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From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: Car driver asks for advice from bicyclists
Message-ID: <1523@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 10:29:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1523
Posted: Mon Oct 21 10:29:13 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Oct-85 10:42:36 EDT
References: <354@sol1.UUCP> <55@noscvax.UUCP> <1023@druxo.UUCP>
Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 30
Summary: 

In article <1023@druxo.UUCP> knf@druxo.UUCP (FricklasK) writes:
>In Boulder, where I live, I find some of the bicyclists are INCREDIBLY
>self-righteous about their riding....
>  Occasionally, you even see a "violent biker" -- ...  Last
>summer I saw the worst example of this yet.  A car was waiting to make a 
>right turn at an intersection, and a biker pulled up along side of him.  The
>car pulled out and started to make the turn, cutting off the biker.  The
>biker pulled out his frame pump and started to ram on the car with it!
 ... [more lurid details]
>  Has anyone else seen anything like this?

Sounds like the wild west is on two wheels now.  However, I saw an event
something like this, though toned down, a couple of months ago.
     During morning rush hour on a fairly narrow two-lane street that
terrifies me daily, I watched a cyclist squeeze in beside a small car,
just managing to get into its blind spot as the traffic started to move.
Naturally the cyclist was alarmed, and banged on the car (I'd do that too,
just to avoid getting killed, if I'd gotten myself into that situation).
Somewhat surprisingly, when the danger was over, he began to shout at the
driver about how stupid *she* was.  (Yes, it was a woman in a small car
-- you know, the most aggressive kind on the road :-))
     I expostulated with him (that's what biking's for, no?) and his rage
was at least deflected.  He claimed she'd been in *his* lane!  To be fair,
there is a lot of confusion here over the rules of the road for bicycles,
but in this case good sense and the law do seem to agree that you can't
go and take over someone else's bit of road.
-- 
Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
              (416) 978-4058
{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke