Objects thrown at you

So last night I went on the group ride. Since it is getting dark earlier these days I decided to cut out one of the loops on the ride to get back earlier. So I'm all alone riding about 4 miles into the ride when a car drives by me and throws food out the window at me. :eek: This is the first time this has happened. Other people have said that they have had beer bottles thrown at them. I proceeded to do something extremely stupid. I fipped them the bird. It was just an instinct but I immediately regreted it because as I stated before I was all alone on this stretch of road. Usually a cyclist will ride by every few seconds but I had taken a different route to cut down the mileage of my ride last night so absolutely nobody else was out there with me.

This proceeded to ruin my ride. I spent the rest of my ride feeling so lonely out there and for the first time worrying about my safety. :confused:

Now today at work when I told the story to a couple of non-cyclist co-workers they actually had the nerve to go into how annoying cyclist can be and that the people in the car had probably just had it with cyclist and that is why they threw the food at me. Can you believe that?! As if I deserved what I got. So, now here I sit trying not to cry and not lose all faith in humanity. :(

Mean people suck. You didn't do anything wrong. Your coworkers have a sad, sad little view of their world.

Thank goodness there are kind, compassionate, active people like you to balance out the universe.

Soda can, bottle of water, firecracker so far. Someone told me I should only ride on the 3 mile boring Veloway because roads are made for cars and I am a nuisance. They said they and their spouse lay on the horn as they pass cyclists. I told them the law was very different from their impression, passing doesn't take that long and honking usually just scares them and could cause a wreck. Then I reminded them that the cyclist is a person someone's son or daughter, how would he feel if someone treated their daughters that way. Oooooh that struck a nerve, only thing they are truly sensitive about.

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Originally Posted by Aggie_Ama

Someone told me I should only ride on the 3 mile boring Veloway because roads are made for cars and I am a nuisance.

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It never works to tell motorists this.... but did you know that the paving of roads in this country began not because of cars, but because of the lobbying of the League of American Wheelmen (which means bicycle wheels, not auto wheels).... Yup indeed all of those nice paved streets, no more muddy mess, because the cyclists wanted a place to ride.

The League was founded as the League of American Wheelmen in 1880. Bicyclists, known then as "wheelmen", were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians.

In an effort to improve riding conditions so they might better enjoy their newly discovered sport, more than 100,000 cyclists from across the United States joined the League to advocate for paved roads. The success of the League in its first advocacy efforts ultimately led to our national highway system.

So no indeed - roads were not originally made for cars, they were made for us.... motorists should be irritated by bikes, they should be grateful, we literally paved the way for the rise of the automobile.

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Originally Posted by Aggie_Ama

honking usually just scares them and could cause a wreck. Then I reminded them that the cyclist is a person someone's son or daughter, how would he feel if someone treated their daughters that way. Oooooh that struck a nerve, only thing they are truly sensitive about.

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Yeah, next time maybe elaborate on what that accident could mean. That someone's son or daughter could easily fall and hit their head, get hit by a car ... umm .... die???

Luckily my area in So Cal seems to be fairly bike friendly. Every now and then we'll hear someone holler something from a car that we can't quite make out. So, I just always assume they're yelling something wonderful!

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Originally Posted by Eden

The League was founded as the League of American Wheelmen in 1880. Bicyclists, known then as "wheelmen", were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians.

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So, great. Bicyclists have been challenged, antagonized, and harassed for over a hundred years! We just can't buy a break! :rolleyes:

As for me, I recently had a black walnut fruit chucked at me, which hit me soundly on the arm. I was also shot in the leg with a pellet gun.

Yeah. People are stupid.

That is just rude no matter what the circumstance.

Sorry this happened to you and ruined your ride.

*hugs you*

Beer bootle here. Just remember, as they say on the open seas, "tonnage rules" that, and anyone that is rude or dangerous driving by you could be totally impaired on drugs or alcohol, insane, or very angry and looking to take it out on someone.Try to avoid getting any more of their attention....nothing good will come of it. Tokie

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Originally Posted by Tokie

Beer bootle here. Just remember, as they say on the open seas, "tonnage rules" that, and anyone that is rude or dangerous driving by you could be totally impaired on drugs or alcohol, insane, or very angry and looking to take it out on someone.Try to avoid getting any more of their attention....nothing good will come of it. Tokie

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And get a picture of their plate if you can - and send it to someone immediately.

CA

For the yellers my husband and I wave a very eager wave and smile. We like to think it confuses or annoys them. For the throwers get a plate (partial works in TX if you are pretty sure the type of car) and call the police. I have reported a couple but never had a partial plate, just description. I now practice memorizing all or part of a plate.

As to someone coming up behind you and honking for the purpose of startling you; in Tennessee it's illegal to do that to someone on horseback or to a cyclist. (And a couple of others I can't remember right now).

Check your state.

Back when I lived in So. Cal, a water balloon thrown by a car of juvenile males. It hit my back with such force that I was almost knocked off the bike - I thought it was a rock. Here in MN, only yellers so far.

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Originally Posted by Aggie_Ama

For the yellers my husband and I wave a very eager wave and smile. We like to think it confuses or annoys them.

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I also like this strategy. One of my favorite teachers in high school (incidentally, a religious Sister) said she always did this when she was driving and encountered road rage-y drivers (a pretty common thing around Chicago!). She encouraged us to use the same "turn the other cheek" strategy. :D

I've had a full, unopened can of pop chucked at me from a moving vehicle while I was walking, once, but fortunately, I haven't had anything thrown at me while cycling *knocks on wood*. If that did happen, I'm pretty sure the next thing to be thrown would be me off my bike, because I startle pretty easily. :o

I have been lucky so far - only a carload of rude teens shouting as they drove through our neighborhood. I remember having trouble when I used to ride my horse - jerks like to try and startle horses. I am sure however, the day will come when I get harassed on my bike - and I will be more than happy to take down their plate no. and turn them in. The best response is to ignore the driver - responding with flipping them off, cursing, etc. can result in you getting seriously harmed. A bike is no match for a car. I am lucky in that we have a lot of cyclists here in Pinellas County and cars are used to seeing them constantly. I imagine it would be worse on a lonely stretch of road and that would be a scary situation. I only ride alone on well-lit and well-known routes - and I keep my mace and cell phone within easy reach “just in case”. Sorry that happened to you and hugs.

.....from the combine.

Reading this thread makes me want to ride my bike with a flare gun in my pocket.

firecrackers, waterballoons, slurpees.

This is why I stick to dirt trails now.

As a relative newbie who tends to ride alone, this thread terrifies me! :eek:

If someone threw a beer bottle at me, I'm not sure I'd go riding again for a while, and might get PTSD from it... :(

Those people need therapy so they don't manifest their unhappiness on happy cyclists :( :mad:

Well, it's harvest season around here and I find it challenging to ride in a tractor slipstream. :D

Never anything thrown at me (yet), but I have been squirted with windshield wiper fluid....a bunch of kids in a car cleverly turned the mechanism so it would squirt sideways rather than on the window and they had a great time driving down the road squirting cyclist on a large group ride last summer. I got hit in the eye under my sunglasses. The little sh#@!s...wish I could have gotten the lic plate number, not for the police, but for their parents.

It didn't even occur to me that people would do that until I had a guy yell when he passed me on my commuter bike in SFO. It nearly scared me to death! I really don't know what is WRONG with people!

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Originally Posted by Flur

Reading this thread makes me want to ride my bike with a flare gun in my pocket.

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Ha. Wouldn't that be fun?

Pam

Oh, that's so rude. I'm glad you're okay. I'm very lucky to not have had that experience. Just cigarette ashes flicked once, which was pretty awful, but at least they missed me.

Your co-workers just don't get it. Good thing you have us. We get it. Hugs.

Makes my glad that most of my riding is on the Mississippi River levee.

One particularly HOT afternoon, some kids offered to hose us down. Of course I didn't hear them and process what they said until it was too late. Would have loved to have been hosed to a nice soaking wet with clean water.

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Originally Posted by 7rider

So, great. Bicyclists have been challenged, antagonized, and harassed for over a hundred years! We just can't buy a break! :rolleyes:

As for me, I recently had a black walnut fruit chucked at me, which hit me soundly on the arm. I was also shot in the leg with a pellet gun.

Yeah. People are stupid.

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Isn't that assault? At what point do you call the police and report them?

Roxy

A similar thing happened to me except the guy chased me down after I flipped him the "bird" after he cut me off. It was scary, but I held my ground and told him I had the right of way and he'd better not assault me any further. He left with no further problem., lucky for me. I didn't get his license number but later I wrote a letter to the police department and explained the circumstances, since I wanted to know if I really would be backed up by them after this scary incident. I got a nice letter back from our chief of police telling me I was correct in my assumptions of the law (in my circumstance) and that the guy who chased me down was wrong. Since then, I've decided that if there is any altercation with a motorist that goes this far, I will call the police immediately. I carry a cell phone with me at all times and will not hesitate to use it to report problem motorists. Usually, I ignore horn honks and cat calls, as annoying as they are. The more we ride, the more motorists will get used to us on the roads.

What a waste of good brew. :rolleyes: Assuming it was good, anyway....

Last year, we had a rash of incidents in our group, ranging from altercations with motorcyclists, empty water bottles, full soda bottles, FULL liter-size water bottles thrown from a car going 60-65 mph (thankfully they missed the target), and a half-full 1/2 gallon jug of orange juice (broke on impact, of course). Yellers are a normal occurance -- we wave exaggeratedly...and I usually mutter "a-hole" for emphasis.

After two or so incidents, I emailed a police commander I work with and asked him to please relay word of the problem to other law enforcement agencies (Sheriff and CHP), which he did. I also told him our regular ride routes on certain days and where you will generally find cyclists out & about. Shortly thereafter, we noticed more patrol cars on those roads.

In the wee-season this year, we managed to get half a license plate number from a yeller's car (I think they threw something too), called the CHP with our cell phones, and they showed up in about 5 minutes to take a report - he happened to be in the area.

The response from law enforcement around here has been amazing, and it has really strengthened our relationship with them. One officer finds time to catch speeders while he patrols -- waves to us from his ticket pad as we pass.

This spring/summer season has been better, but there was a verbal altercation with some knot-heads in a van a few weeks ago.

Be careful out there, but for those who this thread is scaring -- don't let the idiots win. Get out, ride your bike, and remember to smile big. :)

~BikeMomma

I was "egged" by some teens crouching behind a rock wall, in Acton. I thought a rock or some other object had hit my helmet. My husband insisted we go back and check it out, and we saw the remains of the eggs. We rang the bell of the house, but no one answered. The kids were in there, though. We checked inside their mailbox for the name of the family.
I should have called the police, but I didn't. But, about 2 months later, I was at the pharmacy and saw a car with the family's name on their license plate (it's a very unusual name). I left a note on the car, signing my name. About 5 minutes after I got home, I had a phone call from the aunt of these kids; it was her car I saw. She explained the family situation (bad divorce, wild kids) and told me she would take care of it. I received a written apology from the kids.
This is why I live in a small town!

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Originally Posted by channlluv

Isn't that assault? At what point do you call the police and report them?

Roxy

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For the gun or the walnut?? For the walnut, no. But my DH did go and patrol the neighborhood later, looking for the offending vehicle (never found it). For the gun, yes. I rode straight to the police station and reported the incident. They shrugged and said "Yeah, we've had reports of garbage cans and stuff being shot at over there." :eek::eek: So, now this person was shooting at cyclists and they are STILL unconcerned???? I guess having a welt the size of a pencil eraser on my thigh, and nothing more, did not worry them to much. :rolleyes:

As for you new cyclists who are terrified of this thread. Please don't be. I - and many others here, undoubtedly - have ridden many thousands of incident free miles. These incidents are a collection of outliers to otherwise joyful rides. Ride like you are invisible....ride defensively...ride safely....but ride.

I always carry my cell phone and mace.

Missouri is NOT bicycle friendly. Just this morning, my husband rode alone. He was on the frontage road, separate from the highway--and someone leaned out of a car on the highway--and yelled "GET OFF THE ROAD." He wasn't even on the SAME road as the vehicle! (Although, I have to say, the people in our town are getting to the increased cyclists on the road and give us a wide berth).

We have a state-wide group called MoBikeFed that has the following program (see their website for more):

The Missouri Bicycle Federation offers its members an option that can be very satisfying...Report that safety threat! In an effort to make our state a safer place to walk, run, and bicycle, the Missouri Bicycle Federation (MoBikeFed) has established a program in which the details of the incident are reported to us and a letter will be sent to the offending motorist.
Details of the incident should include: motorist license tag number and description of the incident (time, place, description of vehicle & driver, what happened).
The letter sent to the motorist is accompanied by a summary of the Missouri state statutes and Missouri Driver Guide sections related to bicycling. The summary was compiled by the Missouri Bicycle Federation and may be freely reproduced without copyright restriction. The summary is available for viewing/download in MSWord format and PDF format.
In addition, the offender's name and address will be keep on file in case the unsafe action is repeated and legal action becomes necessary. The names of both the offending motorist and the reporting bicyclist are kept confidential.

Had an interesting incident on my AM commute. I was on the highway and hear a dog woof behind me. I checked my mirror and saw a big SUV coming with a couple of BIG great dane heads sticking out the rear passenger window. As the jerk passed he got as close to me as he could, so the dogs would bark right over my shoulder. I just moved to the curb and let em pass.

Then we come up to a light and the driver stops with the car and dogs just over the line so I can't pass them. I've always been a sucker for big slobbery dogs, having owned and love a few in my life. So I stop and start baby talking to them and have their tails wagging in no time. As the car starts to go with the green light I call out to the driver and yell "thanks for letting me talk to your dogs!" Made my day. :rolleyes: bikerHen