pwdeegan

To the solo driver of the white 3xx-series BMW with standard OR plates that right-hooked the young woman on her bike this morning, 9:50am at the NE corner of Hilyard and 18th in Eugene, and then speed away in a hurry (hit and run), i want you to know a few things:

1) the woman, though shaken, is Ok---though no thanks to you. She had the right of way, whereas you just sped away like the s***face that you are.
2) her bike only suffered a bent FD hanger, but it can be bent back (old bike, heavy duty FD).

I hope karma slaps you around like a wet sock puppet in dog's mouth before leaving you in the middle of the road, just like you left the biker.

I gave her a ride in our car to her appointment (put her bike in the bike rack atop the car), borrowed some of my daughter's baby wipes to clean her hands, and commiserated and offered sympathy. She is a tough young lady, not to mention lucky. My wife witnessed the whole event unfold (i was focused on lots of traffic and only saw it in my periphery), though we were both focused on the biker's post-right-hook safety (as she was left in the middle of the road amidst said busy traffic), too much so that i failed to memorize your license plate number. I'll leave it to a hoped-for cosmic justice it sort out the imbalance.

milnerpt

have the lady file a police report. You never know if others witnessed, called in, gave plate numbers, etc.

Maybe Karma is a security camera that happened to catch it on film. Granted, the police probably wont put any effort into it, but you never know....

pwdeegan

that's a good idea; except i didn't get the woman's 411; just her mine (in case she needed witness support). i'll need to keep that in mind next time; and i've thought about this since.

vrkelley

An on-board camera is a very good idea. Make sure it can get the license plate

B. Carfree

This is Eugene. For those who live elsewhere, our police won't take a report when a cyclist is not at fault. It is remotely possible to force them (as allowed under state law) to do a tiny bit of paperwork to allow the victim to prosecute, but they will resist. With a very few exceptions, EPD does not recognize cyclists as legitimate people, let alone legitimate users of the roadways. It's a sad situation, but they won't even make a report when they find an obvious hit-and-run that knocks the cyclist unconscious ("He must have fallen down.")

Shifty

^^That's just absolute BS. When will bike advocates grow up and get a life? ^^

B. Carfree

^^Ah Shifty, we seem to have different definitions of BS. The hit-and-run victim was last year on Franklin. My wife and I have tried several times to get EPD to take reports of attacks on cyclists (us) by car-critters to no avail. How about that lethal "dooring" last Fall? Witnesses concurred that the motorist knocked the cyclist to the ground with her door; he landed on his head (fatal). The responding officer said there was not enough damage to the door for that to have caused the cyclist's death! You can find it in the Register Guard. Our local sheriffs aren't exactly covering themselves in glory either. Last year a homeless man was riding on Prairie Road when he was literally run over. In spite of the fact that under state law a motorist, when passing a cyclist, must give a cyclist room to fall down and still not be hit, there wasn't even a citation issued.

If you feel that our local law enforcement do a good job of protecting vulnerable users, I'd love to hear your reasons. However, bear in mind that in Eugene over the past two years 60% of all roadway deaths have been either cyclists or pedestrians (evenly split).

While the late, great Molly Ivans said she wasn't so much anti-gun as pro-knife, I am not so much pro-bike as anti-car.

Shifty

A little background for all of you on this forum. Eugene is like a mini Portland, Seattle and the like and a university town. So we have cyclist, usually older, good riders, respectful of laws and ride mostly through town to get out to the goods in the country to ride. Then we have bike riders, hipsters, no helmets, 4 kids on the back (good parents, eh?), obey no traffic laws or lights, advocate whiners and students. I've been a cyclist in Eugene for many years, I've NEVER had problems with police or car drivers, ever. Bike riders, run stop signs, dart into traffic, flip off anyone who says anything, ride drunk, then want some kind of extra respect for being car free, ha!

Here's a good example from Eugene. David Minor, a cool young hipster made a risky, illegal left turn at high speed in front of oncoming traffic. A car didn't have time to brake and they collided, Minor, not wearing a helmet, went through the car windshield and was killed, his head on the dash of the car, the woman driving horrified. Of course she was not ticketed, she did nothing wrong, the bike rider was wrong. So afterward the woman, instead of shrinking from public view, started making statements to the press about the importance of helmet use, and getting kids to use them at an early age. Well the bike riders tore her apart, how dare she advocate for helmet use! They said in public forums that she was ONLY speaking out because of guilt. What guilt? She didn't cause the accident, the bike rider did.

These guys now demand respect and the police to bow to then? Grow up! They think they are hot shot advocates, cyclist see them as clowns, nothing to contribute, nothing accomplished. I know how to ride in leaves, you accomplish nothing.

pwdeegan

adding to that, some old-ish commuter passed my bicycle train today while i was stopped at a stop sign waiting for traffic; he lurched out ahead (but not quickly), making the car (which had right-of-way) slow considerably, and cut off a pedestrian in a cross walk on the other side. i yelled "nice job, buddy!" at him, and exchanged looks of disbelief with the pedestrian.