genesplitter

There is no need to contact the police as LA passed a historic bicycling anti-harassment ordinance in 2011. I live in Oakland, which just passed the same ordinance based on LA (and later Berkeley's) ordinance. If a motorist endangers you, for instance by driving less than 3 feet from any part of your bicycle, you can file a civil case and collect treble actual damages or $1000, whichever is greater.

The more important part is that the violator is responsible for reasonable attorney fees and court costs. This is a *big* deal because this means a bicycle friendly attorney can accept your case easily, with no cost to you.

Better to read the actual ordinance, or do what I do and print it out and keep a copy while riding your bicycle.

(pdf link) https://oakland.legistar.com/View.as...B-E76F0056483C

If you had video to record the license plate, you could have made $104,000 over the past two years! After Oakland passed the anti-harassment bill, I bought a gopro and am waiting to catch my first "grazer". I have been passed by cars closer than 3 feet but I felt the cars were passing slowly and respectfully, which is perfectly fine by me. It's obvious when someone is careless and dangerous and that is the person I want to change behavior with this ordinance.

I already picked out a bicycle friendly attorney and will send him a youtube link when the time comes. He will likely hire a PI ($100) and file a case ($225 for cases under $10k) plus reasonable attorney's fees plus my $1000.

ItsJustMe

Erie man accused of honking at cyclists sentenced to 12 months probation - Boulder Daily Camera

A 75-year-old Erie man accused of harassing two cyclists along County Line Road in September by following them and honking his SUV's horn for several minutes was sentenced to 12 months probation as part of a plea deal with prosecutors today.

James Ernst pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment -- a Class 3 misdemeanor -- and two counts of improper use of a horn -- a traffic offense. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped two counts of driving too slowly. Ernst also will be required to undergo anger management and do community service.

Later:

"The road is a double yellow line, uphill for a long ways and it's very narrow with no paved shoulder," Ernst said. "It's really not safe for bicyclists."

If so, you, mister ass-hat, are exactly the kind of driver that is making it not safe.

bhchdh 

Thank you.

gunner65

and another reason I will never live in that state....

bhop

I live in L.A. It's not that bad compared to a few years back. I rarely have any issues anymore. What part of town are you riding? Are you riding on main streets or parallel smaller streets? That stuff makes a difference in driver rage.

TransitBiker

I'm fit enough & had/have a good enough bike that unless its 45 mph+ with no other traffic i can usually chase an offending driver down while on phone (headset) with police. The cops around here are serious about road safety and do not hesitate to talk to (or ticket) drivers OR cyclists based on who the antagonist is.

Again, i feel the solution is better addressing of cyclists in the permit & license (and renewal) process to hammer home the point.

- Andy

Leisesturm

Really? I'm pretty fit and I ride as good enough a commuter as matters and I don't think I could keep up with a car that really wanted to get away from me. Plus to simultaneously dial, connect to, outline the situation and have units respond before lactic acid overcomes the mitochondria in my fast twitch muscles.. ... whoa... you rock. But, the limitations of my VO2 max aren't the only reason I would never give chase to a motorist that endangered me and fled. That kind of response always overcomes good survival instincts. You are depending on an unknown individual inside a car not to take further offensive action against you. You are carrying two persons worth of entitlement into that situation. It is very unwise. But, whatever works for you... until it doesn't.

H

TransitBiker

1. It's not that hard to chase someone down.

2. I never bike and phone.

3. Further offensive action?

4. Entitlement?

No offense man, but you need to stop assuming, postulating on the assumptions, then assuming further.

I've been cycling & car free for 18 years. If you don't let the cops writing a ticket teach a few of these people a lesson, they will end up hurting themselves or others with their lack of vehicular control & respect for rules of the road (proven from experience). Newspapers & local news sites publish names & locations of incidents as well, so if you don't want your name under the "police blotter" its a good idea to use self control and good judgement behind the wheel. I've found ths, and not some kick or slam of my hand to their vehicle to be most effective. I'm not a cave man, after all.

- Andy

achoo

Bull. That's a risible claim. To be kind....

World-class sprinters barely break 40 mph in sprints - with full leadout teams. There's no way on God's good Earth you can get out your phone, dial it, then get sprinting fast enough to catch a car going even a steady 30 mph. Hell, I'd love to see how long you can sustain a TRUE 25 mph on level ground. Sustaining 25 mph for an hour is a significant goal for an experienced bike racer wearing full aerodynamic kit on a fully-aerodynamic time trial bike.

About the only time you ever have a chance is if they get caught at a stoplight. And then what the hell are you going to do when they pull out their cell phone and start filming you being a raging jackass?

TransitBiker

Boy oh boy, do you have a really wild imagination. Thanks for sharing.

- Andy

Walter S

Are you a professional bicycle racer? If you can ride 40 mph as you chase a car across town and coordinate with the police over the telephone then I'm sure you could win the Tour de France without breaking a sweat

TransitBiker

I didn't say i can go 40 mph.

- Andy

AdrianFly

My advice would be to smile and wave.

Eventually it will go viral and everybody in LA will be smiling and waving to each other.

If you are regularly grouchy while you are riding with hundreds of cars, then talk to your doctor and tell him of your situation. Tell him of the social anxiety.. tell him of the stress and pain experienced on your communte and that you want to get to the point where you are so happy all you can do is ride, smile and wave.

huizar

Wow, racist much?

I used to ride daily in LA traffic too, and never had the level of problems you seem to be having. I also rode every day in the 'boonies' of the Inland Empire and rarely had incidences like these. If you're seriously concerned, like others have mentioned, maybe re-evaluate your riding style. If you're really not doing anything wrong, go for it and get the GoPro.

rumrunn6

does that one automatically make a series of small files that when the card is full starts to overwrite the oldest file?

ItsJustMe

The SVC200 does have a "car mode" which does that. most cams do.

The one irritating thing is that the SVC200 does revert to "sport mode" after charging - so I have to click two buttons after charging to put it back into car mode so it will loop and overwrite. If I forget it stops when the card is full. but it buzzes at me for about 10 seconds as I'm riding saying it's shutting off, so I know I forgot and I can stop and switch it.

The GoPro that I had, that mode was badly broken, and the GoPro support people were super snotty and said it was "probably because I was using cheap cards" - even though the problem persisted after I bought their recommended Sandisk Ultra.

I've had more complaints and missing features from the name brand cams than from the cheaper Chinese cams. I think the Contour Roam was the worst, because it's impossible to change modes or do anything but turn it on and off in the field, and IIRC it didn't have a loop/overwrite mode (at least in the firmware version I had) so you HAD to connect it to a PC every couple of days and erase the files. I sold that thing pretty fast.

achoo

BULL ****.

According to that, you can chase down traffic doing 44 mph.

That kinda requires you to be able to go FASTER than 44 mph, doesn't it?

You also made this laughable claim:

kaisersling

Ummm... you are from Lancaster, so traffic isn't exactly something you would know a great deal about. Unless we are talking about horse drawn carriages or cows or other such stereotypes about the area you live in. I am going to go out on a limb and say that LA might have more traffic that Lancaster. But I'm from Jersey so what would I know about Lancaster v LA trafffic.

cellery

If you search a well known streaming video site for "driver harasses cyclist" you will find endless videos of cyclists being buzzed and harassed by drivers. So, clearly having a gopro is reducing this type of driving behavior.

TransitBiker

Uh.. clearly i was referring to the speed limit of the road, which traditionally is set in increments of 5 mph. I don't know of any 40 or 30 mph roads around here, but most of the ones even at 45 can get backed up at a light fairly quickly. If they are stopped and i can go, guess what.... i might be able to catch up to them! Shocking stuff, i know!!!

- Andy

kaisersling

Andy, it doesn't pay to argue with those cranky ol' curmudgeons. (Achoo and walter). They clearly don't understand the dynamics of East Coast Tri-state traffic. Just let them slowly slither in anger back into their holes.

TransitBiker

It is different riding on higher speed rated roads that regularly clog with traffic, that's for sure.

- Andy

kaisersling

Very familiar with Newtown and its lack of shoulders (especially on Washington). With all the traffic lights and the traffic, it would be fairly easy to catch up.

On a side note, it looks like they did a pretty nice job on that 202 bike path.

achoo

Nothing illustrates such ignorant provincial smug better than this:

TransitBiker

Buddy, I've traveled all over the US, been to Ontario & Puerto Rico as well. The design & layout of roads is VERY different in different regions. The west is wide open & relatively recently pumped full of population. My town is 330 years old, and the roads were built up from foot paths to carriage lanes to automobiles & paved. Out west it was largely blank canvas & straight lines with lots of grids and sprawling small towns. Just totally different. In PR it was half grid & half former foot paths.

If you look at the history of the US you'll note that once railroads were established, borders & roads got more straight vs solely dependant on terrain & geology as wagon trails & canals were.

In Ontario you have the escarpment... A massive continental feature that encouraged development to its north closer to the lake. That's all very urban & grid. Up above is very different.

- Andy