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Not Sharing the Road …
As I was riding along Route 28 in Rockville several Sundays ago, I was hit in the back wheel by a driver. The driver obviously wasn’t paying attention and skidded and was about to come to a complete stop just before she hit me. I lunged forward when I got hit but didn’t get knocked off my bike, and amazingly there was no damage to the wheel. The driver was totally unapologetic and if anything was annoyed that I was there getting in her way. Since it was a busy intersection, I asked her to meet me past the intersection so we could exchange information. Well, guess what? She took off!
An unapologetic driver taking off on me was the right combination of factors to report the incident to the local police as a hit-and-run. Luckily the driver behind her saw the whole thing, wrote down the license plate number and gave it to me. I need to mention here that the driver had a temporary license plate on her car. I called the Montgomery County Police and reported the incident. The indignity of getting hit by an arrogant driver was about to be made worse. The officer told me that they can’t trace temporary license plates back to a specific driver. I asked if he was going to file a report, and he said that he “could” if I made the request for it but it probably wouldn’t lead to anything.
I didn’t get hurt. I didn’t even have any damage to my bike. But I consider hit-and-run to be a serious offense, and according to the law, it IS a serious offense. Now that I think about it, I probably should’ve filed the report just to press the issue with the police officer and so that I would have something on the record. If I had suffered serious physical injury as a result of the collision or had been killed, would the officer been a bit more determined to find the offender? This is just a wild guess but if a Montgomery County Police Officer had been injured or just struck by a hit-and-run driver, I get the feeling that somehow, they would track down the owner of the vehicle if all they had was the temporary tag number.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
You should still take that information directly to the police station and report the officer’s lack of concern chief of police.
This type of law enforcement officer is not the type the public needs on the street.
It is your right, and your obligation in my opinion, to report him.
I have on several occasion, when I saw officers not upholding their job, asked specifically to talk to the chief of police and stated my concern.
Remember, we as citizens hire the police to do a job for us, and they are obligated to os, not the other way around.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Please go back and file the Hit and Run report. You were not injured (we can be thankful for that) but the next person to encounter this drive counld be killed and this officer (like many) need to be educated on how to prevent future collisions.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Good Grief! As an LAB official, you must file a report and take being a cyclist seriously, as well as teaching both the officer and the hit and run motorist a lesson.
This is a “teachable moment.”
Make sure you get in touch directly with the officer who tried to blow you off, and his/her superior officer.
Make sure your account gets into a written report.
Follow up a month later to see if you’ve made the slightest impression on the culture.
if we act invisible and unimportant, we will quickly become that way.
sincerely,
Michael McGettigan
Trophy Bikes Philadelphia
LCI #320
November 6th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
A few years ago, a motorist ran a police ’safety’ road check and almost hit 2 officers. When they caught him, he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon in this case was his car. No one was hurt, and there wasn’t any property damage. Yet he was charged with a felony.
I reminded the police chief about this when I was harassed on the road. “Does someone have to be hurt before you’ll be proactive?” I asked. That got them moving.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I would like the name and contact information for the person who wrote this report.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I have encountered, as many others who ride to work regularly, the utter disdain which the driver of a car holds for the bicyclist “in the way.” I’d like to apologize that you suffered whatever shock and horror you must have felt, and hope that whoever hit you and then left turns themselves in.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:13 am
File a report. Make them officially say no.
A few years ago I was bit by a dog while riding. The dog had bit 4 other people, but no one took it to criminal court. Had one of them done so, I wouldn’t have gotten bitten.
Luckily, I was on active duty so I had no bills or lost wages. Had I, I would have gone after the other people, in civil court, for contributory negligence. Legally, I don’t know how I would have done. Morally, they did play a role in my attack.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
You should also inform your state police, with a copy to the local police, a description of what happened and relate the response that you got from the local police.
November 18th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I felt very foolish for not getting the license number of a car that ran a stop sign and hit me. No injury resulted to me or the bike. As I was asking the driver what he thought he was doing, he sped away. My instinctive reaction was to press my bike into his car. This left a nice scratch, and me feeling some satisfaction. I went home and wrote a letter to the local paper, more-or-less addressed to the driver of the car. Imagine my surprise a few days later when I received a phone call from the police asking me to come down to the station and make an accident report! The police chief had read my letter and followed up on it. The officer I spoke with said the police are always interested in hit-and-run incidents because frequently the driver has other outstanding warrants. Since I could not provide a license plate number, nothing was done about the incident. I’ll know better next time.
Steve
November 20th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
If you had ben driving a car and she had hit you the officer would not have waffled about taking the report.
File the report, then file a report about the officer with his supervisor. I would also make a point of expressing your ocncerns with the city council - a letter to each member would not be innappropriate - and if needed, the media.
We DO NOT have to stand for being treated as “worth less”. This is commonplace all over the country. Be adamant about filing these reports, preferably from the scene at the time.
You can also wear a small 40.00 SD video camera. It’s a shame that we hav to even resort to that, but it certainly is an available tool.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Please report the accident to the Police Chief. The issue should be discussed at at a sybseqyebt police assembly meeting to inform all officers. We had an incident in Omaha where a police officer ordered a rider off of the street because he was “blocking Traffic”. This was reported to police administration and shortly there after police were informed of bicyclists rights at the police assembly and reminded that bicycles have a right to the streets.
Ron Mortensen
November 25th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Where exactly were you hit on Rt 28? What intersection?
My guess is you didnt deserve to be hit; but you probably were part of the causative factors in being hit…
I have 3 incidents of aggressive assault by drivers in DC in the last year (throwing glass bottles at me near the Takoma Park Metro…which I kept, and were finger printed…etc etc.); one in Montgomery County. I have all the voluminous paperwork…and we’re 8 months into the *investigation* (yeah, right). Ive been to the various Police departments; looked at mugshots!!!…blah, blah. Nothing has come of my claims…
I started the process so my 18 year old daughter can witness first hand that if you do eveything according to the rules, and stand your ground, and file the requisite paperwork, and follow-up (and have a two PhD household with a SOCIAL scientist that understands who society works!)….NOTHING WILL HAPPEN UNTIL I AM **KILLED** on the roads on my god-damn BICYCLE!!!
Im not going to stop riding. We’re moving to Europe when she graduates…
The USA is broken, and wont be close to being fixed in my lifetime…
Montgomery County, and Maryland in general, simply couldnt be any more hostile to biyclists. its like cycling in Alabama, or Northern or Southern Florida. The road surface in Maryland is an indult; the shoulders are nonexistent; Rt 28 has does have a bike lane as it passes the Kentlands — all 2 feet of it on a six-lane car sewer that services the subsidized and unsustainable suburbs!!
You made a mistake trying to bicycle in Montgomery County on Rt 28. Remember, this is the same State that claims a BIKE Route for ANY road that has a 4 foot shoulder (Rt 27 to Westminster; or Rt 40 from Baltomore to Havre de Grace…etc.) THE BIKE MAP in MD is a piece of grabage! Doies the people ride who put this travesty togther??
THOSE TWO ROUTES (above) and all the rest are FOR SHIT when it comes to a cycling experience that is worth having, or as travel routes. Hell, you CANNOT get across the Sesquehanna River into Pennsylvania on a BICYCLE (Unless you pedal up to 372 or do the death defying Route 1 dam-crossing on the narrow two lane!!!).
HAVE THE BALLS to identify areas that are HOSTILE to cycling; not just those that deserve gold stars…
Mike
January 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am
As goes crossing the Susquehanna River at Route 1 Conowingo Dam Road (possible but intense and dangerous even for seasoned road cyclists) our Biller’s Bikes in Havre de Grace, MD offers trailered group bridge crossing services of the “No Bikes Allowed” Hatem Bridge, Havre de Grace/Perryville.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Sometimes it goes better for the cyclist. I commuted to work within San Francisco. While hugging the curb lane riding down Market street, a well-dressed PEDESTRIAN on the curb took a swing at me with his briefcase. I avoided the blow (and the cars in my lane) and almost tumbled, but stopped still upright. Within seconds, a police officer grabbed the offender by the arm, put him unceremoniously on his knees, and cuffed him. I yanked my helmet off and yelled “Do you need a witness” and the cop waved me on. “Keep riding” he said “I saw enough for both of us.”
April 16th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Sharing the road is a two-way statement. It seems to me that too many people have forgotten that the road is for everyone. Here in Vermont riding two abreast is legal but with the road being in such bad shape and being narrow it is a bad idea and I rarely see anyone dumb even to do it.The state law is to ride as far to the right as practical and is almost never followed. It just make good sense to stay to the right but, cyclists will hug the white line even if there is a 4-8 foot shoulder. There needs to be more laws for cyclists that make sense and get enforced. The motorists do need to respect the cyclist rights but the cyclists also need to respect the rights of the motorist. This driver was wrong and a report should have been filed but, I don’t see anyone ever complaining about the cyclists that don’t wan’t to share the road. When I ride my bike I dress to be seen and I don’t have a light so I don’t ride after dark. I ride as far to the right as practical and I do not hug the white line but share the road with all vehicles.
I have almost hit cyclists at night waring dark clothes and no light, or even reflectors, and the sad thing about this is it would have been my fault. Common sense is lacking but so many people are like that now. Yesterday is a great example it was a great day and cyclists were out. I even though of dragging my bike out. Then I saw a cyclist and it reminded of the one thing I hate during the summer cyclists that don’t care and don’t share the road.
There is no police enforcement so that continues to cause more tension with cyclist and motorists. If both sides would show respect for each other than the tension between would decrease and both parties could have an enjoyable time.
I’m sure I will get flamed for this comment but, there is always two sides to every story and I never see any one make a complaint from the other perspective.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Grant,
In reply to your comments, I agree wholeheartedly that the concept of sharing the road is not meant or should not be meant simply to advocate the cyclist’s position. I think that’s what sharing is about. All of us who use the roads have an equal responsibility to respect each other’s rights.
I am also in agreement that not all cyclists know how to ride competently on the roads.
I’ve no reason to flame you–I’m with you on this one!