So today was a wonderful commute today. Possibly the last one where I can wear a T-shirt only before the spring.

However, today a jaywalker crossing mid block ran in front of me on a two way street without checking for traffic coming from the west. I didn't even see her suddenly she was in the middle of the street and I had to brake hard and swerve to avoid hitting her. Times like this make me so glad I have a helmet camera. I rewatched the footage and one sec she is on the edge of the sidewalk and the next second she darts into oncoming traffic i.e. me without looking. This has happened before and in the past I've always said "its okay" or "Just be more careful." However today I just yelled at her about how close she was to the freaking crosswalk. Did I lose my cool?

I'd say you lost your cool a little. Oh well she was being dumb

I say you where nice. She had her head on the clouds for crossing like that! I don't know if I could have been that nice, but that's coming from me!

I wouldn't worry about it too much. It isn't like you swore at her or intimidated her by stopping or anything.

But... since you went to all the trouble of editing the video, starting a new thread, and posting it I'd guess the event bothered YOU. And maybe that's how it should be!

Coming down a big twisty curvy wet leaf covered hill the other day.... was a tad scary for me. I saw another cyclist I often see around the same area. Even though we never speak she waved at me like we were old friends. [after thinking about it] I realized that it was because the challenge of the slippery decent had me smiling ear to ear.

Often times [I am guessing] most of us cyclists enjoy the feeling of a near miss, the challenge, keeping a clear head, the joy of being alive and unharmed. You got cheated out of that. All you got was a "whoa, whoa, whoa". Those days happen too! Tomorrows a whole new day.

It might have been for the best. She really needs to be yelled at so she'll think about it and maybe it'll save her life. The way she stepped out without looking, if it had been a car instead of a bike, she would have been splattered.

+1

Pfft. Yeah, you not only lost your cool, I think you wanted to. Why didn't you just go behind her rather than angling across her front? Sometimes we just want to be mad, and that's ok and I'm certainly not judging you, but man, you know full well that her high-heeled, baby stepping pace afforded you plenty of time to process the scenario and roll behind her without incident had you wanted to. Maybe the uncertainty of city life was just getting to you at that moment?

If you didn't see her until she was in the middle of the street, you weren't paying attention. Her presence was obvious and her movement wasn't that fast or unexpected. She was standing on the edge of the curb. Obviously she should have been crossing in the cross walk, the experience may change her habits.

After the whoa, whoa, whoa, she likely heard, mumble, mumble, mumble...

You sound like an old man, i.e. father, and I wouldn't take you seriously as a jaywalker.

I would take an elbow seriously though.

I take it you think an elbow would be better than cussing her out then?

I probably wouldn't have said anything and just gone behind her, but I would have thought she was idiot and been a little annoyed.

It depends on your goal:

1. If you want to make yourself feel better: job well done.
2. If you want to make the ped know it's not allowed and prevent a situation like from happening again: stop and chat if you're comfortable with confrontation.
3. If you want to inflict punishment: an elbow would work and you could blame it on the ped if they complained.

You didn't cuss her out ... you mumbled like a grandfather.

Not sure what you're goal is. I hope it wasn't "to cuss her out" because that's not how it comes across.

She said she was sorry. Maybe she was having a bad day. I think you over reacted. Had she not said she was sorry then I believe you should have said what you said, IMHO

You may have me confused with the OP. I didn't cuss her out or mumble or anything else. I just found it interesting that you seem to think using an elbow on her would somehow make sense. I find that idea kind of offensive and insensitive and intolerant myself.

Ahhh, urban Meanderthals...

Sorry. I did not mean to confuse you. Busy day today.

I didn't say that any of those options make sense, per se. But they are the logical endpoint due to certain desired outcomes.

you seemed ok to me for that individual. we have explosive violent homeless ppl up here and you never know how they will react in any encounter. but what you said to this lady, on this day, in this situation ... seemed fine

We all saw her on the video, but I'm sure you were more concerned with cars behind you as you moved left to turn. She didn't look at all. Maybe time for an AirZound?

love it

Inflicting harm on the pedestrian would be called: Criminal Assault.

Actually.... criminal assault is generally defined as an act that threatens someone with physical harm. Just suggesting to someone that they should harm another person... is plain wrong and likely also some sort of crime as well. I can't imagine what goes through peoples heads that they think of themselves as above proper behavior? It must be awful to live in such crippling fear that you would so quickly think of a violent reaction. You most certainly have my sympathy.

I think the whoa whoa whoa whoa, would have been enough to cause her look both ways next time. Lecturing her about where the crosswalk is, was a little over the top in my opinion.

+1

+1 AIRZOUND
BTW, my verdict, you were not abusive, and you hopefully will make her think twice before stepping off a curb which may prolong her self-absorbed life. When we're riding our adrenaline is up and it's easy to over emote. I do not feel this was the case here. A bell for polite warnings and an Airzound for alerts is my strategy.

This is true. But all in all everyone is going to (hopefully) sleep well tonight and move on. If you feel like you may have been, then next time be in your comfort zone and just wave as you keep your head on the road in front of you. Its little things like this that takes us out of being careful and running into something else.
V

I think that any video would show an inadvertent collision.

I also provided three options based on what the cyclist wanted to achieve. Simple logical deduction really.