Hitting cars...
 

Have you ever got up to a moving car that has cut you off ??? I have tapped cars but next time they are gonna get Ulocked or hit with my 15mm. Had any close calls yourself ?

lol, famous last words

That's how you get hit with a 9mm.

LOL... yeha for real, the thing is that when I hit the car with my hand the lady did not even notice. So I doubt they would notice.... Guns are ubiquitous in Miami.

But for real I have gotten really aggravated from time to time.... It seems as if it is OK for them to hit you but their cars are sacred.

I do the open palm smack on the body or window sometimes -- They hear it. This is usually when they right hook me or pull out and cut me off when I have absolutely clear right of way. Of course, it is hard for them to argue with their having violated my ROW if I am close enough to smack, too.

I only do it when there are lots of people around. I don't worry too much about guns that way, though I know it is a risk.

Eventually I'll invest in an Airzound...

I've been known to swing around the wrong side of a vehicle and leave a sweaty handprint on the driver's window of vehicles that block the bike lane in a stuck line of traffic.

I've hit a car in anger before, a month later a messenger spit on mine when I cut him off.

Accident on the cut-off, karma on the spit.

I did feel bad when I hit that persons car though. I can usually let it slide.

I've never hit a car after a close call. If I hit one every time I played dodge-car my lock would be all bent up and useless by now. I did once take off a pick-up truck's passenger-side mirror when I was walking. He ran a stop sign while making a right turn; the road had no sidewalk and the mirror was going to hit me in the face if I didn't either hit the ditch, duck or remove it. The driver was a bit pissed, but after he delivered a few choice words he decided that it was a bad idea to get physical with the person who had just punched his mirror and caused it to blow all four rivets.

Ive done it. Works really well when the car is stuck in traffic.

I don't think it's a good idea to tap cars. Even if you're in the right, it makes you look like a fanatic, and won't help the cyclists that the driver will encounter in the future. Unless I actually have a collision, I just let things go now. Last week, I got right hooked, and I just got up, went to the driver's window, and, even though I was angry, just politely asked the driver to be more careful next time.

+1
I suggest the op just let it go

I think you will do better to let it go and it will be forgotten in a short time. But, if you escalate the incident it will most likely leave you seething with aggression for days, even weeks. Very stressful. Certainly if you must retaliate, it must be covertly done, otherwise you will find yourself with a claim from an insurance company.

you have to separate the car from the person. People make mistakes, I don't really think anyone is out to get you on purpose things just happen. It can be you wife, daughter, girlfriend or other behind the wheel.

can someone explain to me the term "right hooked" ?

Right-hooked=Car making a right turn across your line of travel without warning. Very dangerous. Best way to avoid disaster is to shadow the car around the turn if you can. If you are too far forward along side the car you get dumped/runover. Or maybe if you are lucky you end up on the hood. Nasty.

Thanks... You guys should come to Greece.
We cyclists are like jugglers here, trying to avoid cars all the time.
Only half of us return home after every CMR, LOL.

Corollary: Don't ride to the right of cars that may turn right (or that may pull into a parking space, or that may weave around a stopped car ahead, etc.).

Never done it, never will. Mistakes happen. Most people aren't intentionally out to be jerks. If someone decided to hit my wife's car with a U-Lock or other device, I'd probably call the police and file charges.

Yea, I get close calls quite often. Sometimes I yell or hit my AirZound.. most times I keep riding. It's not worth the stress. I ride my bike to relieve stress, not cause it.

oh good luck dude!

I had the urge once or twice...no wait, make it countless times, but I figure if I keep hitting cars, then they will keep hitting me :(

I've only done it once, and it was for self-preservation, not anger.

I was a pedestrian, and a woman was turning right on red without looking forward first. She was beginning to drive right at me, I was in the crosswalk. I slapped the hood, and she stopped, looking frightened.

If someone makes you angry, just let it go. You'll feel better later, and possibly avoid getting seriously hurt.

sure but very rarely I"ve tapped or smacked a car that was obviously cutting me off. Maybe one smack in 5yrs and a tap a few times a year. Using a wrench or lock is stupid.

The ones that get me is the person doing a left hand turn from the left lane in the other side of a fourlane two way road right in front of me as though I don't exist. That's when I started riding with a BRIGHT white strobe during the day in busy streets. The other one is going down a slight hill where the intersecting street at the light gets backed up bumper to bumper and i"m going straight. The guy in the opposite lane decides he has to turn when there isn't any room to go into the lane and he simply blocks the intersection. I'll give them a gentle pat so that the driver and others notice how close too close is.

The only time I did a hard smack was when an elderly person was shy about passing me even though I waved them through and I was riding a very straight line near the gutter. Behind them was an impatient person honking at them (I head the honking long before the elderly driver got near me). As the elderly driver SLOWLY passes me riding over the yellow line giving me way too much room(4'-5') the car behind was tailgating them and not giving me any room, or about 12". I'm riding about 17mph in a 25mph zone and the elderly couple car was passing me about 20mph and continued at that speed. It was obvious this ******* had been riding the old folks for blocks and as he passed me I hit his car nice and hard.

Bragi suggestion is a lot more mature and effective.

I don't hit cars in retribution, but if they are passing me close enough to hit, it usually happens. Just be careful when you smack a VW beetle, it hurts when the fenders hit your hand

I got right hooked, cars are soft, but the woman driving had no idea I was holding onto the roof rack as she rounded out the turn, it wasnt until her 16 year old son in the passenger seat freaked out that she stopped.

Airzound. They'll hear that.

Ill bump them with my wheel, since i can pretend hey they cut me off and i couldn't stop in time. But hitting them with my hand or lock? no

I've had pedestrians hit my car as they walk by, because im too close to the crosswalk or the guy in front of me slammed on the brakes and so I had to. Often the other person gets mad but has no idea what happened to cause me to brake. Some pedestrians are nuts, hitting cars as they walk by, because they have to go now! They are as bad as cagers.

Just last week while i was biking to work a woman crossed left over the double yellow then swerved back and slammed on the brakes right in front of me (there was a red light she had nowhere to go) then screamed "I have the car!" What am I gonna do? What happens if I escalate it? Pull her out of her car and get in a fistfight? Or worse have her back up over me or try to hit me with her car?

After watching the videos of drivers deliberately hitting bikers (and the Pritzker kid who got away with it here in Chicago a few months ago, though the guy wasn't killed) no thanks. If someone is crazy and/or not paying attention, chances are human life is very cheap to them, and my life is quite dear to me.

I've done it in the past and even survived the redneck car chase that followed. I try not to do it now. The most effective way to get their attention is an open handed grab of the passenger side mirror as you pass the stopped car. They're forced to live with the mirror pointing the wrong way or stop and correct it.

As a pedestrian, I've also kicked in a turn signal when someone started to drive through a crosswalk while I was pushing a stroller with my 2 year old through the crosswalk.

Learn from the stoics:
Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts; but the view we take of these things as insulting. When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you. Try, therefore, in the first place, not to be bewildered by appearances. For if you once gain time and respite, you will more easily command yourself.-Epictetus

But I usually just flip 'em the bird.

There's no sense in getting mad. It just causes additional stress over and above what the near-hit did.

But I like the idea of 'bumping' their passenger side mirror to let them know they got too close.



"I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." -- Booker T. Washington