Road rage caught on tape

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by Jgrooms

I'm not for a sec defending the driver, but you don't believe when you strap a camera to your head that you might respond differently?

I would have expected the assailant to act differently.

[JAllen]

I think if someone intimidates a cyclist, it's caught on camera, and is obvious, they should be arrested, charged with something, and lose their license for years. If they do all this but hit someone??? Felony charges, lose your driving privileges for life. If these types of responses happened I don't think you'd see very much anymore. Since they make it so easy to get a license, you should be able to lose it just as easy.

If someone does something absent minded, I usually clap or give a thumbs up. I have yelled at someone for being on their phone before. If someone passes too close I usually don't say much. I haven't been buzzed on purpose in a while. I try to keep my cool, but I come unglued if someone shouts at me.

I've really calmed down over the years. It takes quite a bit to get me upset enough to react. I.E. shouting.

[DHallerman]

Originally Posted by Gummee

You remember how your mom used to shake her head when you'd done something wrong?

I've started doing that when people are being stupid.

The whole 'I can't believe you just did that' shake of the head. May work. May not. ...but what it doesn't do is inflame someone that's already looking for a reason to get ticked at you (as a cyclist)

OR when something's really egregious, I'll do the 'WTHeck?!' shrug/arms out to the sides thing. Same idea. Gets the point across without being inflammatory.

Great idea with those non-inflammatory gestures. Got to try those.

I also use the gesture shown in this video, a way of disguising eff-you that looks like I'm waving at them: video here

Also, if I do say something to a driver that's done something dangerous, in my desire not to curse, I try to say, "Are you unskilled? Or just mean spirited?"

Probably better things to say than that.

Dave, who heard his wife Cathy behind him yesterday yelling at a driver who had just cut her off and after the driver sat in her/his car for awhile afterwards which makes me think it was the accident of the unskilled

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by velomonkey

Cue the whole "We are our own worst enemies" - "I wouldn't have ridden on that road" - "We need to give respect to earn respect"

And yes, I stopped using the finger a long, long time ago - and yea, I get scared too when that happens - they are in a car, I'm on a bike with cleats.

I wouldn't have flipped him off. Everything else the rider did was right. No issues from me so don't go looking for them

[djg21]

Originally Posted by merlinmurph

Yup, when I get buzzed, I keep looking at their rear view mirror. They're always looking back and have a big, sh*t-eating grin on their face.

I just bought a fly6 rear camera, and likely will get the front facing Fly12 when that becomes available. I try to avoid confrontations with motorists because I'm concerned, living in upstate NY, that eventually some piece of drunken trailer trash in a beat up pickup who buzzes me will have a gun. But there is value in being able to document these encounters.

[redir]

Originally Posted by sitzmark

Unless the motorist is a habitual "hazer" of cyclists, then maybe it's the next cyclist that gets run over. Passivity isn't always the answer. A friend and I were buzzed as close as we possibly could have been without being hit on a 50mph stretch of 2 lane (straight) country road. The driver knew what he was doing - sounded the trumpet horn from 1/4 mile back. No oncoming traffic. We were riding single file and within 12-18" of the road edge that dropped off into a morass of ruts, broken asphalt and sand. I still recall the flash of the side mirror next to my head and the effort it took not to go down.

Reported it to a sheriff down the road and he couldn't have cared less. I would not have any regrets if someone takes this guy out so the next person's life isn't jeopardized. Sad but that's the way it is.

The guy in the vid was arrested. Unless this cyclist provoked the situation off camera, the guy got (a little) less than what he deserved. Personal protection works both ways.

I agree. I always think of it like this, you just played Russian Roulette with my life and need to get a little of the same. My passive aggressive fantasy, a little play that I wrote in my head for these special occasions is to capture the guy and bring him to a dark dingy basement and tie him to a chair. Leave him there for a couple days before flipping on the bright lights and explain to him a little story inspired by William Tell.

"What I'm gonna do is put this little apple on your head and try to hit it off nice and clean with this size 36 Louisville Slugger, you know just like you did when you tried to get as close as possible to me with your car. I'll be honest, as I believe you were, I believe you had no intention on hitting and killing me so I don't either. I'm going to try as best as I can for clean strike. I was a pitcher in high school, never really a good hitter..."

Realty is these days I let them go since as someone stated, like trolls, they really do want a reaction so I don't give it. I can tell you one thing there is no way in hell I would have passed that guy like this rider did giving him the chance to run close by me again. That was not good thinking but then people don't think too well in those situations.

[54ny77]

Both were dumb. The more dumber one sounds like he went to jail. Hope he meets some more dumberer people in jail to make him feel smart enough to know to never go assaulting cyclists, which is a dumb idea in the first place.

[Aaron O]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

'Nice truck, too bad about the penis'...was a bumper sticker I saw the other day. He may have kicked my ass but he would have known he was in a fight.

I know it's dum, but I have gone nose to nose with a few SHeads in cars..One could take out a gun and shoot me, I know. I remember a story in SanDiego about 20 years ago..bike and car..car pulls up the road, driver takes a cross bow out of the trunk, puts an arrow in the cyclists chest..drives away..

I'm trying to stop, but it really is hard when you get a schmuck who really has it coming. I know how stupid and illogical it is to let these people get to you, but logic and wisdom seem to fail me when I'm annoyed.

[SlackMan]

Regarding gesturing, I hold my hands up three feet apart and yell, "you owe me three feet of space." I've have only one guy stop and I was able to explain what I meant, which was educational for him and no threats ensued.

I do not and have not (middle-finger) flipped people off. When I was in high school, a "tough guy" in my grade once flipped off supporters of an opposing football team at a game. They promptly chased him down and broke his finger. In another story, a guy I knew flipped off a group of guys in a truck. They chased him down, smashed into his car with their big truck, and then fled the scene. Early on, I learned there is little to be gained from flipping someone off and much to be lost.

[Nags&Ducs]

You never know who will come out of the car- an ex-con, gang-banger, or in this case, a fat piece of ···· ····tard like this guy. In this case, heck my sister could've whooped his fat ass.

Johnny Macintosh. I wonder if he is getting threats on his FB page yet.

[bcroslin]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

there was the case of a motorist in Colorado that got more and more extreme with his harassment of cyclists and finally killed one. So I think we really should complain to the cops about people like this. And besides, the most anit-cyclist cop in the area keeps telling me how many complaints he gets about cyclists as justification for harassing us, we need to turn that ratio around

The lenses on these cameras makes the passes look further away than they are. I was riding in front of someone who had a camera when we got a close pass. The van looked reasonably far away when it passed the camera, But when it passed me, it almost hooked my bag with the right side mirror

Anytime we get buzzed on the group rides I always try and grab a license plate number and call it in just so there's a record of the driver harassing cyclists. A few months ago we had a driver blare the horn and then ride right up on our wheels. When someone yelled at him he swerved at us and literally drove 3 cyclists off the road. I was able to get a plate and called it in and an officer responded but couldn't find the driver. A few days later one of our group called to follow up and the officer asked if he'd like to file charges and he said yes. Three of us testified to an assistant states attorney and last we heard the driver had to hire a lawyer because he was being charged.

Moral of th story: stay calm and get a license plate number and you just might get some justice.

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by redir

... capture the guy and bring him to a dark dingy basement and tie him to a chair. Leave him there for a couple days before flipping on the bright lights and explain to him a little story...

I'd tell him this one:



"What now? Let me tell you what now. I'ma call a coupla hard, pipe-hittin'
*******, who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow
torch. You hear me talkin', hillbilly boy? I ain't through with you by a damn
sight. I'ma get medieval on your ***."

[mainb57]

You are all doing it wrong. Ride like this and no one bothers you.

[DarkStar]

Originally Posted by bobswire

Get this logo printed on a cycling vest.

Few years back doing a long ride in the country, car driving A-hole began to hassle me, kept buzzing me for several minutes until a pair of leathered-up bikers on Harleys rolled up alongside of him and told him to f**k off.
A-hole just about ···· himself, couldn’t drive away fast enough. Thank the bikers, promised them a case of beer next time but never saw them again.

[unterhausen]

I don't like to watch these videos, but I fast-forwarded through this one. When pickup guy stopped, that was probably the time to call the police. The thing is, I don't get in a lot of fistfights, and I'd rather not have things devolve to contests of strength. Idiots are usually better at that sort of thing than I am.