Allister

That says a lot about the quality of UPS drivers in general. Do you think they ever wonder why so many people are phoning the number?

Hal Hardy

Disclaimer: This isn't my story, but it has stuck in my head ever since I read it on some forum, somewhere. If the woman who owns the story sees this, I apologize in advance for stealing it.

Seems that in her area, it was an all too common occurance for male passengers to reach out and give female cyclists a pat on the fanny as they passed. This woman saw in her mirror, a guy sticking his arm out the passenger window, lining up for his shot on her. She kept watching through the mirror and a split second before contact, she hit the brakes, thus slamming his arm against the door frame. He got his feel, but it cost him a broken arm.

2manybikes

ON a ride with a few friends, a car full of drunk kids went by. The front passenger was leaning out of the window from the waist up, and swearing at us and screaming. He said we should not be riding on that kind of a road? Two lane road? They went by a couple of times to scream at us again with the guy still out the window up to the waist.
We just looked at each other shrugged and kept on going. They stopped in the road to talk to another car going the other way in front of us and blocked the road. I told the other riders to just stop and wait quietly, we did. Then they took off again did a u turn in the road and went by screaming again, same deal. Then they past us again and went off forward into the distance. Whew!
A few minutes later we went by them. They were stopped in a parking lot and a cop was taking them out of the car. The driver looked over at my friend and she just smiled and waved, and said "HI". We kept on going. A few minutes later the car went by on a flatbed tow truck. Then along comes the cop car with two guys in the back. The guy leaning out the window was on my side of the car as they slowly went by. I just looked him in the eyes, waved and said "Have a nice day" .....we continued on our ride.

That was a great ride.

soda

Two more teenager stories.

1: I'm biking to campus on a 4 lane road and get yelled/honked at by a car with 3 teenagers. I wasn't in a good mood and this ticked me off so I gave chase. It was a busy traffic morning and eventually caught them a few lights from where they passed me. I pulled up to the passenger's side and took them off guard. I started yelling at them just to yell and I was so ticked that I went to grab the door handle to open the door. I can't remember, but I actually think I was about to drag the kid out of the car. Lucky for him, he was quicker than I was and got the door locked before I could get my hand on the handle. The thing that made me laugh is that as soon as I did that, the passenger in the back who was sitting on my side of the car, quickly locked his door and jumped... I mean jumped to the driver's side of the car. His face was classic. The light turned green and they took off. I didn't bother chasing again because I did what I wanted to do.

2: Coming home on a two lane road, I'm passed by a pickup truck with two teenagers. They yell something vulgar and I give chase but can't keep up because there isn't any traffic or lights to slow them down, but I was able to memorize their license plate number. At the time, I had no idea what I was going to do with the number but then I remembered that my friend's sister was a cop. And even though I shouldn't have asked and she shouldn't have helped out; I did and she did. I got the boy's phone number and I called him up one afternoon. I pretended to be the police inquiring about a bike/truck incident that happened yesterday and then asked if he knew anything. He started to explain what happened and he told me he was the driver and it was his friend that actually was the one that yelled at me. He even said a few things indicating that he knew it was wrong. When he was finished, I then told him who I was (the guy on the bike) and that if he ever did anything like that again, I was going to come and pummel him to a pulp because I now have his phone number and address. I then hung up.

Helmet-Head

First of all, a car would never piss me off, but a motorist could, potentially.

However, I ride vehicularly, so motorists never piss me off. I cooperate with them; they cooperate with me. It's a beautiful thing. Read Effective Cycling and/or take a bikeleague.org Road 1 course if you want to learn how to do this too.

Serge

ollo_ollo

How about driver vs cyclists? When I was young & stupid, some friends pooled our money, spent all but a few bucks on beer, then went to a drive in movie with 3 buddies hiding in the trunk. We had just settled in when two attendants rode up on bicycles, told us they saw everyone getting out of the trunk & we could either pay up or leave. I started up, put it in reverse & knocked over then ran over the bikes they had laid against the trunk of my car! OOoops, clumsy me. As we drove away, one guy was stomping on his tacoed wheel trying to straighten it out. Since about 1/2 my high school either saw or heard about it, I was now famous & everyone started calling me "crash".

nick burns

Man, Serge, you must live in some fairy tale world were no a-holes exist. About twice a month I'll witness some vehicular maneuver that could only have come from the mind of a deranged psychopath. I have made eye contact with drivers only to have them, with obvious intent, seek to cause me bodily harm. I do commute through some pretty bad neighborhoods, though. I thoroughly respect your advice on vehicular cycling and it is good sound advice. But it doesn't help much in situations where someone actually goes out of their way to harass you.

brokenrobot

This reminds me of another one. It's not really a commuter story, though... I was riding home late one night - fast - and one of a group of teenagers walking down the sidewalk on my right decided to try to scare (or maybe mug?) me. He jumped into the street immediately in front of me, swung his fist, and screamed - but I happened to have a U-lock in my hand, and brought it up purely instinctively to ward him off. He wound up punching the lock - and probably breaking his hand - instead of knocking me off my bike as intended. Very satisfying.

Hal Hardy

As What's-His-Name says on the A-Team show: "I love it when a plan comes together."

billh

God I love this thread . . .

KleinRider

Wasn't that Hannibal? I know it was the "leader", but I'm drawing a blank on his name, too.

nklatt

Come on, people - this is the internet ! ;)

KleinRider

I was too lazy to look....

PS I was right!!!

BostonFixed

Serge, chill out with your elitist commuter Bull shi_t.

Swiss Hoser

Have you ever noticed how few Europeans contribute to these cyclist/motorist threads?
I swear, this is simply not a topic of discussion here. Neither in my Velo Club, nor with my riding buddies at work.
I live smack dab in central Europe, surrounded by the world's greatest cycling nations. The relationship between the car and the bicycle has reached a level maturity here that we North Americans cannot fathom. In 4 years of almost daily riding, I have not had one incident with either a car or a dog.
Went home to Ottawa two years ago for a visit. I had an encounter of some kind EVERY TIME I WENT FOR A RIDE! Couldn't wait to get back to Switzerland.
Conclusion: it's not a bike/car issue. It's cultural!

slone130

OK...I'll throw mine in. I was riding in a group of about 12 or 15 up a windy (barely) two lane road. We werein about mile 10 of a 50 miler and everything was going great. Unfortunately, I live just on the outskirts of redneckville and this day we were riding downtown. I remember I was getting pretty heavy into this hill when I heard a car with a loud muffler coming up behind us. The next thing I knew I felt something hit me in the back. It actually knocked the wind out of me and I had to stop. Apparently, one of the idiots in the pick-up thought it would be a good idea to throw a full, unopened beer bootle at me. This is of course wrong on so many levels. Anyway...being ever prepared, I took the beer bottle, as amazingly it didn't break on impact, took out my cell hpone and called my co-workers at the police department. Luckily we had an officer close by and I met him, with my would be assailants, a couple of miles on up the road. that was indeed a surprise for them when I rolled up, grabbed the citation book, showed them by badge and placed them under arrest for assault all while wearing my US Postal jersey and bibs (Lance woul've been proud) It was a hard way to get some activity but it was kinda cool in the end. They later plead guilty to misdemeanor assault, served some jail time and had to pay a pretty good fine. BTW...the beer got mysteriously spilled all over the inside of their truck. Now how'd that happen?

soda

Loved that line! Awesome story. I love it when the jerks get caught. I'm also loving this thread.

Hal Hardy

I hope some of the repliers made sure the statute of limitations has expired before confessing on the World Wide Internet.

JavaMan

Great thread! Here's one I posted last year...

Good story. Just be careful. People in cars act like such jerks sometimes, just because they can. I myself have had to chase down cars a couple of times. Once a pickup with 2 teenage boys pulled up along side me and yelled out the window, which scared the ???? out of me. Then I noticed a busy intersection ahead and sprinted until I thought I was going to throw up. Just as they were coming to a stop at the stop sign I pulled right up to the passenger window and yelled into the cab as loud as I could, which caused both of them to jump in their seats. Then they too off. It was one of my best biking moments. I felt big when I got home. Another time I ran down a car and cheerfully explained to a woman that the 2 young boys in her back seat were making obscene gestures to me as they went by. I would have liked to stick around to see how that turned out. I try to chase down people when they cut me off or yell at me, which is probably a stupid thing to do, but it always seems like a good idea at the time.
Tom

soda

Here's a cute story....

Biking to campus on the same road that I've had problems with before, I get passed by a car and get squirted with what I think is water. It was a hot day so I thought some teenagers were having fun riding around squirting people with water guns. I gave chase and after a looong chase finally caught the car. As I pull up to the driver's side to have a discussion with the driver, I look in the back seat and there is a little kid probably no older than 6 in the backseat with a squirt gun. His dad (the driver) must have given it to him before the ride and he decided to squirt me as they passed. My anger fizzled to laughter instantly as I told the dad what his son had done. Then I stood there telling the little kid to take another shot since it was such a hot day. I'm not certain if I told the dad that normally this isn't a good idea though.

Women...
1: Ever notice how commuting can attract the eyes of the female gender? I have a few notable experiences with women on the road. One time I was almost home and I was waiting at a stoplight to go foward. There was a right turn lane next to me and a car with a woman driver, her friend and 2 kids in the backseat pulled up next to me to turn right. There wasn't any traffic and it was legal to turn on red but she decides to start a conversation with me. I can't exactly remember the subject but I could tell that there was a purpose to the talk . Well, the light turned green and she kept talking and I had to start biking for her to stop. Under other circumstances in my personal life, I probably would have ended up getting her phone number but it just wasn't in the cards.

2: I get catcalls a lot but one sticks out probably because it was last year. One day in the Spring, I'm biking to campus and pass two teenagers waiting for the school bus. I know they're way to young to even get a second look from me but as I pass, one of them gives this loud "daymn!!!" I guess they start early nowadays.

Men:
Late one Friday, I'm biking home on a 4 lane that doesn't have much traffic. I get passed by car and I see that it stops at the red light. I pull up and wait for the green and the window rolls down. They man tells me he's from out of town and he needs directions. We have a short discussion since there wasn't any traffic and we both then go our own way. I'm not certain how this happened but at the next stoplight that I'm waiting for, he pulls up again. He must have done a U-turn somewhere. Then he tells me that he's going to be in town for the weekend and wants to know if I want to go get a beer.