Big Bikes

Knuckleheads

Just received the email below from Mark Dionne, one of the organizers of the great Wednesday night Dover Time Trial series . This is a road that I frequent as do many of my teammates. Motorists harassing and threatening recreational cyclists without provocation is unacceptable.
Yes I have regular incidents involving crackhead drivers, but I am out commuting through congested areas at rush hour every day, one might say I'm asking for it. People out spinning around Dover are not asking for it, they should be able to have a peaceful, incident free ride. It will be a fine day when the law recognizes any threatening behavior by a driver as assault with a deadly weapon on par with brandishing a gun. I'd use a baseball bat analogy but a bat comes up far short of a two ton hunk of steel traveling at forty miles per hour when it comes to lethality.

This also relates to Andy's recent post about a misguided (cough-Understatement-cough!) motorist.

Without further digression, here's Mark's email:

Last June I had an incident with a problem driver on Pine Street in Dover, which is on the Saturday Fitness loop. At the time, I reported it to the Dover Police and told a few people. I just learned of an almost identical incident that happened yesterday with the same car, and I think it's worth warning people about this guy.

Here's my incident:

I was traveling down Pine Street in Dover, heading toward Centre Street on my bicycle. I was going down the hill in the vicinity of Forest St., about 1/4 mile from Centre St. Since I was going down a hill, I was traveling about 25 MPH.

A late model red Jeep (Mass plate "T----P") suddenly pulled in front of me from a driveway on the left, forcing me to brake hard to avoid hitting the vehicle. I hollered out "Hey" loudly to warn the driver, a middle aged man. I saw the driver look in the rear-view mirror, and then he hit his brakes hard, apparently to cause me to collide with the back of his Jeep. I avoided a collision by steering to the left of the Jeep.

From beside the Jeep, I said to the driver "Are you trying to kill me?". The driver responded, "Yes, I'm tired of you homos. You'd better keep off this street." The driver then proceeded very slowly, as if to provoke me to pass him, but I felt threatened by his behavior and I stayed away from him. As far as I know, I never saw this person before that day. I have seen the Jeep in the same driveway many times since then. There is no number on the mailbox.

Yesterday this same person tried to hit a rider with his car in the same vicinity, and the rider is reporting him to the Registry. I am also contacting the Registry. Has anyone else encountered this guy?