Advocacy & Safety - Reported a motorist today.

They've laid down new pavement on one of the parkway roads here, along the river. There are also bright new "Single File" signs, with the cyclist and car graphics, every 200 m or so. Today Mr Coffeecake and I were doing a fair clip along this road, single file, and taking the lane, at about 35 km/hr (conservative estimate, no computer, speed limit is 50.) Truck buzzes us at very unsafe speed and distance, with oncoming traffic (There is no shoulder.) So I memorize the plate and call it in. Police department takes it down, and says they will send him a nice little letter in the mail, advising him not to drive "erratically or dangerously". It's the little things that count. :D

Hope it works. Seriously.

Provincial Police are usually pretty good.

OOOOWWWW! I'll bet he'll be shaking *IF* he gets the letter!!!

Well, it was either report him to the police department or turn him to stone with my Medusa stare, sacrifice his wife and kids to the gods of my choosing, and then do unspeakable acts to his dog, after donating all his effects to Greenpeace. However, I've got enough obstacles on the road as it is, so I called the cops.

I dont know if that will deter drivers like him. I had a guy go over the shoulder just to harass me all because I was taking up the entire lane while negotiating a switchback descent. And then today, I was on the side of the road and this irrate teenager wearing shades and looking stupid, he decided to flip me off after gesturing with his vehicle that he might run me over. I yell at him and he swerves into the side infront of me like he is going to do something. At the intersection I give him the eye and he looks scared in his vehicle. I dont say anything except "whats going on with you?" while I pass ahead of him. Light turns green and he gets dangerously close to me, and following suit with the driver infront, a red sports car behind him decides to do the same thing as if to show hostility against a cyclist is something they share in common.

It might have been more than just hostility towards a cyclist. Being a minority I think they might have been harassing me for that reason as well. Also Im not exactly a big guy so I guess they thought they would get away with it. I screamed at them but Im sure that wont do anything. I always have my cellphone with me so one of these days Im going to report them but by the time police react they would have gotten away. So its aggravating and makes me think those kids that deal their own justice via the "u-lock justice" are quite refreshing.

...advising him not to drive "erratically or dangerously".

...around other motorists. 10 to 1 that their little "slap on the wrist" letter will say nothing about endangering cyclists.

-Kurt

If the incident is at least logged by the police, then it can show a pattern of behavior if it were to escalate at some point in time. It's much better, IMHO, than not reporting it at all.

I once reported a guy to the police while I was out delivering pizzas(in my truck). He decided that he didn't like my driving for whatever reason, and slammed on his brakes, blocked the road, and actually opened his door to flip me off. At that point, I felt it was my duty to report aggressive behavior on the road. If I ever encountered him again, it would show that I had reported it, and it would be 2 strikes against him.

Yeah, I really just wanted it to go on his record, in case of any future altercations with other people. I don't really care if they do anything about it now; it's just to let him know that he can't get away with crap like that, we're not afraid to go ahead and call the cops.

I think people forget that they have a unique and identifiable number slapped on the back of their vehicle. I wish more cyclists would call stuff in around here - maybe motorists would calm down and realize there are consequences for their actions.

The stretch of road in question was actually the subject of an extremely ignorant column in the local paper a couple weeks ago.http://www.thestarphoenix.com/columnists/Time+brakes+bicycling+lanes/2080545/story.html Our city has the next highest per-capita population of cyclists in Canada, after Victoria, and there's been lots of friction in the letters section over cyclists and their "rights" to the road.

Truck buzzes us at very unsafe speed and distance, with oncoming traffic

In your opinion

In your opinion

Which is better than yours, because she was actually there.