Today A Car Hit Me–Intentionally

[Mykeru]

@acc 1774 wrote:

I am glad you are ok and came out of this misadventure in one piece.

Well, luckily it was a glancing blow to the bike, which then took me out, but considering, it could have been a lot worse, like this idiot trying to explain what happened to a cop with my head flat on the pavement.

I am sorry you weren’t supported in your cycling, that stinks on so many levels.

Yes, well, it was that kind of relationship, but, as I said, I still have the bike.

Please let us know of any new soreness or injuries surface over the next two days. As a former nurse I can tell you it may not hit you for 48 hours. But you already know that I am sure.

Hmmn, a former nurse…well, I do feel a bit of soreness right — well, that probably won’t work

Most of all, keep fighting the good fight and look into that RPG thing, maybe a small caliber machine gun mounted turret-style would work.

I have a vintage M1 carbine I take camping, but right now I think I’ll stick with the 6 oz. fishing weights.

[acc]

I must be naive or simple-minded but I do not understand the reference to the lead fishing weights, obviously something sinister but I can’t come up with a clear mental image of what exactly is going on.

I assume you fish with the M1 carbine, right? lol

I was a Navy nurse and took care of sailors and Marines but they were sick and a little scared so they at least pretended to relate to me as a sister or an authority figure, and I mean that in a totally protective way.

Looks like another day of spin class or cleaning the house, or realistically watching movies === “Bicycle Dreams” was terrific, saw it last night. Imagine a coast to coast ride in about nine days.

[Mykeru]

@acc 1781 wrote:

I must be naive or simple-minded but I do not understand the reference to the lead fishing weights, obviously something sinister but I can’t come up with a clear mental image of what exactly is going on.

Lead fishing weights stimulate the auto glass industry.

Hey, it’s snowing! I knew it would as soon as I took off my Continental Spike Claw snow tires.

[acc]

It’s good to know there is at least one viable economic stimulus plan out there.

[eminva]

Hello —

I was telling my husband about this last night and he thought of something I hadn’t — some intersections in DC have cameras mounted on the traffic signal structures (and not just red light cameras that are triggered by scofflaws). If this is one of those intersections, there might be a video record of this incident. The first step of course would be a police report, but it might be worth looking into if there is a camera.

Liz

[Mark Blacknell]

Sorry to hear about this, Mykeru. Good to hear that you’re generally fine, though. It’s a bit late now, but please consider filing a report anyway. No, you almost certainly won’t get any satisfaction out of it, but you’ll be helping your fellow cyclists by building a public record of the problems that we as cyclists face. I got hit in May, and didn’t call the police. I regret that now. Wrote a bit about that here.

[Rootchopper]

I am sorry to hear about this and hope you are okay. Thanks for posting this so others can be wary.

I hope someone from WABA reads this and then asks drivers to sign a pledge to drive responsibly. Maybe they can team up with AAA.

My daughter is learning to drive. She was – for lack of a better word – offended when she saw a cyclist on the nearly empty GW Parkway in Mount Vernon this morning. I asked her 2 questions: “Why weren’t you similarly offended when we saw all the cars in the bike lanes on 9th Street the other night?” And “Who or what is that cyclist harming?” To the latter she said “If I were driving, he’d really scare me.” To which I responded, “Then you’re not ready to drive on the Parkway.”

The anti-bike attitude is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. It’s going to take an awful lot of time (and maybe some $5 gas) to change people’s minds.

[CCrew]

@Rootchopper 1805 wrote:

I hope someone from WABA reads this and then asks drivers to sign a pledge to drive responsibly. Maybe they can team up with AAA.

Oh, I’m sorry, but this is laughable. It’s not going to stop anything like what happened to the OP.

What someone should do is start petitioning MVA’s or lawmakers across the country to make the law portion of a drivers license mandatory every X renewals. And then be sure there’s a portion of the law test that addresses the laws pertaining to other items they may encounter.. like cyclists or god forbid even pedestrians. Make the test adaptive so that when answer “X” fails it drills in deeper.

Getting people to sign a pledge will only garner the signatures of the people that care to begin with. When Bubba can’t get his license renewed because he can’t comprehend that a cyclist has the same rights as him it’ll sink in. I’m sorry, but it needs to be mandatory. It’s not even touched on in drivers ed – I asked both my kids and they said “never”.

-R

[Mykeru]

@eminva 1795 wrote:

Hello —

I was telling my husband about this last night and he thought of something I hadn’t — some intersections in DC have cameras mounted on the traffic signal structures (and not just red light cameras that are triggered by scofflaws). If this is one of those intersections, there might be a video record of this incident. The first step of course would be a police report, but it might be worth looking into if there is a camera.

Liz

I’m probably really cynical about social mores and the police, but even if there is a tape of the incident, I’m sure the interpretation will be this: The driver is a “citizen”, the guy on the bike is a “scumbag”.

@Rootchopper 1805 wrote:

I hope someone from WABA reads this and then asks drivers to sign a pledge to drive responsibly. Maybe they can team up with AAA.

Seriously? Is the lady who chirped “I HATE bicyclists” going to sign it? If gas hits $5 a gallon, that’ll just give driver’s more reason to hate bicyclists. That’s the fun of irrational, bigoted hatred: It’s fueled by confirmation bias.

[CCrew]

@Mykeru 1812 wrote:

the guy on the bike is a “scumbag”.

Naa, he’s on the bike because of DUI’s and he’s an illegal alien.

[acc]

DUIs and Illegal Immigrant Status? You mean it has nothing to do with a Lycra fetish? I’m soooo disillusioned.

[Mykeru]

@CCrew 1813 wrote:

Naa, he’s on the bike because of DUI’s and he’s an illegal alien.

You know, it’s amazing how many motorists assume because I ride a bike, I don’t have a car. As if being a bicyclist means you’re an anti-car luddite or a homeless person a step up from wheeling a shopping cart.

I have a 2008 Jeep Patriot. Mostly because it’s sort of a sub-compact SUV, my bike fits in it nicely, and the name itself provides nice contrast to whatever leftist, anti-theist magnetic bumper stickers I swap out on the back for long drives.

I have explain to motorists who think that way, that as I drive and bike, I speak from experience, whereas as they are solely fat-assed, dumb motorists who would drive around a parking lot for 15 minutes so they don’t have to walk 30 extra feet, they are speaking from pure ignorance.

It goes over pretty much as well as you expect.

[Mykeru]

@acc 1815 wrote:

DUIs and Illegal Immigrant Status? You mean it has nothing to do with a Lycra fetish? I’m soooo disillusioned.

Actually, it’s more of a black latex fetish but 1. Not on me and 2. It’s way off topic.

That’s another thing. If you follow sites like Fark, as I do, you can always count on one of the “i hate bikes” threads that some motorist poster will go on about having to stare at a guys ass as it pistons up and down clad in black Lycra. Not that there’s anything wrong with that™, but a lot of motorists have a definite latent homo-erotic fixation.

[acc]

Well, as a woman driver I consider it my civic duty to slow down and carefully observe the pistoning black Lycra from a respectful distance of at least 25 yards no matter how long it takes him to get up that hill. Safety first!

But as someone who was hit on my bike in a crosswalk and lived to tell the tale, I wrote a community impact statement on behalf of Stan Miller who was killed on his bike in Montgomery County.
The man who committed this crime will be sentenced Jan. 14th. The information about where to send a letter/email can be found at the Potomac Peddlers’ site. http://www.bikepptc.org/

[CCrew]

@Mykeru 1816 wrote:

You know, it’s amazing how many motorists assume because I ride a bike, I don’t have a car. As if being a bicyclist means you’re an anti-car luddite or a homeless person a step up from wheeling a shopping cart.

Oh yeah. I have 4 cars, but I’ve heard that one so many times I’m just pre-emptive and throw it out first

[Author]

Posts