Maxximum

What to do in situations like these? I am riding along on the right side, two lanes going in one direction. There are vehicles illegally parked on the right lane. I ride along as close as possible outside of the death-door zone. A car pulls around on my left, and the passenger screams at me, causing me to almost lose my balance. Is there a crime committed here? Anything that can be done if I had gotten the plate? Probably not as far as attempted murder (kid with fake snake killed cyclist). Criminal mischief? Criminal negligence causing bodily harm? Will the police even do anything?

What are the ways of handling the situation? What would you have done? Ignoring it is not an option since it says it is okay for that to occur, for them to risk the lives of cyclists.

voileauciel

Though I am not in law enforcement, I do know enough about the law to classify this as either an assault, or criminal mischief with the intent for bodily harm. If you do get injured, that falls under criminal mischief with bodily harm, assault and reckless endangerment, which in some states carries up to 5 years in prison if you're hurt badly enough. My suggestion: carry a small camera, and take as many pictures as possible when this kind of stuff happens, otherwise, carry pens a paper, pull over, and write down the numberplate and a vehicle description.

Call the police when this happens, ok? Don't let these childish little imps get away with anything, because you'd better believe that if they are going to resort to this kind of behaviour, they're probably into other nefarious things as well.

When I had my last major incident, a guy in a pickup truck ran me into a parked car (it was in one fell swoop, classified as a hit and run). Because my bike is BRIGHT orange, some of my paint rubbed off on his white mirror, along with some of my blood. I called the police, and they caught him about 5 miles down the road. That little (18 year old) ******* had crack, heroin and pot in his truck, and "daddy's golden boy", it turns out, was somewhat of a local drugs dealer. He's in prison now, for a multitude of other violations. That was in Philadelphia, 3 years ago. I'm ever-vigilant about things like this, and so should any cyclist be. Otherwise, kiss your liberties, and (nature forbid) your life goodbye. Be vindictive, be firm, and press long and hard to put these little barbarians behind bars for as long as possible.

It is a relentless pursuit of justice, but in the long run, it pays off...

CommuterRun

Sometimes you can catch the offender at a redlight. In that case, I might snap a picture of the car and plate, and report it, but there's really not much law enforcement can do when it comes down to your word against theirs. If you catch it on video there might be more that can be done.

I think the best thing to do is condition yourself to not react (jump) when something like this happens. I did this by repeating in my mind, "I will get honked at, I will get honked at, I will get honked at......" Awhile back I was doing this before every ride, and even though it doesn't normally happen, it doesn't surprise me anymore when it does.

Chris L

Report it if it makes you feel better about the incident, but if your police are anything like ours, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anything to be done about it. Most likely what will happen is that they'll promise to "look into it", then put the report straight through the shredder as soon as you walk out. You're far better off just to put this one down to experience and learn to deal with it. Fortunately, this gets easier with practice. Motorist harassment is so common in this part of the world that these days I'm not even startled by such incidents.

CommuterRun

Oh yeah, one other thing about harassment by cagers.

Except in unusual circumstances it only lasts a split second, then they use the power of their vehicle to run away. They rely on the element of surpise to get a reaction, if you take that away from them it takes all the fun out of it.

mike

The other day, a group of young men in a jeep drove by and yelled, "Hey, you are riding a girl bike!"

I don't think they meant it in a nice way.

Was I being harassed? Should I call the police?

unkchunk

Wrong. It is an option. And it's just about the only option you got. 30 seconds afterwards the car and the teenage occupants are long gone.

Leisesturm

I don't know about where you live but here in NYC you are either in the death door zone or you are in traffic. I would rather take my chances with a stationary car door padded with 200lbs of terrified motorist than 4000lbs of automobile with 200lbs of hostile motorist in control of it. In NYC the likelihood of a motorist doing something violent to a cyclist and being able to flee is slight but in the Detroit suburbs where I lived for a time motorists will and did deliberately use their cars to knock me down and flee. You cannot get a license or even a vehicle description in the terrifying instant of being knocked down and the car will be long, long gone by the time you even get to your feet, assuming you can get to your feet. For all their bluster and ignorance NYC motorists are resigned to sharing their road with cyclists. The downside is the death door zone is about all they regularly concede. I have no fear of taking a real lane when I need it and I regularly move as much as two lanes into traffic if I have to to keep moving. When and if traffic starts moving again I start cutting across traffic back to my place in the door zone. Works very well. Just never show fear when you are out there and build up Karmic credits when off the bike by going to church regularly on Sunday's (if Protestant) supporting Little League or Boy/Girl Scouts and crossing with the elderly at busy intersections.

H

dynodonn 

Pretty much sums it up, I'm more concerned about the soccer mom with a carload of kids, trying to get them to school on time because she's late, squeezing by me with inches to spare at 10mph or more over the limit. At least the carload of teenagers, giving me their primal screaming gibberish, slows down to the speed limit or less.

Maxximum

The thing is, I bike hard. At that instant, I biked up to the car. It was busy, and the car with the driver and passenger were stopped at the red light. I caught up to them and pulled up next to them, and they had a terrified look on their faces. The passenger (female) had her hands up in the air (all defensively).

JeffS

I think you're overreacting. People are always going to yell at you, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Either get more comfortable on the bike, or get off the road if you really feel that someone yelling at you is endangering your life...

Maxximum

You can prevent people from saying stuff. Which sucks. But consider it differently if you were in all door zone death zone, up close and squashed in between vehicles, and the person didn't yell something at you, but leaned out the window right by your ear (since it was so narrow-you squashed between vehicles), and screamed at the top of their lungs into your ear? With the intent to do bodily harm/cause bodily harm?

I want to liken this to another case. There was a race and a bunch of racers were moving up a bridge area. Some 12 year old pulled out a fake snake to scare a rider, and the rider was scared and fell off his bike and struck his head and died (he also had a proper helmet on).

So, could the same action be treated two different ways depending on the outcome?

What if another weaker cyclist had that happen? And they lost control of their bike and fell into traffic and was crushed, and killed? What if that weaker cyclist was your daughter or son?

gosmsgo

The last time someone yelled at me to get on the sidewalk I was in the downtown area with a 20 mph speed limit.

I rode up beside her passenger side window and knocked on it. I did not knock hard but I was trying to get her attention.

I have never seen such a look of fear in someones eyes. She was absolutely beside her self with fear.

It really made me feel better knowing that she went from being smug and feeling safe inside her cage to knowing that I could hurt her if I wanted.

That might sound weird but I think she learned her lesson. She will keep her dumb advice to herself next time.

Maxximum

w00t! That is what I am talking about.
What is up with people? They get in a cage with tempered glass windows and all of the sudden think they are invincible? Or when they are with a group of people, they think they can single out someone by himself on a bike? Take away their safety, and they are no more than a timid mouse.

Good work with the window. Even tapping gently is enough of a wake up call, especially if they are on a slow route, and you can follow them along. Which is great if you follow them all the way home, if they live nearby. Not saying to do anything criminal or stalk or anything, but it teaches them a good lesson:

"Don't be an idiot!"

Do people's IQ points lower once they enter a motorized vehicle?

SSP

Get a freakin' mirror...with it, you'll hardly ever be surprised by an overtaking vehicle, and can often see when a passenger is about to harass.

One of these days, a harassing passenger is going to get a face-load of sticky Gatorade.

billew

I get this crap about once month in my case it's not about getting on the sidewalk but about startling me into a crash. If I fell most of the time I wouldn't be able to get the plate or even make of car. I've gathered from reading the forums that this happens more in the northeast than elsewhere.

mike

Ya, my response was a little sarcastic, but I sure do know what you mean. I have had experiences like you mention where some @ss-hole tries to scare you - it doesn't matter what they yell, in fact. You will also read about some people who throw things at bicyclists or throw firecrackers or shoot pellet guns. There are a few true apes out there. Some of them grow out of it and some stay apes. If you can figure out how to avoid them, please let us know by all means.

In the end, what goes around comes around. We aren't always there to see it happen, but it does.

Did you ever see the video of the teen-age jerk in the back seat, drivers side of the car - he tries to door a young kid on a bike. The bicyclist vears away, and the teen falls out of the car when he tries to fling the door open. The punk falls out of his car and gets hit by an on-coming car. No second chances for that idiot. God must have seen the future and figure he needed to erase and start over with that guy.

Anyway, the world is round. Jerks get it in the end - often by their own doing.

Frankenbiker

Having had local adolescents (and some college students) try to "frighten" me by blasting their car horn while passing or shouting unintelligible whatevers and on one occasion a water balloon flew past my bike, I have come to expect it and it doesn't rattle me any more. No harm, no foul.

However, if you do catch the license plate and you suspect the driver/passenger are intoxicated, then reporting a possible drunk driver might bring more police action than telling the police that somebody verbally harassed you. A police officer showing up at a teen's home front door inquiring about who was driving the car would be an excellent lesson. But you need to have more evidence of "drunk" driving than simple verbal abuse.

1ply

Don't use the word drunk in your call. "Driving Erratically" should do it. Erratic driving and yelling may mean he just forgot his medication. Either way a visit by the cops may be in order.

Allister

At least you know they saw you.

lil brown bat

So, what did you do? I think, if I could have kept my cool, I would have said something like, "So, what was that all about?" Maybe with cellphone in hand.

Teenagers are sometimes children and sometimes adults. When they behave like that, they're being children. They still have those impulses, but they're not so much proud of them any more. Just having it called to their attention is often enough to chill them right out.

lil brown bat

Really? What's your data?

Maxximum

For the record, what makes it worse, at least according to me, was that these were not children, or teens, they looked like late 20 somethings, even early 30's.

toucci

I try my hardest to keep smiling and laughing at the angry monkeys in their sealed frustration capsules. Sometimes it boils over and I have to engage in fisticuffs.

However, I get the most harassment from groups of youths to which I like to retort with a thumbs up and *****-eating grin. I think it keeps them from looking cool to their buddies.

fat_bike_nut

Don't be surprised at the age of the driver or passenger harassing you. I've heard stories from other cyclists about being harassed by 40 and 50-year olds, too, and even a few from people that have been harassed by elderly drivers.