Originally Posted by
TimothyH
I hope you don't take offense to this. It is not my intent to offend or to lecture but you didn't call the police on the bus driver who almost killed you.
The car that pulled in front of you caused you to have to crash into the curb. The fact that you hopped the curb is incidental. It was essentially crashing into the curb. Did you call the police this time?
I really hope you reported the tacks to the police. Somebody was doing it for years here in suburban Atlanta, putting tacks out on all the major charity rides. We reported it every time. Seems to have calmed down.
I didn't report anything -- all I did was clear the tacks to the best of my ability. I have been seriously thinking of reporting the tacks since that was an act of malice in a lane that sees a lot of bike traffic (Terwilliger for those of you who know PDX). Seems like they should have tacked a MUP instead, but I digress. But rather than take pictures, I simply cleared all I could find and threw them away so the cops wouldn't have anything to go on.
I also believe the car that blocked the bike lane did so on purpose partly out of frustration from being stuck in traffic -- a small percentage drivers have a punitive attitude towards cyclists. Not that that justifies their behavior, but if you presume you'll encounter idiots from time to time, it's neither surprising nor disappointing when it happens. But if they wanted to go faster, they could always bike themselves
If you're wondering why I'm resistant to report things, it's because I believe people do these things to intimidate or piss us off and I like to avoid giving them what they want.