Should I report this city employee?
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Whoops!... sorry officer... my hearing aid battery went flat, lol.
Nowadays, disobedience of authority means - freedom
#27
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Nowadays, disobedience of authority means - freedom
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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?
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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.
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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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?
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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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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#34
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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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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.
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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#36
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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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#37
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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?
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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#39
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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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"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.
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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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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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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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?
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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#45
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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.
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.
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.
#46
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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.
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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That says a great deal about the social mores you would endorse.
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#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.
They should not be limited only to trucks with that written on them.
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#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.
sometimes things get corrected. but they cant correct anything if they don’t know about it.
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