Motorist with Baseball Bat threatened cyclist

There are 900 cars w/ that plate how many are dark green corollas? 5?

I never talk to the motorist, particularly if they've been aggressive.

Never heard of it ending well, once. Ever.

I ride Don Mills at least three times a week, and this has never happened to me.
I kinda don't accept the rider's inability to retain the license plate number, but relative ease at recalling motorist's appearance, gender, and race. Come on moderators, please remove this post.

Brian, are you implying this post is racist or sexist? This rider was only trying to describe the offender to the best of his ability. And he didn't say "If you see anyone that matches description, call police", because there are many people who fit the physical description. He said "If you see anyone behaving like this, call police", because waving a baseball bat would be enough to justify police involvement. Had Jacob L. said the former, then he would be racist and sexist. What else could he do?

And perhaps you should re-read the entire story carefully. At any red light, it's very easy to notice the race and gender of a person.

Brian: Way to be supportive of someone who was physically threatened. He's trying to share his story and warn us, and your telling him to "Shut the Hell Up", not interested in listening? Maybe it wasn't smart of him to follow up with "What's your problem?", but that's no reason to delete this entire post.

First of all Brian I can't understand why you would want this post deleted. Unfortunately it depicts reality, and a person with a bat is a very serious matter. Jacob did the right thing trying to memorize physical traits of the person as well as the licence plate. When you fill out a police form, it asks you for all those things. Sorry you had to go through that experience Jacob.

What is also the reality unfortunately is that I think the police really don't care about cyclists encounters with dangerous drivers. I've filled out several police forms and have never received a reply, confirmation, or any sort of acknowledgement that the form was read. I still encourage the forms to be filled however, as I'm sure our voices will one day be heard.

Don mills road can be a slice of hell

Lets just move on.

Thank you to those who showed support. Maybe "dances_with_traffic" was right, if a motorist threatens me, I should never try to lecture or have any other encounter with them again. As with police involvement, all I could do now is remember a license plate number if that threatening behaviour ever happens again. While filling out a driving complaint form may not actually catch the obnoxious driver, at least there will be statistics to show that the problem of road harassment exists.

"...this has never happened to me."

Most researchers try to take out one's own experience because it clouds any observations they do. "...never happened to me" is really apparent when you watch the newscasts about some horrible happening. "We moved to a small town cause these things never happen here!"

The problem with any victim of a violent act is they tend to hyperfocus and/or focus on ways to get out of the situation and therefore make lousy witnesses. Getting a licence plate number is secondary to getting out of the situation, as it should be. If you are out of danger, as you are dialing 911 you should be thinking of exactly where you are and trying to remember the plate numbers. That info should be some of the first out of your mouth when 911 answers.

The police response is problematic. If we go with Brian's suggestion that there are only five green, or actually if there were even 100, Corolla's with licence plates starting with BFVS there are ways to cut the number of possible suspects. How many of those Corolla's are owned by a female who is black, in her 20's and could reasonably be expected to be in the area where the incident took place. Even if the actual owner was not driving there is enough info there to whittle it down to a probable suspect. All it would take then is for Jacob to identify them from a photo line up.

No offense Brian, but the human mind can identify the appearance, or at least race and gender of another person in milliseconds. A series of letters and numbers takes multiple seconds to read and even longer to memorize when they aren't familiar. I have been in a situation where a driver threatened my life, and I was too preoccupied with keeping myself safe to even look at their plate let alone memorize it.

Cameras folks, cameras.

I was at Crappy Tire the other day and saw you can get a miniature camera on a keychain . Its made for people to take accident photos in case they get into one. Would be great for cyclists to carrey one, just in case you have to record a license number. ANd if the motorist shows you a baseball bat, show then your water bottle or your U-lock and smile!

To grannies cut me off on my way to work today - even gave me the finger. All I know is they were driving a silver honda civic, I would have tried to get the plate, but I was too busy trying to control my laughter - crazy ol' bat tried to kill me (LOL)

I make a game of remembering random plate numbers as I'm cycling. The more I do it, the easier it gets. You get into the habit of looking at the plate without thinking about it, its basically a visualization exercise. And on the occasions where I have been in a situation where a plate number was good info, I've always been able to remember them. I'd rely on that a lot more than trying to struggle to get a camera out of my pocket while trying to not die.

Unfortunately the one time it REALLY mattered, I got the plate number but never saw the driver, which meant the charges went exactly nowhere. But the police at least have the plate number on file for when he actually kills someone. I comfort myself with that.

Sunnyside 1 is right. A license plate number is worthless if you cannot identify the driver. Good luck with that. After an encounter which rattles your cage, the car can be long gone before you have the presence of mind to collect info. Tinted glass also makes it difficult to see who is driving. This cyclist had half a plate number and description of the driver and even took the step to contact the police. Too bad it was just a waste of his time.

Yes, you have to be able to identify the driver if you are looking for a criminal charge to stick. However, the owner of a vehicle can be convicted of certain offences under the highway traffic act. This is fantastic - imagine how upset the parents of a teenage driver who commits an offence would be if they were convicted for the child's bad behaviour?

1. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the owner of a vehicle may be charged with and convicted of an offence under this Act or the regulations or any municipal by-law regulating traffic for which the driver of the vehicle is subject to be charged unless, at the time of the offence, the vehicle was in the possession of some person other than the owner without the owner’s consent and on conviction the owner is liable to the penalty prescribed for the offence. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 207 (1).

When owner not liable

(2) The owner of a vehicle, except if the owner is also the driver, shall not be convicted for a contravention of,

(a) subsection 106 (2) or (4);

(b) sections 129 to 143, subsections 144 (1) to (17), subsections 144 (19) to (32), sections 145 to 168, section 172, subsections 175 (1) to (10), subsections 175 (13) to (18) or section 176, 182 or 199;

(c) a regulation or by-law made or passed under a section or subsection referred to in clause (a) or (b) or under section 106; or

(d) a by-law passed under any Act regulating or prohibiting turns on a highway. 1993, c. 31, s. 2 (10); 1998, c. 38, s. 5 (1); 2004, c. 22, s. 6 (1); 2006, c. 25, s. 3.

In my case, the car was (probably) being driven by the "not nice" son of the elderly owner. It was sort of implied that I could pursue the old man if I wanted to, I opted not to go there. But I thought hard about it.

And its never a waste of time to report a crime to the police. The more we report these incidents, the more they're taken as a genuine issue. And, in my case, at least the police questioned the jackass, so he was aware he had been reported, and that what he did was illegal (even if he didn't admit it was him).

I once reported an aggressive truck driver who had cut me off and gotten out to tell me that he pays insurance and to stay off the road. I took a picture of him tailgating me and filled out a police report and to my surprise had an officer call me back a couple weeks later stating that he would be reminded of the rules of the road by an officer. He also asked if I wanted to press charges (I didnt as this seemed adequate).

Stories abound of police showing up to scenes of altercations between cyclists and motorists and then threatening to charge both parties. I was intentionally rammed by an SUV in the bike lane on Annette, and had the investigating cop, even after me and several others had called 911, threaten me with a criminal offence (confinement he called it - I had gotten in the way of the driver!). When the cop asked me if I 'wanted to let bygones be bygones', I obviously had no choice but to say yes.

Others have had the experience of getting tickets for careless driving after getting left hooks in intersections, door prizes - you name it. Think hard before contacting the police - you are rolling the dice, and a shocking number of cops have absolutely no interest in supporting cyclists, or perhaps no knowledge of how laws can be used to protect us. Your choice of course, but prepare yourself for the possibility of disappointment.

Not sure why you were threatened with a confinement or mischief charge, but when something like that happens it is usually a bluff to get somebody to calm down. Some officers are lazy and may charge you anyways just to complicate things if you get in their face too much. That is how the police work.

Anyways, I think there is more to your story, robb.

Remember if you do call the police and you have acted in an unlawful manner you could end up charged, so stay SMART and stay CALM. The reason these "stories abound" is most cyclists do something stupid in hot vengeance like break a mirror, utter a threat or try to detain the motorist(think of Darcy). Keep yourself clean, take the information to the best and collect witnesses.

Personally, as I said before, I do my very best to not actually interact with abusive motorists after the fact and you should to.

Sorry that had to happen to you Jacob. In my own experience, I've never had anything intentionally done than passing me too closely or yelling/honking at me to try to startle me. I think it's good that you followed up with the police, even if they can't find the offender - the more reports given to the police, the more they might start to take aggressive motorist behaviour seriously.

That being said, I'll need to follow that same advice. I'm usually too rattled to be able to catch a license plate number after the car zooms off (not to mention I have terrible astigmatism).

As a matter of interest amongst cyclist - how many of you have ever, or would stop during an altercation b/t a motorist and a cyclist? There was one time I was riding eastbound on Gerrard toward Pape and around the Chinatown area I was at a stop light and looked over at this commotion and a cyclist was raging at a truck driver, raising his bike and shaking it at him. The truck driver got out and started raging back. Light turned green and myself and 4 or 5 other cyclists started to ride and the cyclist-rager overtakes all of us after a while, the truck driver zooms up and cuts him (and effectively all of us) off by turning a sharp right, gets out and proceeds to have another yelling match with the cyclist. I didn't stop, and went around the truck and so did the other cyclists...but in a situation like that - should you stop an get involved? I almost rode back, but decided it might not be the best to get involved.

I was angry at both of them - the cyclist and the motorist. Raging at somebody is never going to have a good outcome and I wonder if the cyclist had been able to be more diplomatic, would the truck driver had moved to dangerously cut us all off? But then...some motorists (and some cyclists) will just always be arseholes not matter how diplomatic you might try to be....

Stop, but don't get physically close or involved... the police may need witnesses.

That would be the right thing todo.

Just give them a disapproving look. If the driver ends up in front of me, whatever the circumstances, I know they probably checked their mirror after passing me, so I do a "no" nod and sometimes gesture "what the f--k?". I want them to know I'm not stupid and I know they did something dumb.

They'll probably continue to be a bad driver, so just hope they'll get the fine they earned eventually.

As a matter of interest amongst cyclist - how many of you have ever, or would stop during an altercation b/t a motorist and a cyclist?

Good question. What if in your example the cyclist was a 12yo? Would you do something then? Or the driver very elderly?

How did you even know who to be angry with?

Others are right. Do not put yourself in harm's way but do call the police. As bad as the cops can be sometimes at the very least they can prevent the incident from escalating. No phone. Keep at a safe distance and take notes.

Driver attacks cyclists with bat