I'm actually with the other comments on this one. The guy on the bike is a statistic waiting to happen. He's on a narrow 2 lane road with other cars coming toward him and he's in a pissing match with a car driver over his (maybe) right of way.
Insisting on your right of way is stupid and could get you killed.
Watch the video again. I see nothing wrong at all with the guy's response- the dingbat is completely in the wrong place AND trying to force him out of his lane... WHAT a b*tch.
I don't see merging lanes quite like that in TN, but it seems apparent that she deserved both tickets issued after a couple of looks.
I was waiting at the last light before I got to work (in a major retail/restaurant drag)... the cross street got green, and a Honda sedan started turning into MY forward left hand lane (!!!)- only after I laid on the horn did they see their impending doom, and alleviated mine...
Keep your head on a swivel. Looks like one day we'll be like Russia, where everyone uses live cameras to protect themselves...
He had the right of way since the other lane ended. I think I would have been more aware of the car and gassed it to make sure I was clear or if the driver was gassing it, backed off. In the area I lived in before, the prevailing ethic seemed to be that the car somehow had the right of way because you should be nice, so you had to be aware of that tendency. Even if you were right, the injuries don't hurt any less. My wife had a neighbor tell her about how rude an M/C rider was by yelling at her after she cut him off. Not much self awareness there.
I watch a lot of idiots who labor under the delusion that somehow or another . . having a camera on your head . . making you look like a rooster . . somehow makes you right.
Based on an admittedly unscientific sampling of videos . . I think, more often than not, the camera simply proves many to be quite unbright and willing to prove it.
I'd prefer skill and good judgement over a camera.
I'm right with you Court and Crusty. Dumb behavior. Sure it can be frustrating out there but we all know that and have to be smart about it. We can't change the world and we have to keep in mind that getting home in good shape is the top priority.
I'll agree with others here in that this motorcyclist was NOT riding defensively and if the confrontational style is distributed on the Interwebz, will only encourage like behavior among the less intelligent.
It's too easy in moto/car confrontations to end up as a meat-filled hood ornament.
We need to be willing to SEE-AND-AVOID. Avoid ALSO (to me) means avoid confrontations - especially bringing a knife to a gunfight (moto vs car)
Good of the black and white to chase her down but I question the survival skills of the rider.
I agree that it's likely the MC rider could've MAYBE anticipated the b*tch, but I don't think so. I think she surprised him from the right rear, and his wedge of road was suddenly a LOT smaller going forward.
Matthew, I'm with ya on future-forward self-placement- but, the box truck prevented that. Yeesh!
I'm gonna recommend one of the GREATEST farkles EVAAAR to you all: Stebel. I've fallen in love with Stebel horns, they're the next best thing to a train horn (which I still want for all my vehicles). About 50 bucks, they'll make people levitate if you hit it and they aren't expecting it. My Triumph has one, my mechanic figured out how to PERFECTLY mount it so my plastic bodywork seems to amplify it. Worth the $$$ at twice the price or better!
Edit: Ooohh!! Looked at their site and they have a NEW horn ($88) that replicates a big-rig truck horn! KEWL!!! WANT. Wish they had a sound-demo feature on their site...
And, thanks to all here for your $.02 contributed. Awareness means aliveness!
That happened in South Windsor, but we have roads like that all over the state. Same principle with highway on ramps and DOT lane closures which happen all the time. The DOT many times doesn't put signage up far enough ahead of closures, but on normal roads there is always a sign to indicate a merge ahead. Yeah, generally if you are the vehicle to the rear of the other when the sign is visible then you should fall into the space behind that vehicle, not speed up to get ahead of it. Unfortunately size does matter, the rider could have slipped behind the car although it would be hard to resist a copious amount of horn along with single digit hand extensions.
I ran upon such a "short notice lane closing" at the very north end of the Taconic Friday night . . . it's amazing how far it backs traffic up.
I just cranked up the music (I was on the way to see Warren Hayes at Tanglewood) and merged whenever I had a chance.
I've mellowed with age.
:-)
Worse yet . . . was the tornado on the ground that crossed the Taconic about 1/4 mile ahead of me. The tornado didn't scare me (Kansans seem to have developed a communal tolerance for such things) but all the freaking alarms coming up on my various weather apps did . . .
Regardless of where you come down on the 2nd Amendment . . nothing even comes close to conferring the right to fatally gun someone down if they punch you in a traffic argument.
That's sad. All you can learn from that is avoid conflicts that aren't necessary, which means nearly all conflicts.
I don't even know who to blame.
You carry and you have an obligation to never escalate anything that could end in you employing deadly force. So clearly the cop is in the wrong.
You get out of your car and go over and start punching somebody seated in their car with a wife and kids with them and get shot as a result, you are also clearly in the wrong, and your cause of death was being a bully.
Don't be stupid people. Stop, take a deep breath, and move on.
We'll see what the investigation yields . . . it's looking like a race to see who of the 2 stupid people was the stupidest.
The cop . . . in my view . . . knowing the little I know (only from media) is the clear runaway winner and this is the embodiment of "what's wrong with concealed carry" . . . it's not "carrying" . . it's the lack of training.
He should have checked that big ol' tough guy cop ego . . .rolled up the window. . . .run the SOB over over . . . done whatever he could (there were so many options, it's scary) to deescalate and he choose the worst of the choices which was to engage, enrage, escalate and murder.
Tough day on the streets of Gotham . . .but this guy, again . . based solely on what we now see it the media . . needs to do some big time.
Concealed carry . . . . brings HUGE responsibility when you are holding life and death on your hip.
Concealed carry . . . . brings HUGE responsibility when you are holding life and death on your hip.
Yes, It does. Have to take the high ground. My training was explicit about not being able to escalate a situation, then claiming fear for life. You have to anticipate the consequences of your actions before you even make a facial expression. Key is to avoid confrontation no matter how it makes you feel.