Sheesh, of course not. We also drink beer and yell at each other a whole lot, too... :D

As for the spitting, I'm sure you didn't mean it. And unless she saved it (ewww) or has witnesses, she can't prove anything. Just keep telling yourself that and you'll be safe...

+1 Really.

She was in the wrong and behaved badly. You called her on it and I suspect she might be nicer next time. Sure, you crossed the line but she's ok. Keep riding and enjoy!

I yelled at a driver yesterday, who kept creeping up toward the road (she was leaving a parking lot) to crane her neck and would have drove over me if I hadn't yelled. Yeah, I was on the sidewalk (I was going to the market and didn't want to cross the street) and would have been better off in the road. Anyhow, I yelled, "Do you want to kill me?" I find myself saying (yelling) this at these situations. I'm not proud of it (it's a tad dramatic, don't you think?), but that's what comes out the mouth. She just looked at me dully while puffing on her cigarette. She was unimpressed and looked again at possible holes in the long stream of traffic blocking her. Whatcha going to do? LIfe goes on.

Hm, sounds to me like she was in the wrong in several areas, first, i would say she was driving recklessly, failing to signal lane changes, and changing more than one lane at a time, which is a ticketable offense in most places, and she used fighting words (the finger) which is a form of speech not protected under the constitution and depending on where she is she could be arrested for that. But of course assault and battery really isn't the best counter to that (legally), she deserved worse though. Prolly one of those kids who was never told no when she was little.

I don't know if the OP was a man or woman, but if her husband was in the car it would have been his duty to kick your ass(if you were a man). This is a man law.

I can't imagine being spat on and NOT kicking the spitter's ass. You just DON'T spit on people.

It is inexcusable and if I were you I would try to apologise to that woman if I ever saw her again.

Personally I think its sad that spit is considered assult, but then again, I think that this litigation-happy country needs to take a step back about 60 years and look at how it was when a simple argument could be ended with some gentile fisticuffs and that was it. now all the wimps are too affraid to fight it out and hire atack dogs to take your house.

Huh? You just don't flip people off and yell at them for no reason, either. Why pile on the OP, when he admitted he did wrong?

When you have folks that are oblivious to cyclists safety they can kill you with their SUVs. Can anyone blame the OP for merely spitting on the obliviot motorist? She can wipe the spit off and be on her way...no harm done. She hits the cyclist and he would much rather trade his injuries for a little spit. Quit being a bunch of pansies. And for the dude who would reach for his gun...what a cowardly thing to do. You have to resort to a deadly weapon because you can't handle the confrontation without your seciurty blanket. You wouldn't shoot so why pull it out?

It just irritates me when I read other posts trying to justify what he did. There is no justification for allowing your anger to cause you to escalate a verbal confrontation into a physical one.

Driver = wrong for making a no-look 3 lane change and giving the finger to anyone in her way
OP = wrong for spitting on someone

Not that I don't have a temper when it comes to drivers doing stupid things, but I don't spit on people (any more... way back when, though.) I'll yell, I'll smack their hood/roof/trunk, but if the window's open my personal fave is a quick spritz from the water bottle.
Spitting at them may have the "Ewwww" factor, but nothing wakes a driver up quicker than a blast of ice water to the side of their head. :)

As for the internet tough guy who would hold someone at gunpoint until the police arrive... I don't think you've thought your cunning plan all the way through.
- Are you prepared to deal with the consequences of holding an unarmed person at gunpoint? The police don't typically go after the guy on the "wrong end" of the gun when they arrive on the scene.
- Are you seriously suggesting that you would shoot the offending individual if they attempted to leave the scene? If so, seek out some anger management sessions and please, get rid of all your firearms.

Dispatch: 911. What's your emergency?
FlatFender: Someone spit on me.
D: Okaaaaaayyyy. What's your emergency?
FF: Someone spit on me. I'm now holding him at gunpoint.
D: Oh! In that case, the police will be right over.

yeah!

I find a blank stare allows people to project their own bottled up hate onto you and thus they get scared. I call it the russian customer service face.

On occasions like that, that's what I do.

Treespeed, don't let it trip you up bro. Just don't do it again. And if you see her again, really blow her mind and apologize. Haha imagine her face then!

These are always the most entertaining type of threads. Both parties were in the wrong. Morality play over. No one was hurt. In Philadelphia where I live/ride if you could get through to 911 a "some one spit on me" call would probably be laughed at.

To all of the folks who were not there and want to judge , I say be careful, you don't ever really know what your reaction to a situation will be until you are in it.

this story needs more caltrops

You see. This says something here. It says that being almost run over by an SUV from dangerous and neglegent driving is a "verbal confrontation" and is escalated by spitting. Since when does "casually almost killing you" (I love this phrase, I got it from some post here, and it says so well what happens between neglegent drivers and cyclists) translate into "verbal confrontation?" This is why cyclists and drivers don't communicate well.

Spitting was probably wrong, but not in the sense that it was wrong because it was wrong. It was wrong because it was a bad tactical move. Better to whip out the camara cell phone and take a picture of the person's face and their license plate. Even if you don't do anything with it, threaten to, and the person might think twice about their actions when they know there might be some consequences waiting over their heads. Drivers have to be taught that there are consequences to casually almost killing another human being. Being passivist about it will only result in that motorist not learning anything from the encounter. And why bike away? Why not set up on the sidewalk and wait for the motorist to move on? If they don't, call 911 because at this point, they are threatening to your personal safety.

nah, we don't have jobs. We just rely on suing other people for income.

If I were the cop responding to the scene, I'd arrest you for public stupidity - pulling a firearm for such a stupid reason. Since I ain't a cop, I'd just stick that gun someplace you'd not appreciate, because your stupidity threatens MY right to own firearms. I've used the word stupid three times (now 4) in this post...do you see a theme here?

I guess sometimes that spitting is what you want do, but in this case I would have thought about horking up a big, green, sticky, gooey, loogie--but since I am a coward, I would never let it fly. . .


It's not the gun thing, I think, in this string, but the fact that the OP was on a bike and she was in a large, heavy, vehicle that could easily be used as a deadly weapon. In any case, let the OP on a bike get in a bashing duel with an SUV, and guess who will probably win?

You were completely in the wrong. She made a mistake in almost hitting you and she was wrong to give you the finger, but so what? You unecessarily escalated it and you deliberately assaulted her. Spit is a pretty minor assault, but it is still an assault.

Ha camera phones are the bomb! My wife and I were in the HOV lane last week and there was this fart driving alone in front of us slowly, for a long way. I got tired of it and asked C to start taking pics of the car with plates visable and the dash clock in the frame. So she is all crouched forward in the seat and I’m real close (not unsafely) and he looks in the mirror sees her snapping away (2 MP camera…)…he speeds up and totally bails the first chance he gets. As we pass C looks over and he just stares straight forward like we aren’t there…both hands firmly on the wheel :) probably could have gotten the same effect with a candy bar…we just deleted the pics, job done!:)



I cary the camera with me whenever I ride.

For those without sin, cast the first loogie.

Sounds like something I would've done to a careless, mindlessly antagonistic motorist after I lost my temper. I guess I'd also be willing to kick the ass of any boyfriends who found it was their manly duty to bow up on me, but not to tell their dipstick girlfriends not to drive like idiots. Also, I guess I'd be wormfood if any of you vaginized Dirty Harry wannabes where out there driving badly, as well.

That's considered assault you know. Yes, you definitely behaved badly.

Still, I bet she thinks twice about flipping off a cyclist next time.

Treespeed, you hocked for our sins. Yes, you transgressed. Spitting on a person (whom you know you can quickly run away from, which I'm sure you did), in addition to being gross, is sort of, well, weak. (I'd use another word if we were in 7th grade — and I knew I could outrun you.) BUT... I've spit on many many cars.* And that's not much better, and it doesn't do much good. So thanks for posting this. You did a dumb thing, you know it, but now you've made us all think about it, and I bet no one else will actually go that far. (I know I won't.)


*Last night, for instance. I was riding parallel with an unknown cyclist, both of us trying to beat a light. We had the lane; we had the right of way. A car in the opposite direction decides to cut us both off, making a sudden left right in our path. And he does so clumsily, too. I let one fly, and it must have traveled 20 feet and landed dead-center on the passenger window. The other cyclist cheered as if he was watching the last reel of "Snakes on a Plane." Did it do any good? Probably not.

I've been spit on through a car window before; it's humiliating no matter who's in the wrong.

Interesting…
I knew this post would set off a storm, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.
First off, I shouldn’t have spit, but I did and there it is. If her husband was in the car I probably would have had it out with him. Did I deserve a fight, maybe, but if it had been a guy almost running down my wife then he would have deserved a sock in the mouth too.

To the guy who said he would pull out a gun in the middle of Los Angeles and hold me at gunpoint. That is rich. I would love that to happen. It is illegal to carry a loaded handgun in a car in the state of California. The person who detailed the 911 call got it dead on.

I don’t want to go down that path, but it’s people like the “internet tough guy” who make their own arguments for gun control.

Judge: What’s your defense for shooting him?
ITG: He spit on me.

Judge: Why did you run down the cyclist?
SUV Lady: He was holding me up.

The thing is, after a couple of years of cycling in Los Angeles, and years of messengering in Seattle I’ve mellowed quite a bit. I take the lane most of the time and rarely have run-ins with drivers anymore. Most of these I ignore or just smile and wave. I’m putting it down to a bad day with too much coffee. My biggest fear is that this woman will now have it out for cyclists, I can only hope that she has enough of a brain to consider her part in what led to this unfortunate incident.