A couple of blog items involving bicyclists convinces me that things are as bad as ever out on the streets.
The LAist blog writes about a cyclist getting handcuffed by police after his bicycle was damaged by a bus, and Cyclelicious had an item about a fallen cyclist who shoots at a motorist.
Bus vs. cyclist
The story about the bus vs. cyclist altercation comes from Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles where a Metro bus passes so closely to a bicyclist riding on the extreme rightside of the right lane that he can touch the bus as it honks and speeds past.
An argument ensues (this is a cop word) at the bus stop where the cyclist proceeds to instruct the bus driver in the rules of the road and how she could easily have passed him in the other lane and avoided startling him by honking. She maintains he shouldn't be riding in the street.
One thing leads to another, and he's calling the police on the cellphone while he blocks the bus with his bike. Passengers threaten him and the driver nudges the bike and the rider with her bus.
The police show up and who gets cuffed? The bicyclist and his wife, who he had also summoned on his cell phone.
Eventually the bus is allowed to leave, and a sheriff's deputy and transit supervisor explain that bus drivers are trained to honk at road hazards. The cyclist maintains he's not a road hazard; he a bicyclist with a right to the road.
The next day, the cyclist gets an email from Metro, which explains their policy, which reiterates everything he was trying to explain at the scene and contradicts everything the supervisor and driver told him:
“Bus operators are not told to honk at cyclists. As a matter of fact, the policy states that cyclists have the same rights on the road as motorists and that operators are to follow at a safe distance or pass with 3-4 l/2 feet of right side clearance.”
Cyclist shoots motorist
Cyclelicious carries this item from the Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune about a shooting incident in Milwaukee.
MILWAUKEE — A bicyclist shot a motorist after the man's car nearly hit the bike on Friday night, police said.
The 28-year-old driver of the car stopped to check on the bicyclist, who had fallen to the pavement around 10:45 p.m., police said.
The bicyclist got up, fired three shots and hit the driver once in the shoulder, police said.
The motorist drove to the house of a friend, who then took him to a hospital.
No other details were released.
I'm thinking there might be more to this story.
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