Walter S

There are psychotic people out there, right in my home town.

Cyclist intentionally hit by SUV remains in intensive care | www.wsbtv.com

Not only do I think confrontation is pointless and unproductive, it's dangerous too.

Watch out for crazy people. They're lurking about and doing us the favor of revealing themselves once in a while. I hope they find this bastard. They have witnesses and some photos of his car (absent the licence plate). Seems like some good detectives could work with that though if they care enough.

fotooutdoors

That's terrible, but I have to disagree that confronting other road users is as a rule unproductive. When I have managed to keep my temper in check, on have had many conversations, usually with motorists but occasionally with other cyclists, about how their actions endangered me or others. You do need to know when to let it go and apparently when to scram.

skye

Ninja rocks ftw.

eja_ bottecchia

I agree, confronting a driver is mostly useless and can often be dangerous/deadly. Too many unbalanced, evil people out there.

WestPablo

That could have been me so many times in my youth!

I once had a VW Jetta driver pull out an automatic weapon, raise it up within his vehicle and smile, right after an exchange of heated words between us. I was POed, after he made a right-hand turn in front of me, just after the light had turned green. I saw that the light had turned green and therefore had no reason to stop. I therefore kept my momentum to go thru the intersection. He then, suddenly and most abruptly, decides to speed up from behind and turn right, directly in front of me, cutting me off. If I hadn't immediately braked at that very millisecond, there's no doubt that I would have crashed into his new Jetta. I then reflexively gave him the finger with a few spiced words to match. He then yelled in response! As I was furiously explaining how much of an idiot move that was, cutting me off and all, this guy villainously smiles and just reaches into his console. He then pulls out some type of shiny chrome plated semi-automatic weapon and waves it upwards, inside of his car.

I then immediately began to maneuver out of his eyesight, by getting upon the curb and ducking behind cars as I pedaled down the sidewalk.

I've had many more confrontations prior to that one. However, those encounters were very brief and only ended up with just a few heated words exchanged and that was it!

So I began to think...

Anyone of those prior exchanges could have potentially ended very badly for me. I've since, stop interacting with erratic drivers in anyway!

contango 

There is a world of difference between someone who does something inappropriate in their car, and someone who responds to being confronted by what can only be described as attempted murder. Of course we need to be careful but taking this line of reasoning and applying it elsewhere we'd be afraid to do anything other than just accept whatever anyone else does, at any time and in any place. If someone spilled our drink in the bar would we expect them to buy us another one, or would we be afraid to demand a replacement in case they pulled a knife and stabbed us?

WestPablo

Sometimes a cyclist gets buzzed and a barfly gets his drink spilled, just for the sake of a bloody confrontation...

acidfast7

Living in America!

WestPablo

Yeah, it's quite true!

We're all in far too big a hurry, for certain!

Living in America as a cycling commuter sometimes comes with its casualties. Perhaps, even fatalities occasionally, but Europe and London in particular, still do have their share of cycling casualties, too. Perhaps even fatalities occasionally, as well!

-=(8)=-

Most of the Grimm Bros type fairy tale tellers live in A&S with their tales of beating on cars and learnin' the drivers on-the-spot alpha dog A&S ~ For entertainment value, their yarns are as hilarious as they are unbelievable. The OP is the reality of screwing with car ppl.
Not worth it. Move on.

acidfast7

[QUOTE=WestPablo;16847514]by automatic weapon?

spivonious

I think it all depends on how you confront them. If you come up yelling profanities, things aren't going to end well. If you approach calmly and explain how what they just did wasn't the smartest option, they usually apologize and at least feign guilt.

You should never, ever, divert your intended course to confront a driver. That's just plain road rage and will always be met with hostility.

WestPablo

I must admit, I do like my automatics!

However, to possess them in public and to have the ability to brandish them openly, does give one pause...

It's far too late now that we're spinning out of control, but I really think that we should have stopped a long time ago, with the advent of the muzzleloader!

WestPablo

Road rage is not solely an auto driver phenomenon. We as urban cyclists, quite frequently have buses, taxis, delivery trucks, and the ordinary driving public, cut us off, buzz us, open doors on us, etc.. We therefore get to experience road rage probably more often than motorists.

We therefore, have many more grim tales to tell. If a cycling commuter lives in any large urban city, I can assure you that he's been faced with vehicular abuse on more than just a couple occasions, annually. However, I would tend to agree, to confront a driver as if to seize the moment in effort to teach them a lesson, is a very futile and foolhearty deed to pursue.

WestPablo

Yeah, but it's a difficult task indeed to gather your wits about you, immediately after a motorist has just committed an act that has just endangered your personal health and safety. Quite easier said, than done..

Road rage has no place in civil society. It's just plain stupid! We're not going to teach anybody anything by yelling profanities or giving them the finger. We're also not going to teach them anything by calmly explaining the details about their vehicular ignorance either. It's just not a practical teaching moment.

Since you have absolutely no idea what type of an individual with which you're dealing, I think it would be best for all parties, for you not to become confrontational at all. Confrontation with a stranger can be like Russian Roulette, or a "box of chocolates"...You just never know what you're gonna get!

Mr. Hairy Legs

100% agreed. It will just give them a reason to "hate cyclists" even more.

Walter S

Another thing about this topic is that the confrontation is not only likely to fuel aggression in the driver, for me at least, it fuels anger in myself too. That's not pleasant and it's not making the situation any better.

Then again, I don't want to completely ignore drivers that do me wrong. Specifically in the case of drivers that pass too close, there's a moment of alarm in my head. That alarm used to inspire me to flip a bird or shake my fist and yell. Now I sit up tall and give him a friendly looking but high and vigorous wave. The wave is designed to do several things. First, I can't get rid of my feelings by doing nothing at all. I need to do "something". Frequently drivers will pass you too close not because they are just plain a-holes but because they are preoccupied and not thinking and making careful decisions about the best way to pass. If the driver looks up in the rear view mirror and sees me waving like "hey, see me?" then *maybe*, just *maybe* they will reflect on their own behavior and think "uh, I was a little too close". If a driver looks up and sees you flipping a bird, I don't think the same kind of thoughts are fostered.

But another value in the wave is for the drivers that are coming up behind me. I've noticed that if somebody passes too close, I might have a stream of cars right behind them that pass too close also. After all, if you're not reacting at all they might think you don't care. And drivers tend to play follow the leader. They're thinking about other stuff and just getting down the road on auto-pilot. They do what the driver in front of them does. "Worked for him". But my wave calls attention to the scene. Maybe they get the idea, that I'm saying I was passed to close. But if nothing else, the wave just creates some commotion and breaks the flow of "follow the leader".

Bike Gremlin

Complaint vs Criticism

contango 

Sure, you have to choose your battles.

If the 6'8 guy with rippling muscles and tattoos hanging out with a bunch of other similar guys spilled my pint I'd be annoyed but wouldn't push it if it was clear he didn't intend to replace it.

unterhausen

I found that when I fail to respond to a driver that I forget about the incident far sooner. However, I have modified that for people that pass too close, they get the finger
I rarely chase people down, that would put me in the wrong.

905

I think it depends on the personality of both parties. As your temperament is the only known quantity in the equation, you'd better be confident in your ability to handle everything from verbal abuse to personal assault weapons (in addition to the car, that is). Consider Lewis Dediare, aka



Cautionary tale, or role model? You decide. All I know is, a tragic news item somewhere down the line, involving Traffic Droid and a malevolent Mondeo Man, will not come as a surprise to many.

My personal approach is something along the lines of instant forgiveness for transgressions, which defuses the situation before it can even become one. Lest that sound too Mother Teresa-ish, note that the biggest weapon in my arsenal of peace is my ipod. Music really does have the power to soothe the savage breast. (Tune therapy obviously not recommended for anybody who thinks it's a crazy stupid thing to do. YMMV, as they say.)

The last bad confrontation I had actually involved a policeman. I won't go into details, as I was a motorist at the time, but it involved an honest mistake on my part and an extremely over-the-top reaction on his; I swear I would've ended up with a tasering, if he'd been packing one. The only way I could think to escape the shower of spittle was keep calm and carry on apologizing. The British are very big on apologising – constantly – so I thought this would go over well. Fortunately I was able to make my escape, no harm done except to my dignity, i.e., no harm done.

Love that one. Always turn it up loud.

Dahon.Steve

Police release a video

APD releases video of vehicle that hit cyclist - Decaturish

Cyclosaurus

Angry confrontation is unproductive.

When a driver buzzes me, intentionally or not, if I happen to catch up with them at the next light, I will roll up to them, smile, and make a friendly wave to get their attention. The conversation goes something like this:

me: "Hi, excuse me, were you aware of how close you came to me when you passed?"
motorist: "I wasn't too close"
me: "Actually, you were too close. Did you know that Illinois law says that you must give me 3 feet of space when passing? You were much closer than that."
motorist: "I don't see what the big deal is. You're OK right? I didn't hit you."
me: "Yes, but you were still passing unsafely and illegally. It's very dangerous for me to have cars coming so close. If I was a family member of yours would you have come so close to me when passing?"
motorist: "No one in my family rides bikes."

The point is not to convince them of anything at the time or "win" the argument. 99.9% of people in this circumstance will never admit they did anything wrong in the moment because it's just human nature. But I want to leave them with something to think about. If I'm not an ******* to them then they can't just write me off. And the next time they see a cyclist, they just might give them a little more room because they don't want someone coming up again and nicely reminding them that *they* were the ******* in the situation.