Why Do They Hate Us?
11-04-18, 07:16 PM
#51
What happened?
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You do realize that a competent accident investigator can determine most of what you need to know to determine who did what.
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11-04-18, 07:26 PM
#53
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11-05-18, 12:48 AM
#55
What happened?
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What does posting stuff on You Tube do except for drawing gawkers and people here linking to the aftermath, eventually derailing the thread and having staff close it?
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11-05-18, 01:36 AM
#56
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Yeah, because "CSI Smallville" really cares about you, your skinned knee, and your 40-year-old bicycle so much they're gonna do a full investigation with DNA samples and whatever else you saw on TV last week. FFS
11-05-18, 01:05 PM
#57
genec
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You do the video, because... because drivers don't pay attention and you want others to know that. But no, indeed, don't expect authorities to use all possible evidence to prove what might have actually happened... 'cause they won't.
https://www.bicycling.com/news/a2001...ken-seriously/
11-05-18, 09:51 PM
#58
Cop Magnet
Don't bank on this. Aside from the fact police have no legal obligation to respond to a call, they also don't have to investigate in a prescribed manner. On the crash report for my collision there are two questions asking if evidentiary photos were taken and if reconstruction was performed. Both were marked "no".
11-06-18, 01:27 AM
#59
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Uhh... totally crazy question for the OP here: Did you actually call the cops?
I mean.. you're at the scene of an MVA, you can point to the damage on his car, you have injuries, your bike is a write off...
what did they say?
I mean.. you're at the scene of an MVA, you can point to the damage on his car, you have injuries, your bike is a write off...
what did they say?
Last edited by Happy Feet; 11-06-18 at 01:30 AM.
11-06-18, 04:34 PM
#60
☢
This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with treatment by the legal system and by motorists. By your logic everyone should stop driving cars since doing that places you at a greater risk of injury or death than cycling does. Do you believe that is a reasonable course of action?
Cyclists have historically been treated as inferior at the hands of law enforcement and the courts. Cameras are helping to turn the tide. The average citizen also recognizes a camera when it's conspicuously placed (i.e. on the helmet). Thanks to GoPro's brilliant marketing I've been asked many times if I'm wearing a GoPro. Ever since I began using one five years ago I can count on a single hand how many times I've been intentionally harassed. Prior to that I ran out of fingers every month.
Cyclists have historically been treated as inferior at the hands of law enforcement and the courts. Cameras are helping to turn the tide. The average citizen also recognizes a camera when it's conspicuously placed (i.e. on the helmet). Thanks to GoPro's brilliant marketing I've been asked many times if I'm wearing a GoPro. Ever since I began using one five years ago I can count on a single hand how many times I've been intentionally harassed. Prior to that I ran out of fingers every month.
11-06-18, 09:37 PM
#61
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Whatever.
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11-07-18, 09:58 AM
#62
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It's always fun to go back and look at the footage of myself getting killed.
11-07-18, 12:21 PM
#63
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Not saying you are anything but a Child of God, but ... everything I've heard says that negative cyclist/motorist interactions are rising. Rapidly so. In fact 'spike' is the word used to describe the increase in bad outcomes for cyclists vs cars between last year and this year to date. This folk wisdom that cagers are a bunch of camera shy hyenas that just slink off to find easier prey if photographed does not hold up under close scrutiny. Ride defensively. Use a camera to record amazing sunsets and Fall Foliage. Drivers use dashcams because chances are good they will survive a collision. As a cyclist you do NOT want a collision in the first place. A cyclist has much more power to influence a good outcome than most realize.
11-07-18, 12:56 PM
#64
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Only after ^^THIS could a cyclist take action, if they chose. Yes, there are many actions we can take to minimize our exposure, but we have to ditch the entitlement and denial before prevention can be worked on and realized.
11-07-18, 01:17 PM
#65
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As I was flying over the hood of the car that hit me this Sunday I recall being grateful that the accident happened in my own neighborhood. At least if I was knocked unconscious my neighbors would call my partner, take me to hospital etc. I also figured they'd be able to ID the idiot who was too busy on his phone and rolled through a stop sign so his front bumper hit me square on.
You should be riding defensively.
IMO your just as much at fault as the driver only for the reason you thought he was going to stop.
Every intersection I encounter on my bike rides I come to damn near a stop if a car is coming from any direction.
11-07-18, 02:27 PM
#66
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I pretty much assume motorists are paid hit men with contracts out on me. But they have to make it look like an "accident". So my head is on a swivel at all times (Mirror for behind me, actually) and I never assume anyone sees me or will do the right thing around me.
11-07-18, 05:45 PM
#68
☢
11-07-18, 06:14 PM
#69
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11-08-18, 09:56 AM
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As I was flying over the hood of the car that hit me this Sunday I recall being grateful that the accident happened in my own neighborhood. At least if I was knocked unconscious my neighbors would call my partner, take me to hospital etc. I also figured they'd be able to ID the idiot who was too busy on his phone and rolled through a stop sign so his front bumper hit me square on.
I landed with a thud on my backside and tore up my shorts and right leg badly enough that there was a bit of blood but not too serious.
So imagine my surprise when the neighbors (who I knew but were not close friends with) looked out at me and then promptly went back to what they were doing. Only a ten year old came over and asked me if I was okay. The driver stayed in the car and is not from our neighborhood. Finally a group wandered over to me after a good five minutes and instead of sympathy I got the victim-blaming angle. Why do you cycling on the roads? Are you going to report this so we get speed bumps etc? When the driver finally emerged from his car, they asked him if he was okay. When I explained he rolled through a stop sign they said yes he did, but this was normal and expected and I should have been paying more attention.
By this time I was getting a little annoyed, so I said I would call the police (CAAD 12 was a write off), the neighbors then promptly took the drivers side and said they believed it was my fault. I explained patiently I was not facing a stop sign and the driver had rolled through a stop sign. I pointed to the mark on his front bumper and showed the lack of mark on his front side panel to prove my point.
Amazingly people's memory started to change and they now recalled the driver stopping and me hitting him rather than him hitting me.
I know that some of you will say my memories were impaired but If you have been in an accident (auto or bike) before you may have experience this slowing down of time and burning of the memories into your mind. They even know that the amygdala region of your brain lays down more memories when you believe you are in grave danger. So my recollection is right.
So here I was riding through a neighborhood at 15mph waving to neighbors whose kids go school with mine, whom I say hello to when doing pickups from school. Yet all of that got transcended.
So why do they hate us so much?
I landed with a thud on my backside and tore up my shorts and right leg badly enough that there was a bit of blood but not too serious.
So imagine my surprise when the neighbors (who I knew but were not close friends with) looked out at me and then promptly went back to what they were doing. Only a ten year old came over and asked me if I was okay. The driver stayed in the car and is not from our neighborhood. Finally a group wandered over to me after a good five minutes and instead of sympathy I got the victim-blaming angle. Why do you cycling on the roads? Are you going to report this so we get speed bumps etc? When the driver finally emerged from his car, they asked him if he was okay. When I explained he rolled through a stop sign they said yes he did, but this was normal and expected and I should have been paying more attention.
By this time I was getting a little annoyed, so I said I would call the police (CAAD 12 was a write off), the neighbors then promptly took the drivers side and said they believed it was my fault. I explained patiently I was not facing a stop sign and the driver had rolled through a stop sign. I pointed to the mark on his front bumper and showed the lack of mark on his front side panel to prove my point.
Amazingly people's memory started to change and they now recalled the driver stopping and me hitting him rather than him hitting me.
I know that some of you will say my memories were impaired but If you have been in an accident (auto or bike) before you may have experience this slowing down of time and burning of the memories into your mind. They even know that the amygdala region of your brain lays down more memories when you believe you are in grave danger. So my recollection is right.
So here I was riding through a neighborhood at 15mph waving to neighbors whose kids go school with mine, whom I say hello to when doing pickups from school. Yet all of that got transcended.
So why do they hate us so much?
I still want to know what the cops said?
11-08-18, 06:33 PM
#71
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I didn't call the cops in the end just threatened to
I wasn't hurt, the threat got the driver to give me his insurance details but in the neighbors were going to back him so I didn't see the point.
But I tell you something. It's a real odd dynamic walking the neighborhood now. People just dont' talk to me now.
But I tell you something. It's a real odd dynamic walking the neighborhood now. People just dont' talk to me now.
11-08-18, 07:14 PM
#72
☢
You were knocked off your bike and blood was spilled. In the future, always call the cops. In fact, the reporting of those types of incidents (impact between human/car) are required by law in some states. Other states attach a monetary minimum similar to a vehicle to vehicle accident before mandatory reporting is required.
11-08-18, 10:53 PM
#73
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Ugh. My gut reaction - and I'm a cyclist is: If you couldn't be bothered to care why should they.
You missed a big opportunity in a couple of ways by not calling the police to attend on the scene. At that time it was a MVA causing injury, even if in retrospect the injury was minor. Now it is just your word against his if he wishes to contest fault via insurance. By your own story you could point to the vehicle and show the impact area on the car and you had witnesses that said Yes he did roll the stop sign. He probably would have agreed as well if the police were there at the scene questioning people and looking at the evidence first hand. Now the police will not feel compelled to investigate an insurance dispute after the fact. That the neighbors "felt" you should have been more careful isn't the same as them outright lying to police and saying the driver did not do what he did. The police don't care how they "feel". What they would have done is record facts that the insurance company would use to assign liability.
You also had an opportunity to show all involved that hitting cyclists is a big deal. By your actions you just reaffirmed to them that it wasn't.
It sucks. Hope the driver is honest for you.
You missed a big opportunity in a couple of ways by not calling the police to attend on the scene. At that time it was a MVA causing injury, even if in retrospect the injury was minor. Now it is just your word against his if he wishes to contest fault via insurance. By your own story you could point to the vehicle and show the impact area on the car and you had witnesses that said Yes he did roll the stop sign. He probably would have agreed as well if the police were there at the scene questioning people and looking at the evidence first hand. Now the police will not feel compelled to investigate an insurance dispute after the fact. That the neighbors "felt" you should have been more careful isn't the same as them outright lying to police and saying the driver did not do what he did. The police don't care how they "feel". What they would have done is record facts that the insurance company would use to assign liability.
You also had an opportunity to show all involved that hitting cyclists is a big deal. By your actions you just reaffirmed to them that it wasn't.
It sucks. Hope the driver is honest for you.
Last edited by Happy Feet; 11-08-18 at 10:57 PM.
11-08-18, 11:03 PM
#74
Senior Member
The very act of riding a bicycle put you at odds with the majority of the people around you. It identifies you as some one outside of the "normal" and, as we all know, people are distrustful of "outside the norm". New things or ideas cause people to feel uncomfortable. Beyond that, you riding a bicycle in a residential neighborhood on a Sunday morning reminds nearly every person that sees you that you ARE something that they ARE NOT. You are fit, and they are not, you are well off enough to afford a nice bike (and probably kit) and they are not. You are motivated and they are not. You are enjoying leisure time and they are not. You are moving quickly through traffic and they are not. You are transporting to the front door of wherever you are going and, as they search for and pay for parking, they are not. You are concerned about he environment, and they are not. You are saving money on not buying gas and they are not. You are unafraid to think beyond the herd mentality (and might not even be aware that your re doing so) and they are not. These are only some of the ways that some one who doesn't ride a bicycle might see their own deficiencies reflected back at them when they see you riding your bicycle. Why do they hate you? Because you are daring to be different than they are and you make them think about the things that they despise about themselves.
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11-09-18, 03:16 AM
#75
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I'm just a fat guy with a cool looking old bike. Chances are good it's gotta be fixed some and I'm struggling a little with it anyway.
But I'm nothing special around town.
Bikes are bikes. Use them for what you like. You get there differently.
But I'm nothing special around town.
Bikes are bikes. Use them for what you like. You get there differently.
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