Today some cyclist decided to overtake another one and we almost had an head to head crash. I had to move aside for him to pass and I had to direct my longboard to a pavement construction hole.
Like in other situations, people are a lot disrespectful for others and do this kind of stunts. Usually the victim is the one that didn’t done anything wrong but had to do something to avoid injury.
Is this something against skaters? How is it in your own countries?
Doesn’t look like he was being inconsiderate, it looks like he was looking down at something and not paying attention. Wasn’t even wearing a helmet. Probably hardly ever rides. Reminds me of tourists here who ride Citi bikes (rentals in NYC).
Best thing to do is yell “heads up” or something of that sort whenever you see a potential situation like that coming up.
That’s one of those average daily situations! Same with pedestrians, jogger wearing headphones, kids, dogs (!), cars in general (and specifically when pushing back out of parking lots, or breaking for a pokestop). Basically everybody is doing the unexpected and puts your life in danger. Driving defensively and expecting exactly this happening to you increases safety.
That’s how I ride bikes: imagine everybody on the street tries to kill you unintentionally and being aware of that every second keeps you staying alive.
I’m almost sure he saw me coming. He hesitated between reducing his speed and activating the bycicle horn, he did neither and also put in danger the other biker facing incoming car traffic.
I agree this is one of those situations that can happen when we ride in the public roads or bike lanes. We esk8ers have to always be alert for anything that can happen and prevent any accident.
That’s the thing. If you’re not paying attention the whole time, and you’re not an experienced rider/biker… you freeze up when you look up and find yourself in a situation like that. Then you end up making a dumb decision. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people on the streets that don’t know the first thing about riding safely. The only thing we can do is ride defensively and as elkick said, “imagine everybody on the street tries to kill you unintentionally”. Not that everyone is, but yeah, thinking like that will keep you alive.
The next time you see multiple bikers in front of you in the opposite lane, expect that one of them is going to switch into your lane right in front of you.
If you watch this at 0.25 speed. It becomes really obvious that he should be able to see you then he decides to change lanes and speeds up and checks his watch before almost hitting you. I understand that he might want to pass the other person but doing it at that moment and why does he have to checking his watch when doing this. I notice a lot of people doing the watch checking trick when walking past homeless people to pretend they don’t see them.
I would have just put my hands out to push him away(cause even though it is possible to bike with no hands so he could push you as soon as he tries he would lose balance). That watch check could have been a fake saying he was thinking of pushing you if you did not pull over.
But I suppose this would never happen unless intentional cause out bike lanes are wider that that road.
You’re right. It’s like the saying “expect the unexpected”.
There’s always that urge to just smack the guy in the face while riding by! But ya gotta let it go. It’s not worth the possibility of getting yourself hurt over. Plus there’s just too many idiots out there. Your arms would get too tired to hold a controller from all them smackdowns!
My course of action would probably have been to slow down and move to the side to let the guy pass. Yell “a$$hole” really loud in his face as he road by.
As a new yorker myself, i just yell out “YO!YO!YO!” and they’ll move out of the way themselves. Drivers here are pretty aggressive though 
this situation looks pretty familar! had some biker just aiming at me while looking directly in my face - not sure what his problem was, maybe he was frustrated and wanted to take it out on someone … anyway, I was already at the edge of the bike lane and couldnt go any further, especially not at 30kph - put up body tension and went for the impact, clipped his handlebar and sent him flying off his bike. guess he didnt really think that whole thing through. I just rode on, didnt feel like starting an argument with an obviously aggressive idiot. 
When in doubt
Gotta get a whistle like this bike messengers if ur gonna ride in traffic…
So, who’s going to be the first one to hook up an air horn to the 2nd channel on the remote? 
@whitepony Glad to hear you came ok on that interaction. Sounds like that guy got exactly what he deserved, but illustrates who really could end up on the worse end of a situation like that. Bikers have further to fall in a much more awkward way, and should really be watching out for themselves, if nothing else. It’s a lot easier for us to have to jump off and bail even though it should never come to that.
Yea, but i’d rather risk a pedestrian safety than to look like a boy scout with their litta whistle. 
Edit: Totally kidding btw, i have a tiny bit more common sense than that, i’ll carry a trumpet with me.
I put a car horn on my first one …lol it was funny
F*** that. I’m putting a PA system on my board with a mic on my remote so people can hear my dope beatboxing while I’m cruising. Everyone will hear me coming and if someone tries to run me off the road, I’ll scream and make squealing tire sounds. Problem solved.
I’ve looked for a mini pa … Can’t find one that will fit
Haha, seriously?! I was just talking crazy, and you’ve already researched it? 
With that PA you linked, it looks just crazy enough to work.
