Run Off The Road

[doc]

Here's my recent encounter with a crazy driver:
I'm on a group ride with my LBS. I'm in the middle of about 10 guys riding 2 abreast on a wednesday afternoon. This nut in a gigantic white chevy suburban comes up behind us and starts honking incessantly. No exageration, she must have honked over 20 times. So we politley get in single file and stay real close to the side. She of course decides she must pass us immediately, at a very high rate of speed, over a double yellow line. Of course as she is in the on coming traffic lane a huge truck comes around the corner. Naturally she feels it is much better to quickly side swipe me than hit a truck. I was really lucky because right there the dirt was at the same level as the road. No ditch or anything. I did have the pleasure of riding into a pricker bush, but that sure beats meeting metal or asphalt. Nonetheless, she continues honking and immediately starts passing the rest of us once the truck passes and then pulls into the elementary school parking lot 1/2 mile up the road to park in the "pick up" lane to wait for her darling children. She couldn't wait the 1-2 minutes it would have taken for us to pass the school all together. Risking my life and hers makes much more sense.
One guy from my group pulls into the elementary school to get her license plate number. She jumps out of the car and starts SCREAMING at him. All sorts of bizarre things including we were riding illegally. What? Riding a bicycle on the road is illegal these days? Then she screams she is going to call the police. So he just left and rejoined us.
Here is the worst part. I call the police with her license and car make and model etc. They tell me they can't do anything because there are no witnesses. I said What?? I have 5-10 witnesses. "Sorry, they are not impartial so their input is not helpful" What?? I have to make sure there are impartial observers staggered along all 48 miles of my route to observe if there are crazy drivers because the people I ride with can't be trusted???

Grrrrr. I am burning up. But I can't decide if I'm more mad at the crazy mother who is happy to kill me in order to get to school on time, or the cops who wouldn't even agree to talk to her.

[LBTC]

OMG! That, right there, is why I prefer trails to roads everytime! yikes! my worst fears, indeed!!

I totally see why you're angry.. ..vent a bit more, then do what you have to to relax....have a big cup of chai, or meditate or whatever. It's unfortunate that nothing can be done about that terrible driver right now.....but karma (fate, god, whatever you want to call it) has a way of coming around. No point carrying around her bad vibes! Don't let her ruin your ride!!

I'm glad you're okay.

Namaste,
~T~

[Trek420]

OMG, what got up her butt (sorry, excuse the language I know the forum's PG13 but I think it's called for with this moron). Were you making her late for her spin class? ;-) Sorry my fellow spinners ;-)

I'm glad you're okay. That took some awesome bike handling skills.Good on your ride buddies to confront her. That was brave and supportive of them. Since she's nucking futs I don't bame them for backing off.

Options include now that you are calm and have had some chai and a deep cleansing breath... since we know what school she goes to and no, not hanging around to stalk her tempting though that is but calmly talking to the school, explain what happened and ask if a local bike club could do a presentation to the KIDS on bike safety.

By crossing the double yellow she risked your life, hers, and the oncoming driver. In some states you have the right to report dangerous drivers and on the score of crossing the double yellow on a blind curve she might not get a ticket if it's not witnessed by police but if she gets one later on that is on her "permanent record".

trek

[sarahfixit]

I don't if I would have had the fortitude to hold back. I was just down in Raleigh over new years to enjoy the 75 deg weather but the drivers really did worry me. That's saying something because I commute through a city and I'ma trail racer.
In PA, where I reside, you get 3 points for:
Crossing a yellow
Passing on a turn
Passing on a hill
unsafe passing
Furthermore, state regs detail a pedalcycle to have 3ft of the lane to the white line and is reccomended to use all of it. So I do.
I have never tried to report any, but the thought did occur to me a few times. The points are almost as much as the speed ticket points. As far as I know you can lodge a complaint, wether or not it is an immediate action or not is another story.
As sexist as this may sound, I have had the most problems with that with women drivers. Seems like guys are a little better about edges or something, if only there were tighter emiisions regs.

[Trek420]

sarahfixit observes "As sexist as this may sound, I have had the most problems with that with women drivers. Seems like guys are a little better about edges or something..."

must be their superior spatial sense.

[doc]

Thanks for all the support. I had no idea about all those PA laws and I just moved to Charlotte NC from a philly suburb 6 months ago. Go figure.

I haven't given up yet. Turns out the license number I gave to the cops did NOT match with a suburban. It came up as a ford escort. Couldn't get more diametrically opposite than that! So, we are going to try and see her again at the elementary school and see if we got the # right. If we were right about the number then she is using a fraudulant license plate and I am pretty sure the cops would LOVE to know about that. I've got my fingers crossed.

[Trek420]

doc, who should be called "cop" wrote: If we were right about the number then she is using a fraudulant license plate and I am pretty sure the cops would LOVE to know about that.

maybe that's why she was in such a hurry? go get em, doc!

[sarahfixit]

What philly suburb? I live between Quakertown and Bethlehem. The bike community is great here.

[CorsairMac]

Doc I'm so glad you're safe. As I've said here before - I say a little "thank you" prayer every time I safely cross the 3 very busy streets during my commute. Keep us posted on what you turn up - my curiousity has been piqued now about the whole license plate thing!