BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Uggh, crappy situation. I'm going to stereotype here, but some old men seem to have an irrepresible urge to tell other people what to do, even when it's not afffecting them or anyone else in the least. I don't get it. (this by the way is occurring on a large scale in the entire country, but I won't go into that)

Now that this has happened to you, next time, just laugh at the guy, probably drive him insane. Keep yourself safe, report the incident, ideally get a photo.

And, yeah, who is so freaking paranoid that they carry a club? There's one.

glad the situation ended without getting worse!

my grandfather, who passed on a few years ago, had absolutely awful road rage (kind of snuck up on him after age 78 or so), he'd turn purple and shout and ride people's bumpers. Was the sweetest man in the universe unless behind a wheel, and everybody loved him. In the car he never had any weapons on hand and other than riding people's bumpers actually followed the laws (speed limits, stop signs, etc). He even felt really bad about it when he got to wherever he was going. He stopped driving eventually because of the stress.

Your story reminded me of him. I'm not excusing the guy, his behavior was unacceptable. Just wishing we (people in general) were smarter about this so we could avoid it. Maybe someday it'll be like typhoid - well understood and easily avoidable using the proper precautionary measures.

(I'm not saying it's a complete mystery, just that the general population seems to still be mystified)

I was walking across a sidewalk in front of one of the hospitals in Oakland last year. This really old dude in a pickup nearly runs over the backs of my feet and I gave him a bit of a dirty look as I walked away. Didn't say anything or gesture, just kind turned and looked at the guy for a second as I finished crossing. Dude stops his truck in the middle of the road, rolls down the window and gives me the most expletive filled rant I've ever heard. Told me he would take my stinkeye and shove it up various places. I continued walking and he kept yelling. I guess he wasn't in that big of a hurry, despite almost hitting me. I went to work and imagined he was heading to the hospital for anger treatment, or maybe a lobotomy, something like that. Some people have rage issues.

If his rage had just been expressed verbally, I would have laughed it off and moved on, as I do any other time it happens. But the whole "drop the car in reverse" thing, followed by the reaching for an unknown weapon kind of set me off. I'm normally a peace-lovin' kind of guy, but not at that moment. This could have ended badly for both of us, and I'm glad that it didn't.

Invariably, the folks that are in the biggest hurry to get around you seem to have the most time to slow down or stop in order to mess with you.

Repeat after me: Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

being a reactionary person myself.. I think my response owuld have been similar, but I think we as a community need to start training ourselves to use our phones.. take a picture of his license plate then call the cops.

+1 netviln take a picture of his license plate then call the cops.

I have had no desire for the cheap cell phone pic-taking ability until now, but this is such a good idea.

Particularly with the statement, "No, sir. It isn't 'my word against his' until you GET his word. Right now it's just my word."

I smacked some woman's car after she almost ran me over speeding around a corner downtown. She was in such a hurry that she stopped flat in the middle of the road to start yelling at me - without missing a step I ignored her and kept walking as pissed off drivers behind her blared their horns...

I got a "You greedy sonofabitchasshole!" from some lady in a minivan a while back. I had parked my car and was about half way to my destination walking.

Apparently I took ~HER~ parking space and she just had to find that dick with red hair to yell at him. Ignoring people and hearing the audible insanity ensue behind me just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

There's some real charmers out there.

Mick, I started taking pictures of license plates of cars that did something dangerous/illegal in my vicinity. At the end of the week I sat down to look at the plates I'd collected and thought "WTF am I going to do with these"?

Salty, I think you have the habit. For me, in a truly serious situation, the thought of taking a pic would come only after I had cursed out all the flight-fight hormones.

I imagine you're right, though. The urge to capture those adams apples is frequent. The times a pic could be used are few.

The more I think about it, the happier I am that it did not escalate into a physical conflict. It was close, but only until I saw that he did not have a gun. I can only imagine how it would have ended up if the police had been called and found this guy pinned on the ground, or held in his car by a cyclist. I truly believe that I would have been wrong simply because I was the cyclist, regardless of how we ended up there.

Mick, cursing up a storm is what I usually do too - I decided to try something different with the pictures, and it at least had the advantage of calming me down a little. But, the pictures are useless so now it's back to "Plan A", although I've been trying to control my emotions a little better, with varying degrees of success.

Salty - don't forget other drivers can see you take a picture, and the 'perpetrators' may notice you photodocumenting as well. Nothing says "chill" like having any hope of anonymity completely removed.

Also, while you may not have used them in the past, the habit is still a very good one. My car's seatbelt has never saved my life (knock on wood) but I still wear it. License plates won't save your life directly, but could provide vital information some day. I wouldn't give up on it just yet.

"Nothing says "chill" like having any hope of anonymity completely removed." - totally agree with that, the best reason for doing it.

Salty - maybe a web site - "Bad Pgh Drivers". Not associated with BikePgh, of course.

There's always http://www.platewire.com/ for venting but it doesn't seem organized enough to be useful (i.e. you can't really do searches).

@ (but not from) Salty Also, while you may not have used them in the past, the habit is still a very good one.

+1

Also, if it pushes you away from cursing into action? That is the kind of self-development that folks pay California yoga teachers thousands of dollars for, if it reaches into other parts of your life.

If you ever got a chance to use one of those pics in a court of law?

The whole board here would be euphoric for a week.