Collected Tales of Insanity
Collection started – December 2008
If you have a tale you would like to tell, share it.
LA CityBeat – Peloton Panic and Positively 4th Street
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Kyber’s Tale
kyber Says:
December 28, 2008 at 8:45 pm
One morning when Tom and I were riding to work over at Activision, we were being harassed by some bonehead in a station wagon. He was angry that we were in front of him waiting for a red light to turn green.
Once the light turned green, the guy sped up and swerved at us, trying to hit us. He yelled the typical anti-cyclist rhetoric that most motorists do. At any rate, we gave chase knowing that traffic up ahead was almost always at a dead stop at this hour. As we got closer to catching up, this madman must have noticed us in his rear view mirror and he began speeding down residential streets in an effort to ditch us.
And he did.
The fun part comes when a few months later, I was in my car, and I noticed the same driver in the same vehicle with the same “Burning Man” bumper sticker on the rear of his car. I took down the plate #, swearing that I would one day enact some sort of revenge. Eventually I just tossed it in the trash, I think knowing that I encountered this man again was enough of a victory for me.
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Ubrayj’s Tale
Ubrayj: Mugged on a Flying Pigeon
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Gary’s Tale
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Wildbell’s Tale
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My tales thus far:
Batman on a Bicycle
Fun with Facebook
Ass-Slap Alley – The One that Got Away
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Editors note: Given the sheer volume of tales of insanity that exist, expect this section to grow slowly as I sift through them….
Alternately, you could tell your tale right here in a comment….
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Is Portland really a bicycle paradise?
March 23, 2009 at 2:30 am |
Hi – Here is the letter I sent to the editor about my problems in Glendale.
Glendale: We Have a Problem.
Glendale is made up of beautiful streets, homes, schools, businesses, and parks. In short, life is good in Glendale. But Glendale, we have a problem.
For now, I’ll set aside the aggressive behavior of motorists towards bicyclists on Kenneth Road and Mountain Street. I’ll set aside the time when two men in a new BMW decided to play a game of chicken with me while I was on my bicycle. I yelled at them when they ran a stop sign on Mountain. It was their way of acknowledging me. I’ll also set aside the time when two women in a small white truck yelled, “Share the road,” while I was at stop sign at and Kenneth. They threw water at me and sped away.
For the purposes of this letter, I’ll focus on three incidents on the steep section on East Glenoaks east of North Verdugo Road. In the last three weeks there have been three dangerous driving maneuvers by motorists that endanger my safety as a cyclist and if these behaviors continue, I fear that someone will be killed or hurt.
On Sunday, March 22, 2009 as I was descending westbound on Glenoaks after it had rained, I was squeezing the brakes all the way down to make sure I would be safe. Half-way down a dark-haired woman in a BMW decided to enter the road while I was coming down the hill. I slowed down even more because I didn’t know if she planned to cut me off or not. When I got to the traffic light at Verdugo and Glenoaks, the passenger in the front seat, a dark-hair man told me that “you shouldn’t even be on the road. You were in the middle of the lane.”
For all those who share this man’s sentiments, here are some relevant sections of the vehicle code
21200. (a) Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway has all the
rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver
of a vehicle by this division
21202. A. Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway:
Indeed I have every right to be on the road and the burden of safety lies on the driver entering the main road. When I pointed this out to the man (a baby was in the back seat), he started opening his door and his wife swerved to hit me. That’s assault with a deadly weapon. How fast do you think I was going on a street with a speed limit of 35mph? I was going 35mph.
On Thursday, March 19, 2009 as I was heading westbound on Glenoaks, an older man in gold four-door sedan and his female passenger (mid 30s) decided to make a U-turn in front of me as I was half-way down the hill. When I asked them why, they begin to yell at me that I had no right to be on the road.
On Sunday, March 15, 2009 as I was coming down Glenoaks a man driving a truck decided to pull out in front of me, then slowed down, and turned right in the … cul-de-sac.
Why is it that people in this area of Glendale with beautiful homes feel entitled to be so aggressive toward bicyclists?
Cyclists take up a very small percentage of the road and cause little or no damage to the structural integrity of the roads, unlike SUVs that weigh over the legal weight of 6,000 pounds.
What I would like in addition to people being aware of the vehicle code regarding bicyclists is that people of Glendale take a one-hour bike ride these same roads. How would these motorists on bicycles feel about being exposed to vehicles that weigh 20 times their weight when motorists typically engage in behaviors they only do when there is a cyclist on the road?