Fit City

By Monty

January 6, 2012 9:22 AM | Link to this

Man, I wish I had a forum like this…I would have a letter every other day and in some cases every day.

By Clark

January 6, 2012 9:58 AM | Link to this

Someone drives (what you perceive to be) too close to you and says 5 words to you and you write a 14 paragraph diatribe?

Makes you wonder who really overreacted here (hint - you).

By Pam LeBlanc

January 6, 2012 10:12 AM | Link to this

Clark, I think it was more about him calling me an (expletive deleted) and yelling at me to get off the road when I hadn’t done anything wrong.

By Clark

January 6, 2012 10:30 AM | Link to this

Yes, it’s true, people can be idiots. My point was your reaction seemed disproportionate to the situation.

It seems like you took this a little too personally. Sometimes you have to let things go.

Perhaps you should follow your own advice and “take a deep breath.”

It will put you in a better mood.

By Matt H

January 6, 2012 10:39 AM | Link to this

Clark, are you serious? There’s nothing ok about cussing someone for following traffic laws.

Do you have a beard?

By Buddy

January 6, 2012 10:41 AM | Link to this

Clark, was that you in the car perhaps? I thought Pam handled it well considering what happened. The man in the 2,000+ lb projectile was obviously road raging and the situation could have turned very ugly if cooler heads (Pam & hubby) did not prevail.

By Steve

January 6, 2012 10:46 AM | Link to this

Clark, Do you have a beard and drive a late model car by any chance…if so, my guess is you have a potty mouth and lead foot as well?

By lluciano

January 6, 2012 10:53 AM | Link to this

Clark, Seriously? When there is someone so aggressively hostile in a car it can be terrifying to a cyclist who is minding their own business. Pam has a great point. This individual went out of his way to create a problem that didn’t exist. And it IS personal. Cyclists encounter hostile drivers all of the time. The roads are for sharing. Why rank on Pam for telling it like it is.

By Jeff

January 6, 2012 10:54 AM | Link to this

Clearly some motorists (such as “Clark”) have no idea how much abuse cyclists suffer. Clark, let me clue you in. I guarantee you this is not the first time Pam has been hollered at. How do I know this? Because I am a law abiding cyclist who does not drive and long ago I learned to expect this sort of behavior, just like a I expect dogs to bark at me. Occasionally I will chase after a driver who feels the need to scream at me (you know it’s mostly garbled due to the Doppler effect) and let loose with a stream of invective that would make a sailor blush. What are they going to do, pull a gun on me? The point is, Clark, you have a no idea how common this sad situation really is. A little advice: stick to what you know.

By Chris

January 6, 2012 10:55 AM | Link to this

Monty, Clark, Pam’s husband, Chris, here. Yes, Pam has a forum where she can express herself. How often has she written something like this. Neither of you were there.
In over 10 years of bike commuting, this was probably the worst case of biker hate I’ve seen. The guy raced past too closely. Too close obviously changes with situations, but when someone is going about 50mph and only leaves a few feet when there are 2 open lanes, that’s too close. He then choses not to go when the light turns green so he can tell us to get off the road and use mulitple expletives to call us names. Oh, it was more than 5 words. In the end, it gets your adrenaline up as someone puts your life in danger for no reason.

By Maureen

January 6, 2012 11:47 AM | Link to this

Pam, I’m sure your calm, compassionate response is the healthiest approach to the raging hostility of a sad little man, and I congratulate you on it! I fear I’d spend WAY too much time trying to track him down for some sort of ill-advised payback.

By Rafael Ramirez

January 6, 2012 12:11 PM | Link to this

You would think John Kelso would be nicer to a fellow co-worker!

By Jody Hunt

January 6, 2012 12:42 PM | Link to this

Good one, Rafael. Sorry to hear about that Pam. Some people have a problem with bikes on the road. Clark, what’s yours?

By Jody Hunt

January 6, 2012 12:43 PM | Link to this

Minor complaint - the thumbnail on FB had hotties in bikinis - where are they? Was that just to get me to click the link? Well, it worked.

By Amy

January 6, 2012 12:44 PM | Link to this

Pam, I’m sorry that this happened to you! It is scary, especially when you are following the rules. My cycling friend was hit by a car and broke her face and leg just this week. I’ve been hit too, and the guy drove off and left me! It’s a shame people don’t realize their vehicles are weapons that could kill. Thank you for bringing the awareness up, lady! In whatever way you can!

By Youdontwanttoknow

January 6, 2012 12:59 PM | Link to this

Suck it up. The world is full of idiots and rude people. If you are going to insist on using public roads, you’re going to have to put up with the public.

By Jeff

January 6, 2012 1:15 PM | Link to this

You don’t want to know, nice try at trolling. I wouldn’t trust you to know how to use a public bathroom, let alone a public road.

By RedT

January 6, 2012 2:42 PM | Link to this

That Kelso comment was great, Rafael! Clark, Unfortunately, a LOT of motorists have no idea how dangerous it is to drive too close to a cyclist - a startled cyclist could veer into your car; the draft from a speeding car could also put a cyclist off balance and cause them to ride into traffic or a curb. Cyclists have the same right to lawfully use the road as a car/truck.SUV. No one would or should tolerate being threatened and insulted while going about their business in a lawful manner whether they are in a grocery store, walking the dog, driving to work or, yes, even riding their bicycle. I wonder what your reaction would be if you were standing in line at Starbucks and someone physically threatened and berated you and your SO, because what happened to Pam is really no different.

By AustinLibrarian

January 6, 2012 4:43 PM | Link to this

I’m with everyone wondering who the heck Clark is! I need to be sure that he doesn’t live in my neighborhood for when I ride again.

By Jason

January 6, 2012 5:44 PM | Link to this

Hey Clark, what kind of car do you drive? I want to make sure that we meet on the road sometime. Maybe I’ll be on my bike maybe not.

Whoever angry bearded man is, he needs to reel in his anger. Luckily for him he encountered Pam, whom I can only assume to be a really nice, sweet lady. If he had pulled that crap with me, he would have been promptly asked to step out of his vehicle and discuss things a little more face to face.

Here is the thing. Austin is still a beautiful city. It is a wonderful place to ride a bike, ride a skateboard, take a stroll and even take a drive or ride a motorcycle.

I enjoy doing all of the above things and believe that everyone else in this city has the right to do so as well. No one has the right to go on the attack for someone obeying the law and doing something healthy and good for the environment.. You never know who you might be attacking and what kind of payback they have in mind.

Share the road and have a nice day.

By David

January 7, 2012 12:51 PM | Link to this

I thought she handled it well. These are the type of people that hit bicyclists or cause accidents. He obviously had issues that he should have addressed before getting behind the wheel. There are too many people that take getting behind the wheel for granted. All it takes is one mistake. There is no reason to up the odds of that happening. Had he hit either of them he would have had much larger issues to deal with.

The good thing is that the number of people like him is small. It is somewhat comforting knowing he is wallowing in his own misery. I would have laughed at him.

By Alonso

January 7, 2012 5:06 PM | Link to this

Pam, you did react correctly to a very dangerous situation. I am glad you and your husband are both well. I wish you had been able to publish the bearded thug’s car’s information, it could help make Austin’s streets safer and we would have a public record if he harass another cyclist again. Even if Acevedo’s APD would not keep a database for known aggressors, it would be great if we could somehow mantain one.

By jimmi

January 8, 2012 9:14 AM | Link to this

Dear Angry Unbearded Pam

Thank you for using your professional blog to vent your anger. Now, in the future, please use said blog in a more professional manner. Are you a journalist? Go back to your notes and see if this particular rant fits into any definition of journalistic professionalism. There is some kind of article in regard to bikes and motorized vehicles on a regular basis in your paper. In fact, there was one in this issue in regard to bikes blowing through stop signs. You contribute nothing to solving the overall problem, but you did start quite a tirade amongst your readers.

By Joe

January 8, 2012 1:20 PM | Link to this

Kudos to your posting. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered drivers and wonder about their behavior when confronted by a cyclist on an empty stretch of road, while riding on the far right only occupying 2’ of the road. Drivers show signs that they are threatened or their space has been trespassed or I impeded their progress by 15-30 seconds. Drivers turn malicious and feel they have to assert their presence by buzzing very close at high speed. What’s unfortunate is that the driver does not think about what would be the outcome if the cyclist had to maneuver around a road hazard at the same time the car passes at high speed.

Clark, Pam “went on a 14 paragraph diatribe” to make people aware of the problem cyclist face every time.

I’ve mounted a Contour helmet cam under my seat and on my helmet exactly for these situations. I never ride without it.

I make a point, as a driver to slow down and give plenty of room when passing a cyclist. This shows as an example to the cars behind me and they usually do the same.

By Clark

January 9, 2012 10:39 AM | Link to this

Look guys, I’m not the angry, bearded man (I wish I could grow a nice beard, but it’s not in my genes) and I’m not a troll.

I was posting my honest thoughts on the situation. It’s true that people in the world can be jerks. Like Pam said, maybe he hadn’t had his morning coffee or maybe he’d just been in a fight with his wife. I’m not excusing what he did, and unless the ABM himself comes on here and posts an explanation, he doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps I didn’t articulate my point well enough, because I seem to have come under a lot of fire. It’s not that I don’t think Pam should feel upset, I just found it interesting that she doled out the advice to the ABM to take a deep breath and calm down, yet I’m sure as soon as she got to work, she fired up the old computer and wrote up her own angry rant that you see above.

I don’t read Pam’s articles on fitness to hear her personal thoughts on something we’ve all experienced (rude people). I hope she didn’t get paid for writing this article, which really amounts to nothing more than her being upset that somebody called her a bad name. I say get over it and move on!

By alexandratx

January 9, 2012 10:41 AM | Link to this

Wow. Jerks don’t like to be called out on their bad behavior, whether its on the road or in print. Frankly I would videotape the next jerk that harrasses me and put them on youtube. No jerks deserve privacy when acting like jerks in public places. Occupy Jerks!

By Donald Lewis

January 9, 2012 8:27 PM | Link to this

Those that have a fanatic hatred of cyclists can not be reasoned with, and riding legally gains you no respect with them whatsoever.

By General

January 9, 2012 9:44 PM | Link to this

Clark, you ARE the troll.

By mrun

January 10, 2012 1:18 PM | Link to this

I think this article is appropriate. Pam’s whole blog is about her going about town or beyond and trying different fitness activities and reporting about them. Well, unfortunately, this is something that happened during her attempt to live her fit lifestyle. You could read it as an angry letter posted in response to a single incident, or you could read it as a calmly thought out article about a situation that is not uncommon for cyclists. I like that she mentioned all the things she was doing right as a cyclist, which are important for people to know about, too. Nice job, Pam. Clark, I see your point and don’t think you are a troll, but I do think you are reading this a bit narrowly.

By Joe in Austin

January 12, 2012 10:27 AM | Link to this

Menacing someone with your car is a crime. So is aggressive driving, such as deliberately waiting so that one can be confrontational and abusive with their language. While the crime may be old hat, not pointing it out gives the tacit approval that it is okay. It’s not okay.