Your best commuting war story . . .
 

Let me hear it! What's the worst, funniest, most remarkable, and/or memorable incident you have experienced on the bike commute? I know some are reluctant to share such stories for fear of scaring off newbies. On the contrary, they deserve to know what the real world is like. Bring it on!!!

Just last week, I was riding home, and a car swerved towards me and honked his horn just to scare me. Little did he realize that the light just up ahead would turn red and I would catch up to him. Instead of getting mad, I rolled up beside him, turned and waved with a huge grin on my face, as if to say, "Well hello there, how nice of you to honk a hello at me first!" He turned away at first and then smiled back a little sheepishly. Definitely defused the situation, and made me feel a million times better than having gotten angry at him.

Riding in the bike lane and coming up on a recycling station. 200 yards away I saw the garbage truck sitting there in the drive way like he's ready to pull out on the road so I start to slow down. The whole time it doesn't move so when I get to the driveway where the truck is I decide to go for it because he has had plenty of oportunity to go by the time I got there. I start pedaling hard to get past and THAT is when he decides to make his move. Pulls right out when I'm in the driveway and I end up slaming my shoulder and face in his front drivers side fender and mirror. Bounce of the side and down on the road. Shoulder felt dislocated, face a bumpy bloody mess. My shoulder was sore for 6 months.

I made it home alive today. Lately I'm averaging 1 close call a day. So all I ask is that I make it home alive.

My worst commute story is being hit by a car this summer. I was riding along and a lady passed me on my left and turned right. I smacked into her passenger side rear fender. Got 30 stitches in my left knee and had to get a root canal because one of my molars died. Fortunately she was insured and the police report placed all fault on her. To give her credit, she was apologetic and busted out the most awesome first aid kit to give me on-the-spot treatment while we waited for the police to arrive.

One of the more memorable commutes I've had was an extremely hot summer day and there was a massive accident on one of the freeways, thus shutting it down completely. All traffic was diverted to the surface streets. I pedaled right past all the cars, some of them overheating due to idling in the heat. Made me very grateful I was on my bike. My commute time wasn't affected at all.

We have a stretch of parallel streets downtown. The middle street, the main drag, has two-way traffic. The two streets on either side are one-way streets. It was early morning and there was no traffic. The guy in the truck must have thought he was crossing one of the one-way streets because he only looked one way, the wrong way. So he pulled right out in front of me. I screamed but he didn't hear me. Fortunately I made it unscathed, but I was scared to death because I had my little parrot with me. I've had lots of other bad bike days, but just thinking of what if he squished my innocent little parrot, really upset me.

A happier memorable ride was recently, on my second commute with my recumbent, I crossed paths with another recumbent rider, who blew me a big kiss.

I pulled up for a red light next to one of our local garbage trucks. They have a rotating yellow strobe on the rear. Driver looked down at my rain bike with its homemade light setup (55watt halogen headlight plus yellow strobes front & rear) then gave me a thumbs up. Birds of a feather I guess.

I have a handful...Where to start.
OK -
1. I started on my bike, got 20 yards and a guy stumbles around a van right in front of me. We BoNk! heads. Stopped, I tell him "I'm on a bike, I belong in the road," and that "He belongs on the sidewalk." PoW!!! He punches me in the side of the face. I'm still clipped in. I grab for my U-lock. Someone tackles me (and my bike) from behind.
I fall to the ground 2, then 3 people start kicking and hitting me on the ground still clipped to my bike on 1 foot. I Roll up into the fetal position swinging my U lock blindly.
The start to clear off me when I relize that the only person I hit with my lock was the Woman Cop who was pulling them off me.
I go to the hospital with the cop who had no hard feelings....
-It gets worse-
When we get out of the hospital she takes me to the police station.
I assume we're going to get my bike.
I was put in a cell and told that the guys who hit me were counter filing charges against me.
We mutually drop criminal charges.
several weeks later, a Sherrif shows up at the door, issuing a civil law suit for 20 or 30 THOUSAND dollars!!!!
- It Gets Worse-
Turns out the guy is VERY well connected Chicago Lawyer .
- Chicago - A very nice ride with the flatlanders.
That's just a sampling...
Wanna hear more?
- It gets worse -

Riding home in August, 2001, a group of three pedestrians were walking against traffic on the edge of the roadway. I slowed down, they yielded to me and stepped onto the gravel shoulder. I began to speed up again. Just before I passed, one of them stuck his arm/fist into my path. In a split-second, I made a disasterous choice: I held up my right arm to block the "punch."

I stood up and saw four ladies staring at me. "I think his teeth went through his lip." I wanted to tell them, "You're crazy, I'm fine!" but I knew I wasn't. When I saw the ambulance arrive and open it's rear doors, I knew it had come for me. (My teeth did not go through my lip, but I did need stitches.)

Don't block a punch on the bike.

No, please stop STOP!!! :p

I took on a taxi and won!

>> bring it on
1. Like Seeker I was taken out from a sideroad by a hesitant driver. My mistake was to get his winscreen pillar in the line of sight, them ride so as to keep our angles the same. Beware fat windscreen pillars.
2. Returning from the University along main cycle route with 20+ other riders, we were all waiting at red stop sign. Observe a woman standing by the roadside ahead, chatting with friend, then get into her car. Our lights turn green and the herd starts to roll. The driver starts her engine, pulls out in front of us, then does a U-turn, scattering cyclists and causing cars to stop. She doesn't even notice what she has done.
3. The day that Irish freedom fighters bought the London transport system to a halt with bombs and bomb warnings. There was gridlock on the roads throughout central London and no trains were moving. I cycled home.

>>You can stop bringing it on now.

I have been commuting for over 20 years. This is my favorite. It happened to me about 8 years ago. I was heading home from work about 11;30 at night. A bunch of young punks pulled up to me in a car. They told me to get on the sidewalk. Then pulled away, I caught them at the next light. They started to yell and throw things at me. So I yelled back so they took off. At the next light the driver of the car jumps out of the car and starts coming after me. The guy that jumped out of the car forgot to put it into gear and the car took off without the driver. The guy tried to jump back into the car. Almost hit a bunch of motorcyclist. The motorcyclist guys almost pulled him out of the car and start to wail on the guy. I let them finish him and I got to fimish my ride.

I have a few. Commuting to my first job after college, if I didn't time my departure right (read: left a few minutes too late) I would end-up on the road after the leaking garbage truck. Stinky ride... very stinky.

Commuting to a summer job a couple of years after that (in grad school) a guy in our little warehouse-turned-office complex, driving his shiny Beemer (BMW) decided I didn't know WTF I was doing so decided to tell me so. This is the way it went down: I was riding on the right on / near what little shoulder was available, but had to make the left turn across the road to get to work. So I do exactly as a bicyclist should, making a left signal, crossing to the left part of the left lane. Well, this pissed-off Mr. Midlife Crisis (I was in my 20s, btw) because I crossed in front of his speeding phallus symbol so he almost kills me by speeding up some more and nearly cutting me off on the turn. I'm young and pissed so I follow him to his car in the lot. Mr. Know-it-all gives me some crap about "in any bicycle manual" (his very words, mind you) blahblahblah walk your bike blahblahblah. Rather than key his car at lunch, I looked-up the NJ state laws on what a cyclist should do when making a left turn and guess who was right? (not Mr. Needlewang) That, and some "don't be an idiot" from my boss calmed me down. :)

I've been pretty lucky to not get in any serious accidents or trouble, having commuted to three different jobs in my day (hopefully my next one when I actually finish grad school too). The worst thing ever was when on the one-km-long approach to the parking lot at my most recent summer job, on the way home, my chain slipped, jammed, and caused my RD and dropout to get massively hosed (there's a thread on this somewhere). Fortunately, a nice Englishman with an SUV leaving work drove me and my cripled bike to the train station (my usual destination for a bike-train-bike commute). A new RD (ripoff price :( ), years of experience from the repair guy and a lot of sweating it out on my part resulted in a saved bike.

Your bike is totally lit! What's that about?

...awesome stories....can't top it but here's one of my adventures.

Coming around the corner on a seldom used trail in Redmond -way-too-fast... I encountered a 30' sheet of ice + knew I was go'n down. After unclipping, I slid on my back probably 15' and passed my own bike :lol:

Sort of scarey but fun! While limping back to the bike, I realized that nobody would have found me for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnng time out there!

What are you talking about? That story is right up there with the best. :)

Strait from my journal

Today was a day like any other. Got 4 hours of sleep because of a botany test this morning, but I still biked in knowing it would wake me up. The real story is on the bike ride home. I'm about 4 miles into my 6 mile trip when I come upon a traffic jam on 321 about half a mile long. At first I rode to the right, but i was in the cement ditch so I went in between the cars in the right lane (this is a 4 lane highway). As I was riding there was a college guy leaned outside his window to talk to the other cars. I said hi as I biked past and he returned the gesture amiably. Then he said "Hey, that's not a bad idea." So I said, "Damn strait." It was a lot of fun passing all of the cars that passed me on my way up the mountain.

When I passed all the cars and just kinds scooted by the cops and behind a truck that was being directed past the wreck (tee hee) I couldn't stop smiling. Man it was great

Also I've only had 2 people who tried to threaten me with bodily harm while riding. Both were above 60 years old.

my best was after working a late saturday and coming home, along the main stretch of my commute, some guys (the driver seemed fine, the rest a bit drunk), were hanging out the windows yelling "Hey, I bet you cant hit 20..." after a block of this I decided to play....once it got to I bet you cant hit 35....well I failed...of course they blew off yelling "Wussy", which gave me a pretty big laugh overall...that had to be the most amusing taunting I ever recieved.

Mine was on my 1959 cruiser. Turning left from a left turn lane (light was red, then green arrow as I waited my turn) I proceeded through the left turn. I hear a revving engine behind me, so I move right and glance over my shoulder to make sure nothng is there.

HOLY CRAP!! This idiot is trying to pass me on the right during a left turn!! So we collide, I put a HUGE dent in the front left fender from putting my foot out, I'm unhurt and don't even fall off the bike. I yell "What the **** are you doing!? Are you trying to kill me?!?"

She looks at me and drives off... WTF? No way I can chase her down.

So I call the cops to report a hit and run. Guess who comes back yelling at me? The stupid lady. "You dented my car!" And I just kept talking into the cell phone telling the cops her license plate number, description, car, etc. Shut her up fast.

Long story short, cops think I kicked her car and tried to assault her. I stick to my story after 20 minutes of grilling (which is the truth). The report finally said no one was at fault. All said and done, she had to pay for all the damages. We both had the same insurance agency so my rep talked to her rep over lunch and said "you have no case, drop it". :) If I did have to take it to court, my agent said since she was behind me, I would have won hands down. Reason? I was in front of her and she should have seen me. Duh.

w00t

Car: 529,038,593,023
Bike: 1

Lol @ bike:1

Porshe passes me (I'm in the bike lane) so he should know that I'm around. 2 minutes later, in slower traffic he suddenly decides to swerve into the bike lane, almost straight into me. I do some manuevering with a giant "OOOOOOOHHHH SH@@@@@@TT!!!!" that could be heard from a 5 mile radius.

Luckilly I stay up and pretty much am waiting for mr. Porshe to come up just waiting for the usual ignorant remark. HE passes by and profusely apologizes and I guess the comment "Great reflexes" pretty much cooled me down.

I'm such a sucker for compliments.

Great stories...brings to mind another...

Drivers do some random stuff! So one morning during a traffic jam, I'm cruising up to a light and in the the left lane going to make a turn.

On my rignt is a topless chick! We're talk'n 44D :eek: Man that was a long light! Sheesh!

wow...I would try to pace that car as long as possible :D

It takes so much strength and endurance to push a teensy gas pedal.

:roflmao: