Collision with a cyclist

[EU_commuter]

I had a collision with a cyclist this morning in Toronto.  I was crossing a street on a Gotway MCM4.  I was waving my hand to a car driver who was waiting for me.  And suddenly a road bike made a left turn at a high speed (~30km/hr) and was on my path.  I did not have time to break and ran into him directly.  Fortunately, none of us fell down.  I was shaken for a while and pushed the wheel for the last block.

The guy was rude and accused me being illegal riding a motorized vehicle on sidewalks.  I decided not to argue with that asshole.  It is true that I was my fault partially.  I was at about 15km/hr trying to cross the street quickly and did not pay great attention other than the parked car.  But I should also let the cyclist know that it was also a problem of his being riding too fast.  The collision occurred on an intersection , not on a sidewalk.

Most Toronto streets are too dangerous to ride with cars.  I do ride on separated bike lanes and sometimes on streets with bike lanes.  But I do ride on sidewalks if I feel that the street is not safe.  For over a year, I have no problem on sidewalks - not running into pedestrians once and getting no complains.  

[LanghamP]

"We just collided and neither of us fell down. You must be a real pussy if this bothers you.

How does it feel being a pussy?"

[Marty Backe]

10 hours ago, LanghamP said:

"We just collided and neither of us fell down. You must be a real pussy if this bothers you.

How does it feel being a pussy?"

C'mon @LanghamP. Is it really necessary to drag the conversation into the gutter? You are known to make controversial statements at times, but I don't recall you ever being so mean spirited? Let's take the conversation up a notch, OK? 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Marty Backe

[LanghamP]

Note the quotation marks.

The bicyclist was wrong.

1. Going too fast for conditions.

2. Not yielding to people in crosswalks 

3. Blaming the EUC rider after the collision.

4. ...for a collision with no harm done.

Call the bicyclist out NYC style.

[stephenbadger]

17 hours ago, LanghamP said:

"We just collided and neither of us fell down. You must be a real pussy if this bothers you.

How does it feel being a pussy?"

 my standard response to verbal abuse is FU*K-OFF !!! ...followed by FU*K-YOU !!! ...l don't give a sh*t about the "rule-book" other than "keep-left" smile & stay alive.

[Esper]

Damn dude. I thought Canadians were nice people. Your story sounds like the bicyclists here in Seattle. The guys here weave through traffic, bomb hills, run red lights, swear at everyone, and are a general danger to anyone not in a car (including themselves). I'm sorry for your experience. You should carry a stick with you next time and toss it into their spokes, or something.

[stephenbadger]

 we have teenage savages wearing hoodies on bicycles here ...l had the misfortune to encounter one in the park last saturday night & he tried to stab me with his knife ...now thinking about carrying a stick too ...but it won't be for using on bicycle wheels, ggrrr

[Marty Backe]

2 hours ago, stephenbadger said:

 we have teenage savages wearing hoodies on bicycles here ...l had the misfortune to encounter one in the park last saturday night & he tried to stab me with his knife ...now thinking about carrying a stick too ...but it won't be for using on bicycle wheels, ggrrr

[Hatchet]

Nothing like having a 50+ year old man with a pot belly wearing full body spandex trying to justify riding like an idiot. I consider cyclist to be a natural enemy.

 

[stephenbadger]

2 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

Hi Marty, thanks for noticing my shocking encounter, ordinary people here tend to laugh off & trivialise criminal street violence, until it gets personal ...NZ government mind-control, bad for chinese, indian immigration ...home invasions, murders & street thuggery always used to happen in the next neighbourhood or on the other side of town ...not any more, l found a man with smashed/broken legs dumped in my park only 10 nights ago & a "new" glue-sniffing street gang are actually living in part of it.

 

We usually get 1 violent incident in my location every 6 months ...now it's 1 a month ...and l'm in the thick of it, cos l often e-scooter 5 days/nights a week & feed the abandoned cats, pick-up the broken bottles/glass/rubbish in my local park/reserve/sea estuary 6 days a week.

Lucky l had time to yell "HEELLP !!" 3 times & an indian immigrant ran out of his unit in his underwear & the vicious scumbag jumped on his bike, escaped & delayed his entry into the NZ prison system a bit longer.

 

It's very annoying to be forced to live with the knowledge that a complete stranger has decided he will attack me with his knife the moment he encounters me on foot or scooting on one of my e-scooters in the streets or the park ...the cops don't give a sh*t anymore, they just clean-up the mess & prosecute the survivors in the law courts ...so there won't be a happy ending if l'm unlucky enough to meet this young person again (l'm nearly 64yrs old) ...1 of us will go to hospital or the morgue & the survivor will be prosecuted by the cops for assault with a weapon or homicide ...life in the big city in the south pacific ..."self-defense" by members of the public isn't usually a successful justification/defence in NZ, cos hurting people including criminals is unlawful & NOT politically correct, ggrrr

On a brighter note l am the happy Organiser of the online Meetup, Auckland group... The Electric Scooter Wild Bunch NZ ...only got 25 frightened politically correct members with a total of 5 electric vehicles between us ...a moped e-bike, a segway & my 3 e-scooters .......but it's early days, we have Lime Scooters  infesting our cities here nowadays, lol 

[LanghamP]

13 hours ago, stephenbadger said:

 we have teenage savages wearing hoodies on bicycles here ...l had the misfortune to encounter one in the park last saturday night & he tried to stab me with his knife ...now thinking about carrying a stick too ...but it won't be for using on bicycle wheels, ggrrr

This sounds like St Louis. I've had punks do that to me at least twice now in Forrest Park, and got cornered "with intent to contribute" twice in a Metro light rail cab.

I just always carry pepper spray, talk with an aggressive mouth, but always ready to spray and run. You learn very quickly when living in a high crime area to always be suspicious of strangers, especially young males (the natural enemy of most males), not to fiddle with your phone, and to keep moving when the mentally ill bums ask you for money.

Edited April 11, 2019 by LanghamP

[fryman]

I have found that there are a lot of cyclist that ride aggressively and don't like to slow down for anyone.

[Hatchet]

I almost had a collision yesterday coming home from work. I was riding slowly since I had just started out riding in the dedicated bike lane, some courier (the worst offenders) had cut through traffic, between cars, crossing lanes and suddenly was in front of me and barely avoided crashing right into me.

I'm glad he didn't stop because it would have gotten real ugly real fast. I've had it with cyclists.

[stephenbadger]

14 hours ago, LanghamP said:

This sounds like St Louis. I've had punks do that to me at least twice now in Forrest Park, and got cornered "with intent to contribute" twice in a Metro light rail cab.

I just always carry pepper spray, talk with an aggressive mouth, but always ready to spray and run. You learn very quickly when living in a high crime area to always be suspicious of strangers, especially young males (the natural enemy of most males), not to fiddle with your phone, and to keep moving when the mentally ill bums ask you for money.

Quote

l just always carry pepper spray, talk with an aggressive mouth,

 Hi, only the cops are allowed to carry pepper spray in NZ ...if the NZ Customs find it or it's found in your possession the best you expect is confiscation, the worst a charge of carrying a concealed weapon, if the cops don't "like" you.

If a savage or a scumbag "gets in my face" or attacks me l ALWAYS respond with an aggressive mouth ...to let them know their going to get badly hurt or killed if they fu*k with me ...l hope to take one with me, if the worst comes to the worst & make the planet a better place.

l don't like to see ordinary people bullied ...a month ago, a planned racist attack was carried-out on a chinese takeaway bar where l was eating my dinner ...first telling customers in the street that the place stank, then coming inside & accosting the chinese owners ...l stopped that with some really loud aggressive language of my own, lol ...for the next 2 or 3 weeks l thought l might be in for a beating one night, but events in Christchurch have taken centre-stage here.

 

l've been involved in 4 attacks in my neighbourhood in the last 4 weeks or so ...

1/ a street gang attacked me in the park & tried to rob me

2/a racist attack on a chinese family in a takeaway bar

3/l found a severely beaten man with broken legs in the park

4/ a teenage savage on a bicycle tried to stab me with his knife in the park ...they must be putting something in the water, that's a record for me, ggrrr

Edited April 12, 2019 by stephenbadger
2 cents worth

[Smoother]

On 4/11/2019 at 5:58 AM, stephenbadger said:

It's very annoying to be forced to live with the knowledge that a complete stranger has decided he will attack me with his knife the moment he encounters me on foot or scooting on one of my e-scooters in the streets or the park ...the cops don't give a sh*t anymore, they just clean-up the mess & prosecute the survivors in the law courts ...so there won't be a happy ending if l'm unlucky enough to meet this young person again (l'm nearly 64yrs old) ...1 of us will go to hospital or the morgue & the survivor will be prosecuted by the cops for assault with a weapon or homicide ...life in the big city in the south pacific ..."self-defense" by members of the public isn't usually a successful justification/defence in NZ, cos hurting people including criminals is unlawful & NOT politically correct, ggrrr

Are you sure you don't live in England? Because that's what the law is like here.  Criminals can use any amount of force/violence they want, but to defend yourself you can only use "appropriate" force or some bullshit words to that effect.  Now I ask you, as a normal person who is in fear of their life, woken in the middle of the night, still half asleep and yet also full of adrenaline; against an unknown criminal/criminals, what exactly is appropriate force?  Is it measured in Newton Metres? or pounds per square inch?  How do you measure it? When does a simple punch or swing of a baseball bat go from self defence (in my own home) to attempted murder? 3m per second or 5?  I think the public should be allowed to unload on criminals with any and all the force they can muster.  Too much?  Too bad.  They shouldn't break into my house then.  Their choice, they should face what ever comes at them as a result. As far as I am concerned, criminals are outlaws (they operate outside the law and therefor the law should not be there to protect them when they do) What kind of insanity gives criminals rights while they are committing a crime?  These laws are written by people who do not have to face crime in their cosseted, safe, privileged world.

[Dzlchef]

10 hours ago, stephenbadger said:

l've been involved in 4 attacks in my neighbourhood in the last 4 weeks or so ...

1/ a street gang attacked me in the park & tried to rob me

2/a racist attack on a chinese family in a takeaway bar

3/l found a severely beaten man with broken legs in the park

4/ a teenage savage on a bicycle tried to stab me with his knife in the park ...they must be putting something in the water, that's a record for me, ggrrr

Wow! I live in Los Angeles, regularly stop to rest in MacArthur Park which is notorious for bad things, and I’ve never been harassed. You live in a rough area. Think I’d move personally. 

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, Smoother said:

As far as I am concerned, criminals are outlaws (they operate outside the law and therefor the law should not be there to protect them when they do)

Do these people have characteristics that allow you to identify them as possibly dangerous?

[Smoother]

23 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Do these people have characteristics that allow you to identify them as possibly dangerous?

When they are obviously committing a crime, yes, that's when they should have no protection of the law. An intruder in my house should be assumed to be dangerous.  It would be irresponsible of me to give them the benefit of the doubt. 

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

I had a cyclist come zooming through a stop sign onto a main road while I had the right of way going at 48 kph.  Luckily I was able to brake in time.    I guess they just look for cars while they do their "rolling stops" so they don't expect a dude on an EUC coming at them to justify a full stop.    Ride defensively and carefully, my compadres. 

[Joker10]

Wow sounds like it sucks to be a law abiding citizen in New Zealand and England.  I Have read about lack of support for self defense in England a few times.  I have no knowledge of the court system in England but if there is a jury of your peers it seems that the citizens would practice jury nullification in the self defense cases.  It’s pretty rare for me to run into problems here in the gunshine state.  I stay out of bad areas.  I usually have pepper spray and always a Sig or Glock if things go really bad.

[stephenbadger]

it's easy to identify a criminal ...especially if it's threatening you or trying to kill you or you find it lurking around on your property, it's NOT there to give you a Xmas present ...electing for a jury trial is often your ONLY hope to reclaim your life under the old british justice system ...an NZ cop once told me to put a weapon near the hand of a criminal if l dealt with one ...hahaha! yes, there are worse & also safer places to live in NZ, but the violence is everywhere in NZ, so there is an element of luck included in the equation ...l am sentimental about my property & location, silly l know ...here, l am a tough bastard, somebody to be reckoned with & annoyed with consequences or if l run away, l'm a nobody, with a few dollars in my pocket  

...and l 'm planning to go out with a bang, NOT a whimper, ggrrr

Edited April 13, 2019 by stephenbadger
2 cents worth

[Hatchet]

I'm surprised to read that about NZ but not so much England. I feel lucky now to only be dealing with jagoff cyclists rather than knife wielding thugs. 

[Smoother]

Just to inject a bit of balance.  Although I did lament the poor state of self defense laws in the UK, I have never personally been a victim of violent crime; attempted or otherwise. My parents family home of 42 years has only been burgled once during that time. And my home in Texas was burgled once, when we were out.

I just felt a lot safer living in Texas where defending yourself is not a crime (and that was before the "stand your ground" doctrine went into effect) and you didn't have to be a Wang Chung master to do it.  No ordinary person should be forced into a physical (reasonable force) battle with an unknown criminal (unknown strength, unknown drug use, unknown weapons, unknown fighting ability, unknown intentions, unknown number of accomplices , etc) when whipping out an appropriate self defense weapon will often disperse said criminal(s) without it even being used.

There are books detailing how use of a self defense weapon stopped an attack, but there are no books on how many attacks were stopped by someone brandishing a weapon.  Why? Because people who foil a rape attempt or mugging attempt, etc, with a weapon, rarely report it to the police.  Sometimes it is because the event is over and they just want to get on with their lives, or because "brandishing" is illegal in their state (if you pull it out you must be in fear of your life and so therefor you must use it, not just brandish it), And sometimes it is because they are not supposed to have a weapon, or a weapon in that area.  So the problem quietly goes away and no statistics are ever generated.

[Joker10]

I really had no idea that NZ was that rough of a place.  I used to think I would love to visit it one day.  That’s too bad.

[Smoother]

1 hour ago, Joker10 said:

I really had no idea that NZ was that rough of a place.  I used to think I would love to visit it one day.  That’s too bad.

It's still a fantastic place to visit, just don't hang out in @stephenbadger local park.