Another day, another violent confrontation between a cyclist and a motorist.
On August 20th, at about 7:45 p.m., a cyclist was stopped at the intersection of Harvard Avenue and East Pike Street when a white Cadillac pulled up beside him.
According to a police report, the cyclist told officers that he saw a woman in the passenger seat trying to get out of the car. The cyclist, concerned that the woman would hit him with the car door, “gently pushed” the door shut to “let [the woman] know he was there.” The report notes that the cyclist may have closed the door on the woman’s leg.
As the cyclist pedaled through the intersection, the Cadillac again pulled up next to him. The driver then got out, walked up to the cyclist, and punched him in the face, sending his helmet flying, cutting his lip and damaging his teeth.
The driver sped off, but police were able to identify him through booking photo records. The report does not indicate whether police have made an arrest.
In another incident earlier this week, a cyclist was taken to Harborview with serious injuries after a collision near Chop Suey on 14th and East Madison Street. Police say a male cyclist in his twenties collided with a car around 11pm on Wednesday night, but have not yet determined the cause of the accident.
Sounds like the driver/puncher was black, the cyclist was white.
51
why do you say that?
If the puncher was black, then we have something interesting. Here we have the Stranger aligning itself with a white, yuppy-to-be, on his eco-friendly status symbol who assaulted a woman when they could be standing up for women, or blacks, or black women.
I had no idea that cyclist rights had actually trumped civil rights and women’s rights. It’s great to see that we’re in a post racial society where whites can kick around black women because they’ve become the oppressors now that they have cars.
A few new possible headlines for this story:
“Cyclists are the new blacks, blacks with cars the new KKK”
“Anti-cyclist sentiment gaining ground among black women”
“White male cyclist oppressed by black female, black motorist”
“All white crowd sympathizes with white cyclist after black woman dares to open car door”
“Terrible gorilla-creature instinctively defends mate when angel on bike stands up for cyclist rights”
“Martin Luther King, Suffragettes, out of the way! Lance Armstrong the new civil rights demigod”
@ 53 Wow, those headlines would be far more appropriate, I agree.
Actually, I don’t, but they still made me laugh.
53
Slog Hates Blacks.
(ps- you’re good…)
@55: I dislike people who commit assault. Since the article makes no mention of the races of the involved parties, I feel comfortable with my reflexive dislike for the asshole who punched another guy in the face hard enough to send him to the hospital.
56
Do you dislike the guy who shoved a car door shut onto the leg of the lady?
@57: yep.
@50: Well, okay, sure. The report says the car pulled up next to the cyclist, and when the door began to open, he was worried that it was going to hit him. So he pushed back.
That strikes me as a perfectly reasonable reflexive response. As I said, it also strikes me as a perfectly reasonable considered response.
What you’re doing is essentially saying “the report didn’t specifically deny that the bicyclist was 50 yards away from the car door, so clearly he was.” Basically, I think you are imaginging far-fetched scenarios in which the cyclist was the aggressor. Imagining far-fetched scenarios in the name of skeptical inquiry pisses me off, by the way.
The other option is that you are implying that the bicyclist should not have pushed back until he was actually hit by the car door. This is less absurd, but I really don’t believe that society has anything, overall, to gain from expecting people to react so passively toward those who are unable to watch where they are going.
The bottom line, for me, is that opening a passenger side car door without looking at what’s outside of it is dangerous, selfish, and stupid, and people who do this deserve what they get. The cyclist in this case did not deserve what he got.
Hmmm “urban hipster douchebag” cyclists don’t wear helmets
59
you’re right, the cyclist did not deserve what he got- which was one punch in the face… he deserved a Rodney King urban ghetto BEATDOWN.
Basically he pissed off black people.
People that bike should have to obey the rules of the road… Automobile
money has gone to far in Building these dam bike lanes…People that bike
should get a bike license and go thru an pay annual bike permitt fee’s..
(give that idea to Mayor Greg Nickels) Its a good idea as he leaves
office
my newphew got killed in Chicago on a bike. His fault. More license
@9 – Because that would be misspelling Capitol Hill
Couldn’t he have just yelled Hey? I mean, the driver of the car overreacted big time, but what’s wrong with yelling AAAAAAA or something to let them know you’re there?
“The cyclist’s bad behavior here is a direct result of all the ‘downtrodden, oppressed cyclist’ bullshit that this blog spouts. The cyclist saw his mental prototype “car” … the wiring in his fucked up brain immediately re-routed to “evil”, and in a petty, petty passive aggressive way his bad wiring led to him closing a door on a woman…. .”‘
NOOOO!! His main mistake was doing this to a black person. Look at CM, 99% white kids, plus two gay, black messenger riders!
Clearly this cyclist forgot the golden rule. Real oppressed people don’t give a shit about your tricycle wars. SEriously, file this one under ‘Stuff White People Like”
There have been a lot of legit (and funny points) made on both sides here. However, we don’t really have enough information to make judgments about this particular situation; only judgments based on how we imagine it happened.
1) How quickly was the passenger opening the door?
2) Where exactly were the cyclist and the car door positioned relative to one another when the passenger began to open the door?
3) Could the cyclist simply have moved to avoid the door? If so, how easily?
4) Did the passenger not realize there was a cyclist next to the door, or did she rudely and intentionally open the door into him?
One possible scenario: Passenger did not realize cyclist was there, passenger opened door slowly, cyclist was at least 18 inches away from the car and had room to his right to slide out of the way (probably not possible to roll forward or backward quickly enough). In this case, the cyclist was being a jerk by pushing the door closed. Whether he deserved to get punched is a separate issue.
Another possible scenario: Passenger does realize the cyclist is there but (thinking: fuck this fleece-wearing white motherfucker) opens the door assuming the cyclist will move, passenger opens the door quickly, cyclist is within 18 inches of the car, cyclist cannot slide to his right in time because of a high curb, mailbox, traffic sign, etc. is trapping him. In this case, the cyclist was in the right. Again, whether he still deserved to get punched is a separate issue.
I’m guessing that what happened was some kind of combo of the above two scenarios.
Without weighing in on the justice or lack thereof of the beating, I will say that cyclists who are concerned for their own safety should take into account whether or not they can fight before making contact with vehicles, regardless of whether they are in the legal or moral right.
What? I didn’t say anything about the distance, except that in my point 1, I presumed cyclist was indeed within 3 feet of the door. Again, learn to read.
What far-fetched scenarios am I imagining, exactly? Here’s what I think: you need to learn how to read.
How am I implying that? Again, learn to read.