Around 7:00 pm on June 2nd, Portlander Vivek Jeevan was part of a group of about 30 cyclists on a ride that’s part of the Bike Summer festival. As he and another rider were in the back of the group headed north on Northeast 7th Ave approaching NE Holladay, they were approached by two aggressive car drivers. One of the drivers intentionally drove into Viv. The incident shocked and startled him and even days after it happened, Viv was unable to ride as he processed the fear and trauma.
Viv is a dedicated cycling advocate, the bicycle education coordinator for BikeLoud PDX, and certified bike riding instructor who offers private riding lessons and bicycle education courses via his Portland Bicycle School business.
I asked Viv to write about the incident. Below is a slightly edited account of what happened:
Spirits were high as it was the 2nd day of Pedalpalooza, and the Kickoff Ride was the night before. We’d just left our meeting location at Colonel Summers Park. We were and 10-15 minutes into the ride. The ride was proceeding at an unusually fast pace, but Lynn (friend I rode with) and I were keeping up.
I was dealing with multiple road conditions at the time. The ride started to stretch out, and Lynn was falling behind. Lynn and I were at the tail end of the ride, and there were still cyclists directly in front of us. Lynn was in the bike lane, I was to her right in the traffic lane. I was talking to Lynn, asking how she was feeling, and she said she was struggling to keep up with the pace of the ride.
At that moment, an aggressive driver approached behind us. I could hear him revving his engine and getting close. I quickly moved into the bike lane behind Lynn, and when the driver passed us, I resumed my position in the traffic lane. I immediately worried, because then the driver revved and got close to the cyclist in front of me. I wondered if I should start taking video, or yell a warning to the cyclists. At the same time, I was talking to Lynn. I asked her if she wanted to quit the ride, and she said “yes”. I said we’d get off the road at the next intersection.
At this point, a second aggressive driver approached behind us. He honked and yelled various anti-bicycle things continually: “Get out of the way, you bicyclists think you own the road!” We were headed North on 7th Street. Lynn was in the bike lane. I was on her right near her, to talk her through the problem she was having, so I was “riding to the right” in the traffic lane. I don’t know if this second aggressive driver could see the entire Pedalpalooza group and was angry at all of us, or if he could see just me and Lynn (and maybe a few other cyclists), since the first aggressive driver had gotten in front of me, splitting up the group ride that was already starting to stretch out.
From the moment I heard him yelling, we were about 3-5 seconds away from an intersection at Holladay St. I was planning to tell Lynn that we’d get onto the sidewalk there. The traffic lane I was in was only wide enough for one car. I ignored this second aggressive driver, thinking we’d get out of his way in just a few seconds. And in general, there are screaming people throughout Portland that I ignore and just move away from quickly.
But the second angry driver suddenly lurched forward, and he intentionally struck me.
There were only a few seconds between when he started honking and screaming from behind us, and when he accelerated into me. His side mirror collapsed on the impact. I remember it hitting my shoulder. It didn’t knock me down, and I can’t remember if or how much it pushed me to the side. Immediately after the collision, we were at the light at 7th and Holladay. The light was previously green, and I remember the light turning, and thinking, ‘He hit me, now we’re stuck together at the light.’ I don’t remember if the driver slowed at the light, or came to at a full stop. He decided to run the light. I can’t recall if it was a late yellow, or a full red, but the driver decided to high-tail it away.
I chased him, screaming “hit and run!” So I too went through the light, which was likely red at that point. I expected to try and take a photo of the plate, then call 911 and report a hit and run. However, the driver pulled into a parking space at the north end of the intersection. I then realized I was going to have to face him. I called 911. He came out of his vehicle screaming at me, walking menacingly, and waving his arms. Fortunately a security guard heard the commotion and walked towards us, keeping himself between me and the driver.
The driver seemed like a person who wasn’t doing well. His face had the appearance of drug abuse. His visual appearance, jerky mannerisms, and speech pattern were those of other Portland residents who are screaming on the sidewalks. He was screaming continually at me, and couldn’t keep a logical train of thought or argument. His yelling jumped back and forth between phrases that I’m listing here by category, removing a lot of swearing: “You were in my way, how dare you ride in front of me, you think you’re the king of the road, bicyclists think they own the street, why did you call 911, this is nothing, how could you call the police, why did you do this, you’re making a big deal out of nothing!”
911 took the call immediately. They asked for vehicle information, which I was able to fully give since the driver had parked. Two officers arrived in a few minutes. One officer stood in one place, remaining silent and watching. Officer Kyle Williams (badge number #62010) did all the work.
Officer Williams separated the driver and myself, and talked to us one at a time. He asked for my Oregon ID card, and I heard him ask for the driver’s license and insurance. When he interviewed me, his first concern was the location of the crash. I showed him the street. His first question was where I was riding. When I explained that I was with a Pedalpalooza group of 30 cyclists, and I was in the traffic lane because the bike lane was occupied, his face lit up. He smiled as if he’d just solved a challenge problem. “You caused this because you were in the car lane,” the officer said to me. “You’re legally required to be in the bike lane for your protection.” (Note: The law that pertains to this situation, ORS 814.430, says a bicycle rider can leave the bike lane if they are overtaking another rider. Also of note is that Viv is very knowledgable about this law because he was part of a group that sought to repeal it.)
I knew from my experience reviewing crash reports that I had just a few minutes to give my story for his report, which would then become the permanent record, so I had to explain difficult traffic law and bike safety concepts in quick sound bites. I was not given enough time to explain much of anything. My response, for better or worse, was, “I’m a traffic instructor. I teach traffic skills, and I know my rights.” (I can attest that Viv travels with a bi-folded business card that lists key bike laws.) But the officer brushed off my comments with a quick phrase like “we’ll see about that” or something of that nature, and immediately changed the subject.
When he interviewed the driver, the driver was still yelling and frantically waving his arms. I heard Officer Williams once or twice tell him to calm down.
After having interviewed us both, Officer Williams handed me back my Oregon ID along with his business card. He said, “Nothing criminal has happened. I have conflicting stories… you tell me he intentionally struck you, he said you intentionally hit his mirror (so apparently the driver came up with a quick lie). You are both at fault. The driver should have waited for you, and you provoked him by being in the car lane. You’re both ignorant.”
At this point, I didn’t say a word, and left the scene. It felt like his decision was already made, and he was already visibly irritated with me, and clearly used the word “ignorant” to not cross the line — using that to replace the vulgarity of what he truly thought of me.
When I walked away, I felt my knee hurt. At the time of the crash, I only remember my elbow being hit, and the feeling of the vehicle at my side. It’s possible the vehicle also hit my knee, or maybe I was imagining the pain.
Viv has engaged a lawyer and is pursuing his legal options.
This is a very disappointing police interaction. I’ve known Viv for several years and he rides with extreme care and caution. To have him dismissed, called “ignorant” and both-sided like that, is disturbing. It’s a good illustration of how inadequate our system is when it comes to responding to vehicular violence. This is also a validation of fears many Portlanders have, and it’s another reason some folks choose to not ride bikes at all.
I share this because I hear a lot of stories about aggressive drivers and I worry that police officers are either unable or unwilling to handle them with the care and urgency they require. Creating a great cycling city is about much more than infrastructure. It’s about a pro-cycling culture that takes vehicular violence seriously.
Thanks Viv for sharing your story. Sorry this happened to you and I hope to see you back on your bike very soon.
Thanks for reading.
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I had something similar happen to me a few months ago when I was riding home from getting groceries at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer. On one of the tight side streets as I was heading for the 41st greenway a car came up behind me, started honking and revving and within seconds began to overtake me, then very clearly swerved at me, clipping my elbow with their mirror, which thankfully folded in so I wasn’t knocked down/under the car. I’ve used a bike as my primary transportation for most of the 18 years I’ve lived here and never encountered anything like that before now. It really shook me and created a real reluctance to ride my bike until the Pedalpalooza kickoff ride help me rekindle the joy of riding.
Stories like this continue to make me think that we are not spending our resources wisely when we spend them on Police.
Even if officer Williams had been competent, its still kind of a waste of money. Is there a reason a DPSST-certified offier with a gun making $50+ an hour needed to respond to this?
I have long said that most of the tasks we pay cops overtime to do would be better performed by every single administrative assistant I have every worked with in my professional career.
The problem is that it’s impossible to know when a given “task” is going to result in someone pulling a gun on you. Some people don’t react well when faced with citation and/or consequences. And we have a lot of gun owners in America.
If you call 911 reporting that someone intentionally hit you with their car and that then the driver pulled over and coming at you, screaming and menacing, and is being held back by a security guard, they’re probably not going to send an unarmed PBOT employee or Street Response person to hand out bottled water and sort it all out. Even lesser incidents sometimes end up with someone shot dead.
A serious crime was reported. A potentially violent conflict was ongoing. So there probably is a reason a cop needed to respond.
Eh, if we’re looking at an assault and hit and run situation with potential felony charges it should probably be a sworn officer responding. Routine parking and moving violations though? Definitely don’t need the gun and badge.
Officer Kyle Williams (badge number #62010) needs to resign. He’s not fit to be a police officer.
All of PPB is exactly like this.
Declarative statements about hundreds of people beginning with “all” aren’t credible unless they’re uninformative.
e.g “All of PPB requires water and food to survive.” Credible, uninformative.
contrast with: “All of PPB is incompetent/callous;”
or how about “All Portlanders inside of 82nd are ideologically captured transplants and ACAB.”
Not credible.
It doesn’t sound like Viv was overtaking another rider. This changes nothing about the actions of the driver, but it does seem that he may not have been riding strictly legally, which may complicate the legal situation.
Please keep us posted on how this plays out.
Also, this story may be of interest to all those who said riders should just stop fretting about the law and just use the street if the new infrastructure on 4th proves inadequate for purpose.
Ah, it’s okay to hit someone with your car intentionally if they are breaking a minor law. I see, it makes sense now. Next time I see an obstruction in the bike lane I’ll just run into it.
Bike Lanes by Casey Neistat
Seriously Watts, sometimes you have good points. This ain’t one of them.
Not at all; did I even remotely insinuate that? The cop who answered the call obviously didn’t sort things out in a satisfactory manner, and any further remedies are going to be hampered by the “they were both in the wrong” report the cop would provide. Surely you can see that — it’s blatantly obvious.
Does pointing that out mean I am justifying the behavior of the driver? In case you missed it, let me repeat: It changes nothing about the actions of the driver.
I think it could since Lynn is slowing down and he is riding in the act of overtaking. The concept of overtaking doesn’t need to align with the anti-socially disjoint confines of fast moving cars.
However, I don’t understand how Viv is riding on the right since from the map it looks like the bike lane is on the right along this whole stretch.
“I was talking to Lynn, asking how she was feeling, and she said she was struggling to keep up with the pace of the ride.”
I don’t know what actually happened, but what was reported was not a conversation made while passing someone. Maybe a good lawyer could convince a judge it was, but they you haven’t convinced me (heck you haven’t even tried).
What exactly does it complicate? If I have expired tags, I’m not allowed to drive my car at all, but if you slam into the back of my car, you’re still going to be at fault for the collision.
Thinly veiled victim blaming is pretty gross.
I understand you would interpret anything I said as automatically wrong, so you may not have even read my comment. But in case you did, and in case you care what I say in response, see my response to J1mbo, above, where I addressed it all. Especially see the part where I repeated “It changes nothing about the actions of the driver.”
You can be fully in the right, be fully a victim, and be fully righteous in the brilliant glory of God the almighty and still face some complexity when trying to get the legal system to respond to an incident such as this. As you yourself noted below.
Right, Officer Williams determined that both people did something wrong, and therefore it was a wash and too much of a hassle to do anything about. However, his actual job responsibilities dictate that he cite both people based on that determination: Viv for riding in the main travel lane illegally, and the driver for reckless driving, assault, and hit and run. If the evidence is thin or boiling down to a he-said-she-said sort of situation, you can let the Multnomah County prosecutors decide whether to pursue or drop the charges, and you can let Viv defend his riding in traffic court. Instead, he decided that filling out a bit of paperwork was too much of a hassle and let a couple of people he determined to be dangerous road users to go continue being dangerous road users. Utter abdication of official responsibility. And then the cops wonder why they’re so reviled by so many people.
Edit: I should note that I’m arguing what Officer Williams should have done with the determination he made, not whether that determination was correct. Personally, I’m inclined to believe that Viv likely did nothing wrong and the tweaker chose to operate his vehicle in a dangerous and criminal manner out of drug-addled carbrain.
There is no such thing as a “wash” in the law my dude. You can’t hit someone, intentionally or unintentionally, with your car.
LEOs have discretion on whether to cite people. Maybe I’m crazy but hitting someone with your car seems a little bit worse than “illegally” (its not clear where Viv was riding was illegal) riding the “car” lane.
An angry motorist who used his car as a weapon should probably be the main focus of Officer Williams.
I think you misread the tone and intent of my comment, or perhaps I’m misreading yours. But that’s neither here nor there. The law exists in its application, so when the mouth-breathing beat cop with a second grade understanding of Oregon criminal and traffic statutes shows up to the scene and decides both parties are at fault, so he’s not going to cite either of them, then yes, there absolutely is such a thing as a wash in the law. Viv got to witness it in action firsthand. It’s not how the law is intended, and it’s absolutely not how Officer Williams should have handled the situation, but it is the ultimate result, which is repeated on a daily basis all around the country.
They think they’re doing both parties a favor, but the ability to avoid administrative hassle is the real motivation.
I would bet a sizable sum that Michael knows this, and was describing the officer’s apparent thought process, not his own. This is was made clear by the next sentence you quoted and starts with the word “However”.
It’s the way LEOs exercise that discretion that causes many people to assume until proven otherwise that any given cop is lazy/racist/etc.
Right. I was hit by a car in Washington Park last summer. The driver admitted fault and was the one who called 911 (I was shocking, disoriented, my ankle was broken, rotator cuff torn and my hand was smashed). Despite having tourists as witnesses who were vacationing homicide detectives from Orlando, the responding officer opted not to even gather information for report because I declined going to the hospital in an ambulance (I wasn’t thinking clearly and was concerned about my bike!). The response to bike vs. car collisions appears to be consistently incompetent.
COTW
I realize your hobby is criticizing everything I write regardless of the facts, but it should be pretty obvious that if the cyclist wants to pursue some sort of legal remedy, it’s going to be harder now that the cop put part of the blame on him for riding outside the bike lane. Do you actually disagree with that? Why is that victim blaming?
That law is one of the worst written attempts at rulemaking.
“When reasonably necessary to avoid hazardous conditions including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards or other conditions that make continued operation along the right curb or edge unsafe or to avoid unsafe operation in a lane on the roadway that is too narrow for a bicycle and vehicle to travel safely side by side. Nothing in this paragraph excuses the operator of a bicycle from the requirements under ORS 811.425 (Failure of slower driver to yield to overtaking vehicle) or from the penalties for failure to comply with those requirements.”
You don’t need to be in the bike lane if you believe there to be hazardous conditions. Idk about you all but I generally assume every bike lane is full of unseen potholes, glass, etc etc. My assumption generally isn’t that inaccurate from my riding experience. I also interpret a door zone bike lane to be hazardous and will often use the lane. Or the trees aren’t trimmed and are obstructing the lane. Etc etc.
I haven’t ridden that stretch he was on in a while but I doubt it’s an unfair claim to say there’s some reason one would feel safer in the lane.
That exception part is also why I’ll always take the center of the lane too. It’s unsafe for passing to ride to the right of the lane.
Perhaps they could pin it on the fact that he needed to yield to traffic traveling at the speed limit but a car driving to a red light and the cyclist taking one block to yield seems reasonable.
Unfortunately it’s the police officer’s opinion that matters when they decide to cite you. Then it’s the judge’s opinion that matters when they tell you to pay the citation.It’s too subjective and left to people who likely don’t ever ride bicycles or care if cyclists are put into hazardous situations. See Williams as Exhibit A. For Exhibits B and C see the judges that said bicycle lanes don’t exist in intersections.
That being said I could get cited everyday and I’m still not riding in dangerous bike lanes. Like the one I stay out of on Madison and 9th on my morning commute.
The point here is not that the rider’s behavior justifies any action by the driver, but that it muddies the waters, making further legal remedy more difficult. The cop already determined (rightly or wrongly, it doesn’t matter) the rider was riding illegally, and was equally at fault, so if the rider wants to pursue further legal action, that’s an obstacle to overcome.
This seems like such an obvious observation that I’m really surprised it has generated any response. The most appropriate response to my comment would have been “Well, yeah, duh.”
No, not at all “duh”. The intentional use of a deadly weapon here is what makes your statement ridiculous.
Forgive me for taking this to extremes, but extrapolating that logic means:
What is it you think I’m saying? That the driver was somehow justified? Not at all. I specifically stated I was not saying that, only that the situation is more complicated than it would have been if the rider had been in the bike lane.
The cop declined to take any action, declaring everyone was equally at fault. You really don’t think that makes taking any further action more difficult? Really?
And yes, if you intentionally hit someone jaywalking, and a cop comes and says the pedestrian was just as much at fault as you were and takes no action, then I’d say you are pretty much in the clear. There’s no evidence, no apparent injury, any witnesses have scattered… what do you think is going to happen?
This whole argument is like discussing how many angels fit on the head of a pin. No one was injured; no one cares.
It seems Portlanders overweigh the value of hurt feelings and political injuries more than the Law did traditionally.
If anything this is what Portlanders voted for and presumably wanted. A light touch with policing.
Well, a light touch when interacting with me of course. Draconian authoritarianism when dealing with anyone who gets in my way. It’s what most (please note I am not saying all) people here seem to want, the freedom to do whatever they want while being protected by the cops from everyone else doing whatever they want.
Seriously though, less funding for cops is fine, but self defense laws would have to loosen up as well and we all know that will never happen. Hopefully the council will find a way to make all the performative statements they want while still keeping the police funded properly.
I started riding with a camera after I was the victim of a hit-and-run on Broadway. I was minding my own business in the bike lane of all places. The last thing on my mind at that moment was looking at the driver’s license plate.
I was assaulted by a motorists, caught it on camera including the drivers face and license plate, and I couldn’t get PPB to come out to take a report. That was BEFORE the protracted work slowdown on their part.
I did too, after I lost consciousness in a big crash. Turns out you make a lousy witness for yourself when you have memory loss. 🙂
Here, I would like to point out that in 2019 some guy ran over and killed an antifa activist with his car, abandoned the car, the whole thing was caught on video, which seems like an open and shut murder case. But in fact it took more than two years the antifa activist’s mother convincing journalists to investigate before they actually charged him, at which point it was also discovered that his DNA matched a rape kit so in addition to a murder he was likely a rapist as well.
So this hardly seems like the most egregious case of cops being quite indifferent to vehicular violence (see also, the disbanding of the traffic unit).
As I recall, the “disbanding” of the traffic unit was an idiotic publicity stunt by PPB in retaliation for citizens not respecting their authoritah respectfully enough. Cf my earlier remark about the default assumption of many people about any given cop being a whiny crybaby/lazy/racist/etc.
The mayor absolutely signed on to disbanding the traffic division. Wheeler was ultimately responsible, and city council could have overridden him if they chose.
Egotistical cops ignorant of the law they are charged with enforcing. A tale as old as time.
Viv, I’m so sorry that happened to you. It’s real crappy and traumatic.—Lisa
That’s like I hit you with a baseball bat because you were in my way on a staircase and the cops just say “hey, you got in his way so it’s not assault.”
Ahh the old “I’m going to punch the air while walking towards you, and if you get hit it’s your own fault” argument.
https://youtu.be/nBCE7B_ydP4?si=122RNeN41o3LCzBn
This is horrible, and quite scary. I’m so sorry, Viv!
Was Williams wearing a body-worn camera? I assume the lawyer would request it but I think it would be great to share Williams calling a person “ignorant” while on the clock.
This must have been a great day for Williams. He got to avoid doing work and he got to insult a person riding a bike. If only he had remembered to publicly trash talk Portland he could have had the PPB trifecta.
He was probably pulling overtime at the moment as well.
The cop is a serious problem. That the driver hit the rider is clear evidence of the driver’s failure to safely operate their vehicle. Even if Viv was breaking a law in how he was riding (and that’s very much debatable) that does not excuse endangering someone’s life by hitting them. Compounded by the hit and run behavior. That the cop immediately tried to side with the driver, particularly given that the driver is the one capable of killing someone with their vehicle, is a serious issue. If anything they should be biasing in the other direction. After all aren’t they supposed to protect the vulnerable? Although really their job is to remain neutral.
Fundamentally the simple fact that the driver did not immediately stop and pull over is in my opinion clear proof of hit and run. That the cop chose to ignore that entirely, for any reason, is evidence of misconduct.
For any law enforcement personnel that happen to read this, incidents like this are why folks vote against funding for law enforcement.
Thank God for the cops
Who else is gonna show up and murder my neighbor’s dog
Who else is gonna write a report when you get assaulted?
Show up at the scene of the crime, take a couple pictures and then
Accuse you of lying?
We love the cops
Who wouldn’t ever lie on the stand
If you can’t do the time you shouldn’t have got that tan
We understand
They’re trained to be afraid of the sun
So they should definitely be allowed
To shoot anyone
By the officer’s words, as reported, “…you provoked him by being in the car lane.” The motor vehicle operator’s mental state was one of reaction. He had a choice of where and how to drive, and deliberately drove into the space occupied by another person. In a few seconds the lane would have been clear of the two closest bikes but he chose to drive through them.
There’s no mention of him being assessed for intoxication.
On any occasion that I might call 911 I would avoid mention of bikes unless the bike could not be separated from the event, for example if an attacker had left on a bike. I once called to report a burglary in progress but when I mentioned that people were carrying bikes out of the laundry room they sent me to a recording.
Unsafe roads full of intoxicated drivers having psychotic meltdowns behind the wheel? Well it couldn’t have possibly been caused by multiple decades of Portland, Multnomah County and the state govt normalizing, incentivizing and celebrating lifestyles of drug abuse and homelessness!
When I got hit by a car (in Washington State), the paramedics called a cop, who after sitting in his car for 40 minutes (presumably playing candy crush or something) ticketed both of us. This was surprising because I was in a bike lane and the car turned through me to go into a parking lot. The driver was extremely apologetic and had made an honest mistake–I didn’t want her ticketed, only to be careful in the future. The cop justified my ticket by saying that I was “following too close”… despite being in a different lane.
I had to take an afternoon off work but the judge threw out the citation, saying that it didn’t even apply to bicycles, let alone those in different lanes.
Cops’ job is to drive around distracted all day, so of course they hate bicyclists and see us as impediments. That’s their lived experience. Without changing their job pattern, they will always be biased against bikers.
we talk so often about car brain, but not usually about, and to your point, the way cops are expected to drive distracted doing too many things on too may devices at once.
Ugh, sorry this happened.
Viv, I am sorry you had to go through this, but I am glad that Officer Kyle Williams has called the wrong bicyclist ignorant.
Maybe part of your settlement with PPB is that you coordinate training for them in bike law.
One of the many problems with this type of police response is no report is written. Consequently, statistics from PPB fall way short for analyzing conflicts and crashes and figuring out how to prevent them.
While vigiling for many years the notoriously dangerous N. Broadway-Flint-Wheeler intersection, we would speak to responding officers and ask them to write a report. Most often they would issue no citations and refuse to write a report.
After one right hook at N. Broadway and Flint that resulted in injuries serious enough that the cyclist was taken away in an ambulance, I asked the responding officer if he had cited the motorist. He said, “No. It was her word against his. She said she had her turn signal on, and he said she did not.”
I said to the officer that a turn signal does not confer right-of-way and that the straight-bound bicyclist in the bike lane had right-of-way over the motorist turning across the bike lane. He was not moved to issue a citation, nor show that he cared.
Remember the case reported here a while ago where the driver turned right directly in front of the bike rider, and the rider slapped the car? And the cop told the driver, “Well, he did slap your car, but you provoked him, so it’s equal”. Then the cop cited the “Eye for an eye” exception that exempts people from being cited for road rage if the rage is justified?
Neither do I.
Not exactly related but it was uplifting this morning to see the new No Turn On Red at the nearby Multnomah and Grand intersection.
Glad PBOT put a sign there. But you are the only person who will ever see that No Turn On Red sign, based on my observation of other drivers’ compliance with the NTOR signs I encounter on my commute.
I’d say my rates for the ones on Hawthorne are about 25% of drivers ignore them. Not great but pretty consistent with drivers violating other laws.
How is this not assault with a deadly weapon??! Who cares if the cop thought the cyclist somehow provoked him, that still doesn’t make assault justified.
Also. Please pedalpalooza ride leaders, unless you state ahead of time that it is a fast paced ride, don’t ride so fast on social rides that people start getting spread out, it’s so dangerous. Watch your pace as the leader, wait for people so you can group up. Keep social rides together for your riders safety.
Laws saying where a bike can and can’t ride generally don’t exist to keep anyone safe, they exist to protect car drivers when they hit or kill cyclists.
Every Portland Police officer should have to spend at least a couple of weeks on Bike Patrol &/or commuting by bicycle. The problem is that the regular patrol officers are 100% car-centric perspective with zero sympathy and zero understanding of some pretty basic bicyclist concepts (like feeling vulnerable and scared)
THIS!!
I also had a similar incident last summer when intentionally forced into a tree by a car who chased me down for blocks and then entered a one way street. Called the cops, who took a report and then did nothing
Last autumn I was hit by a mirror by a car going the wrong way over the I5 overpass on Vancouver. I had video send was told I had to call non emergency because I want injured.
The cops just don’t care.
On the other side, I daily see bikes not stopping for pedestrians. If you want respect you have to give respect
I am a little late to the comments but as a volunteer at the Rose Parade a couple weeks ago, I encountered a completely insane driver, who willingly & knowingly drove the wrong way down TWO separate oneway streets, where 100’s of pedestrians, including young children, were disbanding from the parade. She was also hysterically screaming at me that I was acting “illegally” for blocking off the street for the parade to car traffic.
I flagged down a PSU police office (he told me was an actual cop) to go talk to her, and I watched out of the corner of my eye. they were laughing and chatting. he came back to me and said he “understood why she did that [drove the wrong way]” and defended her actions. I let him know that the priority needs to be defending people’s lives, not car convenience and walked away.
I am so sorry Viv that you were dished insult to your injury.
PSU cops murdered Jason Washington in cold blood. They are poorly trained, cowardly and can’t/shouldn’t be trusted. It was optimistic, but never going to happen expecting them to do the right or even the legal thing.
https://www.theroot.com/portland-state-university-campus-police-shoot-and-kill-1827317986
Armed and sworn campus police just doesn’t make sense for PSU. It’s smack dab in the middle of the city, and PPB is more than capable of quickly and effectively responding to any issue that might require police involvement on campus. It’s a waste of tuition money, and I told the university as much back when they first implemented the program and it was my tuition money going towards it. But it gives a certain kind of prospective student and their parents a warm and fuzzy feeling of being protected from the horrors of city life, which is all that matters to the university administration. Gotta pump up those enrollment numbers somehow!
Police Report Shows Jason Washington Died Holding His Friend’s Gun
These guys went out with an armed friend, managed to get cut off after having at least seven drinks apiece, then decided to fight an armed bouncer. Jason, armed with his friend’s gun, jumped right back into the fray instead of staying out of it and failed to comply with the officer’s commands.
FAFO
That’s a poor summary of the article you’re providing. You should read the whole article and if you want to get into a discussion after that then okay.
I’m an avid cyclist (year round and I know my rights) and I’ve been involved in similar incidents with similar results and people wonder why I don’t ever want to interact with PPB.
Ugh. Reading this recap reminds me of my…frustrations with PPB and many entitled and very disctracted motorists.
The number of people in this thread defending, or defending adjacent, the actions of this driver is downright appalling. I’m saddened. Portland used to be a harbinger of cycling rights. Now? Wolves are firmly in the hen house.
Some people feel culturally conservative, and this compels them to believe they have to at least partly defend members of their broadly defined clique. It’s gross but I’m used to it enough that I don’t react to it any more. I used to be appalled.
Hey Viv. Real sorry this happened to you. I’ve been involved in a lot of collisions, one serious. I wanted you to know, if you have lingering physical ailments, you can go the the doctor and have your car insurance’s PIP (if you have auto insurance) cover it. Definitely check with your insurance first but this is something I didn’t know when I got pretty wrecked and a lovely guy named Charlie Gee walked me through the process.
You’re not alone, you will learn to manage the fear, we will see you out riding again. 🙂
The “must ride in the bicycle lane” law should be eliminated. It is clearly a punitive, performative law intended to appease uninformed motorists. There is a long list of reasons that a person on a bike may need to leave the bike lane. This story highlights one of those reasons. As it stands, police interpret this law in the moment and further action is based on their discretion. The majority of police will get it wrong intentionally or unintentionally to suit their purposes.
It is common to need to ride next to another person on a bike temporarily to communicate- especially if there is an urgent matter. I do this when riding with kids or adults that need instructions often. According to this lazy officer, assisting another cyclist in this manner is lawfully punishable by vigilante violence. There are a number of other notable examples of this law being abused.
Legislators should repeal this law.
While they’re at it they should repeal cyclists must ride to the right since it almost never applies because lanes aren’t wide enough to share with vehicles safely. All it serves to do is enrage drivers and cause them to pass unsafely when there’s oncoming traffic.
Any Pedalpalooza ride that blocks traffic for other roadway users (yes, even bikes and pedestrians and public transit) is activism.
The bike community needs to stop playing dumb about this, and stop trying to convince everyday Portlanders that these rides are “just for fun” or whatever. The whole point is to provoke a response. Eventually innocent participants will get killed because a leader or corker provoked a mentally unstable and / or intoxicated rider. In fact, it seems like that almost happened in this story.
Every “Bike Summer” we lurch closer and closer to a mass casualty event touched off by the bike community’s actions. I cringe knowing that someday soon their human shields will be martyred for the sake of the cause.
Hi Gwen,
Strongly disagree with you.
Bike Summer rides are about a lot of things. The vast majority of them are 100% about just having fun. The entire thing spread out of a movement for “free bike fun” and it was powered by a lot of people who were tired of the confrontations at activist rides like Critical Mass and wanted something that was more fun, creative, and joyful.
So please understand the history before you take such strong positions. Thanks.
“The whole point is to provoke a response.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Your message boils down to “prepare to be justifiably murdered if you use the road for anything besides driving.”
“Parades, marathons, block parties, marches, business events; this is all activism, someone is going to kill you, and it will be your fault.”
Today I saw two activists blocking traffic on a street near me while they loaded a construction lift onto a flatbed truck.
Same goes for kids playing basketball in the street. One of these days a mentally unstable motorist is going to run down one of these little tykes, and guess who will be at fault? Not the driver of the two-ton battering ram, that’s for sure.
Correct, it will be those who are knowingly and unapologetically engaging in hoop based street activism — despite whatever “game” they might claim as cover for their dangerous and overtly political actions.
Remember when BikeLoud tried to hijack streets by abusing the city’s block party program?
https://bikeportland.org/2022/05/20/bike-loud-will-create-mini-sunday-parkways-on-ne-going-street-all-summer-long-353616
Tell me that ain’t activism.
Riding a bike outside of a bike lane is not an act of provocation. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to be out of the bike lane, such as avoiding broken glass from a smashed bottle that probably exited a car window, or any other debris in the mostly unmaintained bike lanes. Regardless, it is not an invitation for vehicular assault.
I would think by now car drivers would realize the summer in Portland means 1000’s of bikes on the road. Portland is a grid for the most part, if a car driver encounters cyclists they can very easily jog over a block and continue unobstructed. I do this on a bike when there’s gridlock. It might help if google maps would exclude bike routes from their routes with the least traffic.