Commando303

I hear what you're saying, and while this isn't meant to be a foolhardy post, I'm in no mood to cower from the po-po or the social order that did $h!t for me, when I haven't done anything of which I'm ashamed.

I've wondered, in the wake of the original incident, as to many "what ifs"; one of them was, "What if I had a recording of this?" I pondered, though, what good that ultimately could have done. What if the matter indeed was caught on security tape? The cops wouldn't take a complaint; there was no query into the event, let alone some effort to see if a neighborhood camera (maybe a security recording outside a bank, or something) captured the event. If I'd gone in with a self-made recording, I can't help but feel no one would've even taken the time to look at it — not when "investigation" was the last word on the tip of anyone's tongue. At most, it could have ended up being a YouTube.com video, the responses to which would have been along the lines, "Yeah, so? It's the back of a car. One star" (a helmet-cam would've captured the vehicle only as it had passed me — recorded, the whole matter would surely have appeared nothing but mundane).

I talked of my trying to catch the car, and failing. Hell, even if I'd succeeded, I don't know what I would've done. Picked up my u-lock and killed the driver and his/her passenger with it? It's easy to be a glorious vigilante in fantasies, but, come reality, I'm afraid I might fall into the category of the majority: easily intimidated by a new and confusing situation. If they'd stopped, seeing me pedaling like mad, gotten out, and kicked me into dust, what would that have accomplished. I wonder if law enforcement would've cared, at that point...

I appreciate your comment, but one thing with which I heartily disagree is the notion, "If no one was physically harmed, the situation isn't so dire." The consequence might have been worse if I'd fallen off the bike, been run over by a truck coming from behind. The driver's actions, though, would have been identical — dangerous, and, I'd hoped, unlawful. As I see it, part of the problem in handling this sort of situation — a problem that allows like incidents to occur as rampantly as they do (judging by every other thread in this forum, it's pretty god-damned rampantly) — is the general feeling, "No harm, forgivable foul." Police see it as a non-issue if no one's dead. Lawyers view it as a non-case if no one's bleeding or in need of long-term physical therapy. Even well-wishing acquaintances, from my experience, pat you on the shoulder in an "I'm-glad-you're-OK-but-you-have-to-just-move-on" manner.

I guess I only wish we were more concerned with behavior than with outcome. It might end up better or worse — hell, someone might fall off a bike, lightly scrape a knee, and find himself on a wad of c-notes — but the serendipitous result oughn't to excuse the criminal action.

Actually, I do like your advice, and it's something I hadn't fully considered. This is still reasonably fresh — maybe I don't have any standing in the eyes of the system, but, non-celebrity as it may be, I have a voice. Maybe I could make greater effort to use it... Thank you.

I'm sorry: I can't tell whether you're being facetious. For the sake of conversation, I'll assume not. I didn't think to lie to the police, probably partly because I felt what I'd been through was traumatic and wrong, and embellishment was unnecessary. Call me pampered by after-school specials, in this regard, but it just didn't enter my mind a station full of cops would consider my telling them someone intentionally almost killed me (even if it's hard to claim the act was "attempted homicide," which I didn't, it damn well clearly was reckless endangerment — or whatever Boston Legal term is pertinent) akin to my walking in and asking if it would rain later during the day. Taking your suggestion in retrospect, I still think it's poor: Exaggerating/fabricating the tale to the extent it would warrant an investigation from people who otherwise deemed it "nothing," would likely have finally proved me a liar, if it would have had any ill effect whatever on the driver of the car, and I'd have wound up in trouble. The fact is, I maintain, what the motorist did was wrong enough in itself without turning the story into an unbelievable Hollywood screenplay.

You sound much more cavalier in your handling your unfortunate situation than I think I do in my handling mine. Perhaps it's because you're instinctively more audacious than I, or because enough time has passed for you to recall it without too much emotion. Either way, it's despicable what you describe, and it's good you wound up all right (rolling down the street at >40mph, on a bike, with no control, could easily kill anyone). What's particularly alarming, though maybe not so uncommon, is, again, the utter uninterest the authorities seem to have taken in your case. People in this forum (including I, I suppose) often advise bicyclists who've had bad experiences to "at least file a complaint with the cops"; seemingly, this isn't even an option. So, to the title of my thread, what is a bicyclist to do?

I felt the car at a point swipe the side of my pedal. I struggled to maintain control of the bike, and was fortunate to have been able to do so. "How" did I not end up knocked down? I can't detail the physics of it.

I thought about that point, briefly, that night — about the motorist's possibly not even knowing why his/her car was attacked. It didn't much influence whatever satisfaction I felt, and I wondered if I'd have left a note with a phone number, as someone else recalls he did in his situation, but nothing of the sort occurred to me as I did what I did.

I absolutely support your pissing on the woman's car — lol.

You wouldn't happen to drive a red car without a window?