My first ride back from road rage incident

I trust many of you know about my road rage incident a couple of weeks
back (actually, two weeks ago tomorrow). It's taken me the entire time
to 'get over it' and finally, this morning I felt ready to 'brave' the
f*ckwits this morning. So off I toddled at 6am.

My first and only incident was heading towards a major roundabout
(Ipswich Road/Blunder Road), rode about 50cm out from the kerb (there's
a big shrub/tree which prevents you from riding on the other side of the
white line and besides, I've every right to be on the road). When I was
about 3 metres from the roundabout, a truck towing a trailer with a
bobcat on it came up beside me, popped his indicator on and proceeded
to cut in front of me (turning left). I gave him a \"What the f*ck?!\"
signal (both hands up) but he didn't see me.

I took note of his trailer registration number and phoned the police
when I got to work. At first, the officer I spoke to at the Sherwood
police station was apprehensive about doing anything about it, stating
that cycling is dangerous and although he only lives in Oxley and would
love to ride his bike to work, he doesn't because it's too dangerous. I
kept saying to him "Hang on... that doesn't give anyone the right to
hassle me on the roads, does it?" and he kept saying "well there's not
a lot we can do about it". I told him that he could at the very least
make a note of the incident and give the offending f*ckwit a call to
let him know that it wasn't appreciated. He wasn't rude at any point,
I just don't think he knew what to do. In the end, he said that he
would be happy to give the f*ckwit a call, saying it was just a small
bobcat company from Ipswich (don't they have bikes in Ipswich?) with
only one trailer registered.

This time there was no threats of violence and there won't be again.
I'm just going to report each and every incident along my way to work,
and if this means 50 reports a week, then maybe the local police will
put down their doughnuts and start actually patrolling the streets once
in a while.

Lotte


--
LotteBum

LotteBum Wrote:


snip

I'm just going to report each and every incident along my way to work,
and if this means 50 reports a week, then maybe the local police will
put down their doughnuts and start actually patrolling the streets once
in a while.

Lotte
When the nice policemen actually do what they should (ie give a few of
these idiot drivers a bit of a hard time), then you should take them
some doughnuts.

Positive reinforcement works for your puppies, right? Should work for
policemen!

SteveA


--
SteveA

SteveA wrote:

When the nice policemen actually do what they should (ie give a few of
these idiot drivers a bit of a hard time), then you should take them
some doughnuts.

Haha, you don't think they will take offense?

Positive reinforcement works for your puppies, right? Should work for
policemen!

Are you implying that our law enforcement officers share the same
qualities as my dogs? If you ever meet my Simon or my Cadence, they'll
rip you to pieces for that comment.

LotteBum (my dogs are BAD@SS!)


--
LotteBum

LotteBum Wrote:
This time there was no threats of violence and there won't be again.
I'm just going to report each and every incident along my way to work,
and if this means 50 reports a week, then maybe the local police will
put down their doughnuts and start actually patrolling the streets once
in a while.


Keep a diary of your 'altercations', a digital camera, and possibly
even a helmet camera setup similar to Fiona in jolly ol' Sydney, more
tips he
http://www.abc.dotars.gov.au/library...d_Rage_sub.pdf


--
cfsmtb

SteveA wrote:

LotteBum Wrote:


snip

I'm just going to report each and every incident along my way to work,
and if this means 50 reports a week, then maybe the local police will
put down their doughnuts and start actually patrolling the streets once
in a while.

Lotte
When the nice policemen actually do what they should (ie give a few of
these idiot drivers a bit of a hard time), then you should take them
some doughnuts.

Positive reinforcement works for your puppies, right? Should work for
policemen!

SteveA

--
SteveA

Positive reinforcement is bringing them apples, not deep-fried cake.
Well done Lotte, reclaim the streets!

Tam

LotteBum Wrote:
SteveA wrote:

When the nice policemen actually do what they should (ie give a few of
these idiot drivers a bit of a hard time), then you should take them
some doughnuts.

Haha, you don't think they will take offense?

Positive reinforcement works for your puppies, right? Should work for
policemen!

Are you implying that our law enforcement officers share the same
qualities as my dogs? If you ever meet my Simon or my Cadence, they'll
rip you to pieces for that comment.

LotteBum (my dogs are BAD@SS!)

Ding ding ding, Constable Pavlov.

"I always reckoned I could tell the smarter part of a police dog team
by who was quickest to fetch a ball"

SteveA


--
SteveA

Sadly, there's not a whole lot the most committed police can do. On
Boxing Day last year, my mate and I were threatened by a freak who got
out of his car with a metal bar, screaming at us. Fortunately the
lights changed! We reported it and the police were going to charge him
with common assault. For this charge he would have got off with a minor
fine or caution. On hearing he had a long record including stalking and
assault, I decided recently to withdraw my complaint, or my family
could be next.

It's taken a long time and quite a few calls, but the police have been
great otherwise. They've visited this guy and warned him, and looked
for anything they could to bust him on. They can only enforce the law,
and can't penalise people like we think they should be.

Donga

Donga wrote:

It's taken a long time and quite a few calls, but the police have been
great otherwise. They've visited this guy and warned him, and looked
for anything they could to bust him on. They can only enforce the law,
and can't penalise people like we think they should be.

All I wanted was for them to give him a call - obviously without a
witness there's f*ck all you can do.

Lotte


--
LotteBum

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:28:29 +1100, LotteBum
wrote:

My first and only incident was heading towards a major roundabout
(Ipswich Road/Blunder Road), rode about 50cm out from the kerb (there's
a big shrub/tree which prevents you from riding on the other side of the
white line and besides, I've every right to be on the road). When I was
about 3 metres from the roundabout, a truck towing a trailer with a
bobcat on it came up beside me, popped his indicator on and proceeded
to cut in front of me (turning left). I gave him a \"What the f*ck?!\"
signal (both hands up) but he didn't see me.

Don't feel alone, LB. This exact thing happened to me yesterday. I'm riding
along, doing the speed limit on a nice flat stretch past the stockyards.

Guy in a big double cab towing a trailer with about 4 cows in it, looks
down the road sees me coming and I can just read his mind - dim as it is -
"I'm much bigger than that there contraption".

Slowly pulls right out in front of me from my left, crossed the other lane
of traffic and cuts me off, all the while lookin' right at me as if to say
- 'Duh, there's a fella on a bike, Martha, what will they think of next'.

Yeah, he didn't do it out of malice, he was obviously unable to cogitate
that a bicycle and the road and his trailer and cows hand any relevance to
each other despite the fact that I had to swerve around him. I might as
well have been a kid on a pogo stick. Trouble is, I was going 38kph.

I actually passed him and since his window was down. I said "that's a lot
of bull you got there, Grandpa" Haha. It was the best part of the ride.

I think he got it about 10 miles later when the three neurons he had
workin' sparked. I think he was still scratching his head - 'bicycles just
can't go that fast' as he lumbered along at 35, engine rumbling, trying to
keep up..

He couldn't freakin' catch me either, though he tried! I was smokin' - nice
tail wind and angry! Gorgeous day, 10 degC, blue skies, golden leaves.

I looked over my shoulder and gave him a come on wave, like 'C'mon, let's
get the lead out.' as I sped out of sight.

Bet he'd have been really irritated to know that was a 50 year old guy on
that bike left his petrol peabrain in the dust. That kinda ****e just don't
compute, hehe.

Wheels.

Lottebum wrote:

All I wanted was for them to give him a call - obviously without
a witness there's f*ck all you can do.

Even with a witness there's usually f*ck all you can do, as Mr. Plod
will only say "well you shouldn't have been on the road".

Therein lies the rub. How can you expect police to change other's
attitudes when police share the same attitude.

Regards,

Suzy (who's never bothered reporting road rage incidents, as she knows
full-well it's a complete waste of time)


--
suzyj