Calling the Cops on Me?!

[kfergos]

This will be long... OK. Sunday I was out for a 65-mile ride through towns I don't know. In that situation I bring lots of maps. To set the scene, imagine a four-way stop. I’m in some confusing little downtownish area, with few helpful road signs and a couple major intersections coming up, so I stop and pull out my map for a quick look-see. I’m maybe a foot from the “edge” of the road, which isn’t really clear, since it shades from grass to a wide strip of leftover sand to asphalt. I’m not far from the wide strip of sand.

Standing there, scrutinizing, I was surprised to hear a rather angry honk behind me. I glanced back and sure enough, a big red SUV was stopped behind me. I waved them to go around me, then turned back to my puzzlement. Maps, bicycling, turns in roads, and I do not mix well, so I’m very careful when making turning decisions (this is also why we make routes that involve as few turns as possible); I pretty much totally ignore cars around me while mapping.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the honk sounded behind me again, if possible more irritated than before. I decide to explain that I’m going to be here a bit, so I show them the map, point to it, and wave them around me again. I even say, “I’m looking at a map,” although I doubt they can hear me through a couple tons of steel. Then again I go back to my map.

Somewhat shockingly, the SUV remained stopped behind me and this time the driver actually opened the door, and stuck her head out. This, incidentally, is the first time I’ve had somebody do this. She said, very angrily, “We’re in an intersection! Pull over!”

“I’m looking at a map. Go around me,” I told her, amazingly calmly considering she’d just honked at me and now was shouting angrily at me.

“Move over!”

“Go around me.” I look back at my map, decide to go straight through the next couple intersections, and tuck the map away. As I do so, I hear, furiously:

“Do I need to call the cops?”

My jaw dropped. The cops? For me standing on the right side of the road, not blocking the intersection, while checking a map? Yes, I could certainly have moved completely off the road, onto the grassy strip on the side. But, I’ll be honest here, after she started honking at me, I started feeling remarkably stubborn. I wasn’t angry at all, but darn it all, I was NOT going to move off the road, her irritation be darned! I don’t like being honked at any more the next person, and I have NEVER had anybody threaten to call the cops because of me. My most egregious law-breaking is tied between speeding in a car and riding my bike the wrong way on a one-way street. So I refused to move. In fact, I’m not sure what made me do it, but as I pulled away, I shouted, “GO FOR IT!”

By strange coincidence, I happened to see a state police car almost immediately after that, as well as two more local police cars in close succession. Each time I wondered, “Did she really call the cops?” I wasn’t worried, but—but—honestly. Call the police, because I was somewhat in her way? Goodness me.

[redrhodie]

Good for you for standing your ground! I wouldn't have moved, either.

I got honked at today after making a perfectly executed, legal left turn, with a hand signal. I guess stupid woman was mad that I had the nerve to take the lane and make her wait, which she didn't even have to do, since I'm sure I was going the speed limit (it was a slight downhill). I wish I could have caught up to her, which I almost did, and would have done if she weren't speeding. I was ready to read her the riot act.

[kat_h]

When people honk I like to pretend it was a friendly honk and reply with a friendly wave. I actually got into that habit because my boss honks when she passes me on the way home from work, and a few other friends have honked greetings when they recognise me. There are times when it's clearly an unfriendly honk but I respond as if it's a friendly one anyway. I've found that being nice to angry people annoys them more than anything else I could do.

[Zen]

How old was this woman with nothing better to do?

[jobob]

I've found that being nice to angry people annoys them more than anything else I could do.

Hee hee, I've found that too.

[Blueberry]

I've found that being nice to angry people annoys them more than anything else I could do.

It either annoys them, or they spend the rest of the day trying to figure out who they flipped off and shouldn't have

[Grog]

Imagine this 911 conversation:

"Hello, police?
- What is your location?
- Corner of such-and-such avenue and such-and-such road
- Ok, what is the purpose of your call?
- [Angry voice] There is a cyclist on the side of the road reading a map!!!!!
- [Embarrassed silence]
- Can you imagine!!!!
- Well, go around it..."

That would be sort of funny.

[kfergos]

How old was this woman with nothing better to do?

She looked between 35 and 45. She also had other people in her SUV -- I could see at least somebody (an older guy; her dad?) else in the passenger seat.

Grog -- I love it! I almost wish she had called. It could've been the talk of dispatching.

[Aint Doody]

I'm not trying to be contrary here, and I do think the woman was over-reacting, but I thought cyclists were supposed to get completely off the roadway when we stopped regardless of what type of road it is.

[mimitabby]

I wish someone HAD called 911 and we'd have an even better story.

the woman sounds like an idiot, clearly unsure of her own vehicle.

[Geonz]

I prob'ly would have reacted the same way... but when I remember to, I make sure I"m on the "already through" part of the intersection and all the way off the road. If I'm going to turn, I can go the extra few feet. (However, I don't know that intersection's layout. 'Round here it's mostly cornfields )
My guess is there were other unrelated anger issues happening with the driver - it was bizarre behavior.

ONce three of us were resting at a corner - and pretty much off the road - and a car whipped around the corner too fast and while we were trying ot get away - okay, I confess, I was still at the "what?!" and looking at the license plate - but fortunately my friends were already in motion - the driver clipped the back wheel of one bike, then swerved and took out a mailbox on the other side of the street... pulled to a stop a hundred yards away and started backing up (at which point *I* started heading into the cornfields, with some kind of Rockford Files scenario going on in my head).
So... I really try to get all the way off the road.
IT was a lady who had been "having an argumetn" with her daughter who wanted to help drive (?!?!?). She paid damages and she got a ticket.

[mimitabby]

wow. you were three lucky cyclists!! that's quite the story Sue

[kfergos]

I'm not trying to be contrary here, and I do think the woman was over-reacting, but I thought cyclists were supposed to get completely off the roadway when we stopped regardless of what type of road it is.

I certainly made sure to be out of the way after that! I stopped the way I did because I thought I'd only be a minute, and when I stopped it didn't look like there was anybody around to be inconvenienced.

However, you could very well be right -- I haven't heard anything either way at the couple of intro biking classes I took, and it definitely wouldn't have hurt for me to have been more off the roadway. I'd be interested to hear if anybody with more legal knowledge of biking than me knows anything about this.

[Geonz]

It's probably not *illegal* (and even if it were it really would be laughable).

After my mishap, I made a stern note to myself that it was much more important to haul my buns out of the way than to look for a license plate number. Three weeks later, I was making a left turn from a left turn only lane, and the fellow in the truck perpendicularly to my left was doing the same, was only looking for oncoming traffic, and cut the corner 'way too closely. I do believe I moved faster for the previous encounter, and while he nicked my basket and knocked me down, it was lots better than it could have been.

[uforgot]

I'm sort of confused here. Were you still in the road? Or were you on the shoulder?