How I done got my foot ranned over.
0 comment Sunday, April 20, 2014 |
Today I decided to shirk my responsibilities and see a movie. I arrived in the area a little early, so I decided to ride my bike around downtown for a bit. Sundays are usually a great bike day. There are few cars out, and the ones that are out tend to be a bit more relaxed than usual. Everyone was being really nice, that is until I came across this surly RTD employee:

-Note the covered face. I could also hear him calling me an asshole through the window.
It all happened at Arapahoe and 14th around 2:15. I pulled into the left turning lane in front of this RTD driver at a red light. When the light turned green, people started to slowly move, and the driver behind me slowly lurched toward me. I don't know if he was trying to go around me or what (even though I was moving and traffic was at a standstill). I moved over to the right since he was about to run over my front wheel. The car in front of me stopped, so I put my foot down. But the driver kept going and SLOWLY ran over my foot.
I started yelling at him, but he wouldn't roll down his window. After banging on his window for a few seconds, he rolled it down and proceeded to yell most of George Carlin's 7 dirty words that you can't say on television. I was pretty shocked. I expected him to say something like "Did I hurt you?" or "Are you okay?", especially since he was in his work car and on duty. But no. I then said I was going to call the cops, and he gave me the whole 'who are they gonna believe, me or you? blah, blah, blah' bit. I really wasn't in the mood to ruin my day and have a confrontation with the police, so I rode away (after taking pictures, of course). In hindsight, I really, really should have called the police. I was just a bit out of it and my body was surging with adrenaline.
This really sucked, but I did learn some lessons:
1. Getting your foot run over doesn't hurt as bad as you'd think (although it still hurts pretty bad).
2. Always have a list of witty remarks to yell at people who run you over/nearly run you over/et cetera - this is an important one, after every bad interaction with a driver that I have, I always think of the most perfect thing to say 5 minutes later. I suggest carrying a book of witty remarks with you at all times, always at the ready.
3. Carry a camera. I'm glad I got pictures of the guy.
4. Call the police. It was stupid of me to ride away.
License plate/car number:

The foot:

My bike is now forever scared of white vans, but I think it'll be okay:

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