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August 6, 2008

My first almost-fight! (, )

by fluffy at 9:15 AM
So, I was riding up Folsom on my new bike, and actually keeping up with traffic (about 20MPH) and otherwise completely following the law, when an asshole in a black BMW was speeding (at 40MPH or so) and came within inches of hitting me. So I shouted, "Hey!!!" at him. He immediately pulled over half a block in front of me, jumped out of his car, and shouted, "WHAT, HUH?!" (or maybe it was "YOU WANT SOME?!" but my adrenaline was pumping so I'm not really clear on what he said precisely) at me and held his arm out at roughly head level.

I ducked under his arm (clearly he wasn't trying that hard to knock me off my bike) and continued on my way. When he caught up with me the bike lane had started and I guess he decided I wasn't worth killing someone over after all since he didn't do anything specific to try to mess with me after that.

But, still, I can't understand how someone can break the law and nearly hurt someone else and then get offended when they're called on it. Jeeze.

(No, I didn't get his license plate number. It all went very fast. But now that I've seen this SFPD bike video I know better what to do.)

Comments

#11182 08/06/2008 03:53 pm
what a dick face! Folsom, that's where I had my bike accident with a car. Drivers suck on there.

I only once had a guy pull over like that and fling his door open to try to scare me (I was 10 feet away anyways.) Sometimes asshole drivers like to scream or sort-of tailgate. It's mostly a belligerent macho display not worth worrying about. Someone I know did have a drink thrown on them. Just in case, it's good to carry a can of pepper spray, for defense of course. Having some makes it a lot less worrisome to deal with belligerent drivers.
#11183 08/06/2008 04:13 pm
Yeah, I think I'll be avoiding Folsom, mostly because it ended up being a suboptimal route anyway (I didn't really plan it very well). It looks like Mission -> 16th -> Potrero -> Division -> Townsend is the way to go, even with the (not really that bad) incline around Franklin Square. (And hey I'll be passing by your place like every day.)

Mission was very easy riding, by the way, aside from the extreme bumpiness (yay for the adjustable front suspension on my bike). I basically just took the whole lane and nobody seemed to mind since I was going as fast as everyone else anyway.
#11185 08/07/2008 06:38 am Telescoping Baton
http://www.defensedevices.com/aspbaton16inch.html

Beat his ass. Or at least scare the fuck out of him.

This: http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/catalog/product.php?id=313739f1676 will scare the hell out of them too. Although the second here is quite a bit less legal.

"That's a knife? No, This is a Knife!"



Gedvondur
#11188 08/08/2008 07:20 pm
SoMa's a real classy part of town. The shit on the sidewalks is such a sign of urban perfection.