Who is the bigger jerk here? (Read 469 times)

 

Yes.  I was not on a bike, I'm sure it would be worse if you are a foreign idiot gumming up the works.  But for the locals knowing where they are going, bikes/cars seemed to get along famously (I've spend ~3 weeks total observing this).  Running and bikes was no issue either on common paths.

 

If I were on a bike as a foreigner, I am sure I would not understand everything and cause some issues.  It would be my fault.

 

Re PerfesserR, I caught on pretty quickly not to walk in the bike lanes.  I was pretty impressed though how the mopeds and bikes got along sharing the bike lane at very different speeds.  This was the big difference I noted -- people seemed to be less selfish and work with each other, and be more tolerant.  At least with regards to this issue.

To be clear, I purposely rented a bike seeking out this madness. I enjoyed it. I lived 5 years in Germany where I spent my first two years driving so it's not that foreign to me. I was just trying to build on ProfsR's point to stay out of the bike lane in the Netherlands. But dnephin's right, It clearly is the bike lane.

There is one thing I've learned living in Boston. Just because someone is driving in the town they grew up in doesn't mean they know where they are going or what the traffic signs say. This guy is a good example of that.

So I have a confession. To preface this, I rarely bike, I lived and or worked in Boston (in the city proper) for my entire life except for a few years in the Marines  and the last two. Bikers in Boston are assholes generally. Many of them that I came into contact with were bike messengers who, if you don't  have experience with them, appear to be, generally, white teens and 20 something societal outcasts that routinely flout rules of the road and behave in passive aggressive or aggressive behavior with motorists. So one weekend  day I'm heading back home on Cambridge St in Allston with my newlywed wife  and some bike messenger dude is peddling in the middle of the left lane hogging the road. It being Boston, the right lane is  partly blocked with illegally parked cars. So I honk at him to move over, he did not, just kept blocking the travel lane at 15 Mph or so. I finally pass going up over the pike and he gives me the finger. I give it back of course (it's Boston, that's what we do). It devolves to the point where he stops in front of me at a red light and puts his bike on its stand. I come out of my car fast seeing red, he steps back, so I picked his bike up and threw it over the fence where it landed on the masspike's breakdown lane. Got back in my car and drive off. Wife was none too happy I must say. So I voted for the hipster dude w/o watching the vid. Been there. Hipster dude is probably  a bike messenger or close relative.

Yup

So I have a confession. To preface this, I rarely bike, I lived and or worked in Boston (in the city proper) for my entire life except for a few years in the Marines  and the last two. Bikers in Boston are assholes generally. Many of them that I came into contact with were bike messengers who, if you don't  have experience with them, appear to be, generally, white teens and 20 something societal outcasts that routinely flout rules of the road and behave in passive aggressive or aggressive behavior with motorists. So one weekend  day I'm heading back home on Cambridge St in Allston with my newlywed wife  and some bike messenger dude is peddling in the middle of the left lane hogging the road. It being Boston, the right lane is  partly blocked with illegally parked cars. So I honk at him to move over, he did not, just kept blocking the travel lane at 15 Mph or so. I finally pass going up over the pike and he gives me the finger. I give it back of course (it's Boston, that's what we do). It devolves to the point where he stops in front of me at a red light and puts his bike on its stand. I come out of my car fast seeing red, he steps back, so I picked his bike up and threw it over the fence where it landed on the masspike's breakdown lane. Got back in my car and drive off. Wife was none too happy I must say. So I voted for the hipster dude w/o watching the vid. Been there. Hipster dude is probably  a bike messenger or close relative.

At a first reading, this sounds like the actual violence was you seizing his property and deliberately destroying it? And you did this because you were so angry at his trying to ride his bicycle in the road, and you were furious because he stopped at a red light?

Am I missing something?

So I have a confession. To preface this, I rarely bike, I lived and or worked in Boston (in the city proper) for my entire life except for a few years in the Marines  and the last two. Bikers in Boston are assholes generally. Many of them that I came into contact with were bike messengers who, if you don't  have experience with them, appear to be, generally, white teens and 20 something societal outcasts that routinely flout rules of the road and behave in passive aggressive or aggressive behavior with motorists. So one weekend  day I'm heading back home on Cambridge St in Allston with my newlywed wife  and some bike messenger dude is peddling in the middle of the left lane hogging the road. It being Boston, the right lane is  partly blocked with illegally parked cars. So I honk at him to move over, he did not, just kept blocking the travel lane at 15 Mph or so. I finally pass going up over the pike and he gives me the finger. I give it back of course (it's Boston, that's what we do). It devolves to the point where he stops in front of me at a red light and puts his bike on its stand. I come out of my car fast seeing red, he steps back, so I picked his bike up and threw it over the fence where it landed on the masspike's breakdown lane. Got back in my car and drive off. Wife was none too happy I must say. So I voted for the hipster dude w/o watching the vid. Been there. Hipster dude is probably  a bike messenger or close relative.

I think we found the biggest jerk ^^^

Draw.

You're not in Amsterdam anymore, Yannick.

Then he is an asshole, and got what he deserved.