ColaJacket

From the EPA article, "A vehicle's emission control system is designed to limit emissions of harmful pollutants from vehicles or engines."

If someone sprays you with harmful pollutants then that is an assault (or technically, a battery. The threat of doing it is the assault).

GH

bakes1

Lol

Phil_gretz

It was a parody... sorry that you missed the entire point. In many cases, timing is everything, alas.

Oldhead

I'm pretty sure to roll coal they have to alter something on their engine for the truck to be able to do it. I can't stand the smell of diesel fumes when they are normal. I got coaled once on the bike(actually 20 of us), damn near couldn't breathe.

Wingsprint

For those who do not know… roll coal is not something diesel trucks can do in stock factory condition. Trucks that can roll coal have been modified by the owner to produce the black smoke on demand. Thick clouds of smoke are produced because fuel is pushed from the engine without being completely burned, and then leaves the exhaust as black soot. The truck’s engine management system is modified to pump excessive fuel to the engine on demand. In some cases larger fuel injectors are installed to further the effect.

A-hole behavior if you ask me…

Equinox

I'm just pointing out that we are experiencing a rash of worse behavior by motorists. I guess the fact that it's notable is a sign that our motorists are generally not too bad. Our group was on the shoulder of a two lane secondary road. there were about ten of us going fast on a slight downhill, single file. A vehicle approached from behind that intended to turn right into her driveway. Instead of slowing and allowing the group to clear her driveway (<10sec.), she overtook the group and put herself in a right hook situation. She then had to come to a complete stop in the driving lane. The cholo in the "Fast and Furious" car with the 8" exhaust pipe behind her did not anticipate her stopping and locked up his brakes in a panic stop. I will give him credit for not rear ending the car or swerving into the riders to his right. After the situation resolved, the cholo floors it and flies past the cyclists in a blatant violation of the posted speed limit. When I see motorists behave like this, it makes me lose respect for them.
Maybe it's because we're messing with Pluto or something.

gregf83 

Setting aside the obnoxious behavior, the environmental damage done by a few seconds/minutes worth of black smoke is insignificant compared to the emissions spewing out of a 5000+ lb vehicle over it's lifetime. Most people in America drive far bigger vehicles than necessary.

Equinox

Well the impact on MY environment IS significant as a rider who has mer smoked. I'm surprised at how "cyclists" are so willing to excuse this. It is an unnecessary fouling of the atmosphere. We DO a lot of bad things to our environment that are hard to avoid. We should condemn intentional assaults. One doesn't matter...the one you see. How many DO matter? Ten? A hundred? What if they do it in front of your house?

RPK79

It's a good thing you're not here in person or my expelling of carbon dioxide when I sighed as reading this may have been construed as assault and battery.

RPK79

FBinNY 

Nobody is excusing it, we're just trying to keep it in perspective.

It happened, it wasn't nice, the guy was a jerk, but it's not as big as you're making it.

SempreCycling

Why is this thread turning into a debate on carbon emissions, good grief.

Equinox

Fair enough. Hold that thought if you ever get smoked.

banerjek

It's not a matter of excusing anything, it's about keeping things in perspective. Rollin coal may be illegal, stupid, bad for the environment, and even meet a technical legal definition of assault. But using that term is hyperbolic. If a lot more people did it, that might be a different matter, but the reality is that getting smoked is rare enough that it doesn't represent a credible threat compared to what else we have to deal with.

I hope you never ride in agricultural areas where you can get doused with reclaimed water (a.k.a. sewage) as a result of wind and/or poorly aimed irrigation sprinklers. That's WAY more common and annoying than getting smoked where I ride. I'd almost expect a thread on assault with biological weapons.

RPK79

I have been. I still agree with @FBinNY.

FBinNY 

I've had much worse, including some very scary moments, and I get mad as hell for a while, then move on. IMO, if you keep hanging onto the bad stuff, you have less time for the good stuff.

Anyway I figure there have to be a decently large number of jerks out there, so the odds of running into one from time to time are pretty high, and accept that as one of the facts of life.

banerjek

I've done some rough calculations and believe the true numbers to be astonishingly low.

Based on counting cars, extrapolating how many I encounter in a day, and then considering how often I experience anything resembling true hostility, it is somewhere around 1 in 100,000 drivers (i.e. 0.001%). In some areas, I encounter more issues but the numbers are still minuscule. When you consider the percentage of murderers, dope addicts, schizophrenics, etc. in the general population, we get off easy -- seems like I see motorists go off on each other more often than they go off on me. The pattern has been one of improvement over the years. When I hear Oregon cyclists complain about drivers, I wonder what the heck they're talking about. This place is as cycle friendly as it gets. Try riding in the midwest back in the 80's.

Rollin coal is benign compared to some stuff I've experienced. There's a big difference between guys acting like idiots and people being truly dangerous.

WNCGoater

I'm relatively new at road biking, or at least, as a regular form of exercise. I've found that probably 99% of motorists to be cordial. The 1% are jerks. I ride in mostly rural areas for the purpose of lighter traffic. I prefer early mornings or weekend mornings for even more reduced traffic.
Typically I ride in the middle of the lane, watching my rear-view helmet mirror. When a car approaches, I turn my head so they can see that I spot them, even though I've already seen them, then I move to the right. I believe they interpret this as being courteous and typically they give me a wide berth when passing. Then I give them a friendly wave as they pass. I believe if I act like a jerk by not moving over or otherwise obstructing them, all I'm doing is creating more jerks for me and other cyclists. If I'm climbing and get multiple cars behind me, I'll pull over and stop to let them pass at the first safe place.
The 1% will never change, they're going to buzz you or do whatever discourteous act there is. I still believe it best not to react other than a friendly wave while calling down curses on their heads under your breath while smiling. Keep the middle fingers to yourself. Nothing good going to come from using that implement.

FBinNY 

The numbers don't really matter, but I think you're a bit low. At 1/100k there would only be 3,000 jerks in the USA, and that's way low. But even if we multiply by a hundred, that's still only one in a thousand. And even if it's much more than that we're still talking about jerks being the exception, rather than the rule.

banerjek

In terms of absolute number of hostile people in the population, my estimate is way too low. But in terms of numbers of car encounters, it's not so far off. The reason for the discrepancy is that people are creatures of habit and tend to be found in roughly the same places at the same times (i.e. you get passed by a lot of the same cars over and over). This is true even on busy highways and in cities.

I've ridden for a long time and had a 40+ mile bike commute on busy highways for 10 years. Now, I ride about an hour and a half each day in a major city. I used to be passed by thousands of cars in a day, now the number is much lower because they're so much slower. But real hostile encounters are rare. In any given year, I expect zero, though one is not unusual. Most people on BF probably ride 100-150 miles per week. Even with that kind of road time, hostile encounters are rare enough that you can remember them. But some of this depends on how you define hostile. I don't consider aggressive driving hostile until it's dangerous or emotions get out of control. Most rollin coal doesn't qualify because it's normally just idiots screwing around.

One thing I think holds cycling back is we have a victimization complex as a group. Noncyclists also see us in this light, and it contributes to the idea that we're vulnerable and don't really belong on the roads even if it's legal. This attitude also provokes morons and anticycling attitudes. If people don't think the crap they do affects you, they're less likely to do it.

katsrevenge

Coal rollers (yes, this is a thing..) mod their trucks (in a way that would be illegal in most places, including here, if I've read correctly) to belch out fumes and nasties that would normally be cleaned up by the exhaust system or not produced at all. Most of the time this is done by making the engine run too rich, I think, and you can set it up to work via switch.

What makes me uneasy is accepting such blatant disregard for the health of other people who have to breathe that nasty air. And, if a vehicle has been modded to run in such a way that it would be illegal (not pass an emissions test)... it is a crime. It is against the law. It is also disgusting and rude.

banerjek

Absolutely true.

But their whole point is to provoke -- it's an automotive form of trolling. You give them that and it feeds them. That's precisely why it's best to let it go.

katsrevenge

Why? I'd rather take down the plate and report them.

FBinNY 

I think we've come full circle, with a split between those who get worked up over stuff like this and those who don't.

I don't expect anybody's opinion to change because it part of each of ours ingrained worldview, so let's agree to disagree on how much of a problem jerks really are and/or what to do about them, and ride our bikes, hopefully not running in to any.

katsrevenge

No worries. I don't get that worked up over it. I'd rather just report them to the authorities and be done with it. To me it's just like reporting a kid throwing rocks at someone's windows or dumping trash in the woods. It's just what you do.

I figure the more social (and financial censure ) the fewer of them there might be! Have a good night. Tomorrow looks great for biking.