BIKE: Re: Road Rage (Long)

[Fred Meredith]

Someone mentioned the rational police behaviour and then moved on. 
And, it was mentioned that they were bike cops as well.

After reading the original post, I got the feeling that Jon was 
responsible in a large part for how the police responded. He was 
neither a frothing at the mouth law-bashing frenzied sidewalk rider, 
nor any other kind of citizen who would be no fun to deal with.

In other words, he did not react to the motorist "in kind" as many of 
our finger-waving, spittle spraying fellow "bikers" might have.  I 
can think of a few right now.

Fred Meredith

At 1:39 PM -0600 3/15/05, Michael Bluejay wrote:
>I'm surprised no one has commented on how the police were 
>sympathetic to the cyclist's rights and told the motorist that in no 
>uncertain terms.  Are we taking that for granted?  Because that's 
>not how it used to be, not by a long shot.  I remember a post on 
>this list where after a cyclist got yelled at and nearly run over by 
>some road raging motorists and the cyclist called the police, the 
>dispatcher asked, "Wasn't there a sidewalk there you could have 
>ridden on?".  There are lots of cases where the police never showed 
>up when called or just didn't care when they did.  This, to me is 
>pretty historic.  I usually don't put every individual case of 
>harassment up on the website, because if I did then that's all I'd 
>do.  But I'll put this one up because it shows how the police acted 
>really, really well.
>
>-MBJ-
>
>>Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 14:25:22 -0600
>>From: "Grant, Jon" <JGrant>
>>Subject: BIKE: Road Rage (Long)
>>To: <forum-bicycleaustin.info>
>>Message-ID: <BE5B4F52.18FF%JGrant>
>>Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="ISO-8859-1"
>>
>>Hi, all,
>>
>>My name is Jon Grant, and I'm new to this list just now.
>>
>>(I already posted this to the iBob list so for those of you who are on that
>>one too, please forgive the cross-post. I'll not make a habit of it.)
>>
>>I often commute by bicycle to my office downtown. I do my best to share the
>>road responsibly and sensitively, but sometimes that isn't enough.
>>
>>On Thursday morning, March 10, 2005, as I rode north across the Congress
>>Avenue bridge, a car driver behind me aggressively pulled around and hit his
>>brakes, coming to a sudden, complete stop right in front of me. I was
>>puzzled by the move, as I had been riding at the right curb, as straight as
>>I could manage.
>>
>>I watched as he entered his parking garage, and I called 911. As I spoke
>>with the police dispatcher, the driver walked out of the garage and
>>confronted me. He screamed in obscene language that he had commuted by
>>bicycle for two years and that he had "never once held up traffic." He
>>called me "a disgrace to the bicycling community" for "completely blocking
>>traffic," then walked away.
>>
>>A pair of police officers on bicycles showed up less than five minutes later
>>and took notes as I described the driver, his car, and the incident. One
>>officer even went to the man's office building in an attempt to find him.
>>Then the three of us rode into the garage and found his car.
>>
>>The driver must have been watching from his office window, because he came
>>to the garage and confronted the officers with his "side of the story,"
>>about how I was "taking up the whole lane at five miles an hour" and how he
>>only intended "to teach him a lesson on what it feels like to be held up by
>>somebody -- you know, tit for tat." He told the cops that I "was never in
>>any actual danger."
>>
>>The police were not sympathetic to his admission that he had just
>>deliberately used his car to try to intimidate a bicycler. They told him
>>that bicycles had a right to use the road, just like cars, and that his
>>action was inappropriate and illegal. They also pointed out that he couldn't
>>have been too inconvenienced if he had managed to pass me in the first
>>place. He continued to argue that he had only done what anyone else would
>>do.
>>
>>They asked what resolution I expected. I told them that, while I thought
>>pursuing further legal options would only make matters worse, I hoped the
>>man would realize greater understanding for those with whom he is bound to
>>share the road. As I left, they told me they would file a "road rage"
>>report, and that they intended to "talk to this guy for a little while."
>>
>>I expect inattentiveness and ignorance on the road, but when drivers choose
>>to express their frustration in willfully dangerous ways, I will call the
>>police every time. We don't allow children to get their way by throwing
>>tantrums, and we certainly cannot afford to allow bullying behavior from
>>adults wielding two-ton cars as weapons.
>>
>>--Jon Grant
>
>
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-- 
When in doubt ... ride your bike (or at least write about it).

Fred Meredith
P.O. Box 100 (12702 Lowden Ln for UPS/FedEx)
Manchaca, TX 78652
512/282-1987 (office/home)
512/282-7413 (fax)
512/636-7480 (wireless)
More than you want to know at: http://2merediths.com