WTF, Dude?!? A vent about inconsiderate motorists.

Boy am I frickin irate. I got bumped yesterday, by some cheezedick in a 70's dodge van. Mutherfella pulled up behind me as the light turned red. when the light turned green he musta forgot I had my signal light on as I was turning left. He was so close behind be that he was unable to see my signal b/c of the height of his van. So as I waited for an opening in the traffic to make my left turn he got impatent b/c he couldn't see my signal and frickin bumped me from behind! Frickin scared the crap outta me! not just a nudge either, he revved up (a little) and smacked me!
So I have my bike key with the rest of my keys on my swiss army knife. I pulled forward a little turned off my bike, opened my small blade on my swiss, walked back to his van and said, "My signal light was on, Motherfuzzbuckit!" And then I punctured the cheeze-doodle's front tire with my knife, got on my bike and flipped him off as I wheelied thru the intersection.

O.k. so maybe thats not true at all. Maybe I just wobbled forward in a startled state, trying to look behind me to check my rear signal for failure as I made a less than stellar decision about when to cross traffic. As if it was likely my fault. I don't really want to react violently, i just feel so disrespected as a motorist. And I'm still feeling mad about it today. I'm not large, and i'm not a toughguy, i'm the absolute commonman, and as such I feel i have the right to ride a motorcycle without the physical suggestion of an @sshole's bumper as to when and where I ride!

At least he didn't bump me into traffic and I didn't crash. And lesson learned the (sortof) hard way- *Be sure the cager's can tell what you are doing, because there's no telling what they're going to do.* Although that dumbsh*t does not posses a suitable disposition for the priveledge of a drivers license, I acknowlege that from his position he could not see my signal. To him it looked like I was just daydreaming at a green light. It is his fault for being stupid, but I could have avoided drawing his stupid to me by making sure he could clearly see my intentions. Although we cannot control the actions of other motorists its up to us to take resposiblity for how we manipulate the traffic situations. There's no such thing as 100% safe on a motorcycle, but the decisions we make significantly increase or decrease the amount of danger we face. Thank-you for attending my vent. I hope by sharing this with you folks, you'll look out for yourselves that little bit more. Ride safe!

 

Wow, I would have been quite irate also :x I'd memorize his plate #.....then one day while driving my old Chevy pickup, I would pull up behind him at some stoplight and show him a bump of my own!

-Nick

 

He hit you. Had I been able to hold my temper (I commend you on that, because he probably would've wound up with a smashed window and a black eye had he done it to me) I would've parked the bike right there, and told him very nicely to not move while you called the police. If he booked, you give the police his license number because the penalty for hit and run generally involves jail time. I'd also bet dollars to donuts the cop would find a handful of other things to ticket him for.

And XJturbo, you're on the right track, but the wrong train. You follow him home, then come back late at night with a can of industrial paint stripper. (Of course this is for stupid rich snobs in fancy cars.. In the case of a beater van where stripping the paint would be doing him a favor, I like unloading a can of Great Stuff expanding foam insulation into the gas tank filler cap.. Yeah, don't piss me off.. )

 

some people find their drivers license in a bubble gum machine...

 

Back when I was in my 20s, I drove a furniture pantechnicon for a living, rode an AJS Model 18 for pleasure, drove my girlfriend's car occasionally, and rode a pushbike for exercise.
I never ceased to be amazed by the way in which other drivers percieved me in the different vehicles! The pantech was highly visible and had right of way over everything. The car, well, was a car. On the motorbike, I had to watch out for other traffic, and on the treadlie I became invisible.
Nothing seems to have changed.
A few years back, I was talking to a friend who's a psychologist. She assured me that car drivers SEE motorcycles, but they don't NOTICE them. We don't fit into their pattern of things to pay attention to.
How often does it happen that some perfectly decent, law abiding car driver, with perfectly normal vision, will run into a motorcyclist and say afterwards "I didn't see him". It happened to me. He didn't notice (in full daylight) my 250lb frame, my girlfriend, the Honda I was riding or the sidecar she was sitting in!
No wonder motorcyclists make safer car drivers!

 

Sometimes Motorcyclists seem to go to a lot of trouble to not be seen.

Today I was passed by a motorcycle between 2 hills on an asphalt freeway. He had dark pants, black jacket, black helmet and a black bike. I didn't see him coming or going - he blended right in with the road. And of course he was weaving through traffic.

Fortunately he was on an (cough) American bike. I noticed he was there when I got the urge to give him a tune up.

After that I'm a bigger believer than ever in the bright clothes.

 

Back when I had started riding bikes, I had the mishap of not using lock washers to attach my license plate. Since it fell off I needed to drive to the DMV to get another one. While in the left turn lane, a black jeep grand cherokee, didn't look and decided to pull into the lane I was in. The back bumper caught my right foot and pinned it to the peg in my boot, and because we were both moving, I didn't dump the bike. Thank goodness for the laws of motion I guess. But because I didn't dump it, they either assumed they hadn't hit me or didn't care, and just took off. Makes me mad, and never gives answers that my heart can get over.