nashcommguy

Perusing craigslist in the bicyles section I ran across the forthcoming post, but when I went to post it here the individual had cancelled the ad. I'll quote what I can remember. It said: "To the bicyclist who crashed today. The guys who hit you with the beer can were my cousins. They were bragging about it and laughing about how you crashed after they hit you with a beercan going 45mph. If you contact me and give me the details of the crash so I know it's you I'll give you their names."

If you go to craigslist.org/nashville and click on the bicycles subheading a lawyer's rs to THAT post is still there. It's 10:25 PM CST as I'm typing this. Nothing more to add at present.

orange leader

Jerks like this guys cousin irk me to no end. Kudos to the CL poster for having the cahones for being willing to turn his jerk cousins in.

I've had large rocks (from off a bridge), pennies, cans, and glass bottles tossed at me. No crashes resulted, and most of the projectiles missed. I even caught up to one and kicked out their tailight. but usually they get away. It'd be nice to know justice was served.

SlimAgainSoon

A beer can at 45-mph ... that could kill a guy.

CliftonGK1

Yep. Last summer, spare change seemed to be the new fad around here, too. Twice I had a handful of it thrown at me on a 50mph roadway from a vehicle going the opposite direction.

Artkansas 

I've had a can of Coke bounce off my helmet, and a beer bottle whiz by me by inches, but the fellow who threw a bag of french fries only irked me because he forgot to throw the ketchup to go with them, talk about thoughtless!

But it's not only cyclists who get that treatment. A friend of a friend had a rock thrown at her car from a bridge over the freeway she was on. Her neck was severed completely, and her teenaged daughter who was in the passenger's seat had to bring the car to a halt. It destroyed the entire family.

The power of stupidity cannot be underestimated.

truman

I hope the guy who got beercanned gets the opportunity to pound the beercanners, figuratively in court or literally, either one.

TFS Jake

Yeah I read that post on CL. Pisses me off, glad they figured out who it was.

BA Commuter

I've been riding for a long time, but this year I've had more aggressive drivers cut me off and things yelled at me than any other time.

Is it jealousy or the economy?

exile

I once had someone throw a cup of something at me while commuting. I immediately called the cops (although it took two hours for them to show up) and gave them the license plate number and vehicle description. The cop said there was nothing they could do because it was my word versus theirs and there was more than one person in the car.

I guess the driver shutting off its lights and slowing down are normal when they see cyclist. And the passenger was just throwing something out the window and couldn't see if anyone was around because the lights were off. Thats some coincdence considering I had my lights on at the time.

Hope the cops do more than what they did in my situation.

RedWhiteandRed

I have had beer bottles thrown at me from moving vehicles on THREE separate occasions while living/walking/riding in Victoria, British Columbia.

RT

I agree 100% - there's something shifting, and polite society is swirling down the toilet clockwise. I believe we're seeing a generation gap in action, growing wider, where the parents of today's youth (yes, most of the yelling and heckling comes from the younger set) have fallen down mightily in establishing a good set of morals and standard of behavior in their own children. A book could be/probably has been written on this.

I now relinquish the soapbox.

RT

I agree 100% - there's something shifting, and polite society is swirling down the toilet clockwise. I believe we're seeing a generation gap in action, growing wider, where the parents of today's youth (yes, most of the yelling and heckling comes from the younger set) have fallen down mightily in establishing a consistent set of morals and standard of behavior in their own children. A book could be/probably has been written on this.

I now relinquish the soapbox.

SneakyKing

I was almost his by a 1/2 full 40oz glass beer bottle while kayaking under a 50ft bridge. that would have really hurt!

darkadious

wow.

seenoweevil

Man, some of you live in some tough towns, I guess. I hope I don't jinx it, but the worst I've gotten has been a few obscenities, horns blown, and cut off a couple of times. I do ride mostly on secondary roads and residential streets, I imagine that helps.

spacerconrad

I guess I've been fortunate these last few years, as I haven't actually been the target of a projectile.
Though, there have been quite a few lame confrontations, including one redneck jerk who left his beater Cavalier parked across both lanes of a bridge to scream that we cyclists were always holding up traffic. Other drivers laying on their horns turned his attention back to his obvious hypocrisy and he shuffled back to his car.

Another encounter had a teenaged kid in a Corvette in downtown Little Rock yelling some interesting things as I rode (faster than traffic downtown, but he was showing off to his girlfriend in the right seat).
I rode around the block, caught up to him at the next light, leaned on his doorframe and said, "Nice car. Shame if anything happened to it."
I guess he gave up on looking for a parking spot, because he peeled out when the light turned green, cut across two lanes of traffic, and took the ramp to I-30.
Oh, well. Guess he must have remembered someplace else he needed to be.

nashcommguy

Looked in all the local papers today for any mention of this incident. Nothing. So, my apologies if I can't inform re any resolution. My feeling is the poster/informant's ad was answered, so he/she pulled it off CL.

buzzman

Interesting comment. Granted I encounter jerks on the road every once in a while (tonight being a case in point) but I've been commuting since 1969 and it hasn't gotten any worse, hasn't gotten any better either- people threw crap at me then too. I used to chase them down and throw it back at them if I could- now I just keep riding.

unterhausen

I don't think things have gotten worse for cyclists, although my data starts in 1970 and back then I lived among some of the most criminal and stupid people walking the face of the earth. Rural Appalachia has gotten a lot better since then.

My feeling is that things are actually better for cyclists now. Of course I worry about distracted driving, but since nobody uses cassette tapes in their cars any more, that factor may actually be a wash. The fact that the economy has really tanked over the last few years probably does more to make things worse than any other factor.

Bioflamingo

I agree with this, but the thing I don't understand is why people choose to spend money on gas just to ride around town. I have several friends like this. They'll go without food before they'll go without gas. They don't harass pedestrians at least, but still.

dynodonn 

I haven't had anything thrown at me, but it's been a few years since a car load of teenagers used me for Air Soft practice at point blank range. Luckily that it was a cold rainy day, and I had extra gear on, otherwise it would have left a nasty mark rather than being deflected by my multiple layers of outerwear.

Santaria

I gotta say honestly I'm glad nothing has been thrown at me, my temper can be quickburn sometimes. I think my initial reaction might be to catch up to them at the light and stab the ****er in the arm with my pocket knife and while he sat there screaming ask him why he felt like he had the right to threaten my life? If he didn't answer rather quickly, I'd probably try to loosen up his grip on consciousness with a few door checks.

Granted, I'm speaking hypothetically. Odds are I'd just be pissed and take it like any other idiot.

akohekohe

Last time I had anything thrown at me was on a cross country trip on the very last day and these guys in an open jeep started throwing apples at me. Funny thing was the sheriff saw them do it and he pulled them over.

buzzman

I jinxed myself with this response! Read my latest post in How was your commute today?- I guess I stand corrected!

RT

Sounds like you did the right thing.

I'm not trying to be sensational about this - in the past five years, violent behavior in general in my town has escalated. Be it nightclub stabbings, shootings during convenience store holdups, or the number of bank robberies, let alone what the idiots are yelling at us cyclists, it is substantially worse. I carefully plan my commute as I am on the road between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. Arguably the most dangerous time as bars are closing. I'd rather ride in busy traffic than have to worry about an isolated incident with a drunk driver and no one around.