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Close Encounters of the #%&*@! Kind (Legal too)

1250 comments · 12630 views
mugwump
May 22, 2013 at 02:08 AM
Adam said:
This is vintage.  You have to read it, the update, and the comments below.  So great.


Lynch the bitch!!
She just got busted.  Her social media trail was too good to leave be.

It gets better.  http://jalopnik.com/woman-brags-about-hitting-cyclist-discovers-police-als-509059331

Turns out, she's also posted pictures of her tailgating and a shot of her speedo' when she was doing 95mph.
jfogden
May 23, 2013 at 05:49 AM
mugwump said:
Adam said:
This is vintage.  You have to read it, the update, and the comments below.  So great.


Lynch the bitch!!
She just got busted.  Her social media trail was too good to leave be.

It gets better.  http://jalopnik.com/woman-brags-about-hitting-cyclist-discovers-police-als-509059331

Turns out, she's also posted pictures of her tailgating and a shot of her speedo' when she was doing 95mph.
it gets better than better
http://jalopnik.com/girl-who-hit-cyclist-tweeted-about-it-says-she-isnt-509360551
shes a cyclist herself!
Jules
May 23, 2013 at 11:23 AM
Some of my best friends are cyclists.
Ryan J
May 23, 2013 at 12:11 PM
-
Brendan Rigby
May 23, 2013 at 01:26 PM
yesterday i had a moment that fits the spirit of this thread but not the usual set of facts.  i thought i would share it because i think it's important to recognize that our own actions as cyclists can often prevent, or contribute to causing, these undesirable moments.

i was hammering up the pp hill and put my head down for a bit.  looked up and i was seconds away from colliding with 2 12 year-old girls who looked as surprised as i was.  apparently they had not looked before starting to cross (they were not on a crosswalk) and i had not seen them due to my head-down moment.  i guess i really wanted to see how these new bibs look?  thankfully, one of them scampered off to the right and the other stayed put, and i just went between them.  but it could have been a different situation and it was 99.99% my fault.  gotta look where i'm going.

take what you want from this, but it reminded me that many close encounters of the $(*&@#$ kind are preventable by responsible, defensive use of the bicycle.  i was going significantly faster than those pedestrians expected.  even though it was technically under the speed limit, that doesn't make it okay to run over little girls.  we're not going to win the battle for hearts and minds by calling them jaywalkers when we could've just hit the brakes.  next time i'll brake hard and just give myself an interval.  better for public relations, easier on my conscience, and perhaps even a surprise training tool?
mperlberg
May 23, 2013 at 01:37 PM

@ Brendan - I agree but I do find it frustrating that Parks Enforcement and NYPD will ticket cyclists for misusing the drive but won't even say a peep to other park users who use the roadways incorrectly. 

Also - I think it is very very very good PR to stop at crosswalks when we have the red and people are trying to cross. I make a point of it, especially in my endurance / recovery workouts. I've had multiple people say "I've never had a cyclist stop for me before!" Then I say "I'd like to thank my sponsors...." 
Craig Zolan
May 23, 2013 at 01:51 PM
jfogden said:
mugwump said:
Adam said:
This is vintage.  You have to read it, the update, and the comments below.  So great.


Lynch the bitch!!
She just got busted.  Her social media trail was too good to leave be.

It gets better.  http://jalopnik.com/woman-brags-about-hitting-cyclist-discovers-police-als-509059331

Turns out, she's also posted pictures of her tailgating and a shot of her speedo' when she was doing 95mph.
it gets better than better
shes a cyclist herself!
If you want to view the actual interview with Emma May - here it is:
http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2013-05-22/cycle-tweet-girl-breaks-her-silence/


Craig Zolan
May 23, 2013 at 02:00 PM
mperlberg said:

@ Brendan - I agree but I do find it frustrating that Parks Enforcement and NYPD will ticket cyclists for misusing the drive but won't even say a peep to other park users who use the roadways incorrectly. 

Also - I think it is very very very good PR to stop at crosswalks when we have the red and people are trying to cross. I make a point of it, especially in my endurance / recovery workouts. I've had multiple people say "I've never had a cyclist stop for me before!" Then I say "I'd like to thank my sponsors...." 
Thierry and I did just this, this morning at a cross walk and let a couple with a little dog in their arms walk across. The woman was shocked and said something almost like you wrote and walked across. (We were stopping anyways to start our sprint effort, but she didn't know that.)
Jeff Owens
May 23, 2013 at 06:14 PM
Saw 3 people getting stopped for going the wrong way in Prospect this afternoon.  Sweet. Good cops!

And can you feel the LOVE?!?



Even Outlaws Say “Thanks!”
Saying Thanks
image
Here are three ways to say "Thanks!" when someone is proactively respectful:
1. When a driver waits for you to pass before turning left: Give a thumbs up.
2. When a bicyclist yields in the crosswalk, whether or not the walkers have the right of way: How about a smile?
3. When a police officer tells a driver to move their car out of the bike lane: Tell them how much safer you feel with their help.
Last July, Ian Dutton, a longtime T.A. member and frontline fighter for T.A.’s Brooklyn Activist Committee did something he wasn’t supposed to. And like so many acts of disobedience before his, what Ian did sparked something great.

On Bergen Street in Brooklyn, drivers often parked in the bike lane on the short stretch between Flatbush and 6th Avenue. Then one day, Ian noticed that Con Edison workers had left some safety-orange plastic bollards behind, so he set them on the edge of his favorite (and often violated) stretch of bike lane, indicating exactly where cars shouldn’t park.

For weeks, Ian’s renegade bollarding stuck, keeping drivers in line (and out of the lane). Day after day, passing bicyclists kept the bollards intact. Then, the bollards disappeared entirely. Three months later, a new bike-lane defender showed up: heavy metal barricades owned by none other than the local NYPD precinct.

Whether it was a bicycling miracle or a sign that the times are changing, what happened next is what matters: T.A. activists gathered on the corner on Bergen Street and 6th Avenue to smile for a photo behind the 78th Precinct’s bike lane-protecting barricades. They presented the photo en masse, after signing it with their affections, to Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri, the precinct’s commanding officer, early this month.

By saying, “thanks,” these local activists guaranteed their little victory sticks around a long time. Are there any good deeds seen on your bike ride you should say thanks for?

tito
May 23, 2013 at 07:38 PM

How about the bad deeds?  Like when cops park in the bike lane?

Not to be a sourpuss, though - that's cool that the cops of that pct. did that.
Jules
May 23, 2013 at 07:52 PM
We don't get a lot of opportunities to say thanks to the guys from the 78th - we should enjoy it.

Ameri is a HUGE improvement over his old boss, who basically thought bike advocacy was about as real as telekenesis...

He's in the park regularly (he's the one in the white shirt)
Jules
May 23, 2013 at 10:41 PM
I suppose this belongs here:

http://www.bicycling.com/senseless/?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-Bicycling-_-Content-Story-_-senseless

Basically the worse your helmet is after a crash the better a job it did... and vice versa.
tito
May 24, 2013 at 07:25 PM

^this always gets puzzled looks at the bike shop - you tell a customer that a $70 Echelon will protect their head just as well as a $200 Prevail and they are verrr confuse.

But now there's MIPS...the future, or a load of crap?
http://mipshelmet.com/how-it-works
Jules
May 24, 2013 at 07:30 PM
tito said:

^this always gets puzzled looks at the bike shop - you tell a customer that a $70 Echelon will protect their head just as well as a $200 Prevail and they are verrr confuse.

But now there's MIPS...the future, or a load of crap?
I dunno but it means I can buy a helmet called "Kracken"

This seems like sound science to me!

image
dstearns
Jun 13, 2013 at 05:19 PM
Jeffrey White said:
We've all seen this kind of crazy shit happen.

someone is trying to make amends, apparently.


image
kieranleahy
Jun 20, 2013 at 03:34 AM
Was riding to PP this evening to meet Andy DS and Konrad - at the top of Vanderbilt Ave just before GAP, I turned left into the bike lane on Plaza East, which is two lane. Despite my British sensibilities, I'm obviously in the right hand lane. Half way up, I see a woman is riding in the wrong lane, i.e. directly towards me, she then panics when she sees me and then inexplicably turns further towards me (i.e. to her left) to try to escape...With no room to squeeze between her and a parked car and no time to stop, I ploughed straight into her (I seem to recall trying to get through the tiny, virtually non-existent gap - I remember part of my brain going "come on, this is just like a sketchy keirin!"). To my pleasant surprise I was able to get up straight away, but she remained down - concious and hysterically screaming how she was going to sue me and why was I going so fast (I was going probably 30kph, maybe 31-32kph). Good luck with that, I told her. I stuck around while a partial witness and I called an ambulance, which turned up 10 mins later, complete with fire engine. They were all very nice. She was taken away on a stretcher. NYPD then turned up, nice enough too. The officer called me later to tell me later that he's had to file an accident report due to the fact she's hurt and the fact we knicked some paint on the parked car.

I'm fine, just sore. Bike is more less okay too - the left lever a little scraped and the front wheel out of true. I was able to ride home fine. Part of me feels sorry for her - after all, I wouldn't ever want someone my size (I'm 200+ lbs and 6' 2") crashing into me, but another part of me is so annoyed how someone could be so stupid to cause an accident and then still blame the other party! A little worried she might attempt to sue me for damages, despite the fact I know I am in the right. Plus you never know how the car owner might over-react to the paint scratch. There were no direct witnesses, and if it came to it it might just be my word vs her word. Anyone else have any experience of similar matters?

Anyways, thanks to Andy DS and Konrad for coming over the scene to wait with me and sorry again for ruining your session. We went for a beer afterwards, which seemed to be the best response ;-) Andy even bought the round!
Jules
Jun 20, 2013 at 01:05 PM
Kieran,
That sounds like a big old pint glass full of AWFUL.  If you have any questions about your liability you should give L&C a call - they specialize in bike related legal issues.

Good to hear you toasted the fates with friends afterwards though!


Brendan Rigby
Jun 20, 2013 at 02:10 PM
sorry to hear about that encounter.  if you do contact them, and feel comfortable sharing, i am curious what they have to say
kieranleahy
Jun 20, 2013 at 03:07 PM
Thanks guys. Will give L&C a call. Going to get hold of the accident report too.

Incidentally she was riding a red Bianchi, a real clunker of an MTB. It would not have looked out of place in the "in the beginning" chapter in this book... ;-)

http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Bike-Madness-Enthusiast-Color/dp/0760314403
Jules
Jun 20, 2013 at 03:13 PM
Wait is that Harry on page 11?


Harry.jpg
Brendan Rigby
Jun 20, 2013 at 03:22 PM
maybe you can get JP to put her picture in the next edition of that work
Adam
Jun 20, 2013 at 04:35 PM
Suck it up Aaron, pay the fine, get on with life.  Think of all the red lights you've jumped on your bike.  Hundreds.  Just imagine that each one you pay a 25c fee in order to expedite your journey.  Now it's time to pay up.  Oh, and yeah, you broke the law so are liable for a fine.
eragot
Jun 20, 2013 at 04:39 PM
There are no fair ticket adjudications in NYC its all administrative functions of the DMV. The executive branch of NY is judge prosecutor witness and beneficiary of your money. Same for Suffolk county. Gotta love traffic violations bureau. Damn waste of time.

Almost as bad as the department of finance adjudicating parking tickets. FINANCE! What Lind of result do you for see there? As was pointed out to me when I was fighting a parking ticket "rules of evidence don't apply."

Same for DMV.

Even better get a garbage ticket. Go fight it. The judge even admitted that I couldn't prove a negative. I got my landlord off the ticket, but that was pure luck.

Hate to say it but I often pine for a real court.

Sorry Aaron. Bummer about the fine.
David Yang
Jun 20, 2013 at 04:45 PM
@Kieran - Hope the L&C guys can help you out.  Sounds like it's her fault for 1) riding the wrong way and 2) over reacting in such a way to crash directly into you.

@Aaron - Dang, that sucks.  So you already went to court over it and have to pay the $190 fine?
Jules
Jun 20, 2013 at 05:40 PM
Suck it up Aaron, pay the fine, get on with life.  Think of all the red lights you've jumped on your bike.  Hundreds.  Just imagine that each one you pay a 25c fee in order to expedite your journey.  Now it's time to pay up.  Oh, and yeah, you broke the law so are liable for a fine.
This
mugwump
Jun 20, 2013 at 06:17 PM
Aaron, you're young, you didn't know what you were doing, you saw other people breaking the law at the same light (peds and drivers both).  You're a student? You've learned your lesson.  You won't do it again.

might be worth something in terms of reducing the fine.
Mark Clifford
Jun 20, 2013 at 06:28 PM
or take the liz lemon approach to court appearances
July-25-2012-01-09-42-87538786477596141bD4in5FUf.jpg
Craig Zolan
Jun 20, 2013 at 06:47 PM
@Aaron - aside from the Liz Lemon approach - find out who "prosecutes" these things. (I have no idea). You should approach him/her and indicate you'll plead to a lower & less expensive charge. I don't know what they could be but something like, failure to ride in the bike lane or failure to have a bike light on. The fines for those are smaller - likely $65 and say thank you and move on.
eragot
Jun 20, 2013 at 06:50 PM
Like I said. In NYC there is no prosecutor. Just the cop and a "judge". Call him your honor and all, but he is administrative.
kieranleahy
Jun 20, 2013 at 10:31 PM
Aaron Blum said:
 I feel like a grandma biker if I ride on the bike lanes and stop at every single light. My young recklessness gets the best of me sometimes...
As I discovered yesterday, turns out the bike lanes can be actually more dangerous than the f-ing roads! I have a mild concussion after yesterday's "incident". Went and got checked out earlier at NYU Langone after feeling shitty this morning. I mean, probably nothing compared to what the dumb lady has ended up with after choosing to get body slammed by me, but still.

Frustrating after I've been feeling damn good in training the last couple of weeks...