosecuted, if I were you. Doesn't seem much of a case here. Sorry you had to deal with that complete zero. Keep riding

No harm, no foul.... The guy was a just a frigging idiot. If he had threatened you or physically harmed you, I would not hesitate to report him and ensure that he was probably prosecuted, if I were you. Doesn't seem much of a case here. Sorry you had to deal with that complete zero. Keep riding
I agree. He's a rude @#(*#@$ who doesn't know the law or polite and safe behavior around cyclists, but it doesn't sound like he did anything particularly dangerous to you in this case.

I've often wanted to report similar incidents to the cops, but have resisted. I don't think it can hurt if you want to report him, and if you had a repeat run-in with the same character I would certainly take it to the cops.

It's sad how one jerk can ruin a perfectly healthy, safe, legal bike ride :(

Good luck. If the cops in your area are anything like they are here, they act like they agree with that jerk. Bikes never have the right-of-way in Albuquerque; there have been quite a few cyclists hit (my dad included) and several have died as the result of automobile drivers' inattentiveness or downright illegal actions. And only a very few of those drivers are cited by the cops.
Run a red light and kill someone? The cops take the attitude, "Hey, you know, everyone makes mistakes. Just don't do it again."

Whether or not you call the police, keep in mind that confronting the jerk the way you did *could* provoke him into a more aggressive or even violent response. If you want to rattle this loser's cage a little, make sure he sees you writing down his license number or recording it on a voice recorder, but even this tactic might backfire on you.

I did call the police not too long ago about someone harassing me verbally, and I got a very gratifying response from the police, but this is a small community with a low crime rate (not quite Mayberry, but not much bigger), and the local police are much more bicycle friendly than most. It also helped that I've been commuting between this town and the next year round for several years, I'm a fairly law abiding cyclist, and I think a lot of the law enforcement people around here know me by sight.

Be careful. You'll be called a busy body, dudley do right do gooder who should mind his own busness by certain people in here.

Even worse, you will be called N_C!

The cops take the attitude, "Hey, you know, everyone makes mistakes. Just don't do it again."

Too bad they don't do when a car hits a car.

Cops don't give a s***. They only do when someone gets dead. That's because it's a negative statistic and the paperwork they have to fill out, then ignore...

+1 for N_C

If you want to file a complaint, it'll be on record for when the guy does something that harms someone. If not, then he won't. Either way, I wouldn't get torn up too much about it.

Cops don't give a s***. They only do when someone gets dead. That's because it's a negative statistic and the paperwork they have to fill out, then ignore...


I would report it. Even if the cops dont do any thing this time a report will be filed. Later if the guy trashes some ones car hits them injures them etc. They will already have his name on file from before. This will show a dangerus patern of behavior on his part and hell be more likly to receive a fitting punishment.

The cops wont bust some one for drag racing on a report its a waste of man hours in their eyes. If the road was a hot bed for drag racing then they would patrol it to stop it

just file a report on him and tell them what you told us... he probably will run someone over at some point, this way they'll know why and put him where he belongs.

I was in the left lane of a two lane street, heading towards a red light to turn left when some guy in a blue Cavilier came from behind, cut into my lane and cut me off, just to advance in front of me. He honked at me from behind, and once in front of me, gave me the finger. When I arrived at the red light behind him, I pulled up close enough behind him to have a few choice words. The conversation went like this:
Me: "If you're going to pass me, do it legally"
Him: "You're gonna get hit by a car..."
Me: "If I get hit by a car, it's going to be by a ****** like you"
Him: "Dude, you're on a bike. You should be on the sidewalk"
Me: "This isn't a bike for the sidewalk" (an OCR2)

At this point, the light turns green, we both turn left, and I follow until I reach the next light. At this light, he thought it would be fun to have a quick drag race with the pick up truck to his left. When the light turned green, he put his pedal to the metal and raced the truck through the intersection.

So, should I call the cops on this ******* or not? His plate was AYLT 620. I live in Brampton Ontario.


<<Me: "If I get hit by a car, it's going to be by a ****** like you>> quote/unquote.
It sounded like your the one who started out name calling. Do you want to get into name calling and yelling with perfect strangers in public? He was wrong for his driving habits, but I myself avoid contact with strangers in cars, unless I know the party in the car, (and that would mean that they are not a stranger)

Is it likely that we bicylcist are going to educate all the motorist out there about proper etiqute toward bicylicst. Probably not.

thats just wrong dude my bro likes to drive fast but even when he sees a cyclist he would never get in front of him/her until its in a safe distance since my bro drives a motorcycles he knows how it is causes accident to cyclist and motorcyclist when the car gets in front of you when its close to you

I would definitely report him. I live in Toronto, and man, are the drivers idiots there.

With the current crackdown of street racing in canada, and particularly ontario, you will likely get action. A teen cyclist was killed in sudbury a couple of months ago by street racers.

If thats a smaller town, I'd give them call or stop by, and they can watch out for idiots like this and be more inclined to pull them over next time.

The other thing is that if there's a written record of complaints against him, I believe they can play a role in the severity of sentencing if he ever does get arrested for something involving aggressive driving. Report it, they won't arrest him, but it might help in the long run.