TriMet bus operator who wrote offensive blog post returns to work

bikes and buses

(Photo © J. Maus)

Dan Christensen, the TriMet bus operator who wrote an essay titled, “Portland: Kill this bicyclist!” on his personal blog is back behind the wheel.

After learning of the post on July 22nd, TriMet placed Christensen on administrative leave and notified the District Attorney and the Portland Police. According to TriMet spokesperson Mary Fetsch, Christensen was back on the job as of last night. In addition to some time off, Fetsch says Christensen will get a “refresher training class” behind the wheel with a TriMet trainer. Fetsch also said Christensen will receive “appropriate discipline” but said specifics of that disciplinary action “is privileged and not releasable.”

Reached via phone this morning, Christensen said he doesn’t necessarily regret what he wrote, but admits he could have, “Done a better job making it clearer what I was going for.”

Dan Christensen
(Self portrait)

When asked whether he feels the thoughts that led to his detailed and emotional post about the rage he felt after seeing a man on a bike ride dangerously on SE Hawthorne Blvd., Christensen said, “The major impact [of what he saw] was the day of. After that, it sort of rolled off my back.”

Christensen wrote the post one month after the incident occurred, which doesn’t make it seem like it simply “rolled off his back.” When I asked him about that, he tried to explain why he wrote the post. “I want the cyclists and the car drivers, and everybody to realize that it’s life and death out there… When you’re a bicyclist and you think, ‘Oh, I can make this’, if that’s the phrase in your head, trouble follows.”

“When I was saying, ‘Portland, kill this bicyclist’ I meant everybody plays a part in somebody getting injured like that. If you’re bicycling and you see somebody do something crazy and dangerous and you say nothing, you helped hurt him. People have a level of responsibility because it’s the cyclist that’s going to get hurt, not the bus driver, not the car driver, etc… It’s unfair, physics are unfair, but people have to say, ‘Hey, don’t do that’.”

When asked for specifics about what the man on the bike did to have such an effect on Christensen, he said it was an “exceptional” combination of risky moves. “It wasn’t what I’d call random error or a mistake or a chance encounter… I’ve seen people do dumb things and I’ve seen people do dangerous things near my bus, but this was a combination, this was a holistic encounter of bad.”

With his time off, Christensen said he got his bike fixed and he’s now riding around town. “If you see somebody that looks like the Hindenburg on a toothpick, that’d be me.”

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

72 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
are
13 years ago

okay, well, still no explanation of what the cyclist supposedly did. given that everybody makes mistakes and that in fact some people — motorists as well as cyclists, and certainly bus drivers — are simply oblivious and/or stupid, let’s just assume that this guy did something or other, big deal, happens every day. and while i kinda get his point about the “i think i can make this” risk taking, the fact is that every calculation you make out there is somewhere on the spectrum of “i think i can make this.”

KWW
KWW
13 years ago

Supposedly someone saved the text of what the bicyclist did, before the post was taken down. It would be nice to understand what he saw that day.

Its ashame, his blogging days may be over, he is like the nycbikesnob of bus drivers.

Ely
Ely
13 years ago

I dunno, I kinda feel like if someone on foot or on a bike (or skateboard, segway, etc.) does something crazy, illegal, or stupid, the motor operator should not be taking extreme measures to prevent a collision. Just hit them already, they clearly deserve it. It’s not fair that the a-holes & bike ninjas get off scot free while the rest of us get harassed and threatened.

trail user
trail user
13 years ago

(Set on) FIRE THIS BUS DRIVER! He’s the Hindenburg and is full of hot air!

brandon
brandon
13 years ago

sounds like he’s full of crap….it’s funny how people counter bicycle hate with a final word about all the quality time their going to spend with their bike.

beth h
13 years ago

In the world of Instant Electronic Information, one has to balance their online postings against a few realities:

1. How much will what I post affect the business I work for?

2. If it will affect that business negatively in any way, should I post it? If I do, am I putting myself at professional risk?

3. Am I valuable/popular enough at my place of work that I can avoid losing my job/promotion/standing over whatever I write?

And finally:

4. Is my need to express [whatever] about my work ONLINE indicative of a larger need to find a more appropriate — or at least professionally “safer” — outlet for this expression?

Because so many employers ARE watching the Web for anything that can be used against an employee, in the end the larger lesson here may be to keep one’s mouth shut and find another outlet for work-related frustration that doesn’t involve any professional risk.

It mat be that TriMet decided:

a. It couldn’t come up with enough evidence to fire Christensen;

b. It decided that keeping Christensen on was actually better PR for the company;

c. Any discussion of details of disciplinary action is better kept “confidential” so that little or no disciplinary action need be taken — which to my thinking would be further indication of Trimet seeing this driver as a commodity to keep. A bus driver who blogs about driving his bus is a bus driver who outs a human face on the bus company and in marketing parlance that can be worth a lot.

Perry
Perry
13 years ago

Ely (#3). I share the frustration, but do you really want to experience the reality of what you’re advocating?

C’mon…that “just hit them…they deserve it” stuff does not help anyone.

Noah Genda
Noah Genda
13 years ago

I am really not comfortable with this fella still driving huge vehicles near me. The sketchiest art of my commute is the Tri-Met lot with the drivers who have already checked out and are parking their buses.

wsbob
13 years ago

“…When asked for specifics about what the man on the bike did to have such an effect on Christensen, he said it was an “exceptional” combination of risky moves. “It wasn’t what I’d call random error or a mistake or a chance encounter… I’ve seen people do dumb things and I’ve seen people do dangerous things near my bus, but this was a combination, this was a holistic encounter of bad.” …” maus/bikeportland

Christensen’s a bus driver; probably sees and passes with his bus everyday, at least dozens of people, if not hundreds of people riding bikes. For some reason, this particular cyclist’s actions on the road stood out to Christensen from all the rest. Those actions stood out to other passengers on the bus to the extent some of them were prompted to take pictures of the cyclist in question.

Maus, I know you probably wanted to avoid sounding like you were interrogating Christensen, but I wish you would have followed up your question above with a couple more such as ‘What dumb things? What risky moves? What dangerous things?’.

Those don’t seem like particularly high pressure questions. Having asked them and got a more definitive answer than Christensen seems inclined to provide might have helped lay to rest certain doubts and speculation some people have expressed in their comments regarding this incident.

q'Tzal
q'Tzal
13 years ago

I have read back through his numerous prior postings, but have not met him.
Considering the other bus drivers attitudes proven in actions, his safe driving record and what I’ve read of him I feel safe with him one the road.
I think what we wrote was stupid and insensitive but as fellow sufferer of chronic foot-in-mouth disease I can sympathize with his self imposed predicament.
Ride and drive safe!w

matt picio
13 years ago

beth h (#5) – I think the larger lesson isn’t so much “keep one’s mouth shut” as it is “Be aware of one’s actions and know what you’re willing to give up in the name of expression”.

As one who always posts under my full name, I’m always aware that many of my co-workers and potentially my bosses read my site, my posts, and Facebook. On some subjects that doesn’t stop me, but I’ve accepted the risk that what I say can be used to incarcerate me, fire me, or keep me from getting a job.

Noah (#7) – Are you saying you commute *through* the parking lot? Or merely that the drivers are most dangerous between the end of their route and the lot?

Velophile in Exile
Velophile in Exile
13 years ago

“If you’re bicycling and you see somebody do something crazy and dangerous and you say nothing, you helped hurt him.”

That’s exactly what Christensen’s union is doing.

If you’re bicycling and you see somebody do something crazy and dangerous while that person is driving a bus and you do say something, you get no meaningful response from TriMet and told by the bike-hating trolls on bp that they are offended by your “sense of entitlement.”

And then TriMet puts that idiot back behind the wheel of a bus.

So I share Christensen’s sense of frustration with the situation.

Maybe if TriMet bus drivers held each other accountable for their stupid and dangerous acts the way Christensen wants bicyclists to do, then this would be a two-way street.

You know, instead of hiding behind the union bosses that the drivers pay to protect their jobs at the expense of public safety.

SD
SD
13 years ago

The bus driver’s comments did not occur in a vacuum. He believed that his comments would be understood and supported by a percentage of his readers. His low threshold to invoke violence against cyclists is a reflection of the trimet driver’s and motorist’s attitudes that he hears. The net effect of his post is the promotion of violence and aggressive attitudes on the road. Just as he posted his comments in a moment of emotional aggravation, drivers act aggressively when stressed; more so when they believe that their anger and violence are justified and will be supported by others. His posts supports road violence and does not benefit anyone.
He should not be allowed to drive a bus.

twilliam
twilliam
13 years ago

An update Mr. Maus:

No pun but I’ve killed the mirror to the guy’s blog. No sense in kicking a dead bik… er, horse.

spare_wheel
spare_wheel
13 years ago

Dear angry trimet bus operators,

I will be riding Hawthorne twice a day with a readily accessible video camera. Go ahead, and make my day…

dan
dan
13 years ago

While I don’t think the driver should have issued a fatwa on some cyclist, I don’t have much sympathy for cyclists who make illegal/life-threatening decisions on their bike, and expect all the other roadway users to take emergency evasive action. That strategy will only be successful so many times.

I think the appropriate penalty would be not death, but forcing that cyclist to drive a bus for a few weeks to see what it’s like on the other side.

Ely
Ely
13 years ago

I guess what I really want is consequences for dangerous/stupid actions. For people who endanger others to get busted consistently, instead of people who roll a stop signs occasionally or drive 5mph over the limit on an empty freeway.

Keep dreaming.

The problem with what I said is that jerks in cars are happy to go around hitting people and not bother to behave safely at all. And decent people in cars really don’t want to hit anyone, whether or not they are behaving stupidly.

I wish I believed in cosmic justice. That would make all this way less depressing.

Marcus Griffith
Marcus Griffith
13 years ago

There are two issues here: 1) The alleged incident with the cyclist and 2) The death threat.

Regarding the first, there are questions that linger. Did Christian report the alleged dangerous cyclist to the Police or TriMet when it was happening? Was the incident caught on TriMet’s camera’s? If the cyclist was such a danger to the road, why did Christian wait an entire month to report it? Why was Christian’s blog not about what the cyclist did, but about issuing a death threat.Lastly, if the cyclist was such a threat to himself and Christain’s passengers, why did Christian keep following the guy instead of just stopping till the guy was a safe distance away?

Those questions are worth exploring but moot when considering the second issue, the death threat. There is nothing the cyclist could have done that day to excuse or justify Christian’s “call for direct action” for the cyclist to be killed.

Christian may try to blame the cyclist for his death threat and he may try to re-write his post after the fact; but Christian’s post was an admitted road rage fueled death threat. The fact that a professional driver got so upset over a minor traffic irritation is scary.

I am sure Christian is a great guy; but, people make irrational decisions while enraged. The capacity for carnage a bus has requires bus drivers not to engage in road rage. There are better ways to deal with the inherent stress of bus driving than issuing threats.

Peter Smith
Peter Smith
13 years ago

It seems Mr. Christensen has trouble with the truth, his emotions, and his spelling.

I think the TriMet decision to reinstate him is a serious, possibly grave, mistake.

I think cyclists who are taking this lightly are mistaken, too. Basically, now all you have to do to get out of declaring a ‘death or injury fatwa’ against cyclists is to say you were just kidding. You don’t even have to apologize or say you were wrong. So, we have ultimately sanctioned Mr. Christensen’s behavior as generally acceptable.

It’s almost never just one comment that takes people out — instead, it’s a growing acceptance of outrageous and monster-ish attitudes — perpetuated on tv and radio, on blogs, in newspapers, etc., that eventually produces results.

It seems I was right that Mr. Christensen did not apologize, and that the reason he did not apologize was because he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

I understand folks wanting to pretend what just happened didn’t actually just happen, but we don’t live in a bubble — people around the nation are suffering miserably, and they’re looking for scapegoats, and bikers are one set of scapegoats that make particularly easy targets. To ride in most of America is to experience ‘terror mixed with aggression‘ — maybe riding in Portland really does allow these types of incidents to be seen as ‘no big deal’. It doesn’t feel like it down here in the Bay Area, but I hope y’all are right that this act was no big deal.

What I assume to be the original post is still up here – there is no mention made of what ‘the evil cyclist’ has done wrong. I’m not sure if erasing it from the Internet is the appropriate decision. Should we erase history? What if we all agree something was ‘bad’ or ‘a mistake’? And what if we don’t? In this case, we don’t.

It appears to be the view of TriMet and the general cycling public in Portland that what Mr. Christensen did was, by and large, OK. I believe Mr. Christensen has put us all in danger, even moreso than he put that cyclist in danger that infamous day.

We don’t always get what we want, but we sometimes get what we deserve. Good luck to us all.

dabby
dabby
13 years ago

Once again, this is part of the problem with Tri Met..

“Fetsch also said Christensen will receive “appropriate discipline” but said specifics of that disciplinary action “is privileged and not releasable.”

What a statement like this says to the public is “We are not going to do anything about this problem”

I am sure that is not the case,(or is it) but with a supposedly public transportation system, what is needed is for the public to be comfortable either on or around the transportation device.

Tri Met continually protects the bad driver, shielding from the public the consequences of their actions.

What needs to be done is to publicize the consequences of their actions so that:

The driver, and other drivers will realize that these actions will not be tolerated, neither in private nor in public.

And, so that the public will know that these drivers are being properly dealt with, and can then have a good feeling about supporting and using public transportation.

Tri Met, (and the union’s) actions and comments in regards to driver disciplinary actions only serve to make many of us more weary of bus drivers in general.

I have fully been over this matter with Tri Met in the past, and once they agree the driver has done wrong, they cease to communicate with you at all.

On a last note, this driver should be fired, no benefits, no pension, kicked out of the union.

The statements he has made publicly, and the actions he has taken while driving buses, surely call for his removal.

Is there not something we, the public who helps pay for Tri Met to operate, can do to keep drivers like this out of buses?

This guys actions and statements are scary.

I hope to see him on the street one day….

Should be a good time…….

Maybe I will just ride his bus……

wsbob
13 years ago

marcus…Christensen…Dan Christensen…not “Christian

Trimet bus driver Christensen controlled his ‘rage’ as others have described his response to the allegedly errant cyclist. In fact if there’s any truth at all to what the cyclist is said to have done wrong, Christensen saved the cyclists life that day…numerous times…by managing to successfully control his bus from driving over the cyclist after the cyclist repeatedly rode his bike abruptly into the path of the bus.

If it wasn’t this particular, apparently unknown cyclist that rode erratically in front of the bus that day…whose life Christensen and other road users saved, it easily could have been one of many other road user cyclists that abruptly ride their bikes into the path of vehicles much heavier than their own.

Christensen did not issue a ‘fatwa’ against this cyclist. Is Christensen a Muslim? Did Christensen even issue a death threat in response to the cyclists actions? Almost certainly ‘no’.

What he did out of frustration with this cyclists’ alleged behavior on the road, was to, in an established weblog acknowledged for the heartfelt and humorous thoughts posted there, use a phrase that could be excerpted from that weblog and apart from it, interpreted by some as a death threat.

If people still want this bus driver to be fired and never drive a bus again, I suppose the potential is there to accomplish that. Those so concerned could proceed to demonstrate…picket Trimet and the driver’s house like animal rights demonstrators have done against Oregon Primate Center scientists at their houses.

Matt
Matt
13 years ago

Take the time to write to the Mayor’s office and voice your opinion on this matter. How many violent acts are preceded by signals just like this that end up in a press conference where some law enforcement official outlines how “things were missed”? “Ghost Bike Dan” has made verifiable and specific threats against a person that could be any one of us, on any given day. Maybe I took the lane in a drastic maneuver because I was about to get doored. Maybe I’m dodging a cracked out squirrel. (It happens!) Is that the day that GBD decides I should be “crushed under his wheels”? If he was a cop, and he professed his excitement at idea of shooting someone, or if he substituted a race or religion for “cyclist” he would have been terminated immediately. Trimet has already decided to ignore the warning signs to save face in light of recent events.

Velophile in Exile
Velophile in Exile
13 years ago

Thanks for telling us that we can protest, bob. Very insightful.

Your anti-bike bias is showing yet again.

Paul Tay
Paul Tay
13 years ago

Yes. I still believe in Jim Jones too. Purple Kool-aid never tasted better. YUM!

Peter Smith
Peter Smith
13 years ago

I must have missed a bunch of BikePortland posts — I didn’t know about all this one-upsmanship among TriMet bus drivers — tweeting and blogging and video blogging and chatting while driving and admitting racism in the agency exists and is a good thing and another racist TriMet bus driver being arrested and jailed for plotting to mass murder people.

holy cow. i know Portland is right next to racist-haven Idaho, but damn….too many openly racist, violence-prone bus drivers in one place for me.

are
13 years ago

re comment 21. nowhere does christensen say what the cyclist supposedly did. nowhere does he say “rode erratically” or “rode abruptly into the path” or anything at all except “breathe in, breathe out” and then — okay, here it is: “interacted with other vehicles.” oh, “interacted,” is it? well, okay then, kill the guy.

Paul Higgins
Paul Higgins
13 years ago

I was the rider that Christensen was talking about. I was on my way to work. i passed him on the left, going between the bus and vehicles in the left lane. I probably ran a red light too. Dangerous? A little, i suppose. But i reserve my evolutionary right to identify, recognize and respond to threats and danger on my own. I have never, nor do i plan to, work for or belong to an organization which has been responsible for taking human lives. Christensen absolutely cannot say the same thing.

wsbob
13 years ago

As I said in my comment #21, the cyclist bus driver Dan Christensen refers to could have been any number of irresponsible road user cyclists that other road users encounter on any given day of the week.

By the sound of what he’s said, Christensen’s not going to be allowing his bus to collide with any of them if he can possibly avoid it, even if that includes having to avert the path of his bus from a collision course with one of those cyclists in a maneuver that may have the unfortunate consequence of jerking his passengers around in the bus.

Is anyone disputing that certain cyclists do sometimes dart erratically and abruptly in front of heavier vehicles than the bicycles they’re riding?

Is anyone disputing that, if the cyclist Christensen refers to in his provocative posting didn’t actually operate their bike that way (possibly explaining why C isn’t more specific about the details of what the cyclist allegedly did), as a bus driver with years of experience, Dan Christensen has likely seen many examples of other cyclists doing that very thing?

Christensen could likely have written his provocative posting about numerous such road users he’s seen in past experience as a bus driver.

If some of you really feel this driver is not fit to drive a bus, then you definitel should pursue further, legal efforts to have him dismissed.

wsbob
13 years ago

Correction: “…then you definitely should pursue further, legal efforts to have him dismissed from his job as bus driver.

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

Wow, rant on your blog and the bike lynching mob arrives.I’m so glad I keep my blog bike and other interest focused rather than share my opinions in a candid manner.

I went back and read his blog a little and he has interactions with bikes making moving violations quite a bit and he never makes any generalized statements about all cyclists. I question the wisdom of any cyclist who for instance runs a stop sign in front of a bus at night with no lights and then when he honks (after he brakes, and part of procedure) the cyclist flips him off.

Yes,kill this cyclist was out of line, and very inflammatory when taken out of context. I thought that sort of behavior was strictly for slimy lawyers, the Right, Fox News, and Oregon Live.

CaptainKarma
CaptainKarma
13 years ago

I dunno; “Kill This Bicyclist” is pretty unequivocal. Wonder if Tri-Met would’ve hired this driver had he blogged that statement before being hired, and they checked and found it?

I think he should do public-service hours cleaning tire marks off of sharrows *on Hawthorne*.

Mike
Mike
13 years ago

RE: 20

It’s precisely because TriMet is partially publicly funded that the public has no say. If this were a private company they’d have they’d have the leverage to force him out.

Vance Longwell
13 years ago

Griffith and Chicken Littles, et al #18 – What, “death-threat”? Seriously. This incident got HOW much attention, and scrutiny? Yet, what do ya know, Christensen hasn’t caught a charge, has he? I’ve read that post a dozen times, and I don’t see any death threat. What purpose is served…?

Bicycle-riders are perfectly behaved, and representing the mode well on all levels. Bicycle riders never cause one, single, problem, everybody loves, and adores them. I don’t exist, Christensen doesn’t exist, we’re just figments of your imagination. Nobody has anything at all bad to report about bicycle riders in this city. Where DO they get this stuff, right? By all means, steady as she goes. Bicycle riders aren’t in a community, and are therefore not responsible to any one, for anything, anyway. An indestructible bubble of righteousness envelopes each and every bicycle rider and it’s a waste of time for any cyclist to self-inventory, or even so much as consider other people’s feelings. When a citizen like Christensen exercises his freedom of speech, he should be immediately censored for it. Because no bicyclist ever, anywhere, has ever misbehaved, made a poor decision, furthered an unpopular agenda, or done anything wrong, at all, ever. We all know this is a problem with ‘them’ and not bicycle riders. Bicycle riders operate their vehicles in a vacuum, and therefore simply CAN’T be the cause of, or even part of, any problem, complaint, hassle, or just plain pain in the ass.

Nah. Ignore Dan Christensen. Censor him. Nobody has a problem with bikes, or the agenda, or a few thousand people dictating to hundreds of thousands how we are all going to live, and even think, apparently. I’m sure treating people’s interests in such a way won’t upset them in the least. Doing this will certainly never lead to something as sophomoric as stifling the debate in an us vs. them miasma, or making bicycle riders unpopular in any way.

Vance Longwell
13 years ago

Right, and I did a post on my own site about this other kid, and the general sentiment was, meh.

http://www.thebatt.com/2.8482/bicyclists-are-trying-to-kill-my-truck-1.1183217

At least TRY to be consistent.

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

Captain Karma: just for afew minutes try to forget those 3 unfortunate words and go read his blog, go back a few pages. Try once in your life tobe objective,and not make a snap judgment based on one statement.

Really,if y’all want a bus driver to be mad at, be mad at the one who hit and killed those pedestrians. Be mad about the way Tri-Met and the union handled and framed that. A blind spot on the FRONT of the bus? WTF GTFO

Marcus Griffith
Marcus Griffith
13 years ago

Three words? Did you read his post?

In his original post, Dan Christensen makes SIX different threats against the cyclist’s life and TWO additional general threats endorsing vandalism and criminal conduct against the cyclist.

And Vance, the Humeniuk matter you reference is completely different. It’s a oversimplification of a issue that stereotypes cyclists as reckless vehicle operators, but isn’t a death threat.

NL
NL
13 years ago

I was surprised the driver was disciplined at all. When I complained that a Trimet driver went into the left turn lane solely for the purpose of getting beside me to run me off the road as he came back into the lane of traffic (I had to jump off my bike to avoid being hit) Trimet “reviewed” the videos and their only response to me was that I should not have been on the road.
Trimet is out of control. There needs to be a citizen’s review board.

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

I have read it Marcus. Read about 4 or 5 pages of his blog, get some perspective, and stop judging him by one blog post.

If I ever share the road with him, I will judge him by his actions.

Out of curiousity, what is Dan Christensen’s driving record like? Any bus vs.bike incidents?

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

Here let me take some of it out of context:

“I thought about unleashing my full fury an all bicyclist in Portland but that would not be right. Most of them are good people just trying to get from A to B like the people on my bus. I understand that.

You see I’m the bus driver who always try’s to leave you six foot of space between us even on pinched up streets .

I don’t get mad, or honk my horn.

I followed someone on a bike form 20th and Hawthorn all the way for 40th one Rush hour without a bad word. It’s just the way it is. I would rather have them in front of me where I can keep an eye on them.

I’m the bus driver who always waves you out front so I can see you rather then having your bike and life out of sight along the side of my bus.

I alway try to go out of my way to protect bikes above and beyond what is required by law and Trimet.”

“I have thought about it for a while.. deep breathing all the time. Thought about putting my video camera on my bus and editing down a month of driving as proof of what I go through… But to what end? Do I want to be the anti-bicyclist guy?

No I don’t..”

“Like I said bicyclist are like everyone people getting from A to B.”

wsbob
13 years ago

SkidMark…I felt sure that in some of the stories this controversy has prompted, I’d read a note made of Christen’s number of years of good driving. Searched around for awhile tonight, but couldn’t find it.
Thought it was 20 years or so.

In the process of searching though, did happen to get back to the guys weblog, ‘Sonnetoptics’. Had to admit his Saturday, July 24 posting ‘Unleash Your Inner Duck’ gave me some laughs. As people have been saying, it seemed like there is some good stuff on his Trimet Confidential weblog too. Didn’t spend enough time there to say for sure.

TonyT
TonyT
13 years ago

B freakin S.

Anything this guys says is noise. Until he can give us an actual account of what the cyclist did, then it’s all after-the-fact justification for a pretty straightforward death threat. I think he knows plain and simple, that if he actually tells us what the cyclist did, it would pale in comparison to his call for murder.

Oh, he’ll be on his bike, yeah, that makes it all better. The bike version of “some of my best friends are black.” Sort of, hey, I own a dusty bike that I ride once a year at the Bridge Pedal, so OBVIOUSLY I have the best interests of cyclists at heart.

Whatever.

Tim
Tim
13 years ago

Has anyone considered that the crazy biker may actually be mentally ill? When someone is acting crazy in a car, on a bike or at the street corner, there is a good chance they really are crazy. There have been at least a couple of instances reported in Bike Portland where mental health was a factor. I recall an attempted murder of a cyclist not long ago that involved some serious neurological problems with the driver. How about calling for someone to help get this guy off the road and back in treatment?

This incident probably has more to do with mental health than bikes and making it a bike issue and calling to kill this rider shows poor judgment. Too poor to be trusted with a bus on the city streets? A bus driver of all people should be familiar with the mentally ill sharing or streets.

rigormrtis
rigormrtis
13 years ago

Many of the cyclists on this site have a greater persecution complex than born-again christians.

*Not every driver is out to “get you”.

*Not every driver hates bikes.

*Not every cyclist is an angel who never breaks laws.

*Not every cyclist is a douche who always breaks laws.

spare_wheel
spare_wheel
13 years ago

“Until he can give us an actual account of what the cyclist did, then it’s all after-the-fact justification for a pretty straightforward death threat.”

Incitement to violence is not a “straightforward” death threat. Christensen repeatedly urged others to kill a cyclist.

I do agree that the reluctance to spell out what this cyclist supposedly did is more than suspect. I wonder if any of Chrstensen’s apologists have considered that the fault was not entirely with the cyclist.

A few years ago a cyclist was assaulted after pulling in front of a trimet bus and haranguing the bus operator for unsafe driving. I sympathize entirely with this kind of direct action.

spare_wheel
spare_wheel
13 years ago

“considered that the fault might not be entirely with the cyclist.”

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

I’ll take myself out of context “Yes, kill this cyclist was out of line, and very inflammatory”. How is that apologist?

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

I can’t believe you have the audacity to compare Randy Albright’s incident with the douchebag playing chicken with a bus.

Vance Longwell
13 years ago

Griffith #35 – Yeah, maybe. Except for the whole part where the opposite of what you said is true.

Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson
13 years ago

Wow, this news is as disappointing as the photograph on the masthead showing a cyclist illegally operating on a sidewalk to travel against traffic on a one-way street.

SkidMark
SkidMark
13 years ago

Really Paul? Are you sure that section of sidewalk is in a part of Portland where sidewalk riding is prohibited?