Cagers full of hatred
 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theres...t/190080667052

I'm a cager for 30 years, and a cyclist for only 3 months.
But I really do not understand these hatred of other cagers.
Sigh..

Best reply I found.
"Tiffany Brickhouse
I have a concealed weapons permit and have had one of my guns concealed on my person during EVERY ride for over 10 years. If you do this to me I will do my best to kill you. If I stop your vehicle with my gunfire after your assault you will not survive when I catch up with you. This is a promise."

There's been a slew of groups started and subsequently removed from FB in the past week after someone on A&S pointed out this one.
The "There's a perfectly good path..." group isn't going to get removed, because the group itself isn't dedicated toward violence; just a misguided opinion that cyclists don't belong on the roadway.

Search on FB and report all the other groups like "I want to run over cyclists with my car" (recently removed), "Run the cyclists off the road" (recently removed), "I'm gonna run a cyclist over one of these mornings" (still there; report it), "I will go slightly out of my way to run over that crunchy-looking cyclist" (still there; report it), and there are more.

If you'd like to cut and paste a response for the FB admins, I use the following:

"Advocating violence towards cyclists is not the position Facebook should be promoting. By allowing this group to remain active and make a direct call for violence toward cyclists, it is admitting that Facebook, its staff and its affiliates believe this is acceptable behaviour. It is no different than a cyclist creating a group titled 'I throw bricks off freeway overpasses', and advocating assault against motorists."

I don't have a whole lot of time to read the dumb responses that most of those posts have, but this is a gem

spray cyclists with water, honk your horns at them, and then say it's dangerous for cyclists on the road. /headslap

It is simple. Remember the plate number, call the police. I am guessing most states have laws against things like that. Where i live it is a min of a 500 dollar fine. That will teach them.

What we need to do is create a database of all the license plates that harass cyclists and the address of the registered owner. Then, local riders can go by and "handle" the problem:troll:

Then we can all accuse them of being communists!

Good luck with that. I've been told by an operator on our local Aggressive Driving Hotline that unless an officer witnesses the activity, the most I can do is come to the station and file a complaint. It's not like the police go handing out $500 fines just because someone called up and rattled off a license plate number.

I think reporting is valuable. I doubt anyone who harrasses cyclists only does it once. Eventually, he might get spotted in the act by a cop, who will look up the license, and see prior complaints. The guy will then hopefully get a ticket rather than a warning.

Potentially, you could follow them to their destination if dealing with heavy traffic in a downtown location. Then when they park and start strutting to their destination, high speed 'clip' them on 'accident.'

Or just outright land in them. Explain to them that the perfectly good sidewalk didn't work out like you thought.

(I'm not suggesting anybody do this, I'm playing along in the anonymous 'internet hatred' game that has helped to probably validate some of these people's opinions.)


Bottom line: Fan groups like this show that there is some group of people that think its a valid theory.

If someone physically harasses you, or does something illegal with their driving, if you can identify them, then you can make a citizens arrest. So if you have a plate, the description of the car, and saw the driver, you can have them prosecuted. Of course this also means you will probably have to take time to go to court and testify, but it can be done.

"Citizens arrests" are heavily jurisdiction dependent. Make sure you know the law before attempting such a thing. To the best of my knowledge, here you are allowed to detain someone only for criminal code violations, not civil violations, and only while they are committing it. If you see the same person at a later time, or try to "arrest" somebody for a traffic violation, detaining them can earn you a criminal charge (kidnapping), and a civil suit (false imprisonment and, since you probably had to use some physical force to detain them, assault).

It's only fun until someone has to act on their empty threats, then everybody just has hot ears, a high heart rate and is looking for a way out of the problem. Why the hell do people even bother?

I don't have time to read any of it -- most likely, it's just adolescent morons trying to stir things up.

This was an update... and I loled so hard. Cagers need to do some reading.

I'll make the unpopular statement here that "we" can be as bad as "them."

There's an awful lot of cager bashing that goes on here. And an awful lot of idiots on bikes that, frankly, I'm more frequently tempted to beat the snot out of (on a per capita basis) than idiots in cars.

I don't condone the crap that's being cited and do appreciate the many sane posts here that add some perspective. But I do feel that the holier-than-thou self-righteousness here for bikers as a class is in frequent need of a dope slap.

All us worthy, sane, and balanced commuters excepted, of course.

You'll find that on a bicycle specific forum about commuters there aren't going to be many fans of cars. Perhaps if you looked at a car-specific commuting forum you'd find a consortium of like-minded individuals that you could agree with about beating the snot out of idiot cyclists. Just my random thought though.

Ya think?

Let's just not drink our own bath water. But the whole hate program makes me wanna shower up.

You make it sound as though anti-bicycle motorists and anti-car cyclists possess equally (il)legitimate world-views. No doubt, this is a very magnanimous gesture on your part. However, let's not forget that cycling is provably a superior method of transportation- particularly for a single individual on his/her way to work and back. This is not a matter of opinion, but is a verifiable fact under the laws of thermodynamics and mechanics. Bicycles are more efficient and less harmful to infrastructure. If more people rode bicycles to work rather than driving, the resource and deficit problems of this country and the world would be reduced. Again, that is a fact.

I'm not trying to be a smartass, and I know that you realize this, or you wouldn't be participating in this forum- and again, I find it very generous of you to ascribe any sort of legitimacy to the notion that vocal disdain for either form of transportation is equally unjustified. But the truth is, people who ride bikes to/from work have an undeniable point when they bemoan the number of cars on the road, and the carelessness with which people drive them.

Well I guess that just validates that to some there are only zealots and heretics. I detect traces of zealotry in your "argument" which, of course, labels my lack of blind faith and total acceptance as a heresy. So be it.

I prefer to think I am a believer but an informed believer and critical thinker not yet blinded by the inherent superiority of my favorite mode of transportation. Who was making no attempt to be magnanimous or to pass blanket illegitimacy evaluations. Only to remind all that, given the behavior of many irresponsible bikers, we are living in a glass house in many respects, none of which condones the vile sites and enmity that are the point of this thread and the OP's remarks.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Though with some humility and perspective, I hope. (and again thanks to the many posters who routinely infuse that to both camps)

The real reason automobile drivers are mad and mad at bicyclists is they are driving a car and we are riding bicycles.

I don't like it when over weight people walk slow on the sidewalk while I walk my dog, does this mean I have the right to punch them and shove them off the side while screaming insults at them? Or better yet, does this mean that I have to label every single over weight person I see as an obstacle that must be harassed? Absolutely not to both of those questions.

I think most of the haters have encountered 1 or more cyclists that were doing something that they found annoying, so they labeled all cyclists as obstacles that need to be shown their place. I honestly think that some of them believe in their minds that ALL cyclists are wastes of oxygen and should be harassed at every possible moment.

Another assumption that many drivers make is "That's just a cyclist, they can't be doing more than 5 mph." 2 seconds later I'm hitting my breaks at 25 mph and swerving as they turn in front of me. They then feel embarrassed by their stupidity and reckless driving, but instead of admitting their fault, they choose to blame the cyclist and proceed to yell spineless insults.

Some people are just naturally intolerant, and there's not much you can do short of beating them with a bicycle pump. *Sarcasm* In seriousness, I try to ignore the guys that pass within a few inches or yell insults, but if they say something like "I'll kill you" or throw something, I record their tag number and call 911. Even if they're just having fun, they're not going to have it at my expense. Both of those things can be seen as assault or intent to kill, both of which will net them some jail time if they are caught.

But for the average a-hole, a simple smile + wave usually calms them down. They thought they were inconveniencing you, which they are, but if you act like they aren't they'll be less inclined to repeat the offense.

Just my 2 cents, time to leave for work.

Can we just have one big fat "We are so superior to those insane road-raging cagers" sticky and get it over with? There just isn't anything constructive in these threads at all. Along with that, it might make sense to create a "Handling cyclist/motorist conflict" sticky as well, where constructive suggestions could be posted.