Re: Crash without injury

[Tom Sherman]

jobst.brandt@stanfordalumni.org aka Jobst Brandt wrote:
> http://www.rad-spannerei.de/blog/2007/12/12/spektakulaerer-fahrradunfall/

This explains why a certain LBS proprietor is not more fearful of taking
photographs of bicycles when a Metro bus is bearing down on him. ;)

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
"Localized intense suction such as tornadoes is created when temperature
differences are high enough between meeting air masses, and can impart
excessive energy onto a cyclist." - Randy Schlitter

[vey]

Tom Sherman wrote:
> jobst.brandt@stanfordalumni.org aka Jobst Brandt wrote:
>> http://www.rad-spannerei.de/blog/2007/12/12/spektakulaerer-fahrradunfall/
>
> This explains why a certain LBS proprietor is not more fearful of taking
> photographs of bicycles when a Metro bus is bearing down on him. ;)
>

Here is fellow that took things into his own hands when it came to
dealing with a bus.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-12-13/news/eyeball-to-eyeball/

A couple of weeks ago, Tailpipe got mental flashbacks to those famous
pictures from Tiananmen Square where a lone man stood in the street
defying four Chinese Army tanks. That's kind of what it looked like on
Fort Lauderdale Beach on the evening of November 30, when bicyclist John
Bochino stood in his spandex outfit and bike helmet, playing a game of
chicken with a Broward County Transit bus heading north on A1A.

When the bus tried to skirt Bochino to the left, Bochino moved and
blocked it. When it tried to pass on the right, Bochino switched back,
blocking its path again. "I'm sick of this!" Bochino cried, holding his
ten-speed like a shield between himself and the bus. The driver, Bochino
claimed, had been "clearly speeding," then swerved into the bike lane
and missed Bochino by an inch — something that happens all the time, he
says. So Bochino raced to catch up with the bus at a stoplight and
jumped in its way.

Tensions between cyclists using county bike lanes and heedless drivers,
particularly bus drivers, are always coursing under the surface in South
Florida, where motorists tend to think of those narrow beachside lanes
as vehicular elbow room. Lately, a lot of cyclers are getting
particularly testy. There's only so much diesel smoke you can eat
(Tailpipe knows).

"Just about every serious cyclist I know has been hit by a car," vented
Bochino, who runs a small manufacturing company. "It really is
terrifying to ride around here! People don't realize the laws of the
road and that a bicyclist has the same rights as someone in a motor
vehicle." He says drivers are supposed to respectfully keep at least
three feet away from cyclists, but instead they regularly get pissed,
honk, and flick him off. This frustrates him. After all, he's doing the
world a favor by putting one less car in traffic, and burning calories
instead of fossil fuels.

The bus driver looked like he was tempted to make road kill out of
Bochino, but he had no real choice but to throw his machine into park
and turn on the hazard lights. He covered up his name tag, closed the
doors, and slid his window shut. He refused to answer questions and
radioed the dispatch office. Riders on the bus looked pissed.

"I feel bad for them!" Bochino said as the standoff continued. "It's not
their fault. Now they're late — all because of this jerk driving like a
maniac."

Bochino says he hadn't intended to stage a rare bit of civil
disobedience; he was just trying to get a little empathy from the
driver. "My philosophy is not to start screaming and get into a person's
face," he says. "It's just to ask, 'Do you realize you came very, very
close and almost hit me?' I just try to get them to acknowledge riders —
and to please be more careful."

Broward County Transit spokeswoman Phyllis Berry acknowledged that
drivers in general could use more education about bicyclists' rights,
but she says that the proper way of resolving Bochino's conflict would
have been to note the bus' route number and file an official complaint.
"You gotta be careful who you do road rage with these days!" she warned.

Bochino had assumed a cop would show up to take a report, but after at
least 20 minutes, none did. Asked what he'd do if cops gave him the
ticket — for obstructing traffic — he decided he'd punished the driver
enough, and rode away.

Was he satisfied? "Hell no!" Bochino said. "Because I know it's going to
happen again."

[JG]

Looks to me like the cyclist leaps into an unguarded crosswalk and
endangers many lives...

JG

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article
<d1e1ac30-51d7-4eb5-a6f8-a0e574ab4d6d@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
JG <jchg@cox.net> wrote:

> Looks to me like the cyclist leaps into an unguarded crosswalk and
> endangers many lives...
>
> JG

For once, we are impressed here not so much by the process as the
outcome.

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"My scenarios may give the impression I could be an excellent crook.
Not true - I am a talented lawyer." - Sandy in rec.bicycles.racing