I find it amusing how quick people are to lump all drivers into a catagory... guilt by association I suppose.

However, I have seen just as many HORRIBLE cyclist and just as many cyclist at fault accidents behind the wheel as I have on my bike. Period.

Go onto almost any car forum right now and you'll see this exact conversation but with the positions switched.

i love it.

fantomas! chill duder! didn't mean to bug ya!

(and i GUARANTEE you you'd never ever in a million years catch ol' brunop when he's rollin'! you with a tire iron? please! :D :D :D :D :D :D not in a million years or your wildest li'l fantasy, bro! :D :D )

yeah, there are just as many bad cyclists as drivers, but i'm not going to kill anyone with my bike. a burden of responsibility comes with having the power to kill someone, and many drivers seem to not think of that (plenty do, i know). it's just a "run to the bank, and i'm in a hurry", swerve around a corner and don't signal, smack into a cyclist, and then the old standby "what was he doing on the road?"

switching positions seems like the dumbest thing possible. seriously. "i cracked this dude's skull open with my car. he was such an ******* for that." come on. good driver, bad driver, you're the one with the power to kill me, and i try to be careful enough, but since you're the one who can kill someone, i hope...no, i expect that you'll be responsible with that power and be careful of people.

switching positions...bull****.

If the car came that close to you he deserves everything he gets. Next time run his tag and go to his house and key in share the road in his paint.

what's for lunch? serious, man

No no.. By switching postions I am refering to the whole "OMG Cars suck!" "OMG Bikes suck!" argument.

No doubt that cars are a deadly weapon etc etc.

What I am saying is that everytime something like this comes up it seems ALL drivers receive this guilt by association ******* vibe even though most of the people on this very forum drive.

Also... Regardless of the circumstances I still don't think going after that crazy ******* was a good idea.

instead of chasing down the driver, this morning i did the opposite.

on a one way street, i'm centered in the left of 3 lanes and this explorer was drifting towards me for a few scary seconds. he finally notices, backs off then slowly pulls infront of me changing lanes and slowing down. his left blinker goes on and i think that he is going to turn left at the light. okay fine you ass. go ahead.

he hasn't made his mind up yet about which lane he wants to be in, and is at this point slowed to a crawl of about 5 mph. So i do a quick check to the lane to my right and see its open.

As I pass him (on his right) he decides to go straight through the intersection and not turn. But in order to avoid a car ahead of him that is waiting for peds to cross, he swerves into the lane, AND HITS ME WITH HIS REAR QUARTER PANEL!!!

Keep it cool. Don't f*ck up.

I banged on his window. Yelled loud enough for him to see me and as he turned his head, I saw he was ON THE PHONE!! This is illegal in dc, so I accelerated, pulled in front of him, slowed down, stopped and proceeded to turn around and b*tch this guy out in front of a busy street full of people.

It may not have been as satisfactory as doing some damage in return. but as I was otherwise fine, and this guy was just an idiot on a cell phone I settled for some good old fashioned cursin.

You know i felt better, and I bet that guy was pretty embarased.

meh. thats it. nothing too exciting.

People like to lump all drivers together becuase a majority of drivers view all cyclists as a nuiscance which is in and of itself dangerous. The view that a cyclist on the road is in the way is one that many of us have expierianced. That said, why would you be so touch about the situation. The OP told us a story, if you don't like it suck it up...no reason to start yelling and cussing and calling names.

You got some restraint.
The fact that he was on his cellphone just pushes it over the top.
"I almost killed a person because I was too busy gabbing away on my phone to pay attention."
That's such bull****.
I would have gone off.

The sesame tofu is Killa!

The brunop=The Jimmy

"The brunop don't mingle with the cagers. The brunop won't back down to no fat ass, tire iron wielding Lexus driver. Nuh uh! The brunop talks the talk and walks the walk. The brunop demands you recognize, fools!"

Someone played chicken with me in the crosswalk at Shreeve road and the W&OD trail last night. I stopped in front of said rude-ite (after he waited so long so stop that I had to clip out and stop) and yelled "THE LAW REQUIRES YOU TO YIELD TO PERSONS IN THE CROSSWALK. A-BLANKETY-BLANK." Then he honked...if he had stopped I'd have been out of his way already. The honk really steamed me, like he was in control and now cause he honked, I was gonna move out of the way. Made my day when a pedestrian said firmly "Tell 'em, they gotta learn." People get outta control territorial behind the wheel. They have more 'control' than at any other time of their lives, and it is a sad commentary on human nature that they tend to use it to oppress other people, nay, endanger them.

word.

Nah nah.. I'm not pissed.. just discussing ****. :D
I also wouldn't hit someone leaving a parking lot (or otherwise) so no tire irons needed here.

that slowing down in front of a guy story is funny. priceless.

as far as lumping all cagers together...i dunno, i don't like to think i'm guilty of it. in my experience, though, a majority of drivers don't seem to think about cyclists. no ill iwll, just no thought.

to accuse them all is unfair, so i don't. i was ranting about this to a friend of a friend one day who told me she ALWAYS checks her mirror before right turns because she knows that's a big cause of accidents. i was surprised and really happy and i wanted to hug her. if more motorists acted like that, they'd have a better reputation. i know they're out there, but there need to be more of them.

It stands to reason that the only way you could know how to properly drive around a cyclist is to be one.

Wait, you were riding your bike? In a crosswalk...were you on the sidewalk?

i once hit a friend with my car when he ran a light in front of me. it was quite humorous, since he was largely fine. i was even transporting a bike in the back of my car at the time. felt kind of bad, but it wasn't my fault. he definitely lost on that roll of the dice.

i suppose so...i mean, we try to "educate" when we have the chance, but i don't think it really becomes understandable until you get the feeling of not having seatbelts, side imipact doors, airbags, etc, and being passed by giant pieces of metal going at 35 mph--sometimes being passed TOO closely, and sometimes being hit. that's when you notice that, hey, drivers do some really stupid, unsafe ****. so you're probably right about that.

oh, and i do, of course think riding a bike is worth that. and worth the portland rain and the summer heat and aching muscles and all that wonderful stuff.

Maybe The Brunop should just follow this code: http://www.chucknorris.com/images/pr...rris-code2.jpg

Either that or deliver a roundhouse kick to that Lexus.

i pulled up along side a cab who scraped me once and went to bang on his window to get his attention.

thing is... i didn't realize his window was rolled down and i hit him squarely in the eye with the heel of my hand. i honestly didn't mean it and it was dangerous to do, but a mistake nonetheless.

no one got hurt, so, in retrospect, it's just something to think about.

I think I spent my entire first year in Boston chasing down craphole drivers who passed me too closely or turned into me or otherwise endangered my life. Problem is, by the time I caught them I was too worked up and/or out of breath to articulate anything outside of curse words. Not very educational though somewhat satisfying to me nonetheless. I always wish I could have some pre-written card I could just hand to drivers that says:

"Hey, did you know that you almost killed me with your car? Believe it or not, but bikes belong in the streets too. Please don't hurt me, and I promise not to break your windshield with the 6 pound chain I carry with me at all times. Thanks! :)"

Oh well. At least I got fast trying to catch those jerkheads.

haha, the hitting the cabby thing is pretty comical. how'd you get out of that?

i giggled, smiled, fell back behind him and changed lanes...

I can't even imagine how shocking and confusing it must be to get punched in the face while driving.
Amazing.
I'm sure he learned his lesson though.

i had a similar experience except i had lost balance while swerving through a bunch of cars at an intersection and was about to fall into a cab. i put my arm out to push off the car, but his window was open. so i accidentally ended up planting my hand right on his bean and pushing myself back up. he freaked out, and i took off laughing my ass off.

edit: reply to hyperrevue

so did i. windows are sometimes rolled down. i'm sure it was more shocking than painful as i had only intended to knock on his window and not smash it.

i smiled at him. i think it was clear to both of us that it was a mistake, plus... he changed lanes and scraped me in the first place. it didn't feel like a tense situation. it actually made a situation that felt tense end on a humorous note.

I totally forgot.
That exact same thing happened to my good friend in NYC.
Rolled down windows...go figure.

the best is trying to flip people behind you off when you forget that you have huge mittens on. that's good for a few blocks of laughing at yourself.