Road Rage and Consequences

[ScooterWolf]

I think we've all been in a situation where we want to strike out at those who threaten our lives and safety while we're
riding. We've had close encounters with distracted drivers, aggressive land sharks, entitled bullies, and even drunks. I've done my share of screaming into driver side windows and flipping off the back side of vehicles speeding away. Fortunately, I've never physically struck another vehicle or driver with my bike or body. This video seems to be a good reminder of those consequences.

The driver is fully at fault here, but the rider crossed that line where he's in a contest he can't win.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-sarasota-manatee/sarasota/deputies-arrest-driver-who-allegedly-rammed-motorcyclist-off-road-in-sarasota-road-rage-incident

- Wolf

[LoupGarou]

http://www.sarasotasheriff.org/news_detail_T13_R604.php

Driver caught, charged with aggravated battery, no license.

Rider was stupid to escalate.

[PaulF]

http://www.sarasotasheriff.org/news_detail_T13_R604.php

Driver caught, charged with aggravated battery, no license.

Rider was stupid to escalate.

Glad the got the driver.  Stated that he was throwing loose change at the biker as well.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Take licenses from both.
Wonder how the Dutch or Germans would have dealt with that rider. Countries where sharing the road is a privilege.
Stig

[EvilTessmacher]

I'm totally, utterly, and in all other ways, not surprised to see this. 

My daily commute is a constant vigil of defensive riding, and it almost never fails that I get some idiot who thinks I'm on a Chinese 50cc without the ability to keep up with traffic, who speeds up and comes over in front of me so close that I could reach over and touch the car as it goes by. Two weeks ago, it happened, but the difference with this one was the police motorcycle that was two cars back from me saw the whole thing, and pulled the Mercedes over who nearly ran me off the road.

Last night, coming home from work, the same exact thing, even though I was doing about 53 on a 45mph stretch of road. Big 4x4 with giant tires, came within two inches of hitting me while cutting over in front of me. It's a constant effort to remain calm and let these twits go on by.

Defensive riding, friends... always assume they're trying to kill you.

[CROSSBOLT]

Hey! It wouldn't happen if you pansies were ridin' REAL motorcycles! OOPS! The Florida rider was on a "real" motorcycle! Remember that scene where Michael Parks kicked a car door in? Well, that kind of response is gonna do nothing but escalate things. This FL rider put himself in a bad spot and the illegal El Salvadoran took advantage. The only bright spot is ICE gonna ship him back to El Salvador! Yeah, we gotta suck it up to ride on another day.

[de dee]

  Ya and he has a free ride home , and will be back in 6 months, hard labor for a year or two then a ride home, 

[ophelia]

I'm kinda glad I have an easy-revving CVT scooter. It puts me in a more relaxed mood than if I were riding a small motorcycle or a supersport bike. My fuse feels much longer lately. Action cameras and dash cameras are great too. If someone does something exceedingly dangerous, I have a record of it and can pursue it at my leisure when I'm home safe. Road rage videos and motorcycle crash videos are pretty sobering.

I find people are pretty wound up to begin with in the big city. I don't know if it's a byproduct of traffic and daily stress. I'm surprised how many people are willing to use their vehicles as weapons. It's like trying to picture deliberately skewering and battering others with a forklift.

I've had a guy driver try to beat me to a road merge where my lane ended shortly after the intersection. I want to imagine he just got wrapped up in an impromptu drag race of his own design thinking it was two lanes going on forever, and didn't realize I was simply putting my foot down to blend with traffic. Then I guess I was supposed to throw out the anchor or something and let him ahead of me even though my entire car was ahead. He freaked out (maybe he didn't know the margins of his car), slammed the brakes and the horn, and I watched him disappear in my mirror. When the road straightened out, he did a flyby at high speed after and slowed to speed limit in front of me. I didn't look over and just shrugged about the whole scenario. I did let him in without fanfare further down the road when he needed to merge. Perhaps he didn't have a habit of looking far enough down the road.

Then a month later, some lady driving slowly in a car got REALLY mad at me for passing her like she was standing still. At the next stop, she pulled beside me to give me a strong middle finger and some profanities before taking off in a huff. I feel kinda bad for her passenger though, who had to watch all of this. I just sat back and smiled. Didn't yell back.

I think a gas station nearby had a pricing error. You remember those photos of the OPEC oil embargo in the '70s? It looked like that as everyone lined up and honked at each other to save ten to fifteen cents a litre. Sure glad I was walking.

I don't know what the solution is in North America as cities get more dense. Over in China, their solution to traffic offenders is public shaming on national TV. They have like half an hour each night devoted to catching people doing dumb stuff and getting fined. I guess that's what it takes to get through to people in another culture. Wonder if we should adopt it.