Shimagnolo

Omigosh!
I really need to put a rear camera on the bike helmet.
Else I wouldn't catch what this guy caught.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PFRdEUN240

CrankyOne

The guy who posted it is a bit of an a***. In some of his other videos he's clearly looking to intentionally irritate drivers. That said, the tumble was hilarious.

Shimagnolo

And the tumble makes me wonder if the driver might not have been sober.

kickstart

It's kinda ironic that he cuts it just as close to a couple of pedestrians while chasing the car. Kettle meets pot on u tube.

Chris516

To me, none of it was funny. I wouldn't wish a potential head-injury on my worst enemy. I have had to live with the affects of an ABI(Acquired Brain Injury) all my life. Due to congenital health issues

While the YouTube may have a habit of testing people. Their only mistake is mix that in with bicycle advocacy. The people still have choice to ignore him, or respond.

bikemig 

It's even better in slow motion; agree that the guy with a camera is a provocateur who is not doing his fellow cyclists any favors.

Chris516

I disagree that the camera was the 'provocation'. But he did verbally keep pressing the motorist, until the motorist came after him.

AlmostTrick

Not good, and not funny. A reminder that it is seldom wise to escalate things in a confrontation. The cyclist just as easily could have been injured in some manner.

bikemig 

I said that the guy with the camera was a provocateur. He repeatedly baited the driver who was a fool.

Shimagnolo

Clearly the driver was at fault for buzzing the cyclist.
But the cyclist did bait the driver.
However, from my 2 recent experiences with turning video over to police, I can say the cyclist did do something important to bringing a case against the driver: He got the drivers face on video. There was no need to go further once he had that.

In one of my cases, I got the drivers face on video, and he is facing arraignment in court on Sep 1 for reckless driving and illegal passing.

In the other case I did not get a face on video. When the cop pulled up the registration, there were two names on it: a married couple. They got a personal visit from an officer and a verbal warning. The officer told me if there had been just one name on the registration, there would have been a ticket, but with two they did not know who was driving, and did not expect an honest answer.

B. Carfree

I don't think the cyclist's words were provocative. He stated the facts (too close a pass) and disputed the moronic motorist's assertion that motorists can simply run cyclists over and cyclists should thus stay out of the way. The motorist consistently escalated the situation, including making threats and getting physical (good restraint by the cyclist; I dare say I might have behaved differently if that bloke had put a hand on me). The cyclist even stated that he was going to hand the evidence over to the police, which should have ended things but the motorist persisted.

As you all blame the victim, consider how you would feel as you drive along if those of us who drive 80,000 pounds along the road behaved towards cars the way motorists behave towards cyclists and justified such assaults the same way this motorist did. Might (and mass) does not make right.

kickstart

On a commuting forum where the majority of parties present have almost certainly had such an encounter with a motorist, its nothing more than willful ignorance to accuse them of placing blame on the "victim" who was armed with two cameras, and so blatantly seeking a conflict.

Just a couple of days ago I had words with someone at a stoplight, and invited them to discuss it further...In other words I lost my temper....out of proportion to what was basically a non event..
But what I didn't do was act like a punk by waving a video camera in their face, and threaten them cops.......after goading them into a conflict.

vatdim

The cyclist did the right thing. What Shimagnolo mentioned is true. If you just hand the police a recording showing a license plate, the police may not follow. To guarantee repercussions, you need to make sure that the driver at that particular moment can be identified. The cyclist did that.

You may not agree with his overall attitude and, for all we know he could be a real jerk, but in this case, he was right in both having the cameras to document the traffic violation, and in warning the driver that the police would be notified. It's not a "threat", as kickstart called it, it's informing the person of what is to follow under the rules of law in a civilized country.

Jarrett2

I'd like to hear what the outcome was for that. I had to admit I laughed when the dude face planted. He might want to consider a helmet as well

intransit1217

I saw nothing funny about this. Now, had the driver stuck his head out the window and took a pie to the face......

mconlonx

Car driver should obviously have been wearing a helmet...

kickstart

Its more like what plays out between two young siblings, the younger provokes the older then threatens to "tell mom" if or when they retaliate.

We've all had a negative encounter with another road user at one time or another, we've all lost our temper, many of us have reported someone to the authorities, and a few have cameras for various reasons, and that's all ok. But add it all up, with regard to the minor nature of the offence, and an established history of such encounters, it leaves no doubt the cyclist in question is going out of his way to facilitate such encounters.

Some people just suck, and that's never going to change. All "If-you-cant-beat-them, join-them" does is add another clown to the circus.

KD5NRH

You need better enemies.

FBinNY 

It's like watching a pair of drunk fighting outside a bar. Entertaining, but not much else.

10 Wheels

Dang Good One..

Cyclosaurus

Does it make a difference if one of the siblings is a 250 lb man armed with a lethal weapon and screaming violent threats? The driver's behavior has no place in a civilized society. A lot of people go around bullying, threatening, and intimidating people (I have an in-law like this) and get away with it precisely because society tolerates it, and everyone accommodates these people. The reason that people like this get hostile is because they are used to being completely unaccountable for their actions. That's why they the ones who escalate when told they are on camera and others are going to see how they behave. Telling someone they are going to be accountable isn't an escalation, and it isn't morally, ethically, or legally wrong. It's just not passively accepting aggressive behavior.

I-Like-To-Bike

Although flowery hyperbolic rhetoric sounds cute and stirs up the A&S choir, expect 99.99% of the public to tune out any message from a bicycling "advocate" who describes a motorist as a person "armed with a lethal weapon".

AlmostTrick

The cyclist had all the info he needed on video very early in this encounter. Instead of ending it there, he chose to continue to escalate the conflict. Better to just have ended it and visited the police as he informed the motorist he would do.

And really, "Are you wearing your seat belt" and such back and forth antagonism is really irrelevant here... and nonproductive.

Cyclosaurus

In the eyes of the law, a vehicle is a deadly weapon. If you try to run someone over you can be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. So this isn't as lunatic of an idea as you are trying to make it sound.

Nevertheless, I wasn't talking about cycling advocacy is messaged to the general public. No one was. You just brought it up out of nowhere. The discussion is about dealing with someone acting in a threatening manner. And considering the behavior that the video shows, it's appropriate to think of the driver as armed with a deadly weapon. Because it's true.

You unfailingly attempt to derail every A&S thread with distractions, tone trolling, and insults. Either contribute something worthwhile, or go away.

ItsJustMe

Wow, that's one uptight cyclist. The motorist cut it a bit close, but honestly, you gonna spend your whole life chasing down every person who does something wrong on the road? You're going to do nothing else.