Commuting - A commuting first! Not a positive one, though...

I estimate that I've pedalled about 10,000 miles in the past 4 years for commuting, recreation, exercise or whatever. I've cycled all over Portland, the Oregon and SW Washington countrysides, suburban and rural Southern California and the wild traffic of Manhattan, NY. In all these miles, throughout various experiences good and bad, I've never once had anything thrown at me intentionally from a moving car. So where does my first experience with such idiocy occur? At the very heart of Portland bike-friendliness, the westbound path over the Hawthorne Bridge. I was running some errands last Saturday afternoon when three fools in a small car decided I'd make a good target for a full water bottle. Too bad their aim sucks and it only clipped my rear wheel, leaving no damage. I stopped for a second and incredulously asked an equally surprised passerby if the bottle had really come from the car, as I was aghast that this breed of Cro-Magnon actually travelled my neighborhood routes. The answer, of course, was yes.

My adrenaline immediately spiked and I took off at full spin towards the moving car (this was only about 5-10 seconds after I first felt the hit). They tried to double back, but I anticipated the maneuver and got close enough* to let them know I had some vengeance planned should I catch up. I haven't been so angry in a very long while, and I had murder in my eyes. I gave chase through downtown for about 10 blocks hoping to catch them at a crowded intersection, but fate was against me and they managed to get on the Morrison bridge overpass and hightail it for the freeway.

So unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to play U-lock baseball with their side mirrors, but at least they know now that there's at least one maniac cyclist in P-town who won't take their abuse so lightly, and given slightly different circumstances, would have easily caught and not-so-gently reminded them that we riders are not targets. All things considered, this is probably the best outcome of all-I didn't act on my deliciously envisioned and very illegal moment of adrenaline-induced physical retribution, and they got a healthy dose of fear that I actually would catch them and make them answer for their irresponsibility. Maybe they'll think twice about knuckle-dragging their way back into my part of town.

It may seem like a small thing to get hit by a plastic bottle full of water, but I refuse to be a victim when I'm riding my bike, and I'll go after like a rabid badger anyone who feels that I am.

Cheers,
Salmon Street's Resident Maniac

* Unfortunately, I approached them from the side of the car at this moment and did not get a good look at the license plate. The front windows were tinted so I couldn't see the driver, but I did see a pudgy late-teens white kid looking through the rolled down rear window. The car was an older model bright red 2-door Nissan Sentra.

:rolleyes: You did an obvious disservice to bicyclists everywhere....blah blah blah.

Please don't encourage their behaviour....blah blah. Don't react to something like that....blah.

I would have, and have done the same thing.....but learning that the correct action is NO action at all...although I absolutey hate that....I would rather kill the leetle bastards.

I just absolutely love catching up to 'em at the next red light, and smashing the passenger side window with my left rear quick-release or bolt-on hub....makes me so happy! But that is NOT politically-correct.....


Just makes 'em hate ALL bicycle riders and such...but feels so good.








I estimate that I've pedalled about 10,000 miles in the past 4 years for commuting, recreation, exercise or whatever. I've cycled all over Portland, the Oregon and SW Washington countrysides, suburban and rural Southern California and the wild traffic of Manhattan, NY. In all these miles, throughout various experiences good and bad, I've never once had anything thrown at me intentionally from a moving car. So where does my first experience with such idiocy occur? At the very heart of Portland bike-friendliness, the westbound path over the Hawthorne Bridge. I was running some errands last Saturday afternoon when three fools in a small car decided I'd make a good target for a full water bottle. Too bad their aim sucks and it only clipped my rear wheel, leaving no damage. I stopped for a second and incredulously asked an equally surprised passerby if the bottle had really come from the car, as I was aghast that this breed of Cro-Magnon actually travelled my neighborhood routes. The answer, of course, was yes.

My adrenaline immediately spiked and I took off at full spin towards the moving car (this was only about 5-10 seconds after I first felt the hit). They tried to double back, but I anticipated the maneuver and got close enough* to let them know I had some vengeance planned should I catch up. I haven't been so angry in a very long while, and I had murder in my eyes. I gave chase through downtown for about 10 blocks hoping to catch them at a crowded intersection, but fate was against me and they managed to get on the Morrison bridge overpass and hightail it for the freeway.

So unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to play U-lock baseball with their side mirrors, but at least they know now that there's at least one maniac cyclist in P-town who won't take their abuse so lightly, and given slightly different circumstances, would have easily caught and not-so-gently reminded them that we riders are not targets. All things considered, this is probably the best outcome of all-I didn't act on my deliciously envisioned and very illegal moment of adrenaline-induced physical retribution, and they got a healthy dose of fear that I actually would catch them and make them answer for their irresponsibility. Maybe they'll think twice about knuckle-dragging their way back into my part of town.

It may seem like a small thing to get hit by a plastic bottle full of water, but I refuse to be a victim when I'm riding my bike, and I'll go after like a rabid badger anyone who feels that I am.

Cheers,
Salmon Street's Resident Maniac

* Unfortunately, I approached them from the side of the car at this moment and did not get a good look at the license plate. The front windows were tinted so I couldn't see the driver, but I did see a pudgy late-teens white kid looking through the rolled down rear window. The car was an older model bright red 2-door Nissan Sentra.

I just absolutely love catching up to 'em at the next red light, and smashing the passenger side window with my left rear quick-release or bolt-on hub....makes me so happy! But that is NOT politically-correct.....


Just makes 'em hate ALL bicycle riders and such...but feels so good.

So? You think they're throwing stuff because they want to make friends with you? I see nothing wrong with standing up for yourself.

Its sad and ironic that this happened to you where bicycle friendliness is thought to be at its highest. I guess these cretins exist everywhere.

That said, I have been thinking about attaching a nightstick to my toptube for just this sort of extreme incident. I am typically pacifist, but if I get my life threatened by someone like this I want to be able to defend myself.

Bummer, man. I feel ya. Once when I was a kid someone opened a car door and hit me with it, knocking me off my bike. I used to have a roomie who had a black belt in taekwando-- one day he was a pedestrian and some guys in a car were messing with him in the alley near our house.

He stepped up to their car and kicked in the driver's window with a sidekick. They left in a hurry. I have also been fishing from a bridge and had some jerk break my fishing pole by throwing a full can of beer at me and hitting my fishing pole. Guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of jerks but don't let em stop you from what you like to do.

And yeah, if you broke their window, or drug em out and beat their ass, they would have deserved it. I used to carry a knife, myself, but decided that was overkill, now i always put a mini-mag flashlight in my back pocket when I walk/ride around. Under 10 bucks, handy, and would sure suck to get hit with.

It's too bad you didn't get a real opportunity to show them not to mess with you...

My new thought I had yesterday was to put a baseball bat in my water bottle holder. I don't know if it'll fit, it was just a brief thought and haven't tried it yet, LOL.

Good luck out there, and be safe. It's a ridiculous world.

Jessica

So? You think they're throwing stuff because they want to make friends with you? I see nothing wrong with standing up for yourself.

Apart from the fact that they have chosen the wrong method of standing up for themselves. Think about it, what would actually be achieved by chasing someone down and pounding on their car with one's fists? Contrary to what the first post in this thread suggested, I doubt the idiots were feeling any great fear of being caught -- after all, they have a big car to cower in should the situation require it.

As I've said (and done) before, if you get these kinds of hassles on the road, it's best to write down the details, and high-tail it to your nearest police station and file a report. A fine (or even a lecture) from a police officer is far more likely to influence somebody's behaviour than a futile fist-pounding exercise from a cyclist in no position of authority.

I can relate, perfectly. I think all of us have been there.

Once I got off my bike and ran up to a driver I was angry at and shouted to him
through his tinted window. I even quoted his license to him. He never rolled down his window, so I could never see him or get any satisfaction whatsoever. In a last resort fit of anger, I punched his window, with little effect.

Later, I realized I was putting myself in legal jeapordy. The best thing you can do is report their license number to the police. But if you damage their vehicle, you might cause yourself more hurt than you deserve. They might produce witnesses proving your attack, but you might not be able to produce any witnesses to their attack.

Sorry this happened to you. When this happens to me, I trust that life will deal with them in such a way as to teach them a most valuable lesson, indeed (after I report their behavior.)

My wife rides the Hawthorne Bridge when we commute via bike to work. Can't put into words how this story enrages me. I'm not a pacifist but I've always assumed (greatly hoped) that clear thinking and practicality would intercede should anything like this occur. Now I can think of nothing but caving in one of these low-watt ****wit's skulls <---(saving the moderators a little work here; those are my asterisks).

Keep your eyes peeled for that car. Human beings are creatures of habit and if he/she/they use that route normally they'll return to it eventually. Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to catch them unaware, in which case a wave in their rear-view mirror while holding their license plate number, together with the biggest predatory grin you can manage, will make you feel better and make them think twice the next time they're tempted to endanger others for their amusement.

Funny enough this is a hot topic on one of the Brit sites, soem guy was attacked by some teenagers. The general consensu was to grab at least one and kick the living daylights out of them. The plod (cops) in the UK couldnt give a F**K about you or any aggro you have had. T'was me I would try for one of them or somthing that would cost them dear to repair.

Heard an intersting story about the useless plod in the UK.

Some guy had been burgled several times and when he called to report it he could wait for hours for the cops to arrive, only to have no action on it later. The cops sited a lack of manpower and resources


Pi**ed off with the local constabulary, the next time it happened he called the cops and said that he had shot and killed an intruder (which in the UK is akin to having a firm fix on Bin Laden) within minutes there were helecopters and more cops than you could count. Needless to say the cops were annoyed but the local rag got a good story.

I'm so sick of these morons trying to wreck things you have worked hard for. I think a framing hammer would be better than a nightstick FWIW lol

Si

" In a last resort fit of anger, I punched his window, with little effect."

On the side windows in about the same place that the old style pull locks are there is an area about 4 inches square that will break very easy. The bottom right corner 2-3 inches up, 2-3 inches over. Smack it with a crescent wrench, screwdriver, maglite, it will bust the window.

That's what a cop told me, he said that's how burglers break into cars.

If you have tools and nothing else and it looks like you might get attacked don't forget they are there. A 6 inch crescent or a 4 way screw driver-- both of which are in my tool bag-- would be better than nothing. There's another post about some guy being assaulted by a bus passenger, this stuff can happen, and of course there are dogs.

I'm not advocating violence but let's face it, there never is a cop around when you need one, and all they are gonna do is make a report if some jerks hurts you.

Yes, Your reaction is understandable, but wrong. Had you gotten your retribution, then the police would have found you equally culperable.
I have been there and sometimes loose my temper.I can relate. .Usually just gestures.
IF we can, complaints need be taken to the police..What they did is not to be taken lightly..I comes darn close to personal endangerment..Not a light charge.
The bottle could have gotten wedged between the wheels, within the spokes. Resulting in who knows what. Can we keep our wits about us and properly report such jerks.

I know it's rare, but several years ago in Atlanta, someone in a passing car chucked an unfinished candy bar at a cyclist. Later in court, he was fined $6,000. The issue was how the distraction could have caused the cyclist to wreck, possibly causing him great injury.

Whether you would agree with me or not, I live in NYC where it's relatively crowded on the streets and relatively easy to catch up with a car.

Next time someone throws something at me and it hits me, I'm gonna make sure I "take a spill". Then get back on and chase his ass down far enough to get his license #. I can go back to the scene, pick up the object, get witness testimony, call the cops, file criminal assult charges.

Not gonna sit back and have people run all over you, might as well use a faulty system to your advantage.

I understand your anger. Last summer, some idiot threw a glass bottle at me. Luckily, it didn't hit me or in front of me, but it did shock me that someone could be so rude and inconsiderate. I gave chase, but didn't have a prayer of catching them because they were going the opposite direction and traffic was really light.

Stay safe brother!

I have to admit, I have used my hand to hit the side of a car or two which has cut me off too close, but I was careful not to cause any damage. Car drivers feel like they are in sancuaries. Yeah, I know I shouldn't have, but the noise from the hit (and the intrusion on their sanctuaries) can scare the bejeebers out of drivers.

Cause damaging to cars is not self-defense. It is a crime. You also destroy your ability to take this to the authorities.

The best advice for responding to criminal assaults is to concentrate on getting the license plate number, not on immediate revenge. The revenge will be much sweeter if it comes from a judge.

Thanks to all those who empathized with the rage such behavior on the part of idiot cagers can provoke in cyclists. With hindsight I see that violence only escalates the situation, but it sure felt right at the time. The fact is, they tried this on my home range where I know the roads and the traffic patterns better than most people, so I had to at least try to teach them a lesson. Like I originally said, if circumstances had been different I would have caught them--I hit a red light just after the bridge and had to wait for traffic to clear while they drove ahead. Had it been green, I would have been on their tail the whole way. It was pretty stupid for them to provoke me in the one part of town where bikes and cars move at equal speeds due to the traffic light cycles. That's where I think that they got a dose of fear that I could actually catch them, and maybe they'll be less likely to try it again around here, lest they come up on the wrong side of the dice roll.

I don't think that events like this should provoke us all into carrying weapons (outside of the odd Kryptonite U-lock, of course), because they really are few and far between. I'm usually pretty tolerant of oblivious idiot cagers (what can you do? They're idiot cagers) but this was an intentional assault on my person, so I had to do something.

The upside is, the whole event was exciting like a do-or-die chase scene from a movie, and I got a helluva sprint workout. My quads are still sore 3 days on.

These car-bike confrontations remind me of a comic I saw a few years ago. It shows two teams on a basketball court, one human, one alien. The human team is one guy short. An alien is pointing a weapon above a pile of dust.

The caption is a human saying, "OK, OK! We'll compromise. We'll quit throwing elbows if you guys promise to cool it with the vaporizers."

I have long been over screaming obcenities and feeling like acting violent. Now if someone gives me a good scare by doing something stupid, I try to return the favor. The most recent occurence was when someone passed me so close in heavy traffic I almost had a heart attack. Being in my nghborhood, I knew they would get caught at the next light. I sort of snuck through traffic and up to the driver's side window and knocked loudly as a slowly passed. The lady was holding her selfone and almost s#!t herself when I did this. It caused no one real harm but made me fell a little better.

Bikesalot:
I think they may have been the children of that cretin in Ptown who pitched a beer can at me back in 1981. Sorry to say I didn't even give chase as he was going the opposite way. Glad you weren't hurt. Don

Something similar happened to one of the riders in my cycle group, except it was a beer bottle. He chased them, caught them and ended up on the ground. Luckily no major injuries. It is maddening, but stop and think about just how flat that car could squish you. The odds are against us on this battlefield. Better to act prudently and live to ride another day. But damn it's had to remember that when some as***le has mayhem in mind. Ask yourself how would Gandhi ride? No, scratch that, he would lie down in the street.

You made a pretty good statement by just catching up with them. I don't think they thought there would be retaliation. And seeing you catch them probably put some fear into them: "If he's in shape to catch us, what sort of shape is he in to pummel us?"
I am mindful of all these stories as I ride out there. My route goes through an area that last summer several youths had decided that they would try and knock cyclists off their bikes, and for no reason more than it was something they could do to occupy the summer afternoons. Several people were hurt, and 5-0 stepped up patroling, but no one was ever caught. Commuters were asked to ride together, and if they saw groups of youths to slow down, even get off their bikes, and procede with caution. It was suggested to have a cell phone handy. From what I understand the attacks stopped, but that doesn't mean they won't start or be apart of someone else's plans for a fun afternoon.
I know there are times when riding that I acheive a different plane of consciousness, I'm lost in the endorpheines and dopameine, but I try to remember to stay vigilent at all times, cause I don't always know what is around the next bend. One night it is a racoon in the middle of the path, or a TV set thrown from a bridge, that wasn't there on the way to work, snow, ice, you name it, heck it might be another cyclist flatted that I can help. But that is also part of commuting being a part of everything out there, your awarness jumps a level. What happens when you get in a car? I find myself seeing bicycles, and pedestrians, and dumb mistakes that other drivers make, and I think man "I'd rather be riding than driving. At least on a bike I can pull over and take a break, then and there."
And look at the miles you put in that never had an incident, you've had one, now you'll ride for another 4 years without incident, cool, it could have been pudgy faced passenger punching you in the face. I'd of felt stoopid.
Just my ,02.

You made a pretty good statement by just catching up with them. I don't think they thought there would be retaliation. And seeing you catch them probably put some fear into them: "If he's in shape to catch us, what sort of shape is he in to pummel us?"

Or alternatively, perhaps they just slowed down to watch the reaction they'd tried so hard to get. I know because I get this crap all the time. I see them looking into their mirrors, waiting for me to react to their trolling. I see their faces screw up into agonising positions when they realise I'm not going to. I draw a lot of satsifaction and smugness from this. I enjoy the ride a hell of a lot more than I would if I bothered to react.