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This is why cyclists can’t have nice things

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It’s hard to pass judgement on a situation when we don’t know what preceded this interaction, but one thing is obvious from the short video – the bus is mightier than the bike.

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24 Comments
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chris
chris
9 years ago

What? Totally easy to pass judgement. Everyone is wrong! 🙂

Dan
Dan
9 years ago

Doesn’t matter what preceded it. The rider’s behavior is problematic in that:

a. it merely escalates the situation, whatever it was, and
b. his behavior can only be taken in the context of the video, which makes him look like the bad guy (and has a halo effect on cyclists everywhere)

I understand being pissed off with drivers — I deal with that every time my wheels hit pavement. But doing dumbass confrontational shit like this makes him the bad guy and puts everyone who watches the video firmly on the side of the bus driver.

I don’t side with the driver, but I also think that the rider got exactly what he deserved.

AlanM
AlanM
9 years ago

^ What Dan said.

Graeme Weatherill
Graeme Weatherill
9 years ago

On the plus side – he was wearing a helmet and didn’t even run a red light.

elSid
elSid
9 years ago

Nobody has the right to “bump” someone else. It doesn’t matter what the cyclist may or may not have been doing earlier – in fact it’s irrelevant.

Spare me the physics lessons, which are beside the point.

James S
James S
9 years ago

That’s like saying that you shouldn’t piss off a guy with a gun because he might shoot you. While true, it still doesn’t make it right to shoot people (unless they REALLY deserve it). The bike rider is being stupid, but the bus driver should be professional enough not to bump into him.

JimInSF
JimInSF
9 years ago

The people here saying the cyclist deserved this are jaw droppingly stupid – you see a cyclist impeding the bus for only a few seconds, without knowing why (perhaps the bus cut him off or was honking in his ear right before this), and he *deseved* to be hit? The bus driver is wielding a lethal weapon and if he doesn’t have the patience and self control to let it go if he’s impeded for a moment rather than hitting someone on purpose, he needs to lose his job and his driver’s license.

Kevin
Kevin
9 years ago

I saw a guy do this to a cyclist in Keswick in the UK. The car driver was almost blind, and his son had the job of pointing out things to avoid ! Only the car was damaged. The front bumper on the car cracked and had to be ripped off. The racing bike back wheel didn’t even have a buckle.

anonymous
anonymous
9 years ago

Why does the UK allow blind people to drive?

J N H
J N H
9 years ago

@Anon, the UK does not, but we also don’t have regular retesting. If someone’s vision deteriorates and they keep it hidden from the authorities, they’ll probably get away with it until they something.

Pacific
Pacific
9 years ago

@ JimInSF

Jonny
Jonny
9 years ago

Since we don’t know the backstory, it’s impossible to tell who’s the being the biggest jerk here. However, as someone who cycles big miles in a non-cyclist friendly area, it’s really easy to get thin skinned about dickhole drivers and react spitefully toward them from the get go.

Jerry
Jerry
9 years ago

The cyclist should not be hit for any reason here. However, he was acting like an ass and escalating whatever situation preceded this video. Passive aggressive bullshit like this gets people killed, sometimes not even on purpose. The last thing you want to do in traffic is prove a point with your driving – whether you’re driving a bus, a car, riding a scooter, or riding a bike. It’s just plain stupid.

Rafal
Rafal
1 year ago
Reply to  Jerry

But the cyclist did everything he could to get hit, he was not driving slow, he drove slow, speed up, and then hit the brakes hard. Then he looked like he was speeding up, he did not.

muf
muf
9 years ago

so imagine now a slow car in traffic and the bus bumps into it destroying the rear end of the car
everyone would hate and blame the bus driver

but on a bike its ok because the guy is super slow in traffic? excuse me what?

sure both the slow car and the slow bike are annoying but thats no reason to crash their car/bike. whats next, run over people because theyre slow? yeah sounds like great ethic

k
k
9 years ago

this bus driver should be in jail.

X
X
9 years ago

Bus driver, off to jail. No question based on that evidence. The bike rider might be a complete tool, but the bus driver’s responsibility is don’t hit people. Is it OK to rear end a female cyclist like that? What about a teenager? What about a kid under 10? The act has no justification based on the context. The bus driver needed a camera to prove to his employer that he wasn’t just wasting time, but met a disagreable road user. A broken down car or truck causes the same inconvenience.

Expect more from motorists. You stuff up on a bike, you suffer. Stuff up by a driver, you suffer. You can’t control the driver.

MikeC
MikeC
9 years ago

We get all hot and bothered when someone like that Doctor out in CA brake-checks a couple roadies at speed.

But here, a cyclist brake checks a bus, and that’s OK, the bus driver is the bad guy?

———————-

I’m assuming the bus driver did something to p!ss off the cyclist in order to get that guy purposely antagonizing the bus driver. Does not excuse the driver hitting the bike. But notice the traffic streaming around the bus on both sides. Cyclist is causing an unsafe traffic situation because his nose got bent out of shape about something. And now he has to walk, too. How to be in the right and still lose.

AlanM
AlanM
9 years ago

@JiminSF, I don’t think anyone here said that the rider deserved to be hit. Just the fact that videos like this make cyclist look bad, whatever the backstory was. From a clip like this, people will believe that the cyclist was the cause and escalated the situation.

Steve
Steve
9 years ago

when you act stupid to other, Don’t expect others to treat you in normal or smart way.

Dale
Dale
9 years ago

Cyclist may be a dick, or he may be waiting for traffic in front of him that you can’t see in the vid.

Either way, if a bus in DC hit me like that, you can rest assured my bike would be going through the bus windshield (if it was a crappy bike like that one seemed to be).

Ronin
Ronin
9 years ago

Nobody I’ve ever known would impede a bus for fun. Period. Would you?

So, as others have said we don’t know why the cyclist is acting like this. The bottom line is, as a bus driver you get paid to drive and there may be traffic, there also maybe other road users acting like idiots. What do you do? Hit them with your bus? Would you do that if you were a driver?

A bus is huge compared to a bike, so it’s all too easy to kill someone by accident – so to me, the driver is totally wrong.

Turns
Turns
9 years ago

The bus driver is a jerk acting out, if I had heard the bus horn, i would have gotten out of its way, I do not want to get hit. Living on an island that is the surf mecca of the world is full of aggressive drivers but my job is to set an example. Yes, I swear at fools now and then but I move out of their way first, I want all to see I know I must share the road with them, I am trying to set an example for all of us and I have seen the hostility but its rare. I won’t engage in hostile ways with the traffic other than at times screaming “fuc* you” but I get out of the way first. It could cost me my cycle or my life if I focus on fools, I learned this a long time ago. There was room in front to move up for the cyclist, I feel that would have signaled to the driver “cooperation” it looks like this could have been avoided by easily just cycling a little faster.

Richard
Richard
9 years ago

OK, so the bus driver may have done something stupid to piss off the cyclist. Most likely it was accidental (but it could have been the driver being a d*bag). What the cyclist was doing was not accidental. He was purposely holding up the bus and, it appears, TRYING to get hit (if this was in the U.S. I would say he’s fishing for a lawsuit). There’s no excuse for that, and I don’t have any sympathy for him and his ruined wheel. Even is the bus driver is a jerk, what about all the passengers that are just trying to get to work or home? What did they do to have to endure the cyclist’s d*baggery? I’m not saying the bus driver is right, just saying the cyclist is being a jerk.

There are valid reasons for taking a lane and making traffic wait for you. Revenge is not one of them.

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