If you should happen to pass said car, and you're carrying your keys in your hands, and a single key inadvertantly slips out from between your fingers, and as you walk by - oops! - you realize you've scratched said car with your key, rest assured: the owner is an asshole.This driver felt that a cyclist had cut him off, so he honked. So far so good. Then, he sped up and drove the cyclist all the way over to the side of the road, and continued behind, a few inches away from the cyclist, forcing the poor guy on the bike to go speeding down the street in order to not be run over by the car directly behind him. When the person you're tailing is in a car, that shit is intimidating. When the person you're chasing is on a bike, that shit is murderous.
So the car goes back to the middle of the road and stops, and the driver gets out. He starts yelling at the cyclist. A car in the next lane stops to yell at the first driver. Now both lanes are blocked, cars are honking, and this psycho driver is still yelling and cursing at the cyclist. I walk by, pull out my phone, and say, "so, I'll just call the police then, unless you're just about done?" At this point the cyclist speeds off. Fuck. I meant to scare the driver, not the cyclist.
Driver 1 and Driver 2 continue to yell at each other. Driver 2 speeds away, Driver 1 pulls over and just sits there. I dunno why.
Sorry for the crappy photo quality. Cell phone cam. I was also trying to be discreet, so as no to anger the psycho.
JFC.
ReplyDeleteI don't think many drivers realize just how vulnerable cyclists are. Although, frankly, it sounds like this guy knew, and just didn't give a rat's hoo hoo.
That said, I face a different problem in Sackville. If anything, drivers here are too conscientious about cyclists. I know - it sounds crazy. But when one driver stops in the middle of an intersection so that the cyclist can make a left turn on a red light, then nobody knows what anybody is doing, and that is dangerous.
Although not as dangerous as being tailed by a car, mind you.
What astonishes me is that this happened only two and a half months after the massively publicized incident where Al Sheppard got killed, and that it's the second time in the four months since I started this blog that Katie's been involved in, or witnessed, something crazy enough to write about.
ReplyDeleteI admit, when I'm in a car I forget sometimes that I'm in charge of a deadly weapon. I lose my temper when I'm driving, too. But I can't imagine gunning it up to the back tires of a cyclist and threatening his life like that, regardless of how mad I got.
And I think you're right - a lot of the tension and frustration on both sides comes from people not knowing what the rules are. But the sheer rage and, yes, hatred that some drivers display is scary as all f*ck. I'd much rather have them be too nice, personally.