Witnesses say TriMet employee drove recklessly, used truck to threaten riders

The driver of a TriMet service truck dangerously passed, became upset, and threatened a large group bike ride with his vehicle last week.

According to several people who were on the weekly Thursday Night Ride on September 19th, it was a severe case of road rage. A person named Phil took photos of the interaction, which happened around 8:30 pm, and sent them to BikePortland.

Here’s how he describes the incident:

A TriMet employee road raged and endangered the lives of a ride tonight. We were cycling down 7th and hooking left onto Division. The road is narrow, we had the lane as the front of the ride was preparing for a left turn (and you can’t fit many cyclists in that pathetic bike lane) — when suddenly a car was honking behind us, hitting the gas and yelling.

This driver went across the entire turn lane, into opposing traffic, in an intersection, during a blind turn (as 7th becomes Division)… Cars were coming the other way, so he moved from opposing traffic to the turn lane. When the center divider approached, he swerved into the group and forced his way in — essentially using the threat of bodily harm to merge in. He was coming in, people had to scatter. We had to box him into that brief divider at 8th so he would stop threatening and endangering our lives.

Phil’s photos clearly show the driver was in his TriMet uniform and driving an official TriMet service truck. Phil also says that he feels the ride was being “well led and well behaved.”

To verify Phil’s story, I reached out to other people who were on the ride. I heard back from four different people who were among the 50 or so in the group. Here’s what they told me:

“Definitely happened. Dude was trying to drive around the ride. Very unsafe. Didn’t seem to care.”

“I would brand it as a typical ‘get out of my way I can’t be slowed down by bikes for a few minutes’ type of interaction. Honked a few times, then tried to go around the huge amount of bikes in the middle suicide lane (as shown in the photo). Some bikes were able to block him and a shouting match occurred between the driver and the cyclists. We all got past and left.”

“I didn’t see the driver trying to hit people, just dumb impatient driver doing dumb impatient driver stuff.”

“He jumped over the curb/lane divider from oncoming traffic back into our lane, speeding ahead of the end of the group and cutting off a bunch of others right after the track crossing (headed south). He ultimately just stopped and starting yelling after turning the flashing lights off. Didn’t appear to be collecting signs or doing anything that late at night, just speeding and trying to insert into the group of bicyclists.”

TriMet Public Information Officer Tyler Graf confirmed to BikePortland Wednesday that the agency received a complaint from Phil that shared these photos and a detailed narrative of what he saw. “The complaint was processed and is currently under investigation,” Graf shared. “Beyond that, we do not comment on personnel matters; however, the photos that were shared will be considered during the investigation.”

Phil will likely continue to follow up with TriMet until the investigation is complete. “No way this guy should be driving or working for our government,” he told BikePortland.