Anyone have aggressive confontations with pedestrians?

[kriskros]

YES INDEED... i was riding my tadpole trike on the sidewalk on a street that has a LOT of traffic including some 18 wheelers... the road is justg an average two lanes wide... pedestrian"get that fu2@@ thing on the fu@@@ road" .....i had gone on the grass and given him lots of room...as i stopped an 18 wheeler went roaring by ,side about a foo from the curb.. my comment to him.....here ride my trike for 5 miles on this road, and if you are still alive ,keep it he just gave me a look walked away :lol:

 

[QuestionMan]

So I ran into this guy again. It was non-confrontational but very weird.

I was about a mile away from when I ran into him the last time. This time it was on a narrow bike path that leads into a street which I guess is on a federal park and also on this park is army housing. The street connects the army housing to the main street in the park, it has many speed bumps on it.

The guy noticed me right away and was walking his dog. I was going slow and the guy was actually in the marked bike lane instead of the marked pedestrian lane, I should have yelled at him LOL. Anyway I stopped as not to be rude as the path was probably about 6 feet wide. While I stopped he took out his smart phone and was doing something with it moving his finger around the screen. I said to him "what are you doing with your phone". I do not think he answered right away, very strange, maybe he said I want to show you something. But I thought maybe he is going to try and take a picture of me? OR is he trying to call somebody or park police and will try and hold me? I am sure he may have spoke with the park police. Maybe the park police told him to contact them and he was going to try and keep me busy until they came.

At that moment some fat bitch on a bike who was with her husband started telling me loudly your going on federal park land and motorized bikes are not allowed. Just what I needed is someone complaining in front of this guy about my bike.

Anyway, I took off and when I was about 50 feet away he yells to me, "hey I know who you are", I asked him who? He then said "wait, I want to talk to you, I saw a posting you made on craigslist about a bike motor". Which I have never posted anything on craigslist relating to ebikes.

I knew I had to get the heck out of there as fast as I can as I would be riding though federal lands to get to the main streets. I figure he may report me and there are federal police around. As I drove away I went past that fat women on the bike who yelled at me again about using a motorized bike when we were on a street, nevertheless. I just gunned it out of there.

I just don't know what this guy was up to, maybe he did see something on craigslist as there is a listing for a ebike kit on craigslist in my area. I just do not know.

I think I will not be going through this area anymore, this guy may or may not be up to something but is very strange.

Does anyone know if e-bikes are a no-no on federal lands or something? Why would this women start making a stink about motorized bikes on federal lands? I mean, isn't my bike just as illegal in the city as it is on federal lands.

 

[crazy henry]

I always carry pepper gel form mace strapped to the neck of my handlebars just incase and half of a pool stick and a gopro hero3 camera strapped to my chest as a witness for any self defense case

 

[RoadWrinkle]

Wow there are some aggressive ESer's here. If you know how to throw a punch you don't need weapons or pepper spray. A downward descending blow to the lower chin will almost always do the trick if someone is threatening you verbally or physically by their proximity. The law does not require people to wait to be battered before they can act. If you use a weapon of any kind (even PS) you better be able to prove you were not the aggressor or you will be the one with legal problems. If you use your fists in a reasonable way it is called self defense or "mutual affray", no civil liability, nobody gets jailed.

I am 6'0, 250lbs and played a lot of Football in my day; perhaps this is why I have never had an incident with anyone (while riding)... but I think it is because I try very hard to make sure people know I am coming. I also hesitate getting into any confrontation for fear of what I might do to the other person. Bottomline: If you surprise someone, you can scare them, and then they get mad. That said, sometimes you will run into a Jack Ass or two or the mentally ill; let common sense be your guide. :wink:

 

[r3volved]

I found this on federal roads and ebikes:

(h) Use of Motorized Vehicles.— Motorized vehicles may not be permitted on trails and pedestrian walkways under this section, except for—
(1) maintenance purposes;
(2) when snow conditions and State or local regulations permit, snowmobiles;
(3) motorized wheelchairs;
(4) when State or local regulations permit, electric bicycles; and
(5) such other circumstances as the Secretary deems appropriate.

Guess it depends on your local permissions.
Src: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/23/217

 

[RoadWrinkle]

I found this on federal roads and ebikes:

(h) Use of Motorized Vehicles.— Motorized vehicles may not be permitted on trails and pedestrian walkways under this section, except for—
(1) maintenance purposes;
(2) when snow conditions and State or local regulations permit, snowmobiles;
(3) motorized wheelchairs;
(4) when State or local regulations permit, electric bicycles; and
(5) such other circumstances as the Secretary deems appropriate.

Guess it depends on your local permissions.
Src: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/23/217

Maybe print this out and laminate it so you can pull it out when Sgt. Slaughter is in your face and yelling at you on the trail... :lol:

Seriously though, this could be useful if a park ranger is hassling you, but if YOGI the BEAR is mad, won't make much difference if you are riding lawfully.

 

[Kingfish]

In Washington State, USA - "motorized" = ICE and does not apply to Electric assisted bicycles.
WA-State Ebike-relevant Laws.

Best to just ride away from crazy people; they obviously lack sufficient oxygen to the brain to think straight.

I like the personal Gopro idea. If I do another epic cross-country I would like to have a HD version mounted front and rear and the images fed into a black box so that if I'm ever run off the road the cops would have a good chance of finding the culprits.

No one deserves to be hassled for innocent passage.
Safe travels, KF

 

[swbluto]

So I ran into this guy again. It was non-confrontational but very weird.

I was about a mile away from when I ran into him the last time. This time it was on a narrow bike path that leads into a street which I guess is on a federal park and also on this park is army housing. The street connects the army housing to the main street in the park, it has many speed bumps on it.

The guy noticed me right away and was walking his dog. I was going slow and the guy was actually in the marked bike lane instead of the marked pedestrian lane, I should have yelled at him LOL. Anyway I stopped as not to be rude as the path was probably about 6 feet wide. While I stopped he took out his smart phone and was doing something with it moving his finger around the screen. I said to him "what are you doing with your phone". I do not think he answered right away, very strange, maybe he said I want to show you something. But I thought maybe he is going to try and take a picture of me? OR is he trying to call somebody or park police and will try and hold me? I am sure he may have spoke with the park police. Maybe the park police told him to contact them and he was going to try and keep me busy until they came.

At that moment some fat bitch on a bike who was with her husband started telling me loudly your going on federal park land and motorized bikes are not allowed. Just what I needed is someone complaining in front of this guy about my bike.

Anyway, I took off and when I was about 50 feet away he yells to me, "hey I know who you are", I asked him who? He then said "wait, I want to talk to you, I saw a posting you made on craigslist about a bike motor". Which I have never posted anything on craigslist relating to ebikes.

I knew I had to get the heck out of there as fast as I can as I would be riding though federal lands to get to the main streets. I figure he may report me and there are federal police around. As I drove away I went past that fat women on the bike who yelled at me again about using a motorized bike when we were on a street, nevertheless. I just gunned it out of there.

I just don't know what this guy was up to, maybe he did see something on craigslist as there is a listing for a ebike kit on craigslist in my area. I just do not know.

I think I will not be going through this area anymore, this guy may or may not be up to something but is very strange.

Does anyone know if e-bikes are a no-no on federal lands or something? Why would this women start making a stink about motorized bikes on federal lands? I mean, isn't my bike just as illegal in the city as it is on federal lands.

It's curious how quickly everybody jumped on you for that. Wondering, how 'obvious' is your bike? Does it make a lot of audible noise in a way that yells "I'm motorized!"?

I've gotten looks of askance from a cyclist here and there, but most don't care. Then again, I'm often riding at 15 mph and pedaling at the same time, so I probably don't stand out like someone bombing down the trail unassisted at 25 mph.

 

[QuestionMan]

swbluto:

The reason she noticed was that I did drive really fast on a grassy area on the side of a bike path. Only reason she was able to say something was I stopped to talk with that guy and she caught up to me. But yeah, I was going like 25MPH over this grass so it was obvious.

 

[RoadWrinkle]

Some Peds get pissed just because you are rolling and they are hoofing it.....

 

[onemorejoltwarden]

Loud brakes save lives.
old BMW owners group saying

about 10% of drivers/riders/cyclists/joggers/pedestrians are just jerks.
One gets extra points for being invisible to them.
and being angry just infects you.

Bikes on shared paths should show the courtesy we expect from drivers on the roadway

 

[The fingers]

Around here lots of the peds are thugs and should be avoided or you stand the chance of being mugged.

 

[onemorejoltwarden]

More points then for invisibility, cuz as your bibly sig sez, YOLO.
In motorcycling , one emphasizes controlling your space,
grasping the "envelopes" where control exisits and threats lie.

If you communicate well with your environment , you have done your job.


I used to say a prayer going into curves
"They're not as good as I am , and I'm not very good."

I seem to have come out of all those curves.

There seem to be a lot of ES threads on having a faster bike (30+mph club)
That seems like just bringing a bigger knife to the gun fight.
I feel your brain should be your fastest piece of hardware.
Especially 'cause you have to think for them, too.
Sometime what is aggressive is the stupidity, there are just a lot of different ways to be stupid.

 

[Sunder]

I had one altercation when I first got my bike. A couple people here thought it was my fault. I was doing a very slow pace on a dedicated bike path (Pedestrians get fined for walking on it), and someone looking in a different direction suddenly stepped forward into my path when I was only 1.5m away. I barely had time to hit the brake, let alone make any use of it. Luckily I was only doing about 10-15km/h (About fast jog) I sprained my wrist, no idea what he copped if anything. He felt it was 100% my fault and yelled obscenities at me, I pointed out he wasn't even allowed to be on the bike path.

Thing I learned from that, is that if you're going to get upset at pedestrians, you may as well not ride. Accept that they're unpredictable, will never accept any responsibility for their actions, and will always feel like you're threatening them - even if you're pushing your bike. (Yeah, had someone tell me I couldn't push my bike on the sidewalk).

So, go slow around people, be polite, and I find in Aust at least, calling out "passing!" in a friendly tone is more effective than using a bell, or yelling out "On your right/left", which seem to startle people. And after you've done all that, if someone abuses you, just shrug and keep going.

 

[Alan B]

I find a bicycle MP3 player works well to let folks know I'm coming, unless they have earphones in, but in that case they've chosen to be deaf.