kingston 

The older I get the less I care when stuff like that happens to me. A lot of people on the road are either selfish, distracted or both, and I have decided to just not let it bother me. You're not going to teach anyone to be considerate by reporting them to the police. If anything, they'll probably just resent cyclists even more than they did before. I think of it as a test of my serenity and one-ness with the bike.

chaadster

That's easy for you to say, you're a Jedi Master!

ridelikeaturtle

There is great benefit to reporting these incidences to local police. It can affect public attitudes and in the extreme cases can affect policy decisions on policing and even road construction.

There was a nutcase (quite literally, the guy needs psychiatric care) around here who was actively running motorbikes and other people off the road - but specifically targeting motorcycles. If it hadn't been for multiple reporting of the guy w/a description of his car, he'd have killed somebody - cyclist, pedestrian, motorcyclist, etc.

https://www.kildarenow.com/news/pens...untains/116882

In fact, it's completely not unreasonable to think he could have caused a fatality in the past, with the "single-vehicle motorcycle fatality" being not totally uncommon. People just assume motorcycles "go too fast", but it can also be due to bad road conditions, or other very bad road users.

kingston 

Couple of years ago a guy in a creeper van followed me really close for a few blocks, then came up along side me really close, then intentionally right hooked me so I had to really jam on my brakes to avoid hitting him. I made a mental note of his license plate number and called the local police when I got home to report the guy. They said I would have to come into the station to file a report and they probably wouldn't do anything anyway. So you go ahead and report whoever you want to the police. It's not worth my time.

WhyFi

It's funny that this is your argument against acting for (potentially) the good others when you'd previously said,

I guess you'd included yourself among the selfish lot, eh?

kingston 

Yes. Everyone is. That's what I said before.

WhyFi

No, you said, "a lot." You also implied some superior level of serenity, so I thought it all amusing.

kingston 

I don't get it. Why is it amusing that someone doesn't let bad drivers bother them and also doesn't report bad drivers to the police because they think it's a waste of time?

WhyFi

I know.

kingston 

Ad hominem? Wow. I must have really struck a nerve. Sorry about that.

chaadster

So much for the Jedi crap.

RNAV

Normally I'd agree with you -- my mantra is to always ride as though motorists can't see you.

Unfortunately, the fidelity of the video isn't quite as good as what can be seen in real life. Immediately after the pickup truck passes in front of the bus, the driver looks right at me. As mentioned, I was running a super bright flashing front light and hi-vis clothing, plus there were no other vehicles on the road. Considering she looked right at me, that gave me a high degree of confidence that she saw me.

On quite a regular basis I'll have people make left turns much like the bus driver did, but they almost always stay further left until they've accelerated past me before they transition fully into the lane. Frankly, I was flabbergasted that the driver kept coming over after it appeared she had looked right at me. Had I not seen her look at me, I definitely would have just slowed down -- much easier than going in a ditch

By the time it became apparent that the driver wasn't going to stay further left and would just continue on to the side of the road, I was up by the entrance to the bus. I was concerned that if I hit the brakes, I wouldn't slow down quick enough to avoid the butt-end of the bus. Nevertheless, your advice to see the squeeze before it happens is spot-on.

I'm still going to follow up with CMS. I've got no desire to get the driver fired, but I do want her supervisor to be aware. Either she didn't see me (which would be bad, because I'm an effing beacon of light), or she saw me and didn't care. Neither is good for someone driving kids around.

JohnDThompson 

It's not just the pass, it's the fact that the driver didn't respect the OP's right of way when he turned onto the OP's road. Definitely worth reporting.

JohnDThompson 

Perhaps, but unacceptable regardless.

zymphad

Reporting them, consequences for their behavior is the only way it's going to change them. As you said, a conversation or plea is not going to do any good. If you believe you have the right to inflict injury and even death to cyclists, reason is not going to do any good.

Keep in mind, there are very few police departments now that don't have cops on bikes and motorcycles. It seems more and more cops take cyclist harassment personally.

goenrdoug

After being hit once and nearly hit at least 4 or 5 other times, I've learned to trust when I feel myself beginning to be flabbergasted like that on the road. As soon as I see a drive doing something that causes me to say to myself, "They're not really gonna do that, are they?" I immediately assume they are and I save myself one way or another (hop up on the curb, into the ditch, slam on the brakes, etc.

reggieray

What equipment are you using to film? I want to get those.

zymphad

What is most disturbing to me, the few drivers who behave this way, is somehow they must be internalizing that a cyclist is not human, or a life form.

grizzly59

No one ever wants to see a cyclist hurt. I've seen it and it's really sickening. I've been riding in traffic since about '74, and I'm convinced of:

1 percent of the drivers couldn't care less if they kill you. Really.

Some drivers won't see you no matter what kind of headlight and fluorescent clothes you wear. You could be on fire and they won't see you.

The law does nothing to keep you from getting hurt. That's all on the rider. The law will find fault and hand out punishment, but it won't keep you out of the hospital or out of the ground. On a bike, you can be 100% in the right and be mangled or dead. In a collision you always lose. Always.

A part of your brain has to always be working to spot the danger in advance, and give yourself an immediate out. Usually the escape is to the right. And the right has 24" oak trees and limestone landscape boulders.

Ride safe, and I could have used better language in my earlier post. I never want to see any of us get hurt.

RNAV

I'm running a Cycliq Fly12 and Fly6. I've been very pleased with both.


The Fly12 is particularly nice: it shoots full 1080 HD, has a 400 lumen light integrated (bright enough to use as a headlight at night), is compact, and has super long battery life for less than a GoPro. Plus you can connect your phone to it either via Bluetooth or wifi, and review footage/edit/share.


The Fly6 is also nice, but you can tell it was the company's first go at a bike camera. It's bulky for what it is, but shoots 720 HD, has only a 30 lumen light, and only 6 hours of battery life. There's no wireless connectivity, and it only outputs AVI format videos. The light isn't bright enough for me, so I run a second rear light in addition to this one. There's nothing else on the market that really does as good a job for the price, but it's still not as nice of a unit as the Fly12.

topslop1

Happens like every single day I take a bike ride out on a main road. Go ahead and report or whatever and do your thing but if that were the case, I'd have a backlog of so so many folks I'd be reporting that I'd never get out to ride again.

WhyFi

Those are pretty cool. Will have to check them out when I'm in the market.

banerjek

In that case, calling it in was probably the right thing to do. But there are three things I would throw out there:

1) At least on the video, the bus situation looked really obvious and avoidable with plenty of time to react, even factoring in the eye contact. I would go so far as to say it would be hard to time that encounter much worse than shown in the video

2) For some reason, cyclists sometimes don't register with drivers even when they see you. I've had discussions with motorists where eye contact and communication was made and then they do something insane for which they profusely apologize saying they did see me but somehow it didn't register they had to do something different.

3) In most drivers' heads, bicycles putz along at 8-10mph. A lot of drivers cannot fathom that many cyclists ride more than double that which you were at the time. So even if they do see you and it does register, they still time it all wrong.

I still think it's good for drivers to get talked to when they mess up (especially the kids that intentionally did something dangerous) -- helps them be mindful. BTW, nice footage.

Succhia Ruota

Wow, unbelievable.

In the second vid, did the kid hanging out of the window actually make contact with you?

RNAV

I think he might have lightly brushed my leg. I seem to recall feeling something, but couldn't say if it was road debris or increased wind pressure from the car being so close.