I'm trying to decide whether to care about this interaction I had a couple mornings ago.
As I was riding along Willowdale Avenue, a wide calm street and one of my favourites on my commute, a truck pulled up behind me and, just before passing me, turned on the reverse warning alarm. It startled me, so I shook a little bit but managed to keep a straight line. After the truck passed, I saw the passenger lean over to look at me in the large side mirror and have a laugh.
The vehicle was a medium sized City of Toronto truck, so it's easy to find in the traffic. I pulled up beside the truck's open window at the next light and said hello. The passenger's response was "Hey man, don't take it personally."
"What?!" I said.
"I was just looking out for you," the passenger said, suggesting it was him, not the driver, who hit the buzzer.
"What do you mean? You were laughing."
"No! I wasn't laughing," he said making it clear he had no affection for the truth.
The light turned green and they drove off.
I've definitely had people do worse things to me on my bike (like hit me), but there's something discouraging about this kind of harassment, especially coming from a city employee. Previously, it's been a landscaping pick-up truck with 3 or 4 guys inside. They lay on the horn just before rattling past with a huge trailer.
On one hand, if this happened to a less experienced cyclist, he or she might have had a hard time keeping a straight line. Maybe I should write letters to councillors and try to start some education of city employees. As we mentioned a few days ago, South Carolina even has a law against harassing cyclists.
On the other hand, people like this are everywhere. Getting the city to install a bike lane is a tough hill to climb. Educating a majority of people how to drive a car safely is like climbing out of Bluffer's Park on a single speed, but teaching people how to not act like assholes is a Himalayan task. On top of it all, focusing on this kind of interaction just takes away from the other 45 enjoyable minutes of my commute.
Comments
Jen (not verified)
This kind of crap happens to
Sat, 07/19/2008 - 19:18This kind of crap happens to me all the time. Usually it's some jacka$$ screaming at me out the window of his truck, or expensive car.
I'm surprised there isn't a law against harassing cyclists in Toronto. There obviously should be. Maybe then people would think twice before yelling obscenities at girls riding home from work.
DigitalCyclist
Action/awareness where possible.
Sat, 07/19/2008 - 19:27If you'd had the truck number, or license number, you could have reported it to the city for follow-up.
Last year I had a similar incident a little while after passing a segment of country road under reconstruction (including wide paved shoulders as part of the region's cycling network). One of the dump trucks working on the project pulled up behind two of us on bikes and instead of pulling out to pass (nothing coming the other way), leaned on the horn, accelerated, and buzzed us - driving us off the road onto the gravel shoulder.
I went to the region's transportation department and reported the time and incident, and suggested that (sub)contractors hired to work on region road projects ought to be required to affirm somehow that their employees/drivers would conduct themselves lawfully and properly. I heard back that there was follow-up with the contractor and that I could expect better behaviour.
Darren_S
Count your blessings
Sat, 07/19/2008 - 21:16Alan Tamane lost his life last year to a City of Toronto truck. You would think they would have more sensitivity.
IronMac
Definitely
Sun, 07/20/2008 - 06:49Definitely try to get the number of any sort of public or commercial vehicle for followup as DC suggests. The owners of these vehicles love knowing what sort of image/behaviour their drivers are making out there on the road.
As for educating drivers? Cyclists are the same way..one swore at me after I yelled at him that he'd advanced so far into KIng St. ("Too far forward!") that I had to swerve into traffic to avoid him. Lack of courtesy happens everywhere.
Guys yelling at young girls..that happens even if you're not on a cycle. So declasse.
hamish (not verified)
truckulent passholes
Sun, 07/20/2008 - 11:39Truckulent passholes will likely always exist as long as men are driving.
Sorry, but it's likely true, and maybe it helps us appreciate what some women encounter in public, though the threats from the right-of-weight of the four-wheelers and speed of them is a different threat.
But the mention of Alan Tamane brought back a memory that maybe I should follow up more on - when waiting at York Mills for more cyclists to arrive by subway, there was a continuous loud blaring coming from the west and a large concrete truck was leaning on the horn trying to alert the carcooned that its brakes had failed and it was coming through the intersection though the light was against it. The carcooned heard; nobody moved; not a news piece. But maybe five minutes later, the truck emerged from where it had cut off to drive north.
I'd caught some portion of the truck ID - buried somewhere now - and awhile later notified the City that maybe somebody should follow. The response back was that since the police didn't see the incident, nothing could be done.
As there are fewer cyclists up in that area I didn't bother pursuing it as there are Plenty! of gross stupidities and negligence that the City offers to cyclists downtown to work on.
So there probably is a law, but but the cops are "carist" and there's a pretty broad culture of breaking laws like speed limits etc. etc. so enforcement is an issue.
darren
truck number
Mon, 07/21/2008 - 09:05They drove off ... but not before I noted the yellow number on the back of the truck. I think I will write a letter.
DigitalCyclist, I have to say your incident sounds much worse than mine. Getting buzzed by a dump truck is a death threat. And the drivers of large trucks have more training and special licenses, which should have reminded them of this.
-dj
Theo (not verified)
My suggestion
Mon, 07/21/2008 - 10:43Wear bike shoes with cleats.
Kick said car.
Stop your bike.
Turn around.
Flash the finger.
Good luck to them catching you!
Anonymous Girl (not verified)
Most of my bad experiences
Mon, 07/21/2008 - 14:24Most of my bad experiences on the road happen with city vehicles actually. (and a good number of UofT grounds vehicles.) Thank goodness they generally keep to vicious slander yelled out their window. I may not like getting called a fat cow (or that particularly hideous C-word) on a semi-egular basis, but it's vastly better than when they buzz me, cut me off or perform sudden stops in the bike lanes.
You know it's a sad situation when a woman happily accepts verbal abuse and thinks how lucky she is that she's still alive at least. Makes me sick to think about it now.
Time to start doing something. I resolve to keep a notebook record of these guys from now on and make a fuss with the city.
Ben
TTC staff not immune to assholery
Tue, 07/22/2008 - 11:26Sometime last fall I was waiting at a stop sign for a pedestrian to pass, and a TTC truck waiting behind me honked. I waded through their awful website to find contact info and sent in a complaint.
I would surely send a complaint about an infraction like the one Darren had. Government employees should be held to high standards.