I love gridlock.
 

Sliding Eastward up the Fullerton Bridge through the early-morning gridlock thoughts of the upcoming day float through my clear head. I breathe in and out, rocking Tank back and forth in a controlled climb as the dashed white lane divider disappears behind me.

The morning is crisp and sunny and perfect.

Somewhere in my head I hear honking and suddenly I realize the honking is not in my head but right beside me. Behind a drivers-side window I see a figure violently gesturing at me. I check my position and I have not ventured into his lane, and am honestly a good two feet from any car around me. The figure pulls the steering-wheel to the left and the oil slick black BMW swerves over the white dotted line forcing me into the left lane and challenging my place on the road with two tons of steel and plastic to my twenty pounds of it.

Swerving back into his lane the driver revs his engine and speeds up the hill, cresting it before stopping about thirty feet ahead of me at the stoplight of Fullerton Plaza.

My mind is racing. Should I stop and talk to him? Pound on his window screaming and foaming and red, hot from the ride and fully energized by the vitamin and nutrient cocktail I had downed not ten minutes earlier? I begin my smooth descent toward his car, his 2,000 pound near death machine growling in the gridlock. He is powerless to move through the mass of metal before and behind him and it strikes me.

I am approaching his car and my gloved right hand rises high. Sweeps down. Impacts. I feel the sting of the mirror's plastic shell and smooth face on my padded palm. The shell cracks. Looses itself from the body of the car. Plastic and glass go skittering across the blacktop.

I power down the remainder of the hill at full 54/16 sprint as a powerless honking and fury rises behind me, sitting still in gridlock. Through the red light and under the low steel Metra bridge. A quick turn onto Clybourne and down side streets and I am swallowed by the city.

I love gridlock.

Violence is not the answer.

But it sure is theraputic.

:D

I did some yelling today. They put up the bike lane signs, so now, the drivers should be in the "know". So, as I was forced to ride in the gutter, or in the traffic lane, I did some yelling.

I got a few suprised looks, no comments.

Though I looked in one open window as I yelled, and noticed two stars on the collar. So, I added a "sir" and quickly made my way to the gate.

DV, you push a hell of a gear there.

I'm sure that the next time that driver sees a rider, your incredible display of maturity will be payed forward.

It's all about escallation. I think that if you weave into a cyclist ON PURPOSE, you kind of buy a response.

OK, I see that. And now it's been escalated once more. Think that driver's gonna let it go, given that they've already shown that they're an asshat? I doubt it.

And we wonder why some drivers really have it out for us.

That's inane.

Your response and dumpstervegan action. Thanks for making the cycling world a little worse today.

Hey WK, my reply wasn't to your story (figure you know that, but it should be public knowledge). Looks like you added that after I said something about maturity. Shouting matches are one thing. Breaking someone's stuff is another.

I'm always more than happy to bring justice to the injust. Like Judge Dredd only a little more ripped.

If some guy wants to fuuck with me for riding my bicycle he deserves whatever he gets. I'm always a very considerate rider and don't do anything that could endanger myself or people around me (I was driving through 15mph Fullerton rush-hour traffic, hardly dangerous by any stretch of the imagination) and when I'm put in danger for no reason I'm going to retaliate.

Now perhaps the driver will think twice about swerving at cyclists. Or maybe he'll run a cyclist over. I dunno, but what I do know is that he tried to hit me today and that's unacceptable. I feel that by backing down from situations like that cyclists only show the agressor that his actions are acceptable.

I know there are two schools of thought on this topic and I suppose that it can be argued both ways, but what it boils down to is what the individual feels is right in the situation. I did what I feel was right, and when you experience something similar you should feel free to go up to his window, knock politely, and talk it out with him.

DBP. Not that you warrent it, but I'll do a little explanation.

I've been run into the curb 3 times now by people cruising the bike line waiting to get on base.

One day, I drove into to work, and noticed that you can't see the bike lane in traffic, and there is no sign there either.

So, I took it upon my self, to notify the city, and have the signs fixed.

This is all documented in the Advocy forum here, if you look.

The signs have been fixed. I yell, because if I talk, I can't be heard. Car windows and all.

I also plan to hand out flyers as well, with quoted MVC.

Now, if this doesn't fit your ideal of how to approach the problem, I'd love to see the solution.

As for DV and his method: the guy was swerving into him. What action was due? I think his action was ok. I'm not sure I would have taken it. But I think it was a due response for the situation.

Breaking someone's stuff is another. However, given the situation, I think there is a certain level of justification. Again, not sure if I'd do it, but, perhaps.

I've knocked on windows of people pulling into the bike lanes who because radio's were too loud/defness/lost to the world/blindness didn't notice me.

This gets me safe, and them out of the bike lane. Do you dissaprove?

I disapprove because I've seen drivers retaliate to a cyclist's retaliation. A cyclist will never win vs. a car. I'm not advocating letting anyone do anything unchecked, but violence breeds violence, and the rest of us are left out there with drivers that are more angry towards riders than they were before someone broke part of their car off. I understand the response, but I know full well that, more often than not, you won't have to deal with that driver the next time.

It's gotta stop somewhere. You certainly can't let people bully you, but I think justifying reactions as proportionate is just going to end up getting someone run over by an 'escalated' driver.

I've used violence a few times as a cyclist, but only when I felt it was truly justified. I've taken off ~5 side mirrors, and thrown a headlight into a driver's head. The side mirrors were all the same situation. A driver either pulled out in front of me, or right-turned into me, and I hit them, then they failed to stop and acknowledge what they did. If I had broken my neck, they never would have known, they all just drove off. For all but one of them, I even rolled up and knocked on their window, but they each refused to even look over at me, leading me to believe that they KNEW they did it, but just hoped that by driving off, I would go away.
The headlight was a special circumstance. It was a middle-aged guy in a Porsche 914 Convertible who got the Cateye special. I was coming off of Mt. Tamalpais, doing about 35 in a medium length straight about to enter a hairpin left, when this guy whizzes up next to me, then misjudges the left turn, slides into the shoulder, and hits me hard enough to send the Peugeot and me completely airborne and into the adjacent ditch. You can guess how that made me feel. The little twit didn't even stop. I get back on the bike and start flying down the hill. My knees, elbows, and chin were bleeding, but I was on a mission. Luckily, this part of Tam was very twisty, and I'm much faster than a car through it. As I'm gaining on my new best friend, I see the deep scratches and medium size dent I left in the passenger-side door. There is no way he could not have known that he hit me... hard.
As I'm passing him on the left (I know, not real safe), I decide that I'm not even going to yell at him. I do the only thing my rattled brain can come up with. I pull off my headlight, and hit him square in the temple. My buddy slams the brake, swerves off into the pullout, and I never saw him again.
I don't advocate violence, but hugs and love won't teach the few unremorseful drivers to admit that they've done something wrong.

p.s. I fully expect admonition for my churlish, unpolished behavior.

Yeah-
We all know how gridlocked the streets Allentown NJ (http://www.allentownnj.com/allentown/page1.htm) and Window Rock AZ (http://www.city-data.com/city/Window-Rock-Arizona.html) can be. In a larger population center (think of a city that has 2,896,016 residents as of 2000 vs. 3059 of Window Rock in 2000), smacking hoods and mirrors is commonplace. Do I care if you consent to DV's actions? NO, you are not here. I do recommend going to a city with over 1000000 residents and riding through mornig rush hour for more than 2 weeks and see how quickly your friendly waves turn into a defensive manuever/warning. At times, it does get a bit extreme, but if it is me or a mirror, it'll be the mirror. No question

My feeling is that he could have easily broken every bone in my body, indeed he made a half-hearted attempt at doing just that. Losing his mirror is a small tax in light of the scale of his incursion. It seems very easy to swerve in a car and may seem like posturing and "taking control of the road" from their end but from my end swerving at me was a life-threatening action.

If someone were to attack me and then ran off I would, were I given the chance, exact full vengance on them. Maybe chasing down my attacker and taking something from them will make them hate people like me in the future but it will also teach respect and that you and your ilk are not to be taken so lightly.

I suppose this just boils down to a difference of opinion on how to deal with confrontation. Not that your way is wrong by any means, nor is my way wrong. Just different. If he had honked and that was all I would have let it slide with yelling and cursing (as I normally do) but swerving at me is definitely stepping the situation up a bit.

No why, WHY would you go and confuse an arguement with facts?

(waiting for what reasonable explanation is gonna come from the others now)

Man, the base I work on has more people than that.. More come through the gates in the morning than that.

There are not two schools of thought. Breaking someones property like that is illegal.

If everyone did what they felt was right for any given situation as you suggest then you just justified that motorists actions.

Plenty of people have been mistreated by a driver in the city. Myself included (want the whole sad story PM me or dig it up here). Don't come nosing around me looking for praise or a pat on the back. What you did was wrong, stupid, immmature, and illegal.

All that driver owes you is an apology - you owe him a fixed piece of car.

Its not about being a sheep and backing down, its about being smart and mature. If I saw that situation I would think "what an A@@hole" -- about the motorist AND the cyclist. Now If I saw the same situation but the cyclist did not break a piece of the car off I would think "What an A@@hole"........ about the driver.... only.

You got angry, hit the guys car. fine move on. but to strut around PROUD of it.... gimme a break.

So you were to his left, sharing a lane with him? I'm having trouble picturing the events.

I guess that means its OK to act like that in a large population center, but in sleepy little Allentown we have to act differently?

No reasonable explanation is needed, I think anyone can see that what happened there is not isolated to big cities and not living in one does not preclude me or anyone from holding an opinion of the situation.

How does where I live pertain in any way to this arguament or the situation?

please commute one morning in new york city and get back to us on this topic, thanks!

mc

Life vs. Property

I recently had a run in with a very angry man and his piece of **** automobile. Homeboy was in a rush to make a light, so was I...He came into my lane to go around a turning car and almost pinned me a against a parked van. So, I gave his window a couple of quick jabs as to alert him that I was there...no damage done to the car/window...just a wake up call. This enraged the driver to the point where he came up behind me in the middle of the intesection (Houston & Ave. A NYC) as if to hit me...all the while screaming his head off (in front of his wife and 2 kids, if ever somebody looked like a wifebeater it was this dude).

I couldnt believe it...he was pissed....once i crossed the intersection he tried to hit me agian, I dont think he would have actually hit me, but what if he did...he is ****ing around with a TON of metal and one human's life. So I pulled to the side and stoped the bike, he came up right behind me screaming, that "nobody can touch his car" (I think it was a Honda...late 90's) I informed him that he almost hit me...then he asked if wanted to get hit, threating to really hit me with his fists. I told him to share the road.

you wanna get hit?
share the road!
you wanna get hit?
share the road!
you wanna get hit?
yes!, I want to get hit...this is how you are acting in front of your family?...yes hit me!

then an unmarked cop car came up and told him to get back in his car and for me to get outta of there...

Point being...people are INSANE. Violence may or may not be the answer, but there are some DUMB****S out on the road. And if you see a Blue Honda with NY plates GHR 183...give his window a nice jab for me.

I don't advocate acting maliciously or doing things out of spite. But after you've been nudged, tapped, swideswiped and doored a couple times, you quickly realize that all is not rosy in the big city....and DC isn't half as crazy as Chicago...so yes, demographics are key, here, and sometimes pounding on a window, or a hood is the only way to let some a-hole know that if he keeps fading into your line, he's going to kill you. For whatever reason waving and a cheery disposition don't seem to do the trick.

Smashing someones mirror is destruction of property. Swerving your car at someone is attempted manslaughter.

Well I suppose his actions were justified then... And so were mine.

I'm not looking for praise and I will always be the first to say that I'm immature and stupid.

That he doesn't owe me and that he won't get - our score is settled.

I'm sure I look like an assshole as does the driver.

I am sharing my experience and looking for responses. I am enjoying this conversation and the different opinions expressed in it. I'm not mad and don't have any ill will toward any of you for your opinions though you may call me stupid and immature.

indeed...well put mcutt

It's a big city thing, you wouldn't understand I guess.

Example, when I was a kid, we went to Elkton South Dakota. I was laughed at when I locked the family car doors. Just a foreign stupid idea to lock doors, as who in their right mind would steal?

EDK, you'd just have to see it to understand, honestly. I'm sure you'd get it then.

I take great exception to the way dumpstervegan handled himself on Fullerton this morning (a route I've ridden many times myself), I'm ashamed and think he let down the entire cycling communtiy in Chicago, and the rest of the world for that matter. Did it make you feel better to raise your hand, impact, and scatter plastic all over the blacktop? No, it didn't, and I'll tell you why. Because at that instant all you did was break a piece of plastic on his precious BMW instead of smashing his skull and sending blood and bone framgents onto the pavement the way you should have, the way the city has taught you, the way he wanted to do to you. Right now he's over at Knauz getting the mirror replaced and bragging about how f'd up you are and how your bike is a twisted mess. For your penance listen to Stooges "Raw Power" and the first Clash record twice each then get back on that bike and go get a piece of that plastic and carry it with you always.