just had to share this amusin' li'l anecdote about a confrontation i had this mornin' with a "motorist". i was comin' out of whole foods parkin' lot where i'd picked up my lunch and was headin' to work (this is in newton, ma) and this car came by and brushed my ****in' leg. there was plenty of room but the car made contact and kept on goin'. so i accelerated and caught 'em a ways down the road. now if it'd been an old lady or somethin' i'd've just let it go, but it was an old fat dude in fancyass lexus or something. so i started pointin' at 'em and gesturing (using all my fingers at this point) and the dude rolls his window down and i say, "hey, how 'bout sharin' the road?". motherfocker responds: "shut the **** up!" i'm my usual mature self and respond: "**** you, you fat bastard". dude takes off from the light and i stay right with him harassin' him and kickin' the side of his whip and generally talkin' **** and he's gettin' all heated up an' **** and gesturin' and i thought he was gonna have a ****in' coronary. i started laughin' and he got even more insane! i swear i thought he was gonna wreck!

anyway, it was fun.

Honestly, if you kicked my ****ing car... I would have beaten your ass with the tire iron under my seat.

that fat bastard coulda pasted you to the road. that was dumb.

the escalation vs. non-escalation things has come up before.

i enjoy a good scrap every now and then, usually i try to take a more peaceful approach to things. i think it works better to be aggressively firm and polite: "Listen, if you can't tap on your brake or go around a little bit more generously, you run the risk of seriously hurting or killing me or some other biker. in the future, you need to be more careful. it's dangerous for me, stupid for you, and lots of people won't hesitate to break your windshield or sideview mirror with a lock that looks a lot like this one. be more careful."

Probably not the most intelligent thing to have done, but who cares.
If you had gotten injured it would have been your fault, but you didn't so am I the kind of guy who think it's funny and doesn't look at the "what-ifs."
You're going to get a lot of flack on here, for reasons I'm not entirely sure of.
Whenever anyone posts a similar sort of motorist run-in story people tend to come down hard on the guy for "being dumb."
Maybe they think that such acts give riders a bad name, I dont know.
I liked it.

yeah sorry bruno you can do what you want, it just wasn't my style.

The car hit him, not vice versa. A cager hits me and then drives away (it's called a hit and run in law enforcement, folks), he'll be lucky all I do is run him down and give him a piece of my mind. If he comes after me with a tire iron, I'll cram my spare innertube up his nose (or worse) and pump it up to 200 psi.

more importantly what did you get for lunch at whole foods?

jackpot.

I am not disputing the fact that the driver was a jaggoff and that it was a hit and run.

If someone is crazy or stupid enough to hit you and keep going it does not seem a good plan to chase them down given that they are most likely crazy/stupid enough to do something worse.

Keep pulling that kinda crap and someone is just gonna either run your ass over on purpose or shoot you.

i don't really **** around with drivers to that extent unless it's fairly dense (or stopped) traffic and i can get away on the quick if the cockbag decides to further escalate the madness.

Exactly.
I for example am crazy enough to get out of the car and stomp some hippy ass for kicking my car.
So.. there you go.

yeah, im not against confronting/calling out motorists and the occasional car tap/slap/punch/kick but your approach sounds pretty dangerous. he could have easily swerved and taken you out. be careful out there!

this, however, is coming from someone who jumped in the back of a hit and run offenders moving car.

Drivers in Newton are the worst. The other week I almost got hit 3 times in the stretch of 1/2 mile right in newton centre. Did this happen at the whole foods on beacon st in newton centre?

finish this story.

you're the guy spider! c'mon folks! act like ya got a pair! jeez! it was on suburban streets and the dude was old and i'm a helluva rider. i know it ain't "smart" but neither is ridin' fixed really when ya think about it. so what? i WISH the dude'd gotten out of the car, but he was fat and old. like i say, i wouldn't have gotten after a woman (cause ol' brunop don't roll that way), but i'll take on most any dude anytime.

as bob marley taight ya: "stand up for your rights"!

and eddie--i had the sesame tofu. my favorite!

i like to say i don't believe in escalation and would like to say i'd be as calm as queerpunk says, but truthfully, i have a hard time concealing the fact that i think drivers who don't take the safety of others, particularly cyclists, into account are all complete scum who deserve to be treated with the same disdain as if they'd already killed someone, which they probably will if they keep driving like the pieces of **** they are.

i have a hard time concealing that attitude. if you don't care to not kill others with your car (potentially a lethal weapon), you're a piece of ****. plain and simple.

I will say that the mark a spd will leave on a lexus finish is a wonderful thing. Also, this is why I usually carry pepperspray on the front of my bag strap.

all you need

yep! the very same one. the dude actually made contact and then had the gall to curse at ME! i just suggested that he "share the road". i can't believe you folks would be so calm about it. actually i don't believe you would be--you're all just sayin' that sittin' at your computer. and i was never in any danger--like i say, i caught him at a light and had escape routes. besides the look on his face and his apoplexy was way more than worth any "danger". stick up for yourself when you can!

and if i'm mad enough to kick your car, i guarantee you do not want to throw down with ol' brunop. trust me on this one.

Seriously.

but dude, he was in a car. he is therefore superior to you. you must be poor or stupid or something else a driver can be condescending about...otherwise you wouldn't be riding a bike. you worthless idiot peasant.

that stuff is the shizz...

+1. that's pretty badass.

Do a search on evan's story - it was one of the best threads I have ever read. A great story of justice and damn it got my adrenaline pumping. I forget the title - evan?