WTF??!!!
Second rough ride through Brighton today. Ended up with me having such a serious confrontation with a driver that I ended up calling the Boston police on the guy.
Same stretch of road as yesterday and today this guy in a white van buzzes me and he's crowding me as he cuts back in front of me so I give a tap, literally a tap, to the side of the van with my mittened hand to let him know he's cutting waaaaayyy too close. He jams on the brakes and gets out of the van to tell me to get off the road because I have no right to be there. He then tells me don't ever "touch his van"- this was a pretty beat up white work van, by the way. I attempted to let him know that I had every right to be on the road and if his van was passing me close enough for me to touch it then it was too close and that 3' might be a safer distance to pass me.
He was having none of it and insisted I had no right to be on the road and he was going to get me next time he saw me on the road. I asked him if he was threatening me. He gets right in my face and it was getting very close to a physical thing between us. I said, "One more threat and I call the police and they will tell you I have every right to the road." He says, "Go ahead!" and so I do and this idiot actually waits for them to arrive. They arrived with a squad car and a paddy wagon and I told my side of the story, they said I did the right thing to call, ID'd him, gave him a brief lecture and let him go. As they walked back to their vehicles he signals me from his van and mouths, "Ill be watching for you. I'm going to get you."
What fun! I ride this road pretty much every day unless I take the bike path- so it's pretty likely we'll meet again. Rode it home tonight at 11 pm and watched for my new found friend. White van license plate 95R***. Guy was a real jerk but this was my week for running into a bunch of them- weird thing is I haven't done anything different this week just lucky, I guess.
