Blame Canada

This is rich. And I can’t believe it’s being reported with a straight face. The cab who tried to kill a bike and maimed a tourist blames the bike. The cab admits he didn’t see the bike before the bike started banging on his cab. That’s what Sherlock Holmes would call a “clue.” See, when you’re obliviously driving along in a car, as the cab driver says he was, “I didn’t see [cyclist Kenneth Olivo] — only when he banged on my car. He is not good.” Dude, he was banging on your car because you didn’t see him! Think it like a friendly tap of the horn. The horn you so liberally applied before loosing your temper and trying to kill the bicyclist and then severing a poor girl’s leg in the process. Banging on a car says, “I’m here, and you’re way to close to me, and you might kill me!” I’ve banged on cars. I imagine every urban biker has banged on a car at least once. Not be be an asshole or damage the car. See a bike bell doesn’t cut it when a car is veering into you. My life is at stake, you prick! This is from the Bike Snob:

He says Tuesday’s accident happened after he accelerated to get around a bicyclist who he says pounded on his car and yelled at him. Oh, really? I thought you accidentally stepped on the gas instead of the brake. Ah, whatever. We all know how it works: the driver gets to try on as many stories as he wants until he finds one that fits. When I was sideswiped from behind some years back, the driver explained to me with a shrug that “I thought I could get around you.” Oopsie! You couldn’t. Instead you sent me sprawling on a busy avenue in evening rush-hour traffic. However, what she told the police and the insurance company was that I hit her–because, you know, I make a habit of riding my bicycle into cars in reverse. As for the messenger pounding on the cab and hitting it, that shouldn’t matter. I don’t care if the messenger slapped the cabbie across the face with his dick. Whatever happened, the cabbie tried to assault the cyclist with his car, he missed, and he ripped off a woman’s legs instead.