close encounters of the crazy driver kind

Tarckives Bikes
1

On my way to work yesterday, I came to a intersection (28th and Sandy, for folks who know PDX). I was on a road with one lane of traffic in each direction, line of parked cars, riding between the parked cars and the cars in the road, for maybe 50 feet - it’s a short light, and crosses a road with 3 lanes of traffic in each direction, and there are often people turning right, so I like to ride between the cars, pass all of them, and pull in front of them a little bit for visibility.

This means that when I cross the road, I keep this same position - a little to the right of cars, letting them pass me. Sandy is a pretty wide road, so I’m usually able to let a few cars pass me, then merge back into traffic slowly. On the other side of the intersection, there’s another row of parked cars - I keep a few feet between me and them, but the road is wide enough that cars can pass me on my left if there aren’t other cars coming.

After maybe 7 parked cars, there’s a marked bike path for a few hundred feet (this is a highway overpass).

Immediately after I crossed Sandy, a car started honking at me. I had no idea why - maybe she thought I’d cut her off, which I think is pretty stupid, considering that I gave her plenty of time to see me in front of her while she was stopped at the light, and she obviously had space to pass me, which she did, giving me the finger. I gave her the finger back. Once she’d passed me, I was able to realize that the car behind HER was honking.

By now, I was in the bike lane. The car behind me accelerated very quickly, then pulled over into the bike lane and stopped very suddenly - I had maybe about 5 feet to stop. I went around the car, because I had nowhere to go.

She proceeded to attempt to door me. She missed me by about 6 inches, I stayed on my bike. She stepped out of her car and started screaming at me. I told her that I was going to call police, rode around her car, stopped in front of it (probably stupid) and got onto the sidewalk with my bike. She drove away. I was able to get a witness’s name and phone number.

I called police and filed an incident report. They have a complaint on file, and told me that I have a case number and can call the district attorney to try to prosecute her. They said that it would take some followup on my part, since it’s only a Class C misdemeanor (harassment - they couldn’t book her for assault because I didn’t actually make contact with her car), her first offense, and is just not a high priority case.

I don’t know what to do. I emailed my friend who I think is a public defender in Portland, but wanted to get tarck’s advice.

Also, here’s another thread to post about crazies you meet on the road.

2

do what any good portlander would do, get some friends and a couple of thugs and go knock on her door.

3

If I were you I would pursue the prosecution. I do not tolerate threats, and she needs to learn her lesson. Fortunately I haven’t had anything crazy like that happen to me.

4

hey anemptygun, i going to shove some dicks in your mouth.

5

no thank you.

(irl threats ≠ e-thug threats)

6

shoulda slammed into her car. you’d have gotten paid

7

yeah I wish I’d been thinking that quickly, the instinct to avoid was just too strong

8

yeah I wish I’d been thinking that quickly, the instinct to avoid was just too strong[/quote]
happens to me too. then again, in my town, the driver would just take off.

9

last thing i would do is purposely run my bike into a car.
i just tend to roar at people if i don’t detect a real threat from them, and skiddadle off.

10

skid-dadle?

11

[quote=lot_22]last thing i would do is purposely run my bike into a car.
i just tend to roar at people if i don’t detect a real threat from them, and skiddadle off.[/quote]

I did this to a guy today while I was out riding with the girl. She said she’d never before heard a sound like that come out of me and was quite surprised.

12

Trust me… it aint worth it to get into an accident you can avoid. Speakin from someone who has been doored (by a bitch who yelled at me for runnin’ into her lebaron).

13

anita, i would try and prosecute. it will suck and probably take up a lot of time, but she won’t yell at bikers anymore and probably not act all aggressive.

please don’t purposely run into cars. my brother (not while on a bike) was hit by a car and lost a leg and the use of his right arm.

14

people can lose their liscence here for cutting off cyclists. i almost got cutoff by some beez in a red bug yesterday.

15

they can’t even give her a ticket for cutting me off, I guess that’s a moving violation and a cop has to actually issue those citations

16

[quote=littlebear]anita, i would try and prosecute. it will suck and probably take up a lot of time, but she won’t yell at bikers anymore and probably not act all aggressive.

please don’t purposely run into cars. my brother (not while on a bike) was hit by a car and lost a leg and the use of his right arm.[/quote]

thanks littlebear, some of my friends have been saying that I should “let it go”, one jerk even told me that since i am a christian it would be appropriate for me to “turn the other cheek” and that it would make no difference whether I take this woman to court or have a complaint against her on her record? but I just don’t know. I emailed a friend of friends who is a public defender at the DA’s office, I hope he writes back with some advice. I think I’m willing to put in the time, it means a lot to me that people understand that their actions can have consequences, especially if they fuck with the wrong person. people shouldn’t be allowed to get away with shit because victims are too put off by dealing with the legal system.

she had kids in the car with her too, so it’s even more important to me that the kids see that mommy has to deal with some bullshit because she tried to hurt a biker.

17

I would have gave her a little bump with my U lock. My brother and I had the pleasure of putting a few dents and spitting on a Lamborghini Gallardo on Fri. We were taking the right lane and he didn’t feel we should so this ass clown blew right past us a few inches away from my elbow and then cut us off and gunned it. Little did he see we had a red light up ahead, one quick sprint and we caught him my brother put a fist size ding in the roof and spat on the passenger window while I put one on the hood and left some saliva on the front windshield. The guy didn’t even talk shit he just made a quick right turn and left. Aggressive driver need to be taught a lesson right away, or it doesn’t sink in. This ass hat learned that waiting a few minutes to pass riders using the left lane and not half of the right and half of the left is a better idea.

19

awesome

20

i’d refrain from damaging property unless they actually made contact. While some people may not retaliate others will and they can easily do more damage than a u-lock.

21

[quote=Joan of Tarck][quote=littlebear]anita, i would try and prosecute. it will suck and probably take up a lot of time, but she won’t yell at bikers anymore and probably not act all aggressive.

please don’t purposely run into cars. my brother (not while on a bike) was hit by a car and lost a leg and the use of his right arm.[/quote]

thanks littlebear, some of my friends have been saying that I should “let it go”, one jerk even told me that since i am a christian it would be appropriate for me to “turn the other cheek” and that it would make no difference whether I take this woman to court or have a complaint against her on her record? but I just don’t know. I emailed a friend of friends who is a public defender at the DA’s office, I hope he writes back with some advice. I think I’m willing to put in the time, it means a lot to me that people understand that their actions can have consequences, especially if they fuck with the wrong person. people shouldn’t be allowed to get away with shit because victims are too put off by dealing with the legal system.

she had kids in the car with her too, so it’s even more important to me that the kids see that mommy has to deal with some bullshit because she tried to hurt a biker.[/quote]

Tell that Christian to do his homework. The whole “turn the other cheek” bit in the Bible had to do with not getting into petty insult fights with somebody, as that is what the slap is, not a form of fighting. It’s most certainly NOT about being a pansy and letting people harm you.