Pretty wild stuff over at the A Girl and Her Bike blog. Here’s a snippet:
I was stopped at the intersection of 13th and Kenyon St. NW at a red light, waiting to turn left onto 13th St. Kenyon is a one-way street going west, and I was on the left side of the street, since I would be turning left. While waiting for the light I heard a car speed up Kenyon St. behind me. I could sense the car stop immediately behind me, extremely close. It was aggressive, but fairly typical aggressive driver behavior. I didn’t think much of it because we were at a red light, and there was no where for him to go anyway.
And that’s when I felt a *BUMP* from behind. Nothing too hard, but enough to intimidate. Now, remember: I knew he had STOPPED behind me. So this was a conscious decision by the driver to hit me with his vehicle. I could hear laughing coming from the car behind me. They thought this was HILARIOUS. Also, there was a taxi to my right, waiting for the light as well that even remarked on this behavior (“asshole” is what I think the taxi driver said).
I ignored this. Why? 98% of the time, it is not worth it to engage with an aggressive driver. At best, you end up getting angrier, at worst, you get hurt. Plus, I spend the majority of my day dealing with people like this and by the time I’m done with work I Just. Don’t. Want. To. Anymore.
The light turned green and I started to proceed. And then I felt *BUMP!!!!!* again, this time a bit harder.
Oh no. No. No. No. I can’t ignore this. I just can’t.
So I stopped. Pulled out my police badge (yes, I’m a cop if you didn’t know before. No I really don’t want to talk about it, thanks) showed it to the driver and motioned him to stay right where he was.
And that’s when he panicked.
The whole story is worth a read: thankfully there was a happy ending, she chased him (on her Capital Bikeshare bike!), he was caught and is in jail.
It raises a bigger issue to me though, which is aggressive drivers in the neighborhood. I’ve written before about nearly being hit while walking in a crosswalk during a walk signal, and I’ve witnessed bike-versus-car incidents numerous times in the neighborhood. Of course this happens everywhere, and of course sometimes pedestrians or bikers are to blame, but the vast majority is drivers who aren’t paying attention or are jerks.
It’s really frustrating, not to mention dangerous. It’s awesome this particular jerk was arrested, but I wonder what else can be done to prevent this from happening. Any ideas? Or similar experiences?
