king88uy7

On my commute and I'm taking the narrow 35mph lane @ 20mph (two lanes each direction). The right lane widens for about 100 yards for a few driveways (it's odd) and then narrows again. I just stay in the right tire track for this widening/narrowing. Today, a motorist passes me on the right when the road widened; dangerous, too close, unexpected, you've probably all experienced something similar. I look up and am happy to see the LAPD waiting to turn onto the road we're on! Finally! A motorist threatens my life in front of the police, I've been waiting for this moment!!

But!!! the car passes the cop and the cop pulls out behind the car and pulls into the #1 lane ignoring the car and the light goes red. Offending car in #2 lane, cop in #1 lane. I pull up to the cop:

me: "Was it legal for that car to pass me on the right?"
cop: "No."
me: "Was it safe?"
cop: "No."
me: "Shouldn't you ticket that behaviour?"
cop: (begin ****ty attitude) "I could."
me: "Ok."

Of course, the motorist saw all this go down, and realizes there is no punishment for endangering cyclists.

The police do not care about your life, don't be fooled into thinking they're protecting you. Apparently I'm naive, but this was quite an eye opener for me.

maddyfish

You've learned a valuable lesson, the police are not there to protect you. They exist to continue their own existence. Whatever allows them to continue their existence in the easiest manner is what will occur. You should complain to a supervisor, or a chief. With the point being to make it easier for the police to enforce the law, then to continue to ignore it.

Bekologist

yeah, i've had drivers THREATEN me with their cars, repeatedly- i mean, pretending to run me over, then turning around and crossing the line, attempting to run me down again with their car, then again from the other direction again -3 times by one driver-

and when i called the police, the cops did little or nothing. maybe they went to talk to the guy, but never heard any more about it. I gather it's legal to threaten people with an automobile, and get away with it. much more eggregious than passing on the right...

sggoodri

Police see all kinds of weird stuff that they choose not to pursue. When I'm out driving with my wife in the car, she is constantly griping about seeing other drivers doing illegal things in front of cops without the cops doing anything about it. Sometimes they are more interested in bigger fish, or just getting to lunch.

Don't take it personally.

unkchunk

At the red light, did you pull up to the cop on his left or right side?

Commuter8

NWA said it best.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jsDtfmfsyi8

Just kidding... I like cops.

Monoborracho

You should have pulled to the wide area on your right and let the motorist pass you, and this whole story would be a non-event.

maddyfish

And if the wide area to the right wasn't there, he could just jump onto the sidewalk right? Or if there was no sidewalk he could just pull over and stop, to let the more important motorist be on his way, is that it? Or maybe he could have just left his bike at home, then it would truly have been a non-event, right?

flipped4bikes

I've actually been assaulted by a JAM. All because he didn't like how I rode across an intersection legally. Cops arrived, took statements from multiple witnesses, took photos of my injuries. NOTHING HAPPENED. The JAM got away with it. Cops never followed up. DA didn't care. Whatever.

Monoborracho

But it was there.

king88uy7

You are correct, I could have moved right. The reason I didn't is because of the driveways (I try not to be right of right turning traffic.) Sometimes it's hard to know what's best, and I don't always make the right decision. Same applies to the motorist and the cop, I suppose.

maddyfish

Or he could have moved over to the right, then when the wider area ended darted back out into traffic, where an unsuspecting motorist could have hit him. I can hear it now " I didn't see him, he justed jumped right out in traffic right in front of me" Use your lane, don't ride in driveways, or parking spaces. If people don't like it screw them.

Keith99

A good responce. I too would have asked why not move to the right and let the car pass. Perhaps if the conversation with the cop had gone differently and this question got asked and answered the cop might have thought differently about things.

BTW I have had a cop take action. Car turned right against a red forcing me over 2 lanes. I yelled at it (actually a bit profane) and a cop who was dealing with somehting on hte other side of the road took off after him. Never did get to find out what was going on on the other side of the road. I had a bad feeling from the start about the car in question and was watching it the whole time.

maddyfish

Maybe I'm jaded against cops, the only instance in my life of actual road rage WAS a cop in his unmarked cop car.

dobber

You ever notice

We ***** about law enforcement inaction on a perceived injustice but then wonder why they don't have better things to do when we're caught committing that injustice.

Not every cop is on traffic patrol.

SonataInFSharp

That is the thing, not every cop is on traffic patrol or even cares about traffic.

A long time ago, someone told me that if a cop is on some type of assignment or duty, they cannot enforce a traffic violation as they are not assigned to do traffic at the moment.

I would make a horrible cop--I would stop everyone (including bicycles and pedestrians) for every little thing and never get one block away from the station during an entire shift.

CB HI

I have had the same thing happen to me too, and when I called the dispatcher, she told me I should not be riding on the road and then tried to refuse my report.

CB HI

Yea, sort of like the click-it or ticket program. The cops will watch a driver fail to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk and almost hit them, but if the seatbelt is on, the driver is ignored. The polite yielding driver gets the ticket. All while the cops are blocking the bike path with their parked unmarked SUVs.

I have gotten the cops to talk to a driver a couple of times, but it was like pulling teeth.
One rookie did file a report on a professional truck driver that intentionally ran me off the road (without me pushing the issue), but that seemed like it was because the driver refused to talk to the cop - took the 5th.
The only easy one, was a hit and run; the driver repeatedly refused to return the cops phone calls and then lawyered up (yes - the follow up investigation was done by phone except for one interview - otherwise, no checking the car, no photos of the car, no visit to the driver the day of the hit and run). The cop got annoyed at me when I called him 5 weeks after the collision to check if he had the insurance information available on the driver.

Niles H.

Some police are not like that.

Some are.

Some are even worse.

Others go out of their way to help.

dobber

Kinda like cyclists.

-Some rigidly adhere to the rules of the road
-Some cut corners by running lights or filtering
-And some just give us a bad name

It's a regular rainbow stew out the folks. The sooner we realize it, the happier we'll be.