Constantly scaring would be doorers. A guilty accidental pleasure.
Having learned the hard way about getting doored before the bliss of buffered bike lanes. Riding the streets since then has me riding slow enough on tight busy streets, looking into cars to see if there are people.So far with that habit, I always manage to stop on time as the occupants push the door open and they see me right there. I don't intend to scare them but it always turns out that way, with them screaming in fright at times.
Views: 2127
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on
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Manny - I'm glad you got police assistance when you did, and that they handled things professionally. I agree with Lisa on the noise question. With a group like the one you encountered, I'm not sure it would have helped. It was nice of you to stop and help pick up the dropped items from the purse. If it was me on the receiving end of someone swinging a purse in a situation like that, I would have kept going, expecting that trouble would follow if I stopped.
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Permalink Reply by GREGORY E DAVIES on
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I prefer to let out a friendly, but booming, "helloooooo!" riiiiight as I'm passing their eardrum. They pee their pants a little bit, without having a slew of profanity thrown at them (which is easily defended from what I've learned).
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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on
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nice. that's a good one.
GREGORY E DAVIES said:I prefer to let out a friendly, but booming, "helloooooo!" riiiiight as I'm passing their eardrum. They pee their pants a little bit, without having a slew of profanity thrown at them (which is easily defended from what I've learned).
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Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on
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I am not sure that this is "avoiding doors". I certainly move far to the left when in my car when either going by bicyclists or when I expect to be in a position where they will be passing me on the right.
Anne Alt 2-10 said:Priceless!
Another perspective on the "save your own self approach" - I've seen an increase in the number of drivers who drive towards the LEFT side of a narrow (lane and a half) two-way street, apparently to stay clear of opening doors. WTF!?! We're not in the UK, folks! We drive on the RIGHT side here.
Juan Primo said:A long time ago I was walking down Wacker and I heard a terrible crash. Some taxidriver had thrown his door open and his door was ripped off by another passing taxi. The whole street stood silent until we figured out that thank goodness no one was hurt. Lucky.
Maybe if they promoted "look before you open your door" as a way to save your own self from harm rather than save some poor cyclist, the message would be more effective.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Evans on
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I have an AirZound for that. Blast from an airhorn works wonders.
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Fantastic goggles, Juan. Aside from their protective value, they've got to be great for giving a "would-be doorer" THE LOOK. Something else you might like along these lines (and very handy when the wind chill gets way down) is a neoprene face mask -- they're about 6-8 bucks, really protect your face from wind/frostbite, and can be scary as hell.
Juan said:Riding with my ski goggles on when this happens feels like Halloween all over again.
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I see this a lot of on streets that don't have much bike traffic, where there are LOTS of parallel parked cars, hence the assumption.
More often than not, they're driving on the wrong side when they're approaching me from the opposite direction (not overtaking me), and I have to get their attention and get them to move over to the right side so they're not hitting me head on.
David crZven said:I am not sure that this is "avoiding doors". I certainly move far to the left when in my car when either going by bicyclists or when I expect to be in a position where they will be passing me on the right.
Anne Alt 2-10 said:Priceless!
Another perspective on the "save your own self approach" - I've seen an increase in the number of drivers who drive towards the LEFT side of a narrow (lane and a half) two-way street, apparently to stay clear of opening doors. WTF!?! We're not in the UK, folks! We drive on the RIGHT side here.
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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on
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Thanks, that is my daytime goggle.
I did use a neoprene face mask for a bit until it started to go below 0 and then my tears from the biting wind would freeze my eyes shut. At one point as I was turning the corner and blinked from the icy breeze. I panicked by not being able to see the road clearly. So I purchased two pairs of goggles to keep that from ever happening again.
I am looking into getting the face mask that looks like a skull (BOTTOM HALF)
for an even better special effect.
Rich Evans said:Fantastic goggles, Juan. Aside from their protective value, they've got to be great for giving a "would-be doorer" THE LOOK. Something else you might like along these lines (and very handy when the wind chill gets way down) is a neoprene face mask -- they're about 6-8 bucks, really protect your face from wind/frostbite, and can be scary as hell.
Juan said:
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Permalink Reply by yai danche on
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People who jaywalk and then have the nerve to get mad at you for going through a green light is so absurd. I definitely would not have turned back to help her pick up her stuff. It was her own damn fault that happened. Anytime it's a group of people involved, you're liable to get jumped which they were doing. When I pass a group of teenagers and they heckle me, I ride further left of the sidewalk and ignore them. I'm not going down like that! I hope the court finds in your favor.
Manny Fuentes, 9.2 mi. said:Sorry. This is not a dooring issue.
Had a situation tonight going south-bound on Halsted (enroute to Archer). It seemed like it was from a bad "Z" movie (waaaaaay below a B-movie)......a group of people were crossing against the light (the one by the Hull House on Halsted) because they didn't see any traffic. It was that steady "drizzle" that felt so nice, so I wasn't going to fast. I still have some apprehension about being able to stop immediately, so I ride kind of s-l-o-w (6-10 mph on my bike computer).
I started yelling "Hey ! Look out !" before I got near the intersection, trying to get them to at least look in my direction so I could get them to either slow down or speed up so I could either go around behind or in front of them. Most of them noticed me and stopped. I decided to go into the lane of traffic (Thank God no cars were coming)
A few (3 females, 2 males, early to mid 20's) did not stop and told me to go eff myself, while they were laughing. They didn't even turn (North) to look at me (I guess they were trying to avoid the drizzle getting into their eyes...?)
As I went to pass inbetween both groups (had a space big enough to drive a city truck through), one of the females decide to swing her purse at me. It landed in the space between my arms, and I ended up yanking it out of her arms and spreading all the contents all over the street.
I stopped a few feet later (about 5-10 ft, and over to the curb), where her and her "friends" started cussing me out and the guys were saying that they weere going to kick my ass. I apologized to the girl, who "didn't f%#&ing give a $hit!" (and, Yes, I am quoting her, and I believe a few of her friends) and helped pick up some of her items.
When one of the guys (Caucasian male, 5'7"-5'10", 130-150 lbs, Blue straight legged jeans that sagged at the waist, a Houston Astros black and white ball cap, white with blue/black stripes high top gym shoes with the top strap undone,and a dark blue windbreaker style jacket) pushed me from my left side while I was down on one knee (helping pick up items).
He took a fighting stance (wannabe "gangbanger" style - hands down, leaning back and goading me on) right next to me and through a kick at me, while yelling, "Come on, MFer !"
I accidentally caught his foot with some extra material of my jacket sleeve as I stood up. His base foot (left) slid on the wet pavement, and he went down backwards. Hard. Sorry, I was just reacting to his kick and trying to get some space between he and I. I wish that I had done it on purpose, because then I would have used my hand to catch his foot and I would have controlled it enough to just keep him on his base leg. That way I could use him as a shield from his buddies. No, such luck.
As I asked him if he was all right, 3 of his friends rushed me and for some strange reason tried to tackle me to the ground. They started punching me in the back, chest and neck. One guy started punching me on the back of my legs (why?!? trying to break me down?). The girls (total of 7) started trying to hit me as well, using their hands and purses/bags. I got a couple of slaps to my face.
I had no choice put to defend myself. I grabbed two of the males by their...well...private parts.
That's when I noticed the flashing lights. UIC Police and a CPD SUV were pulling up. I let go when one of the Officers asked me to, and had broken up the "altercation". They asked me if I needed any medical attention. I told them no.
After all was done, there are 5 assault charges (arrests), and I will be notified if I need to go to court (which I will).
UIC PD & CPD were very professional. And didn't take sides. Just took down statements, including some from a few witnesses. They told me to be careful and let me go. I took a few more minutes to just let myself relax before getting back on my Beast and slowly riding home.
Maybe I should have used a whistle? Do you think that would have made the front group stop? I am just wondering if I should start using one of the whistles from my hiking packs? (Storm Whistle) I saw the link from Stuart's reply, and that got me thinking about using a whistle....
Any suggestions?
Respectfully,
Manny
P.S. Sorry about the long reply. I write a lot of reports at my work.
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Man, I wish people were scared when they realized they could've doored me. Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but most people look at me like I'm a bitch for even passing within an inch of their open door.
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Manny,I gave up lookng for justice or courtesy from pedestrians and cagers a long time ago. I honestly think you need to assume that they will, given the opportunity, do the meanest, stupidest thing possible. Sadly, they seldom disappoint me.
My advice would be to give any crowd of pedestrians--especially young ones--as wide a berth as possible: avoid, avoid, avoid. If they try to force contact, like these mopes, pedal like heck away from them.
That said, it was still good (albeit risky) of you to try and do the right thing. I'm glad to hear that you emerged from this with your azz intact, compadre.
yai danche said:People who jaywalk and then have the nerve to get mad at you for going through a green light is so absurd. I definitely would not have turned back to help her pick up her stuff. It was her own damn fault that happened. Anytime it's a group of people involved, you're liable to get jumped which they were doing. When I pass a group of teenagers and they heckle me, I ride further left of the sidewalk and ignore them. I'm not going down like that! I hope the court finds in your favor.
Manny Fuentes, 9.2 mi. said:Sorry. This is not a dooring issue.
Had a situation tonight going south-bound on Halsted (enroute to Archer). It seemed like it was from a bad "Z" movie (waaaaaay below a B-movie)......a group of people were crossing against the light (the one by the Hull House on Halsted) because they didn't see any traffic. It was that steady "drizzle" that felt so nice, so I wasn't going to fast. I still have some apprehension about being able to stop immediately, so I ride kind of s-l-o-w (6-10 mph on my bike computer).
I started yelling "Hey ! Look out !" before I got near the intersection, trying to get them to at least look in my direction so I could get them to either slow down or speed up so I could either go around behind or in front of them. Most of them noticed me and stopped. I decided to go into the lane of traffic (Thank God no cars were coming)
A few (3 females, 2 males, early to mid 20's) did not stop and told me to go eff myself, while they were laughing. They didn't even turn (North) to look at me (I guess they were trying to avoid the drizzle getting into their eyes...?)
As I went to pass inbetween both groups (had a space big enough to drive a city truck through), one of the females decide to swing her purse at me. It landed in the space between my arms, and I ended up yanking it out of her arms and spreading all the contents all over the street.
I stopped a few feet later (about 5-10 ft, and over to the curb), where her and her "friends" started cussing me out and the guys were saying that they weere going to kick my ass. I apologized to the girl, who "didn't f%#&ing give a $hit!" (and, Yes, I am quoting her, and I believe a few of her friends) and helped pick up some of her items.
When one of the guys (Caucasian male, 5'7"-5'10", 130-150 lbs, Blue straight legged jeans that sagged at the waist, a Houston Astros black and white ball cap, white with blue/black stripes high top gym shoes with the top strap undone,and a dark blue windbreaker style jacket) pushed me from my left side while I was down on one knee (helping pick up items).
He took a fighting stance (wannabe "gangbanger" style - hands down, leaning back and goading me on) right next to me and through a kick at me, while yelling, "Come on, MFer !"
I accidentally caught his foot with some extra material of my jacket sleeve as I stood up. His base foot (left) slid on the wet pavement, and he went down backwards. Hard. Sorry, I was just reacting to his kick and trying to get some space between he and I. I wish that I had done it on purpose, because then I would have used my hand to catch his foot and I would have controlled it enough to just keep him on his base leg. That way I could use him as a shield from his buddies. No, such luck.
As I asked him if he was all right, 3 of his friends rushed me and for some strange reason tried to tackle me to the ground. They started punching me in the back, chest and neck. One guy started punching me on the back of my legs (why?!? trying to break me down?). The girls (total of 7) started trying to hit me as well, using their hands and purses/bags. I got a couple of slaps to my face.
I had no choice put to defend myself. I grabbed two of the males by their...well...private parts.
That's when I noticed the flashing lights. UIC Police and a CPD SUV were pulling up. I let go when one of the Officers asked me to, and had broken up the "altercation". They asked me if I needed any medical attention. I told them no.
After all was done, there are 5 assault charges (arrests), and I will be notified if I need to go to court (which I will).
UIC PD & CPD were very professional. And didn't take sides. Just took down statements, including some from a few witnesses. They told me to be careful and let me go. I took a few more minutes to just let myself relax before getting back on my Beast and slowly riding home.
Maybe I should have used a whistle? Do you think that would have made the front group stop? I am just wondering if I should start using one of the whistles from my hiking packs? (Storm Whistle) I saw the link from Stuart's reply, and that got me thinking about using a whistle....
Any suggestions?
Respectfully,
Manny
P.S. Sorry about the long reply. I write a lot of reports at my work.
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