We have all seen a ton of dash cam videos from Russia but nothing like this. ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS and one of the craziest things ever caught on camera on a Russian road. Moral of the story: When in Russia, never get out of your car to fight anyone on the road. But if you feel so compelled better not mess with a dude who wears a Sponge Bob costume.
In a bizzare case of a DA-gone-wild, a poor cyclist is being penalized for trying to warn a behemoth SUV driver. Read the story below reported by our friends at Streetsblog:
The Manhattan DA’s office is filing charges of criminal mischief against a cyclist, Ray Bengen, because he allegedly caused property damage to a multi-ton SUV in the process of getting doored by the driver. Too ridiculous to be true? Sadly, no. Here’s how it happened.
Image Courtesy - Streetsblog: Ray Bengen, pictured here lying on the sidewalk beneath the driver who knocked him off his bike, will face charges of criminal mischief in Manhattan criminal court next month
Bengen, 63, was riding down the Ninth Avenue bike lane on May 21 when he came across the Ford Excursion you see in this photo (curb weight: 7,190 lbs). A long-time city cyclist, Bengen had a green light and wasn’t quite sure what to make of the vehicle in front of him. The car wasn’t moving and its brake lights were off.
The bike lane on this stretch of Ninth Avenue is part of the city’s first on-street protected bike path. At the 20th Street intersection, where Bengen came across the car, there’s a left-turn bay for vehicles and an exclusive green phase for cyclists. The Excursion, as you can see, was in the bike lane, not the left-turn bay.
Bengen rode slowly by on the left. Then he sensed the car start to move as he was passing. Alarmed, he slapped the side of the car with his palm in an effort to alert the driver as to his presence. A witness, who Bengen says has agreed to testify in court, snapped three pictures of what happened next. We’ll let Bengen describe it:
The driver then went berserk. Talk about road rage. He threw open his door forcing me and my bike to the ground giving me some awful bruising down my leg. As I was now on the ground yelling at him that he’s in a bike lane and was just about to run me over, he started to scream at me “Don’t even think about it, don’t even think about it.” I’m still not sure what he meant by that. With me lying on the ground quite shaken, he suddenly stopped his assault and did something very unexpected. He moved away from me, picked up my bike where it was nearly underneath his truck. He then stood it up on its kickstand, and got back in the truck and drove away left into 20th street.
Last week, Bengen received a phone call from Detective Christopher Cipolli at the 10th Precinct. Officers from the precinct had arrived at the scene promptly following the altercation, Bengen says, and Cipolli had been very helpful during the investigation that followed. So it was with an apologetic tone that the detective informed Bengen that he had to come down to the precinct on Friday. The reason? Because the Manhattan DA had filed charges of criminal mischief against him. (The DA’s office is also pursuing assault charges against the SUV driver.)
“I had to go through the very humiliating process of being handcuffed and put into an interview room — locked and barred — for an hour or so,” Bengen recalled. After a fingerprint check, Bengen was released. He has a date in Manhattan criminal court set for July 14. The driver will appear on the 13th.
Click here to read the rest of this interesting article and for more pictures of the incident.
TransportGooru Musings:
(1). The DA’s actions are squarely against New York City’s efforts to promote bicycling.
(2). If the prosecutor had any common sense & logic, he would seen that anyone who is about to get hit by a behemoth SUV would take preventive actions to warn the driver. What Ray Bengen did by banging on the door trying to get the SUV driver’s attention is akin to blowing the horn to get a drivers attention.
(3). After reading the victim’s account of the incident, it will be obvious even to the dumbest idiot on the planet that the cyclist had all the rights to stay in his designated lane.
Let’s hope Ray Bengen comes out victorious in his fight against this murkey world of law and order. Stay tuned for Streetsblog updates on this case as it evolves.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
Efficient Drivers Cut Emissions, but Stir Up Hot Air
Cruising around this desert metropolis in her four-door pickup truck, Morgan Dresser doesn’t look like an environmental trendsetter.
Recently, though, the 26-year-old did something revolutionary. She began “eco-driving” — a technique that combines a racecar driver’s skill with the proverbial grandmother’s pace. By learning to drive all over again, Ms. Dresser estimates she has boosted her truck’s fuel economy to 21 miles per gallon from 15, a jump of 40% that surpasses the mileage advertised by its manufacturer, Toyota Motor Corp. With that shift in behavior, she has done more to curb oil consumption than most people zooming around in the latest hybrid cars.
“Who would have thought a truck could get good gas mileage?” she says. “It’s possible with any vehicle, big or small.”
A new technique to curb fuel consumption is on the rise: “eco-driving.” Eco-driving teaches drivers not to slam the gas pedal and brakes, but rather, learn how to maintain a more constant speed. Jeffrey Ball reports.
Even without futuristic technologies, drivers can achieve eye-popping fuel economy in their current cars with nothing fancier than their brains and some lighter feet. The idea is to maintain momentum much as on a leisurely bicycle ride: accelerating only gradually, coasting whenever possible and constantly adjusting speed to minimize the need to stop.
The challenge will be to get Americans, who love the open throttle as much as the open road, to ease up instead of variously slamming on the gas and the brakes. In the meantime, as early eco-drivers lower their own emissions, they are certain to raise some hot air from the impatient drivers around them.
“I’ve been honked at. I’ve been flipped off. I’ve been yelled at: ‘Grandma!'” says Ms. Dresser, a former back-country firefighter. “I just laugh.”Trials in Europe, Japan and the U.S. are finding that drivers commonly improve their fuel economy upwards of 20% after deploying a handful of eco-driving techniques. Among them: Driving more slowly on highways, shifting gears earlier in cities and shutting off the engine rather than idling at long stops.
Click here to read the entire article.
WHOOSH! The mid-eighties pickup passed to my right with barely two inches between us. Evidently my 70 mph clip in the number two lane of the freeway barely passed muster for this dude, because as he maneuvered his truck directly in front of me he thrust his hand out the window and gave me the “one-finger salute.”
Every single one of us motorists has ended up on the butt end of such activity at one time or another. But why all the anger? What causes ordinary citizens to morph into fist waving maniacs?
Raymond Novaco, Ph.D., former Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California at Irvine, provided some answers in a study entitled Automobile Driving and Aggressive Behavior.
To start, Novaco pointed out that cars are marketed to appeal to our combative instincts. The ultimate driving machine, own the road, and “an aggressive multi-valve engine” are perfect examples of catch-phrases used in automobile advertisements that support this theory.
Additionally, model names like Viper, Cougar, Prowler, Jaguar, Stingray, and Challenger fit themes of power and competition.
Novaco also reasoned that following through on assertive behavior becomes much easier behind the wheel because of the protection afforded by two tons of steel.
Besides, cars provide a certain degree of anonymity. Knowing we can’t be readily identified increases the likelihood that we will resort to offensive behavior that we would never attempt on a face-to-face basis.
Finally, our vehicles guarantee a quick escape. This ability to beat a hasty retreat almost encourages a transgression or two.
When you mix in the stresses of a long and frustrating drive with all of the above, you have some pretty strong predisposing factors for road rage. Add a precipitating factor such as a honking the worn, flipping the bird, waving a fist, etc. — what Novaco refers to as “cues for aggression” — and the results can get rather ugly.
Given all of the above, it’s no wonder we get dumped on by other drivers. But how can we keep this from happening to us in the first place? Luckily, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety offers several valuable tips in an eight-page brochure entitled Road Rage — How to Avoid Aggressive Driving.
First and foremost, don’t offend. Tops on the list of offensive behavior is driving too slow in the fast lane. Heck, this is where the Type-A motorists hang out. For anyone who insists on cruising below 60 there, what are you thinking!
The brochure also advises that you always signal when making lane changes, don’t cut people off, never tailgate, don’t flash your high beams, and keep your horn use to a minimum. Transgressions here rank high on the list of cues for aggression. In the case of a packed freeway where no one will willingly (if anything, we speed up) let you in if you signal in advance, merely give a courtesy flash of your blinker as you make your move when room allows.
Don’t engage. In other words, give angry drivers plenty of room. Don’t make direct eye contact if you can help it. And unless you’re Mike Tyson, never accept an invitation to pull over to the side of the road.
Lastly, adjust your attitude. Forget about “winning.” Trying to race everyone to the next stoplight or off-ramp invites confrontation.
Considering all this, it now seems obvious that I was partly to blame for the state of affairs that occurred when the pickup driver flipped me off, as described above. Discretion would dictate that I should have quickly pulled into a slower lane upon first sight of a fast approaching vehicle. Maybe then the guy would have raised his index finger, as well as his middle finger, and flashed the peace sign.
But then again, maybe I’m dreaming of another planet. The guy would have been just as likely to separate his four fingers in the middle and give me the Star Trek Vulcan sign.
©2009, Dr. Roadmap®
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David Rizzo, better known as Dr. Roadmap, a Commute Management expert who writes about issues such as improving gas mileage (mpg), alternate routes, traffic congestion, ridesharing, commuting behavior and intelligent transportation systems on California’s Orange Country Register. He is well known for his comprehensive guide ever written on off-freeway commuting in Southern California, published in 1990. Two years later he became the first traffic reporter to offer daily alternate routes in real time over the air on one of the most popular morning radio shows in Los Angeles. His bi-weekly columns appear exclusively for TransportGooru. This is copyright-protected content. Please contact Transportgooru if you like to use this article or portions of this article.
