Does calling the president and other candidates for office “ragheads” really help?  This is just not very cool? useful? decent?….

Had my first “dork car driver incident” the other day.  Guy drove by me very close and a kid leaned out of the car towards me.  Seemed like, while he was screaming at me, he was trying to grab me! 

This type of stuff does two things: as it happens, it scares the crap out of you.  It isn’t a stretch to think I would have crashed into the moving car.  I don’t even want to contemplate that.  After it happens, you are just pissed.  I’ve had this happen a couple of times and I usually call the police later. 

This being a new year, I decided to email Chief Keen and ask his advice.  He was away on training so he passed me off to Capt. Bamford who advises the following:

“As a cyclist you are keenly aware of the risks and issues with cyclist sharing the roads with motorist.  There are many close calls; some as a result of driver inattention, lack of common courtesy and the occasional deliberate or intentional act to intimidate or scare people.  If a cyclist feels that they were the target or victim of a deliberate act they should attempt to get a tag number and description of the vehicle and drive (if possible) and call the police as soon as possible.  Often, it’s difficult to prove, however, if we have enough information we will go out and talk with the owner / driver.  This puts them on notice as well as creating a record of such behavior in the event they continue.  May was and still is bicycle safety awareness month and we have put out message boards hoping to heighten drive awareness to the growing number of bicycles on the roads.  I am a runner and cyclist too, and have on occasions found myself shaking my head from a near miss.”   Please stress to your readers to call the police sooner rather then later and call the non-emergency number 703-257-8000 or 911 if it’s an emergency.”

The Captain goes on to make a very good point: ” Cyclist need to do their part as well in obeying the rules of the road when sharing with cars.  Just the other day I was watching a man ride down Hastings Dr. (in a travel lane) on his bicycle at a very good clip (probably exceeding 25 mph) ride through two four-way stops, one with vehicles at it and he didn’t even touch his brakes.” 

I have two things to say about that.  The first is that if the cyclist was going faster than 25-30mph, it wasn’t me…:)  The second is that I admit, I’ve been guilty of this in the past but have changed my evil ways as it damn near got me killed.  The only place where I don’t wait for the lights to change are signalized intersections that don’t have buttons to get the lights to switch.  I stop at those and cross as traffic allows.