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Should I report this city employee?

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Should I report this city employee?

Old 10-19-21, 08:48 PM
  #26  
Awkward Caveman
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Originally Posted by sweeks
In Chicago, headphones are technically illegal. Bike messengers may wear one earbud to receive radio messages, but "noise-cancelling" says they're in both ears. That's taking a big risk in traffic.
I wonder if they arrest deaf people for cycling in Chicago

Whoops!... sorry officer... my hearing aid battery went flat, lol.

Nowadays, disobedience of authority means - freedom
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Old 10-19-21, 09:04 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Awkward Caveman
I wonder if they arrest deaf people for cycling in Chicago

Whoops!... sorry officer... my hearing aid battery went flat, lol.
Good Point
Nowadays, disobedience of authority means - freedom
Not always.. Freedem may entail disobedience, but disobedience by itself doesn't imply freedom.
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Old 10-20-21, 06:12 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by truthseeker14
I was in the left lane of a four lane road (2 lanes each way). Traffic wasn't very heavy. There were cars parked on the curb lane. A driver of a city government vehicle, came up behind me and started honking his horn. He passed me and then he started gesturing me towards the sidewalk. I caught up with him a couple lights later, and he shouted, "F*** you! get on the sidewalk". I got his license plate number and am debating whether to call the city about this city employee. I'm pretty sure he was the same driver that buzzed me earlier on my ride. Report or not?
tempted to say yes, he needs some coaching. with all the desperate hiring these days, who knows what his background is & if they did a background check. assuming your lane position was legal & justified
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Old 10-20-21, 06:52 AM
  #29  
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https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/bikes/linkservid/F0E0B518-AC88-B041-B32B86DD807A3FC8/showMeta/0/#:~:text=Page 13-,IS IT LEgAL TO RIDE ON THE SIDEWALk%3F,of all ages) with pedestrians.

According to the Cincinnati bike laws (link to them above), unless you are under 15, it's illegal for you to ride on the sidewalk (pg 9).
I would report the employee, not as a complaint, but to ask his superiors if they would sit him down and make him read - out loud - the contents of the booklet.
That is, assuming the jerk can read.
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Old 10-20-21, 06:35 PM
  #30  
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I'm not sure why some people are using the words informant, whistleblower and snitch to describe the OP.

This is the only comment that matters.
Originally Posted by caloso
The OP's role is as a road user and taxpayer.
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Old 10-21-21, 07:13 AM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by rumrunn6
...assuming your lane position was legal & justified
Questionable, based on the vague and unclear description of the cyclist's lane position "I was in the left lane of a four lane road (2 lanes each way). Traffic wasn't very heavy. There were cars parked on the curb lane."

Was there only one lane available for riding or were there two lanes available and the cyclist chose to ride in the left lane for no apparent reason?

Is the "curb lane" in addition to two traffic lanes, or is it one of the traffic lanes thus making the "left lane" the only available lane that the cyclist could have been riding?
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Old 10-21-21, 09:48 AM
  #32  
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Public servants should be held accountable for their actions while on duty. Swearing at citizens is unacceptable behavior. He should be reported.
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Old 10-21-21, 10:36 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Daniel4
I'm not sure why some people are using the words informant, whistleblower and snitch to describe the OP.
See https://www.bikeforums.net/22277749-post32.html
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Old 10-21-21, 10:42 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by jon c.
Public servants should be held accountable for their actions while on duty. Swearing at citizens is unacceptable behavior. He should be reported.
And no one is better able to discern acceptable behavior and report such allegedly gross violations of public order than a bicyclist who never violates any law or regulation, never makes a mistake, and never gets aggravated with perceived poor driving or cycling behavior.
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Old 10-21-21, 01:38 PM
  #35  
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Report, and don't back down!

I had an incident with a city employee who was driving an SUV on a MUP. I asked him for his ID and he very briefly held it up, then drove off. Initially his superiors started telling me what wonderful things this fellow was doing as part of the city's outreach program to the homeless.

My response was that he was driving a motor vehicle on a MUP with no purpose other than being too lazy to walk and refusing to allow a citizen to verify his ID. Eventually, we reached an agreement that he should not drive on the MUP unless there was a need to carry a lot of stuff or an emergency situation. Also, that when asked to present ID he MUST allow citizens to take a picture of it with their (now ubiquitous) cell phone camera.

I haven't seen him on the MUP again.
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Old 10-21-21, 06:08 PM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by vespasianus
Do it. Unless the "city employe" was a police officer.
I don't know why, but you got a chuckle out of me with that response. If the guy was a cop, I'd definitely would report his butt. he should know better. either way, report it. his supervisor might be a cyclist.

Last edited by Funkywheels63; 10-21-21 at 06:12 PM.
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Old 10-21-21, 06:28 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by truthseeker14
I was in the left lane of a four lane road (2 lanes each way). Traffic wasn't very heavy. There were cars parked on the curb lane. A driver of a city government vehicle, came up behind me and started honking his horn. He passed me and then he started gesturing me towards the sidewalk. I caught up with him a couple lights later, and he shouted, "F*** you! get on the sidewalk". I got his license plate number and am debating whether to call the city about this city employee. I'm pretty sure he was the same driver that buzzed me earlier on my ride. Report or not?
If you don't already have an action camera for this purpose, get one. Or two, one for the rear view. Internal microphones are lousy so they may not pick up the honking or the swearing.

There are other threads from cyclists who also want to record incidences with motorists in case they need it as evidence because without it, your report or complaint may just be your word against his.

Last edited by Daniel4; 10-21-21 at 06:39 PM.
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Old 10-21-21, 07:10 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
And no one is better able to discern acceptable behavior ....
Is it really that difficult to discern?

But these days someone will defend every vile behavior. Just because.
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Old 10-21-21, 07:51 PM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by jon c.
Is it really that difficult to discern?

But these days someone will defend every vile behavior. Just because.
"Vile behavior" Gosh, some folks must have led very sheltered lives and/or have a significant inability to moderate the over reaction drama when they ride a bicycle. Sure hope nothing seriously wrong ever happens when you ride your bike
By all means load up on cameras and microphones in order to capture every slight .

BTW it might be interesting to get the perspective of the other party involved in this "vile" incident.
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Old 10-21-21, 08:08 PM
  #40  
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Aren't we forgetting a bit why we are riding our bikes in the first place ?
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Old 10-22-21, 06:31 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
"Vile behavior" Gosh, some folks must have led very sheltered lives and/or have a significant inability to moderate the over reaction drama when they ride a bicycle. Sure hope nothing seriously wrong ever happens when you ride your bike
By all means load up on cameras and microphones in order to capture every slight .

BTW it might be interesting to get the perspective of the other party involved in this "vile" incident.
So, if someone were to post, "F*** you, I-Like-To-Bike! Get off bikeforums!!", would that be closer to acceptable or closer to vile behavior?
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Old 10-22-21, 09:19 AM
  #42  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
So, if someone were to post, "F*** you, I-Like-To-Bike! Get off bikeforums!!", would that be closer to acceptable or closer to vile behavior?
If I were a snowflake, I might cry like a baby, though later I would forget it and recognize it was an aberration from a normal person or the action of a drunken jerk. I would think of the usual suspects who would post that and you might head the list.

As an alternative, I could wipe away my tears, do some McGuffin Crime Dog Internet forensics and try to contact the poster's employer to get him fired and better yet ruin his life because he made a stupid mistake.

Last edited by I-Like-To-Bike; 10-22-21 at 09:23 AM.
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Old 10-22-21, 10:00 AM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
If I were a snowflake, I might cry like a baby, though later I would forget it and recognize it was an aberration from a normal person or the action of a drunken jerk. I would think of the usual suspects who would post that and you might head the list.
Circling back to the topic at hand, it sounds like your best spin would be that the OP encountered an aberration from the city employee; worst case was that employee was a drunken jerk.

Pulling the old civics lesson from the dusty archives (government employees work for the people paying taxes), would you accept such behavior from someone you employed? If I were that "business owner," I would not. I probably wouldn't fire that employee the first time, nor would I expect the city department manager to fire him or her. If it were my business, I certainly would make sure I talked to my employee and made certain he understood that sort of behavior was unacceptable and would not be tolerated. And I'd expect the same from the employee's supervisor.
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Old 10-22-21, 11:30 AM
  #44  
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Report to the authorities. Get a case number, to ensure a report is actually recorded, and then follow up on it.

Telling his boss isn't likely to have the employee held accountable, as it would only make the boss look bad too. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to bury any incident internally.

Drivers like this are eventually going to kill someone, and that needs to be pointed out to the authorities. The authorities need to start taking killing people on bicycles seriously.

If you get resistance or "eye rolls" from the authorities, I would ask them: if they were on a bicycle, and were screamed at, yelled at, threatened, by someone operating a motor vehicle... how would they deal with that? Is your life less important than theirs?
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Old 10-22-21, 12:03 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
Circling back to the topic at hand, it sounds like your best spin would be that the OP encountered an aberration from the city employee; worst case was that employee was a drunken jerk.

Pulling the old civics lesson from the dusty archives (government employees work for the people paying taxes), would you accept such behavior from someone you employed? If I were that "business owner," I would not. I probably wouldn't fire that employee the first time, nor would I expect the city department manager to fire him or her. If it were my business, I certainly would make sure I talked to my employee and made certain he understood that sort of behavior was unacceptable and would not be tolerated. And I'd expect the same from the employee's supervisor.
Should I assume that you would take this "report" at face value, especially from someone who let's you know up front that all government employees work for him? Would you not be the least bit curious about the story behind the self professed employer of every government employee who was riding in the left lane of a 4 lane highway and then later caught up with driver where the driver for no reason subjected him to verbal abuse. Doncha think there may be more to this than just an innocent young lad carefully riding his bicycle when he was subjected to the allegedly unprovoked vile attack of a supposedly likely future killer driver (sez one poster here) in a marked government vehicle.

Video tape of this incident from beginning to end just might be revealing. I assume that if it didn't reflect well on the cyclist, no unedited report of "vileness" would ever be submitted.
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Old 10-22-21, 03:00 PM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
Should I assume that you would take this "report" at face value, especially from someone who let's you know up front that all government employees work for him? Would you not be the least bit curious about the story behind the self professed employer of every government employee who was riding in the left lane of a 4 lane highway and then later caught up with driver where the driver for no reason subjected him to verbal abuse. Doncha think there may be more to this than just an innocent young lad carefully riding his bicycle when he was subjected to the allegedly unprovoked vile attack of a supposedly likely future killer driver (sez one poster here) in a marked government vehicle.

Video tape of this incident from beginning to end just might be revealing. I assume that if it didn't reflect well on the cyclist, no unedited report of "vileness" would ever be submitted.

Look, if someone in a city truck is taking out their bad day on me when I'm riding reasonably and legally, I'm reporting him. I don't know about the lane choice here, if anything I suspect OP typoed left when they meant right, but who cares? I don't know if OP provoked this by riding unreasonably. If so, OP shouldn't report this

I think the idea that a city employee is likely to get fired over this report is hilarious, but I would expect he'd have an uncomfortable conversation with his supervisor that might cause him to avoid that particular tantruming behavior in the future.

If someone is driving a motor vehicle, the line between merely annoying and downright threatening is pretty damn fine. I'm not a big fan of the idea that a city employee has a license to toe that line. Sorry if you think that makes me a snowflake, but I think the employee is a snowflake if they don't expect blowback.
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Old 10-22-21, 09:40 PM
  #47  
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yes
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Old 10-23-21, 05:53 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
"Vile behavior" Gosh, some folks must have led very sheltered lives and/or have a significant inability to moderate the over reaction drama when they ride a bicycle.
Perhaps I have led a sheltered life. I've lived in half a dozen cities spread across the country and have never found myself in a place where public employees swearing at citizens in the streets was considered acceptable.


Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
By all means load up on cameras and microphones in order to capture every slight .
Can't imagine where that comes from. I've never suggested such a thing. I'm good with lights and a bottle of water.

Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
If I were a snowflake ...
That says a great deal about the social mores you would endorse.
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Old 10-23-21, 09:06 AM
  #49  
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There's a purpose for the " How's my driving?" written on the back of some trucks.

They should not be limited only to trucks with that written on them.
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Old 10-23-21, 11:13 PM
  #50  
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I once saw a guy in a company environmental truck with a number and a phone on the back throw trash out while waiting for a red light. Trash pisses me off, so I called the company and reported the truck with the number, i was nice but explained it didnt make since for their employee to be throwing trash out on the ground when their whole business was to keep stuff clean. she agreed and said it would be taken care of. a couple of weeks later i saw the same truck at a light and the driver actually got out of the truck and picked up some trash next to the truck that wasn’t his.

sometimes things get corrected. but they cant correct anything if they don’t know about it.
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