Stupid Kid Commuter
 

My normal commute generally starts between 4:15 and 4:30 am, is 7.5 miles, and the last 4 miles is down a 4 lane divided road that during normal hours has very heavy traffic and really starts to get heavy around 5:30 AM. During my commute time, there is really no traffic at all, some day a few as 2 or 3 cars.

So here I was today at a stop light about a mile from my office, as I waited for a car that was turning left to the North and across the street was a SUV coming up to the intersection getting ready to turn right to also go North. I was heading South. The 2 vehicles had the green light and a clear lanes to turn when all of a sudden, I notice the bike to my left, riding South in the North bound lane, no lights, wearing all black and no helmet. It was cold this morning, about 35 F and he just rides through the intersection. The SUV driver never sees him, hits him, knocks him on the road and I just hear her scream. I immediately ride over to make sure he is not injured. She was not going that fast, but still could cause injury.

This stupid kid got up, started yelling at her, like it was her fault to the point that I told her to get in her car as I held him back. He start looking at his bike and the only damage was a bent pedal, but I suspect it was already bent. He started to call the cops and he had the balls to ask if I was going to tell the cops that she turned in to him. I told him that I would tell the truth.....he was in the wrong and it was his fault. He looked at me and said, you're riding a bike and you're going to take the side of a cager? I said in this case, I sure am.

The driver was in her car on her phone, the kid spit at me, cussed me and then took a swing at me as he rode off. I shook my head, and then pointed my bike light toward her car to look for damage and did not see any, so I think she must have hit him on the leg versus hitting the bike. I asked her if she was ok, let her know that I did not see any damage to her car. She got out and told me the police were on the way. She seemed pretty shaken up. She told me thank you for coming over and we waited a few mins for the police to show up. Once they showed, we gave our stories and a description of the kid and told him what direction he rode off in.

The stupidity of some people still amazes me even though it should not. I've seen this guy before, always on the other side of the road, riding in the dark with no lights. I'm guessing he works down the road a bit where there are a bunch of stores, but I figure at some point in the future, he is going to be killed which will be sad for his family because he is stupid.

There IS a place for Darwinian natural selection. Let's hope this kid doesn't breed and his habits get him squshed like an armadillo on a Texas freeway. ;)

We had two cyclists hit in two days near my work, both were on the sidewalk AND moving against traffic flow. Both were taken out by cars coming out of parking lots. Stupids gonna stupid.

The spitting and swinging could have gotten him in trouble with some folks.

He will get killed someday, and he'll deserve it.

He deserves an attitude adjustment, and that will happen, but killed or squashed? - come on gentlemen. For some reason human young are often stupid, self-centered, and resilient. Maybe evolutionary, maybe God teaching us humility, but it is what it is.

Kudos to jaxgtr for handling everything exactly right.

Yea, I am not looking for anyone to die. However, the way he reacted was extremely odd and I suspect he has been hit before and figured he did not die, so he just continues the same bad riding style. I figure it is going to take major injury for him to wise up.

I agree, you handled this well, especially giving the police the kid's description. This incident really upsets me. There are plenty of people who live their life like this kid bikes: literally flying in the face of social convention with little or no respect for the rules, with no apparent circumspection, little or no empathy towards others and no regard for the consequences of their actions or how they may affect others. I unfortunately agree that this kid's luck will eventually run out ending in injury or death.

Is it possible that the kid is ill? Mental illness doesn't scream, "I'm sick" the way a runny nose does. Just saying...

Can we get to the point already? Was the driver good looking?

That's an interesting story. I got me wondering how I would have handled the situation. Part of me thinks the best thing to do would be to just pretend that I didn't see anything and keep going. A lifetime on experience has conditioned me to avoid any interactions with crazy people or police.

I also see people all the time riding in the dark with no lights. They also usually dont even have reflectors because they are "uncool". I tried to course-correct a kid the other day for riding on the wrong side of the road, in the dark, without lights, but he pretty much said screw you and blew me off.

Props to OP for handling the situation well. Not sure I would have been able to contain myself if someone spit at me and took a swing.

I'm really glad that you were there @jaxgtr. I can imagine that in the same situation -- as a driver -- I would have been really shaken up. As a woman confronted by an unstable man, the fear would be compounded. I'm glad you didn't leave her there to deal with it on her own.

I hope that kid grows up and soon. He's angry. I hope he's not also mentally ill, but as [MENTION=20397]cale[/MENTION] pointed out, it sounds like that might be the case. We have a fair number of homeless guys on bikes around here. They often ride ninja while salmoning up busy roads in the dark. I know some of these guys personally because of some volunteer work I do. I have often wondered if their dangerous behavior on the bike is the expression of a self-destructive impulse. It makes me incredibly sad for them, fearful for the drivers who might encounter them, and angry that we don't have a better social support structure for the mentally ill.

About 1/3 of the people on bicycles I encounter on my daily commute are junkies or bums, its very obvious by their demeanor and riding habits.

Very sensitive.

Sensitivity for those who embrace degenerate lifestyles is a luxury of the privileged who can afford to be a mark, and an insult to those who struggle with issues, or hardship.

jaxgtrm, thanks for doing the right thing. Every group has it's nutcases unfortunately, and when someone runs into one biker who's a nutcase and a different one who's obviously siding with the driver, the next time they see a biker they don't automatically think "all bikers are nutcases".

LOL....She was very good looking, mid 40's I would say.

Good for you jaxgtr, you did the right thing here. Having a cool head in a situation like this was the right thing to do, especially with so many paranoid people carrying guns in their cars these days.

Just for the record, he did not give me the impression that he was homeless just based on his clothes\jacket\backpack, and he was riding a nice steel single speed, no brakes by the way :bang:. In the 4 or 5 min interaction I had with him, I could not make any conclusions on mental capacity. I just think he was young and full of the stupid gene so prevalent in the young. Nothing new there, we were all young and stupid, some just never grow out of it.

At 50 while I think I have calmed and mellowed.....I sometimes have a relapse of stupid .....just sayin'

That's nothing new. I see teenagers riding their brakeless BMX bikes all he time. Most of them seem to be pretty good at controlling their brakeless bikes, stopping and avoiding obstacles.

I agree that jaxgtr handled the incident well. My jaundiced opinion about dick-tards like the kid in this story is they were poorly parented: Some kids are made to believe that they can do no wrong, and at worst they see themselves as the victim in any unhappy incident. Unfortunately the pattern becomes too ingrained and they can't learn to course-correct for their own benefit. At that point, and as others have said, Darwin will take care of it.

Yeah, I hit a cyclist like that years ago. At first I felt bad. Then I decided I wasn't going to feel bad for knocking down a ninja cyclist bombing down a hill and around a corner on the sidewalk, too fast to stop if somebody has the temerity to be leaving the driveway. On a street that's nothing but apartment complexes for half a mile in either direction.

Did he actually say cager? If he did he must be some kind of bike forums nerd so it is extra surprising that he was riding that way.

I would have tried to get a photo to help the police.

- Andy