wipekitty

Same here. Police non-emergency is programmed into my phone, and I've called people in on a few occasions both as a cyclist and as a pedestrian.

I also have a little memo thing in my phone where I record the license plate numbers of close calls. If someone does it twice - which hasn't happened yet - I'll know that it might be time to escalate action with the police.

A local story always comes to mind in these cases. A few years back, a cyclist and his son were riding on a road that does not have a bike lane, but is a very popular cycling route. A guy in a pickup truck shouted some obscenities, and the cyclist confronted him. The driver got really aggressive, threw the bikes in the street and ran them over with his truck. About a year later, he was getting pulled over by the police and got similarly confrontational with them; he injured the police dog and had to be taken down with non-lethal force. Some people are simply deranged.

Koyote

I've done this. Cop was happy to go to the driver's house and have a chat with him.

I also recently called the local school district after one of their bus drivers right hooked me. They promised to have a little chat with her.

Once, after a careless driver endangered my wife while we were riding, I chased down the motorist -- who could see me following her and clearly tried to ditch me. I stayed on her, then rolled up to her house, rang the bell until she came out. When I pointed out what she'd done wrong, she replied "Well, I thought you have to yield to me, since you're on bicycles." I told her she's wrong. Then I explained the economics of it: my wife's age and years to retirement, annual salary and expected salary growth, figured the sum and discounted it to the present value, then told her how much she'd owe me (judgment or settlement) if she killed my wife and I sued her. That shut her up.

lmtada

eja_ bottecchia

livedarklions

Are you suggesting that anyone has posted anything in this thread that isn't legally obvious?

OP should ride on the sidewalk?!
What's your point?

Troul 

i like to take a few pictures of the surroundings that include the perpetrator, then have it automatically upload to local social outlets that gives attention to the pictures. Aftera,,, that is what the perp was actually after, based on the situation...

jfan

If you follow someone to their home after what the police would consider a road rage incident (no matter who's at fault), you are the perp, not the victim. Not to mention she could have shot you.

Koyote

jfan

If she were to tell the police she was afraid because you followed her home after a road incident, she is the victim. The police would agree and want to know why you took matters into your own hands instead of calling them. Why would anyone think it's appropriate to follow someone to their home to berate them and tell them how they screwed up?

eja_ bottecchia

spinnaker

You and the police in your community have WAY too much time on your hands. What a stupid thing for you to do. You are lucky you did not get shot, at the very minimum arrested for harassment. It happened. It was over and no one got hurt.

The woman probably just shut up because is was tired of hearing your tirade. Age? Years to retirement? Wut??? Your wife was not harmed so absolutley none of that has any bearing on the events. Or you probably scared the hell out of her and just wanted you got go away.

.

Maelochs

Hmmmm ... the deal with what @Koyote did is ... apparently, in that situation, it worked ...

Different situations.

You might call the cops and wait 90 minutes for anyone to come by ... or might be told, "There is nothing we can do, sorry." or there might be an officer around the corner more than eager to hunt down the driver. or ... anything.

I wouldn't do what Koyote did, i don't think ... but i don't know. As far as it goes .. once the lady answered the door, she gave up all claim to being afraid of a road-raged cyclist. if she truly were afraid, she'd have called the cops, not opened the door. And likely she opened the door, and all the rest ... because at some level she felt guilty, she knew she was in the wrong.

Again, probably not what i would do but it seemed to work in this case. but the internet experts who always need to be right cannot accept the fact that a non-standard approach worked so they have to invent a bunch of stuff ... Koyote was there. Either you think he is a total BSer, or we basically have to rely on his version (with, of course, the full understanding of his subjectivity.)

In any case ... the OP should have been yelled at. What is that lunatic doing getting up two hours before dawn??

At the end of the ride ... no one was hurt, and some loser got some further excess stress for his likely overstressed heart, bringing his eventual demise due to stroke or cardiac infarction one day closer .. and the OP is still riding.

Look under your seats and .... Everybody wins. A win for you, a win for you, a win for you, a win for the stupid driver, a win for the OP ....

Koyote

spinnaker

You didn't ring her bell to ask for a cup of sugar. You followed her home and then confronted her. A whole lot of people are going to perceive that as a threat and there is no telling how they arre going to respond.

Koyote

I read this post twice, and still don't understand how I could get arrested in this circumstance. (That was your claim, without any support.)

As for the rest: you can handle these situations in any way you wish...And that is fine with me. (That's the difference between us, I guess.)

Maelochs

He had no idea how she would respond. She responded by answering the door and talking with him. He took a chance which he felt was warranted and it worked. Why is everyone so upset that a cyclist had a Positive encounter with a dangerous driver?

And I am not a lwayeror a LEO ... but if a man was standing peacefully and quietly on the doorstep, I don't see where a charge of "stalking" would be warranted, unless he was told to leave and refused, or unless he stayed there for more than a minute or two, or unless he shouted and gesticulated ... No cop is going to bother to arrest a cyclist who is calm and rational who explains the situation. The cop might say, "net time call us," to which many of us could honestly reply, "I've tried that---even backing it up with video--and got blown off, so i figured a friendly conversation might work. oh, well. have a good one."

People are so artificially dramatic. Everyone is going to get shot or get arrested.

Fact is, almost all encounters end up like this one, with people talking calmly, and most of the time cops would Prefer not to have top arrest someone unless it is for a gross violation. Cops don't want to spend a shift doing the paperwork on a bogus arrest that the DA won't prosecute and the complainant wouldn't likely press charges when told she would have to go to court and testify.

Maybe if you guys actually lived in reality from time to time ..... the TV has an "Off" button ... spend some time searching for it ....

jfan

He had no idea how she'd respond? How about the fact that she tried to ditch him and he kept following her all the way to her house. That's not an indication of an ensuing pleasant interaction.

spinnaker

Koyote

But instead of asking how the interaction went down, you just assume something.

I would try to tell you more about it, but I think your mind is already closed.

Maelochs

I that case she would not have answered the door.

Oh, sorry ... did I refer to actual reality, and not your biased self-supporting fantasy?

The lady opened the door. She obviously was not so in fear for her life that she didn't want to face the guy. In fact--she Wanted to talk to the guy, which is why she opened the door.

If she was in fear for her life, she would have called the cops ... which scenario has already been discussed.

spinnaker

See 8 and 10

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/roa...self-killed/8/


See

Iowa
Harassment
Title XVI, Subtitle 1, Chap. 708 §708.7

Street Harassment and the Law: The Best Laws, Advocacy, and Anti-Street Harassment Ordinances | Stop Street Harassment

New Jersey
Harassment
Title 2C, Chap. 33 §4

Pennsylvania
Harassment
Title 18, Chapter 27, § 2709

Most states have similar laws. You are not permitted to follow someone and confront them. Call the police.

spinnaker

From your posts, it is pretty easy to assume exactly how it went down. You probably scared the Holy heck out of her. But I guess you got yours didn't you?

Maelochs

We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.

spinnaker

You are assuming she knew who the person was at the door. at least initially.

Koyote

Well, we've dragged this pretty far off-course, so I'll respond to this and then be done.

There was no yelling, no cursing, no threatening. I laid out the costs for her if she had managed to run down and kill my wife. (And before you go down that road, my education and profession make me uniquely qualified to come up with those numbers, and to do it quickly in my head. And I don't give a s**t if you believe that or not.) And that should scare her, even if she doesn't care much about the other consequences of running down a human being and leaving my child without a mother.

FWIW, this is not idle chatter. My breadwinner parent was killed by a negligent commercial driver (not while biking, mind you). The resulting lawsuit and settlement pretty much cleaned out that person's insurance and put him out of business, and it was fair compensation for my other parent, who had lost her source of income. That's just the law.

These are things that drivers should think about. Hell, I drive a car, and I think about these things when I am tempted to speed, to pass another car on a dangerous road, and yes, go around cyclists.

Again, you can deal with such motorists as you wish. I usually do just brush it off. But I'm not telling you what to do. Not sure why a couple people here are so concerned with what I choose to do.