I'm going to ride some hills later this afternoon with some friends. While I'm waiting for the clock to tick I put a new chain on my bike. The original had nearly 20k miles on it. My wear gauge said it was nearing 1% wear so I spent a little time putting the new one on. I also put new brake shoes on, with the Tour de van Oeste Portlandia coming up this Saturday I'll be thankful for the new chain AND the new brakes!
I was looking at my bike calendar and noted that once again the Providence Bridge Pedal is on the same day as Mid Valley Bicycle Club's Covered Bridge Bicycle Tour.
Unlike my decision over whether to ride STP or RAO, this is an easy choice. I've ridden the Providence Bridge Pedal 5 times, and last year decided to skip the crowds of unskilled people on bikes and ride some covered bridges and 100 miles instead. It was a great ride, well supported, and not a single bike stalling on a hill or turning right in front of me without looking. I had a blast. I'll be riding with that group of folks again!
RE: blue suv incident:
I've decided to post the police report. I've edited out personal identifiers so that I don't get in trouble. I post it so that you as a cyclist can see what issues we face. I had no idea that a driver would even think about filing a police report with so many lies. I'd guess that 90% or more is absolutely false. His statement, coupled with my whacking his mirror with my hand muddied this up. What should have been a slam dunk became much more complicated. It was not helped by what I consider a less than objective police response. The driver's false statements never had to be proven or even see the light of day. All it had to do was give the "non cycling" cop the idea that there were two sides to the story.
It all boils down to that if some driver takes exception to you riding on "his" road you'd better have a video camera running. Even with multiple witnesses I just couldn't get traction with this.
Update:
3 of us met tonight to do our hill workout. We did okay, managed to finish the loop before the light got too dim. A brisk wind but with the direction it wasn't a real issue, the into the wind section was in a sheltered area and climbing besides.
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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............20...............0.................20
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total......20.....+.........0........=........20
Year to date...1992.....+.........30.......=......2022
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I just ordered the V.I.O. Pov 1.5 the other day. I've been meaning to get a cam for years for making cool videos of rides, and of other sports like rock climbing, rafting, skiing, etc. I'm hoping I never need it for something like your encounter, but you never know! The motorists in Vancouver BC seem to me to be used to cyclists on the roads and I've never been yelled at to get off the road or driven at or anything in the city. Heck even our new mayor reportedly goes on critical mass rides and is seen on TV showing up at meetings on his bike, and the guy who ran against him is a bike commuter too. I can't say the same about riding in the suburbs however, or out in the countryside...
ReplyDeleteI've got two cams, the Oregon Scientific model (ATC 2K or something like that) is waterproof to 10ft. It would make a good rafting cam. I used to run a lot of whitewater!
ReplyDeleteThose little cams are pretty handy, I've used mine in a lot of places and times when I wasn't on the bike.
....should have been using it more on the bike!
I'm real sorry that justice wasn't served. The baffling (infuriating) aspect is the cop taking the driver's word and completely dismissing yours (and your fellow bikers).
ReplyDeleteFew thoughts:
- If you were close enough to strike the SUV's mirror, shouldn't the cop have cited the driver against ORS 811.065, “Unsafe passing of a person operating a bicycle.”?
- did you contact a bicycling-specific attorney and/or the BTA?
- would you consider posting the police report w/o redaction? I believe police reports are considered public records, and it's not like the guy is going to be happy with you for not giving his name out...
I wish you the best of luck, I've been following this since I first heard about it.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of baffling (and yes, infuriating!) aspects. Even if I had pointed a gun at the driver and he ran into me in "self defense" he still would be required to "perform the duties of a driver" (ie, not hit and run). Once the police had contacted him and he admitted his role in this he should have been given a free ride to jail while awaiting trial. He should have been charged with Assault 2 (also a felony) since I had documented injury.
If he had been cited for all the appropriate violations I'd feel a bit better about taking the possible (I'm told "probable")conviction for Criminal Mischief just to see the driver paying for his actions. As it stands I'm told that I would probably get a criminal record and the driver could likely not have a thing stick. Go figure.
I had contact with several bike attorneys, including the most revered in the community. I had one of the more active Oregon bike clubs helping guide me. I'm a member of Cascade Bicycle Club, but they chose to not get involved, perhaps understandably, since they are based in Washington State. I've had bike centric websites and mainstream media decline to publicize this because of fears that it would fan the flames of cyclists being viewed as law breaking scofflaws.
A possible fine point, but one of my pet peeves with this situation is that I am told that my hitting his mirror can not be justified because "threat of future harm does not justify current response", yet he drove away after hitting me because he says he felt threatened, we outnumbered him.
Poor threatened guy surrounded by tons of protective steel.
If I post the police report that includes his phone number, cell number, home address, etc, then he starts getting hassled I'd be the first person they came for. I'd likely be viewed as provoking a response just by the fact that I made his contact information public.
One of the attorneys told me to let it go, let Kharma take over.
I couldn't have faith in the legal system to work, not sure I trust that kharma will do a better job.