Originally Posted by noisebeam
I was clipped this morning. Sometimes I think close passes are carelessness, but I verified that the driver did it intentionally. It happened in the least of expected places. Heres this story...
95% of my commute is on 45mph multilane arterials. The other 5% is on a very wide 25mph residential street. It is the width of 4 lanes and has zero striping, not even a center divide line. On street parking is permitted (hence the width) and occurs occasionally, but no cars were parked this AM for the full 1/2mi stretch. I was riding about 10ft from the curb (about where a door zone would be if cars were parked), leaving a full same direction lane width to pass. There are rarely any cars on this stretch. I was traveling 18mph, a car was gradually approaching from the rear as I saw in mirror. Didn't think much about it, they were nearly in center of road, I was going to merge left, but thought it better to wait until car passed. Just as car was passing the driver swerved right toward me and very lightly clipped me, I kept a steady track. I merged left and ended up to the left of driver (she was turning right, I left) and the shouting started. I didn't start diplomatically and said "What is wrong with you? Did you know you hit me? The law is 3ft." She went on about "I don't care what the law is you were in my way" I went on about the law and about how she had plenty of space to pass. She went on about trying to get me off the road and how I don't belong there. "If you don't get out of the way, I'm making you get out of the way" I told her I was going to call the police and went behind her jeep and got the plates. During this whole encounter, from when I saw her way back to when we got a green light no a single other car came from any direction.
What I found so disturbing is that this lady went out of her way to bump me and when confronted basically admitted it. Even more freaky is this happened on a very wide 25mph road (!) with no stress factors that could cause such absurd road rage.
Anyway, I have the interaction on video, but I haven't seen it yet. I imagine it wont show much as it was dawn (darkish) Maybe it will pick up her voice. I don't have my USB cable with me, so it needs to wait.
Al
Oh man, I hope you got something on tape. This was not on her property, or during a phone call. It was out on a public street. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in this situation, and you have no obligation to inform her she is being taped for it to be admissable evidence.
Can't wait to hear if you nailed her.
Still, can you blame her for not understanding that cyclists are supposed to ride where you were riding, regardless of what the law says, given that she probably never sees anyone else do it?
There is something to be said for the "when in Rome" defense (not that it justifies clipping a cyclist!). It goes something like this: "You're in Rome, I mean Phoenix. In Rome, I mean Phoenix, cyclists hug the curb. You weren't hugging the curb. You were wrong."
The law is on your side. Informing her of the law is of no help. She doesn't care what the law is, she's in Rome, I mean Phoenix, and in Phoenix, cyclists hug the curb.
I'm convinced that the only way to effectively address this issue is to educate cyclists about their rights and safety, and get more cyclists riding like you were this morning. Sure, you could get this one woman reported, and maybe she'll get a ticket. Maybe. If she does, it's only because you got it on tape. But doing so is going after the symptom. For every driver who actually acts on this notion, and gets busted for it, there are probably tens if not hundreds of thousands that will never have a reason to change. No, we have to identify and address the root problem. The root problem is the cultural expectations created by cyclist behavior: curb huggers create the expectation that cyclists are
supposed to be hugging the curb, regardless of what the law says.
The only way to solve that is to change cyclist behavior. Your riding assertively like you have been is probably accomplishing much more in that respect than busting even 100 drivers for doing what this woman did this morning.
It's easy to focus on this one woman, and ignore the thousands who have seen you doing what you do, and did not clip you. But you have made an impression. Maybe they're wondering what you're doing "out there", but at least the question has popped into their heads. Maybe some of them are cyclists who normally hug curbs, and seeing you will cause them to consider moving out a little further themselves. The ones who see you every day, and see how predictable and safe you are, are particularly getting an important lesson. Now if only they would see a couple more cyclists regularly doing the same thing...
Stay the course.