You are reading a single comment by @yahou 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.
@yahou
Until yesterday, I had assumed that bloodthirsty white van-driving lunatics only occured in all those schocking webcam clips from the UK on Youtube. Nope...
During my weekly commute, I was waiting to turn left here http://tnij.org/ol0s to turn left and leave the two-lane street and enter the segregated bike lane (barely visible as a pale red strip at the top). This guy came from the East direction and wanted to turn left. At this point, I usually want to cross as soon as possible because there might be a tram coming (which was the case), so the white van was waiting for the tram to pass, blocking me from crossing the two-lane. There was a lot of room so I gestured at him to move a bit and let me pass - which he ignored and, as soon as the tram was gone, started turning sharply, forcing me to move away, so I automatically 'pushed' myself away from the van's side (didn't hit it or anything), upon which he opened the window and threatened me. I did not reply and he got out (!) to chase me on foot, shouting friendly greetings to the tune of "I'll kill you, motherfucker." It was not safe to cross at that point, so I had to spin it really hard and ride the wrong way along the two-lane road. After a moment, he sort of gave up so I stopped and shouted something like "are you freaking mad, man?", so he started chasing me again LOL.
As much as I'd want to report this f*cker, I didn't manage to see his registration plate, so I only know it was a white Mercedes-Benz MB100, just like this one http://en.advisto.com/user_images/53750_9576_photo_pernot_020.jpg, though, having happened in Poland, it probably won't be very useful for you lot. Oh, and I was on the heavy, Nexus7-equipped winter commuter with dynamo hub lights, so actually running away from a mad construction worker was a bit of a challenge...