Road Rage -- Something for the Young -- Part #1

I only want to tell the beginning of this story, an incident of road rage between me (a passenger in the car Maryann was driving) and a younger man (33 years old, according to the sheriffs who investigated) on a bicycle. I never got a particularly good look at him or the young woman / girl / lady (I mean no disrespect in applying what may be a politically incorrect label) who was riding with him on another bike. She appeared from a distance to be approximately the same age as he was.

When you look at the photo, you should know that we all were stopped at the light in the larger red square to the right, on Five Canyons Parkway as it meets East Castro Valley Blvd. The three sets of arrows and three lanes are on Five Canyons Parkway, which is going uphill in that direction. From right to left, the direction the cars are going in the photo, is East Castro Valley Blvd (Westbound) and goes downhill.

[Click on the image for a bigger version]

We were (again stopped, waiting for the light) in the middle of the 3 lanes. Practically nobody in that lane drives straight through that intersection (there are only a few homes across the street over there). Everybody turns left, down the hill, driving next to the cars in the left-turn only lane next to it.

The 2 bicyclists were not wearing safety headgear and were in the right lane, planning to ride across the intersection to the bike lane that begins in the smaller blue square to the left.

Here's the beginning of the incident. When the light turned green, instead of riding across the intersection, staying to the right of the two lanes of cars turning left, the bicyclists cut ACROSS the intersection diagonally, making a lane change without first making a hand signal of their intent to do so. They rode right in front of us and continued to be in our lane, such that Maryann had to hit the brakes and wait for traffic in the left turn lane to clear so we could change lanes to our left to avoid hitting them. Now ... I understand a bike can't accelerate rapidly uphill, but pulling directly in front of moving auto traffic is REALLY dumb. Foolhardy. Reckless.

I can't remember if I rolled down the window or mouthed the words through the closed window, but as we went by him I called the male rider a "Dumb F---" or "F---ing Idiot" -- I don't remember. Probably the wrong thing to do, but I was outraged that he would risk his own life and the life of the woman with him by riding so recklessly. I could see in his face that he understood what I was saying. I could tell he was angry, but that he had no idea he had been doing something dangerously wrong.

We drove in the right lane down the hill from where we entered the street (the top red rectangle) to the stoplight next to our local market (the bottom blue rectangle). The light was red, so we stopped in the right-most lane, where we had been ever since turning onto the street.



At that point, the bikes were rolling downhill and caught up with us. I felt and heard a loud THUMP as the guy either hit or kicked our car! While I envy him the level of testosterone to react to words by physically attacking my car, I can't say I admire his lack of self-control -- hence the "Road Rage" subject of this post.

I rolled down the window, shouted and gestured at him to stop. He ignored me.