and they worry about people with firearms...

[sledgemeister]

http://hypervocal.com/news/2011/shocking-video-driver-tries-to-kill-cyclists-at-brazilian-critical-mass-protest/
video at link.

Tensions have long been high between drivers and cyclists. Nobody owns the road, yet both sides routinely act as if they’re always entitled to the asphalt beneath their respective modes of transportation.

The inspiration behind Critical Mass, typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world, was to create social space via the bicycle. Usually it’s an uneventful peaceful protest.

Not so this weekend in Porto Alegre, Brazil. At least nine people have been injured after a driver slammed his car into a group of Brazilian cyclists taking part in this month’s Critical Mass.

Somehow nobody was killed when 47-year-old Ricardo José Neis drove his black VW Golf straight through the group staging what appeared to be a peaceful protest. According to Sky News, “Neis…has reportedly claimed that he acted in self-defence after being threatened by some of the cyclists.”

“What happened was very scary, and I did not understand what was happening, because we could hear screams and the sound of people falling on the ground, the sound of bodies on the hood, windshield, on the asphalt,” one of the organizers said in a post on the Porto Alegre Critical Mass blog.

“I saw legs in the air, helmets, bicycles, arms, all mixed together with parts of the car all flying and making noise. It was like a horror movie.”

It’s either a horror movie or the worst Volkswagen ad in the history of advertising.

This isn’t the first time a shocking video has been recorded at a Critical Mass protest. In July 2008 a New York City police officer body-checked a cyclist on Seventh Avenue during a Critical Mass ride:

An NYC jury somehow found officer Patrick Pogan not guilty of assault and harassment. But the State Supreme Court jury in Manhattan did convict Pogan of lying about the assault. Pogan did resign from the NYPD force before the organization could fire him.

[Hazcat]

MOST cyclists  (at least around here) think that the rules of the road only apply to autos.  They blow through stop lights and stop signs, hog the road (single file to the far left is the law), dart across traffic lanes when making a left turn, no lights, etc. then bitch when they get run over and the driver is NOT charged!

[crusader rabbit]

MOST cyclists  (at least around here) think that the rules of the road only apply to autos.  They blow through stop lights and stop signs, hog the road (single file to the far left right is the law), dart across traffic lanes when making a left turn, no lights, etc. then bitch when they get run over and the driver is NOT charged!

FIFY 

Ya din't grow up in Englund, didja?

[sledgemeister]

FIFY 

Ya din't grow up in Englund, didja?

hasnt recovered from being made an honorary ozzy, not his fault you guys drive on the opposite side of the road 

[billt]

MOST cyclists  (at least around here) think that the rules of the road only apply to autos.  They blow through stop lights and stop signs, hog the road (single file to the far left is the law), dart across traffic lanes when making a left turn, no lights, etc. then bitch when they get run over and the driver is NOT charged!

+100 !

Same here in Arizona. The other day I passed a guy coming up to the turnoff in my subdivision. He was riding an expensive looking mountain bike, all decked out in the latest Spandex, gloves, and helmet. He was peddling almost as fast as the traffic, (35 MPH or so). I just had a feeling he was going to dart across the street I was preparing to turn right on to. I had my turn signal on well before I passed him. I decided to slow way down far more than normal in preparation to make my turn. Sure enough, he blew right by without even looking over his shoulder. Had I been oblivious to him I would have either squashed him like a bug, or else he would have T-Boned me right in the side. Either way he would have been in horrible shape. He rode on like nothing ever happened, or was about to.

The funny thing is there was zero reason for him to even be there. That stretch of roadway has a beautiful bike lane well off to the side that would have let him ride in total safety. But a lot of these guys think "bike lanes" are for kids, not them. I find kids on bikes to be more careful than these pedal pushing yuppies who ride in a pack on their 4 digit bikes, talking about their jobs and 401-K's, instead of paying attention to where the hell they are going.  Bill T.

[Sponsor]

[Dakotaranger]

I go out of my way to obey the rules of the road when I'm riding.  The thing I find people will pull ALL the way into the intersection blocking a crosswalk (that is in conjunction with a bike path.) I got yelled at by some pothead because I was on the road where there wasn't any bike path.  I'm not going to get a $30 ticket for riding on the sidewalk.

Then there were the babyboomers who got out of their Surburu.   He was giving it the hairy eyeball (the kind where we start following people at work) and she was grabbing for it.

I know there are cyclists that don't obey the rules of the road, but it shouldn't be too much to expect people to stop at the stop at the stop line or know that it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk