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[Brendan von Buckingham]

He may not have deserved it on a personal level. Let’s assume he’s a very nice guy with a mother and all. But his actions can’t be defended. The collision was the logical eventuality of the way he was choosing to ride. It was just a matter of time. He was lucky that he was able to walk off after the collision, even if he only made it as far as the bench at the bus shelter. He needs new friends though. One, they were the peer group that made his riding seem an acceptable risk to him. And two, “Dude, where’s your bike?” and “Dude, how’s your bike?” aren’t the biggest priorities after getting grilled by a mini-van cab. A “Dude, are you OK?” would have been nice.

[Dickie]

@TwoWheelsDC 55476 wrote:

I’ve done a couple social rides in DC and there always seems to be a few people like this that show up, so I now pretty much refuse to do these types of rides. Despite the reputation ELITE riders get, I find the shop rides to be much more well-behaved. Sure, there are some idiots who can’t hold their line or whatever, but I’m not constantly cringing while thinking “this is why drivers hate cyclists”, like is the case on the social rides. I’m sure I’ll get there, but my feelings about shop rides are still positive at this point..

I have participated in a number of the tweed and Seersucker rides and feel like they do a pretty good job. Although it is hard to control 1000 cyclists in the city, they provide marshals and escorts along the way and the pack generally gets broken into groups due to traffic lights. Most of the time when traffic is forced to wait for us they are patient and more fascinated with a bunch of loons dressed in tweed riding penny farthings. I don’t recall seeing or hearing about renegade DB’s ruining the day… YET…. let’s hope they don’t infiltrate these events as well…. curious, what social rides were you talking about?

[nikki_d]

@jabberwocky 55455 wrote:

I saw the video yesterday. Probably the most deserved car-ramming-a-cyclist ever. Hope the taxi wasn’t too screwed up.

I saw the video and the guys involved were being complete and total a**holes. It was the extreme version of why I never personally participate in group social rides. However, no matter how a person is behaving, I would never say anyone deserves to be rammed by a car for their behavior. Neither the cyclist or driver “deserve” the trauma associated with that. I would have loved to see the guy chased down by a police officer, issued numerous citations, and brought before a judge though.

[jabberwocky]

@nikki_d 55653 wrote:

However, no matter how a person is behaving, I would never say anyone deserves to be rammed by a car for their behavior. Neither the cyclist or driver “deserve” the trauma associated with that.

I didn’t mean deserved in the “I’m glad it happened” sense, more in the “its the unsurprising result of riding like that, and I have zero sympathy for them” sense.

Although an electrician I knew had a saying thats always stuck with me: “Life should be like working with electricity. Being stupid should hurt. Being really stupid should kill you.” :p

[nikki_d]

@jabberwocky 55655 wrote:

I didn’t mean deserved in the “I’m glad it happened” sense, more in the “its the unsurprising result of riding like that, and I have zero sympathy for them” sense.

Thank you for clarifying.

[timo96]

Couple of thoughts:

This happened right in front of my apartment 11th and P — I was taking the trash out and heard the wreck, my gf saw the cyclist get hit and thrown. Group of guys racing; dude who wrecked = no brakes, no helmet (not judging, just noting). No doubt that the cyclists were in the wrong, but there is also no doubt in my mind that the taxi driver was speeding – probably more than a little bit. I say this because I talked to people who saw it happen, because of the physics of where the impact happened versus where the taxi driver managed to stop his vehicle, and because I have seen the video. If the cyclists weren’t blowing redlights this accident would not have happened. It may also have been avoided if the taxi driver was going a safe speed for that road (believe the limit is 25 mph on 11th St).

The young man who was struck is very, very lucky he is not dead. There is no other way to put it.

Other thoughts — dude’s buddies were fairly poor examples of human beings. It was awfully cool of them to split before the cops showed up.

[ebubar]

@timo96 55678 wrote:

Couple of thoughts:

This happened right in front of my apartment 11th and P — I was taking the trash out and heard the wreck, my gf saw the cyclist get hit and thrown. Group of guys racing; dude who wrecked = no brakes, no helmet (not judging, just noting). No doubt that the cyclists were in the wrong, but there is also no doubt in my mind that the taxi driver was speeding – probably more than a little bit. I say this because I talked to people who saw it happen, because of the physics of where the impact happened versus where the taxi driver managed to stop his vehicle, and because I have seen the video. If the cyclists weren’t blowing redlights this accident would not have happened. It may also have been avoided if the taxi driver was going a safe speed for that road (believe the limit is 25 mph on 11th St).

The young man who was struck is very, very lucky he is not dead. There is no other way to put it.

Other thoughts — dude’s buddies were fairly poor examples of human beings. It was awfully cool of them to split before the cops showed up.

It did seem the taxi was speeding a bit. I suspect it was in an attempt to beat the red light that was coming. If I recall, the light the cyclist ran turned green shortly afterward (or am I making that up?). Of course, the cyclists were undoubtedly wrong and riding like buffoons.

[Author]

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