“Bikes vs. Cars” makes the front page.
The windshield-surfer from yesterday’s road rage incident has become something of a local celebrity.
The cell-phone video of his wild ride was replayed numerous times on the TV news last night and it was even played and discussed on NBC’s Today Show this morning. Also today, The Oregonian has put a still image from that video on the entire above-the-fold section of their newsstand edition (that makes three times in less than a week that “Bikes vs. Cars” has made the front page, yippee!).
Since the incident, I’ve noticed two comments come in from Mr. Windshield himself — Jason Rehnberg (he apparently prefers the nickname “flow”).
“Some say I should not have said anything and just rode off peacefully, well… there could have been a kid in the road next time and silence equals death.”
–Jason Rehnberg
In the first one, he recounts what happened, beginning with, “Wow, I had no idea this would go so far.”
He also admits that he used “some profane language” against the driver, James Millican (who’s now in the slammer), but that after his initial comment of “Slow down gashole,” he said “very little.”
Rehnberg also stands by his actions:
“Some say I should not have said anything and just rode off peacefully, well… there could have been a kid in the road next time and silence equals death.”
In his second comment, Rehnberg reflects on the effectiveness of yelling at someone to change their behavior.
“I must agree that in most cases yelling and using profanity are very ineffective solutions in getting someone to change their behavior. I prefer to wave and blow kisses at the people who honk at me and call me a jerk or worse for nothing more than slowing them down for a few seconds.”
But he adds that sometimes kisses and waves don’t always do the trick and when, “someone does something so extreme, you just got to shout it out loud… I felt it my civic duty to say something.”
In retrospect, Rehnberg admits that “slow down gashole” is, “not the slickest way to handle the situation” but that it’s “hardly worth running a person down for such a comment.”
I also noticed a comment from a man who lives in the neighborhood where this road rage incident took place. He wrote in to “thank the biker for confronting the driver,” and added that, “At the least I hope the guy can never drive again. If that’s the case then you did change his behavior.”