I have more than my share of interesting stories but before I post mine, I'd thought I'd see if anyone else is willing to share their stories? Ever had an argument with a driver that lasted through 3 stoplights? What about talking to a car full of teenagers in a high crime area? Ever laid your bike down in front of a car to keep it from getting out of a cul-de-sac into which they made a wrong turn after chasing it down because they yelled at you?

Certainly, I'm not the only crazy commuter here? Who else can't control their anger when given the chance to actually catch up to the car that pissed you off?

Once, a car took a swift right turn into the bike lane, narrowly missing me. That bit_ch was also talking on her cell phone. I then sprinted up to her, and caught her at the next stoplight. I took out my kryptonite u-lock, which was in the backpocket of my jeans. Two swift whacks left her front passenger side window and mirror smashed. That POS kryptonite lock was finally good for something. I rode off quickly taking sidestreets.
This is a true story, I'm not joking. I was feeling very angry that day, and a near dealth experience pushed me over the edge.
In no way am I promoting violence. I probably set bicycle commuters' progress a lot that day. I now see that it was the wrong thing to do then, but there are those tome when...
I now try to avoid vandalism.
Without fail, at least two times per week, I almost get hit by a car, or cut off... Its scary out there!

Once I got into an argument with a guy who had passed me very closely. I screamed at him and he yelled back. It lasted through several lights and at the last light (I knew he was turning and I was going straight), I said, "Look, can I just say something?"

He nodded, so I continued. "It's just really scary when you pass me that closely. That's why I screamed. I'm afraid of being hit."

He agreed that it would be pretty scary and I said, "Thank you for understanding. You have a good day." He wished me the same and we parted ways.

I will win this city over, one driver at a time.

Another time, a guy was upset with me because he couldn't pass somebody on the right because I was in the right lane. He beeped and then stopped at a light to tell me, "It's g-ddamned stupid to ride a bike on an icy street like this." I removed my face mask and said, "Please don't risk my life because you're in a hurry, sir. That's all I ask."

He screamed "F*** you!" and drove off very quickly.

I'm all about the Zen. I won over the first guy and shamed the heck out of the second.

I have a million stories about close encounters with motorists, cycling in a city with more than a million cyclists, 250,000 (approx) whom are year-round, but more than 5 million motorists. One of my favourite instances happened this past spring when a vehicle bolted from a side-street right in front of me during his right-hand turn. I was forced to slam on my brakes to avoid becoming part of his rear door. Apparently, he didn't appreciate my single-finger salute nor the intimate body-part I referred to him as, so he slowed down to prevent me from going fast (???). I ride a replica 50's style cruiser that is rather heavy and not very fast (but, boy does it look and ride nice). With a grin, I rode behind him, not letting him know he was travelling at my regular cruising speed. And then an idea occured to me, I took out my Nokia video-phone and began recording his antics while not making it look obvious that I was recording him and his license plate. I then pretended to try to pass him, making the fist-shaking, red-faced moron swerve all over the road to prevent me from getting around him. I kept on recording him crossing the solid double yellow lines right over to the parked cars in the opposite direction (!) and finally at the next light where he was now turning left and gesturing to me to fight him or something, I smiled at him and showed him my video-phone, remarking what marvelous inventions they were; how not only could they take pictures and video clips, but how they could also be sent to places like a police station with text-captioning and everything. While he sat gaping at me, I then phoned the police and advised a drunk-driver was weaving all over the road, from curb to curb, seemingly attempting to injur other motorists and cyclists. I described his car and the license plate number as well as the direction and street he was traveling on. I even offered the video evidence should they need it. The look on this guy's face was absolutely priceless. Every drop of blood drained from his cheeks. I had to stop a few meters away because I was laughing so hard.

The cops never called me (likely because he wasn't drunk), but I'll bet he received a visit and I'll wager he thinks before pulling more bone-head stunts like that again. Camera/video phones are a cyclists best friend.

LOL!! Great Story and Idea.. If only I had a cell phone. :(

I ride recumbent so I'm pretty low. I guess a passing jacked-up Suburban got mad at me for not being visible in his mirrors. So he screetched and swerved from side to side to show his displeasure.

That kind of BS really bugs me. It's not really a "wow" story, but the memory of it keeps coming back to bother me.

I have one very like that. I was riding down St.James I think and Dude pushed me as he drove by. I chased and broke out the passenger window then booked up a wrong way on berkley. Good times.

I have had similar instances, but haven't resorted to breaking any vehicle parts since I was 17 (don't ask how long ago that was) when a guy cut me off not once, not twice, but three times, so as I passed him I swung my heavy lock on a six-foot length of heavy-grade chain and smashed his windshield. He started chasing me with his head out the window because he couldn't see through his shattered windshield. As luck would have it, two cops were having coffee at a doughnut shop on the corner and as I passed them I casually remarked there was some idiot driving behind me with a smashed windshield. As they walked out to pull him over, I zipped down the opposite street and disappeared through backstreets while this guy was gesturing wildly at me (I noticed, looking back over my shoulder). Gotta teach them four-wheelers a lesson once in awhile. LOL.

I was riding to work yesterday on a 4 lane road with lanes too narrow to share, so I was taking the lane. I'd been riding on the street for several blocks with light traffic (thanks to the holidays :)) when I heard someone behind me honking the horn. I looked in my mirror and saw ONE lone car. I kept riding and figured the driver would pull around and pass since the other lane was empty. NO! About 30 seconds later I heard the honking again. This continued for 2 short blocks. Finally I slowed to a stop, turned around to look at the driver, and asked what the problem was. It was some stupid woman. She was talking on her cell phone and probably wasn't aware that there were no other cars around. She realized that we had stopped, pulled into the other lane, and whizzed past me, without missing a word of her phone conversation.

I hate idiot drivers and cell phones :crash: :fight: :crash:

I was riding home from a party with a few drinks in me along with vomitron when a carful of teenagers drove passed me and egged me. Ha ha, jokes on me. Then they turned aroudn and did it again.

Well that pissed me off so I pulled my u lock outta my bag and pedaled towards them. They had turned into a sidesteet so as to attack me again, and I pedaled straight towards them with my u lock in hand, vomitron with his bike chain. They freaked out and drove off, I kept behind them for a bit and was tempted to hurl my lock through thier back window but resisted. Sissies.

Here's another from my big bag of doofus-driver tales. Just back in October I was commuting home from work and, fortunately, I enjoy a bike-lane for 90% of the way. At one point, however, the lane disconnects and it is necessary for me to make a left-hand turn to re-join the bike-lane. I signalled from the bike-lane and merged safely into the lane, with no-one behind me until a light a few meters back turned green. I was mid-way through the turn when, suddenly, a taxi appeared at my side and was passing me on my right-hand side. Of course, I was already angling to the right to slide into my bike-lane when the jerk suddenly appeared directly in my way forcing me to veer to the left to avoid a collision. There was no point uttering any profanity or flipping him the bird, as I needed two hands to steer my wide-handled cruiser and keep from crossing the line into oncoming traffic. That particular street always has heavy rush-hour traffic and I knew the taxi would be forced to a stop only a few meters beyond the turn in any event. Sure enough, he came to a halt behind a long line of single-lane traffic perhaps ten car-lengths beyond the turn and I pulled my bike in front of his cab and dismounted. Approaching the driver, I asked if he felt it was worth it to almost kill me and force me to nearly collide with opposite-direction traffic. I was calm and controlled in my voice, but my posture and glare must have given my intensity away. He opened his mouth, as if to tell me how I could combine sex and travel, perhaps, when I held up my hand, cutting him off, and advised him I have his license plate number, cab number and a witness, gesturing to the female passenger in the back-seat. I further reminded him I was quite prepared to contact the police right then and there and proceed with formal charges. I suggested he could avoid that if he apologized. He muttered something that may have been an apology, it was difficult to discern, but the look on his face showed he was being considerably less than sincere. I addressed the woman in the back and stated that she just witnessed how frivolous and meaningless he regarded my life when he comitted an illegal, dangerous and nearly fatal act. 'Just consider that he is in operation of a vehicle you're riding in and you likely don't mean anything more to him than I did.' (or something to that effect)

I climbed back on my bike and proceeded to pass all the dumb motosits inching along in traffic when I heard a car-door slam. Glancing back, I saw the woman standing on the sidewalk and telling the cabbie to engage in a sexual act with himself. When he demanded payment, she refused, claiming she will not pay for someone who endangered her life and others as well, even offering to call the police herself on her cell-phone if he wanted to escalate matters, reminding him of course that she would relate, in detail, what had occured with the cyclist (me). Wisely, the cabbie grudgingly dropped the whole issue and, rather aggressively, pulled a U-turn and took off. I waved back at the woman and continued on my way, hoping she had left him with a sizable loss for his idiocy.

Yes, the other day I was flirting with a girl at a redlight...we are going to get some wings and maybe a movie tomorrow....on bike :)

Another good one, was some guy at a light asked me if I could pull into the gas station to help him with directions...given I usually am nervous about things like this, but heck it was daylight and potential witnesses were around, so I went for it.

Turns out the guy was in town on buisiness and just needed a hand...well we chatted it up for a bit, and it turned into me being lightly grilled about bike commuting...he saw these guys all the time, and never understood why we did it. So I explained to him my weight loss, cost savings, as well as time efficiency of my bike commuting. He talked about his feeling driving with us, and I pretty much got a good view of "the other side".

It was overall a pretty good chat, I think both of us left enlightened that day :)

I've had more than my fair share though generally I try to just shrug it off since it doesn't really do any good to escalate. Some highlights though:

- Once riding past Fenway after a Red Sox game when some moron objected to my presence on the street. I don't remember exactly, but it involved honking and screaming and one of his passengers hanging out the side door. Now anyone who knows what traffic is like on Brookline Ave when a game lets out knows that I was the fastest thing out there that day so I caught up with this dude and had words. It ended with him shoving me and me telling him to go right ahead, let's do it, I had his plates anyhow. Then he got back in and drove off (sort of, you know, traffic and all) and I spit on his windshield.

- Another time I got passed WAY too close, so I came up on the dude at the light and knocked on his window. He rolled it down but apparently didn't appreciate me leaning on his fancy 325i because he started yelling and reaching around under his seat for a gun.

- Once I was being harassed by a couple of teenagers so when I passed them later and the passenger was hanging out the window hollering at me, I spit on his face. He actually got out and tried to chase me. It was so damn funny I slowed down and egged him on, dude probably ran 2 or 3 blocks.

- I was once hit by a transit bus because he pulled out to pass me without sufficient time before running into oncoming traffic, so then he tried to pull back in but I couldn't give way without running into parked cars. So he just merged right into my outstretched "stay back" hand. I came close but did not go down which was good because I was in front of the bus at that point.

- Once I had the extreme privilege of pulling over a Boston police officer. Really, you should try it sometime. He was tailgating and blasting his horn, so I got up on his left bumper and signalled him over. After explaining my rights under Massachusetts law he disagreed and pointed me to the outside foot of the full parking lane. We argued back and forth, he threatened to issue me a cite for violating a city ordinance (a bluff because there is no applicable ordinance). I asked him to, begged even. Then he changed his mind and threatened to cite me as a disorderly person for which there are no specific requirements. So I told him I would be on my way then but I woud be damned if I was going to give up my safe and lawful lane position.

- And then just Saturday I completely lost my cool. Some moron drove up on me as quickly as he could, then hammered his brakes what could only have been inches from my rear tire (I know because I saw the hood nose down in my peripheral vision while I was looking almost straight ahead) and slammed on the horn before eventually moving into the left lane to get around me. So I caught him at the next light and spit on his window, then the next light after that and pounded on the passenger window, and then in traffic after that and went to knock on the window again when he gunned the engine and swerved into me. Knocked my rear out of true but otherwise I stayed up. I realized almost too late that I had maybe taken it a little too far, so I cut my losses and took off (still making better time than that tool). I'm still not sure how I made it out of there because I was splitting a lane in heavy traffic. When he started coming at me, I know I recognized that there was someone to my right. Yet when I was knocked from my position, I found a path across the next lane (I do remember it was right on someone's bumper) and into the one to the right of that.

In general it's never a good plan to escalate with motorists, it's certainly not a good way to win friends or influence. I know some people who have very positive interactions when they go to explain the way things are. I truly envy them. Me, I just get heated, so I do my best not to get involved (despite the picture painted above).

Here's one from the days of my reckess youth: I was riding home on a Saturday night in a bicycle lane downtown. There were a number of cars parked in a row to the right of the lane. As I passed one of them, it quickly pulled out, then swerved all the way into the oncoming lane. The car clipped me, and knocked me off my bike, but I wasn't hurt. The driver took off, his headlights still off, swerving all over the road. I picked up my bike and chased him. He saw me, and tried to evade capture. He took his car southbound into 3 lanes of northbound traffic, still without headlights, weaving all over the road. There was very little traffic, and somehow he didn't get hit. I contiuned to chase him through red lights until he got caught with his pants down at an intersection, boxed in by a streetcar. I was livid. I was thinking about how I was going to pummel this butthead with my lock. When I pulled up next to him, he rolled down his window and started begging for mercy. He was so drunk, he could barely sit up-I could smell the booze from outside the car. I grabbed him by the shirt collar, and thought about pounding his face into mush, but I couldn't bring myself to hit him. He was just too pathetic, and feeble, a broken little runt of a man. So I took my anger out on his car. I broke his windshield, rear window, and mirror with my NY lock. Then I put two very large deep dents in his roof before riding away. In hindsight, I wished I had gotten his keys and called the cops, but I was too mad to think straight.

Damn!

Yeah, I woulda just grabbed the keys and taken off or thrown 'em far far away.

I agree. The whole thing really ruined my night. I couldn't sleep b/c I was all spun out on adrenaline, and to be honest I felt ashamed of the way I had acted. I try really hard not to retaliate with force, but it is hard sometimes.

Years ago, after a cabbie cut me off (no signal and suddenly darting into the right lane) four times, I casually continued, keeping him in sight as traffic was somewhat heavy and he wasn't able to get too far ahead of me. As he dropped off his fare, I simply rode up on his left (he was blocking my lane, of course), leaned in his open window (he was facing the other way, giving change to the passenger) and plucked his keys from the ignition. As he whirled about to face me, I threw them high over a fence and heard a distinct splash as they landed in someone's pool. With a smile, I calmly said 'Perhaps I just saved lives, other than mine...and yours.' I could hear him cursing me up and down, fading into the distance as I continued on my ride.

Just an observation: Ever since I started riding unusual, 'cool' bikes (cruisers, lowriders and choppers) about two years ago, I have noticed a distinct decrease in the number of hostile motorists I encounter. It seems their admiration for the bike seems to overshadow any perceived nuisance I might have otherwise presented. Just an hour or so ago, I was out riding my Giant Stiletto chopper and had to move into the centre of a one-way street due to debris and melting snow near the curb. A car was forced to slow down (though not much) down the entire length of the street. When we got to the light and I moved over, he put his window down and, with a vigorous thumbs-up, complimented the 'cool ride.'

I'll have to try that....hmmm, maybe I could rig up some black lights to my downtube or something-or stick a big wing on the back to appease the kids. Not sure if I'm up for the 10 mile ride to work on a chopper though, tiring enough already:)


[QUOTE=EnigManiac]Just an observation: Ever since I started riding unusual, 'cool' bikes (cruisers, lowriders and choppers)

I just ride and older version of this bike (frame was flat black [stealth like shade of black],round drops, silver 105, custom wheelset), and it seems I get enough "nice bike" comments at lights.

http://www.motobecane.com/ven.html

I guess the flat black theme front to back is sex enough for non cyclists to like it :)

I'll throw one out. As I was biking home on a two lane road, a car with 3 teenagers passed me and threw a candy bar at me and hit my leg. I gave chase and the driver must not have known the roads well because he kept to the residential streets and I was able to easily keep up with him as he had to slow down or stop for turns and/or stop signs. He eventually ended up in a cul-de-sac. It was high noon at the OK Corral as we faced each other waiting for someone to make a move. Since I only wanted to talk to the kids, I moved first. I laid my bike down on the road to prevent him from getting out of the cul-de-sac and started walking towards the car. I no sooner had taken 2 steps, when the teenager in the back got out of the car with his hands up in the air saying something to the effect that he didn't want to get the **** kicked out of him. I had to chuckle as I explained how dangerous it was to do what he had done to me and he apologized. It was a good conversation and we ended up shaking hands. Before we went our separate ways, he had to comment on how he was amazed at how well I was able to keep up with the car. Something about my legs and/or type of bike.

I've got more that I'll post later. I'm loving this thread.

(redacted)

[QUOTE=darkmother]I'll have to try that....hmmm, maybe I could rig up some black lights to my downtube or something-or stick a big wing on the back to appease the kids. Not sure if I'm up for the 10 mile ride to work on a chopper though, tiring enough already:)


My Shangri-la 3-speed cruiser has been my regular commuter for two years and I usually make the trip in about twenty minutes. I just bought the Giant Stiletto chopper and, believe it or not, it's faster than my cruiser in spite of being unable to get full leg extension and only having a 20" rear tire as opposed to the 26" on my cruiser. The 7-speeds on the chopper make a difference. I wouldn't recommend it on a trip any longer than forty-five minutes, however.

Great story and a situation very well handled. My compliments to you.

I love this thread too. As an observer of human behaviour I am always curious about how people to different situations and 'road-rage' is a compelling phenomenon.

Man I have so many idiot stories I could fill a book, the funny part it was me being an idiot on my bike, now a days when somebody pisses me off usually I just swear or try to put that extra bit of adrenalin to use by pedalling that much harder; using the fight or flight mechanism for flight instead of fight. One time I was riding in a residential area and some teenagers pulled up beside my and started flicking their lit cigarettes at me. I knew this area very well. I saw where they turned down a side street, an area that is a suburban maze, but one can only get to the main road by one way. So decided to wait, being a hot head and all, and if they did not come back out in about 10 minutes I would go look for then and destroy the vehicle as best I could. Lo and behold, the mini van full of teens comes out, gets to a stop sign that has a few vehicles in front of it, so I know I have time to do whatever I want. I ride up to the passenger side of the van, determined to pummel whoever I get my hands on first, and then I punch the passenger side window as hard as I can, of course being the idiot that I am, my fist just glances off the window. Man did that ever freak them out. They continued to advance to the stop sign, and at this time they are a few feet ahead of me. Stupid me, pulls out a can of beer that I was carrying, and I throw it as hard as I can, it glances of the mini van hitting a car going in the other direction and then bounces into the intersection, foaming the whole way. Now being twice as stupid I throw my last can of beer, and it just smashes into the van and explodes. They get through the stop sign and take off like a bat out of hell. Well I figured that in the part of town that I am in now there can only be 2 directions that you could go, towards Vanier down the parkway, in which case I would never seen them again, or they were heading downtown to check out the town, in which case they would get caught in all the traffic and red lights, so I would see them again if they went downtown. Downtown I go. About 20 minutes later what do I spot a few cars ahead at a red light, the van full of teenagers that like flicking lit cigarettes at cyclists. The see me to, so they turn right, and head towards the queensway. Oh well you can’t get them all.

I am glad that I think I have grown up somewhat, there is no way now that I would waste 2 beers on a carload of idiots.