Friday, June 12, 2009

bike vs handicapped man in car

today i rode 3.5 miles out to ceaser chavez to drop off my application to the sffd. i had a great ride out, no problems with drivers what so ever, even though there was heavy traffic. on the ride back however, on ass hole kept giving me trouble. it happened on third street somewhere between 20th and 16th. on that stretch there are four lanes, two in each direction, with muni running in the middle. all lanes are relatively thin and there is no bike lane. i have learned that on thin lanes, especially where there are two going in the same direction, it is much safer to take the whole lane. if you stay to the right drivers tend not to give you much room and i've been far too close to being clipped by a mirror far too many times. if you take the whole lane then drivers are forced to switch lanes and go around you. well this gentle man decided to cut as close to me as possible and then to swerve in front of me as fast as he could. literally, his tires squealed. he is in a compact pick up so i can clearly see into his rear view mirror. he is eyeballing me and laughing. as we pull to the red light i stay behind him. i don't want him doing something stupid. so the light turns green and we start moving. as soon as we pick up pace the guy looks at me in the rear view mirror and presses the brakes and then guns it when i get to close. now i'm yelling at him and flipping him off. i look down to get his plate number but he's already too far away and all i can see is that he has a handicap sticker. now this guy was old. like old, old. so old he had a tank and an oxygen tube around his nose. fucking prick. i kept trying to catch him so i could get his plate number but never got close enough.
not that the po would do anything about it. i've been threatened with a car before and when i called to report it the officer or who ever i was talking to told me that, even though i had the plate number that they weren't going to do anything about it. i have a sneaking suspission that it might be because i said i was on my bicycle. next time i'll have to say i'm in a car.
anyway, i was still high on the turn of events my life is taking and all the things i'm learning that even that couldn't get me down.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It is legally considered assault and if you frame it that way to the police dudes I think they are legally obliged to do something