You are reading a single comment by @ihatelaw and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@ihatelaw
hit a jaywalker tonight on charing cross road on my way home. not hard, but fast enough to be a bit of a worry. i barely managed to stay on my bike, and she was almost knocked over.
there is no doubt that she knew that she was in the wrong, because she was running when I hit her (there were two of them).
I jumped off immediately and looked round to see if she was alright. she was so i yelled some abuse. not gentlemanly and no attempt to make an excuse but i am sure many on this board will understand what it feels like. a lot of people were watching, probably thinking "evil cyclist", when SHE was causing the danger. I was not cycling fast, and am always on high alert for jaywalkers on that street. It's like being raped, being painted as the bad guy in this situation...
I say all this because a taxi driver who did not see the incident, but did see me hurling (very limited) abuse and her nursing her arm, jumped in and started playing Batman. After I started cycling, he shouted "oi I saw that, stop" and trying to run me into the kerb. I was pretty freaked out, but not enough to stop me giving him the finger. I cruised quite slowly through two red lights by Leicester Square tube, but glanced one woman's backpack. I didn't stop because I wanted to get the fuck out of there.
I've been getting a lot of shit on my bike from other members of society lately - how do you avoid this type of stuff happening? nb before the accident I was not riding fast, at or below traffic speed up the hill.