Hambone

I find nothing gets an oblivious driver's (or pedestrian's...) attention like me screaming.

I don't get aggressive with dumb drivers after the fact. I have kids to feed and a wife to go home to. But I find I have to ride defensively around here and my voice is the second best weapon I have to keep myself safe. (My brain being #1.) Part of it is just the noise level of NYC in general but I find it really helps me avoid problems.

Granted I haven't ridden too many places outside of NYC but I think screaming is a useful urban riding tool.

Hambone

dude, I'm just using your numbers...

That is a factor of 9:1. If our stomach cancer rate was 9 times that of the average Canuck, we would all be drinking bottled water from Montreal.

DavisClydesdale

You are right. From the report I am reading, their numbers are screwed. Maybe I am reading it wrong. Well, even if we take the 9:1 ratio, 4.3 per 100,000 still wouldn't be considered very violent in my book.

Shemp

I'm an idiot. I chase people down. I did just this last weekend. Two high schoolers didn't move over to pass my wife who was behind me. The passenger yelled and scared her off the road. I chased the bastards down. They had no idea I was coming, but I caught them in traffic. Window was still down and I yelled at them "if you'd caused my wife to have an accident, I'd have personally beat the s--- out of you." Needless to say, I scared them more than they scared my wife. Some pedestrians called the police. An officer showed up and was trying to make contact with them since the pedestrian got the plate.

Similar thing last year, chased a car down, yelled, took down the plate, and I called the police. Since I work at city hall, I told the cops to just call and scare them straight. Hope it works.

However, I'm not big on standing by and doing nothing, it does nothing to discourage them from attempting it again, if I get the police involved, then there's a chance these fools won't attempt it again.

DavisClydesdale

OK, I figured this thing out. It comes from the Canadian coalition for gun control.

Homicides per 100,000:
Canada 1.83
US 6.62
Ratio US:Canada 3.6:1

% of those homicides with firearms:
Canada 27.3%
US 66%
Ratio US:Canada 2.4:1

(That is what confused me. It is that if you are going to be killed, in the US, you are 2.4 times more likely to be killed with a gun, as opposed to being bludgeoned with a bat or something)

MoreHills

I've only yelled at one to where they could hear it. Couple of months ago a guy in a F250 rollback tow-truck was headed right into my lane. Middle of nowhere, on a country road. He should have started paying attention as a stop sign was coming up in 200ft. I think he lives around there so he knows the area. Anyway comes into my lane and is headed right for me and the yard and ditch next to me. I yelled "hey god%&#$ it!" He'd doing maybe 15mph. Got a stupid wave for my efforts to wake him up. Thanks for the wave. You almost killed me stupid.

jstream

6 years? Amazing self control Hip. I usually make myself feel better by saying it in a conversational voice to myself, but yes, every now and then you just have to let it out!

Hambone

So Canada has .49959 gun homicides per 100,000
US has 4.3692 gun homicides per 100,000.

That is damn close to 9:1.

Or put another way, every Yankee game this year will see two fans shot to death within 12 months. You would have to go to four Blue Jays games to find just one victim.

(Now, if you could ensure that it was only the damn Red Sox fans who were getting shot...)

DavisClydesdale

But in that same span, you would see three people done in by other means.

Bearonabike

I recommend falling to the ground, grabbing your knee, and yelling for a lawyer!

Golf XRay Tango

If you go to four Blue Jays games, chances are you'd be bored to death. :-)

Bearonabike

He got his, I got mine, and I practice, A LOT!

Bearonabike

HAve pity, the poor guy can't figure out how to pedal.

Bearonabike

Break down thiose stats. That includes domestic violence, suicides by gun, etc. The figure for actual ADW is much lower.

DXchulo

Why the hell do people do this? I hate that.

2 days ago I was coming up to a 4-way stop. It's a busy one, so I'm very careful there. I was at least 1/10th of a mile back from the sign and a car ahead on the left was stopped. The car had plenty of time to go without even coming close to cutting me off. I don't know what it was doing. I slowly made my way to the sign, trying to make it obvious that I was going to stop and the car could go ahead and go. Well, the car kept sitting there, so I figured maybe someone was in there looking for something, yelling at kids, or who knows what. As soon as I got about 5 feet from the sign the lady in the car looked right at me and took off.

What is that crap?

DavisClydesdale

Best post in this thread so far!

So, the baseball analogy is a great analogy. Statistically, two people should be shot to death at every Yankee'sl game, but to my knowledge, none have been. Why is that? The homicide statistics, by and large, are a product of bad areas, and people who carry out acts against other specific targets. Random acts of violence against bystanders, and road rage type incidents, are pretty rare, especially if you get outside of the major metro areas.

dangerman

Last week, two kids in a ricer buzzed me going at least 60 on my street two houses down from mine. The passenger reached out and touched me. I was on my beater beach cruiser which doesn't really hold a line that well. If I had dodged a pothole or flinched even, it could have taken this kids arm off.

I really have no idea what makes people do stupid stuff like that. The story about the guy in the porsche really made my blood boil. I've seen that so many times.

My new tool in the cager war is the cell phone camera. Its always in my jersey pocket, and its set up to shoot in less than a second.

Ill Mitch

It really bothers me when drivers flip out and try to run you over when they have their kids in the car with them.

I was passing a streetcar a couple of weeks ago and drivers always seem to like to violently pass streetcars at ridiculous speeds so I was riding in the middle of the lane so they could see me.

As I was doing this some lady in her SUV came up behind me and started honking her horn and yelling at me out her window to "get off the fuçking road". She was right on my ass, inches from my rear wheel. I look back at her and give her the "WTF" look, and she keeps on laying on the horn.

So we pass the streetcar and she floors it by me and as she passes I give her a look and give the passenger side door a good punch, and I notice a baby in the back seat and an 8 or so year old in the passenger seat. I catch up with them at the next light as they're making a right turn and this crazy womans 8 year old daughter is giving me the finger out her window!

That womans driving is a terrible example for her kids, fuçkin crazy drivers.

kill.cactus

I've gotten honked at only several times as I usually yield for cars and let them pass by getting to the far right (when it is safe). Also, I usually bike around Ann Arbor which is really biker friendly. However, if I was ever followed while in a bike lane, I would so love to dangerously swerve into the guy's lane and freak him out. Of course I'd never do it, but I mean you can always dream *sigh*.

I'm a smile and wave kinda guy

Lonan

I find that chasing down and confronting the offending driver only leads to more trouble. Physical violence, shouting matches and possibly worse.
I handle it this was.
I note the time, the location, their plate number and both their vehicle and personal description.

Nothing beats the look on their face when I show up the next day at their home...in uniform on duty...and write them a citation after explaining that I was the one they almost killed on the road the day before.
I advise them that I would be more than pleased if they would like to take it to court where I will describe their actions in detail to a judge, who at his descretion, can and most probably will fine them up to $500.
Funny thing..no one ever has contested a ticket in court.
I'm doin' my part

jimx200

How frikking pathetic that a 8 y.o. knows about flipping the bird. Ahh, just like mommy! Wait until she turns 15, probably be a demented, out of control kid with a major anger issue...just like mommy. Some people should just not have kids.

Hambone

In Brooklyn you learn it right after "Cows go moo."

DavisClydesdale

She will probably be a mommy by then.

Hambone

No. Two people of the 50,000 in the crowd will (statistically -- assuming randomness and all those other caveats...) Two will be shot over the course of a year. Not in the ~four hours of a game.

<snip> My bad... <snip>

Not for nothing, but if I had to choose between being murdered by gun or by baseball bat, I'd go gun. Especially the way the Blue Jays are hitting. That would be one slow death...

Blaireau

+1
[/QUOTE]My standard response is "Look where the f*** you're going, you c***"[/QUOTE]

+2

[/QUOTE]The worst of the lot usually get a nice phlegm ball hawked up and spat on one of their windows. [/QUOTE]

+3
[/QUOTE]Someone I know sometimes sneaks up behind the car and opens one of the back doors...then quickly rides away.[/QUOTE]

+ 1, 000 000 !