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One of the oddest road incidents I've experienced happened to me yesterday.

mistercindy

New member
I don't know how many tens of thousands of miles I've ridden on busy Dallas highways, but over the years its been a lot. Yesterday, riding home during rush hour, a very odd thing happened to me for the first time.

I'll paint the picture. I was riding north in heavy traffic on Cental Expressway in Dallas approaching NW Hwy. Its an eight lane highway: four north and four south. Rush hour traffic typically slows to a stop several times around NW Hwy to Royal Lane, and yesterday was no exception. I was in the far left lane: the fast lane. There was a normal sized shoulder to the left. As usual, I was in the right hand third of my lane, which is where I usually ride in the far left lane. I'm there for two reasons. One, I can see traffic between the lanes ahead of me better. Two, if I want to change lanes its only a couple of feet away.

So, we're moving slowly and traffic comes to a stop. Its enough of a stop that I need to put my feet down. A fraction of a second after I stop I notice a white car immediately to my left in my lane pull up next to me.:eek He couldn't have been inches from my left hard bag. I figured, "What the..?" I look down to be sure and, sure enough, I'm in the left lane. When traffic moved forward I gunned it a bit to get in front and away from him. In my rear view mirror I see a recent model white Cadillac with an older man with short and nicely cut conservative whispy white hair. He looked like an affluent retiree. Hardly the testosterone hell-raising type.

Traffic is moving very slow and in a few seconds I figure he just goofed up and I wasn't thinking about it. Then traffic stopped again and, he did it again! His left wheels have to be a couple of feet into the shoulder. In any event, now he's pissing me off.:mad I look into his car and he's glaring at me. Again, "What the....?" So I gun it a bit to get around him and we continue on.

Traffic stops again, only this time I stop, again in the right third of the lane, but this time a good two car lengths behind the guy in front of me. Sure enough, this guy does it again! I briefly considered kicking a little dent into his new white Caddy. Instead, I gunned it to the middle of the lane and stopped. Now I'm going to communicate. I turned around and looked at this guy and he's angrily mouthing something. Traffic has begun to move again, but I'm ignoring it for a moment to let this guy know he's being a serious jerk. That lasts maybe three or four seconds. But now when I continue I'm on full alert for this jerk, and I remain good 50 yards behind the car in front of me so I have room to maneuver if I have to.

After a couple hundred yards he violently moves and accelerates into the lane to my right. You may criticize what I did next, but I was not going to have that nut in front of or next to me, so I pull into that lane. He pulls back into the fast lane, and so do I. By this time I've had enough, and I gunned it and quasi-lane-split (not legal in Texas) by a half dozen cars to get away from this idiot.

And that was the end of it. He stayed in the left lane five or six cars behind me and didn't act odd again. But I sure had my eyes glued to my mirrors before I peeled off into the HOV lane.

I have absolutely no clue what got into this guy. We had no incident that I can recall. I didn't recognize him or the car. I have no... clue... whatsoever.:dunno

Sorry for the long-ish post, but its hard to say in a few words. Thoughts?
 
Glad that you escaped unharmed. It is scary when you realize that there are a number of unstable people in society and when we are on bikes, we really don't have much defense against them except to remove ourselves from the situation. My guess is that he was annoyed that you were only sort of using the lane and occupying "his" space. Who knows? Maybe dementia? Maybe a bike had cut him off earlier. I hope that you were able to get his license number and called the LEOs to alert them to this dangerous individual.
 
Do you have any stickers on the back of your bike that might set a kook off??
Hmmmm....
  • A six inch vertical 3M reflective red tape on my right hard bag,
  • A six inch vertical 3M reflective red tape on my left hard bag,
  • A round BMWMOA sticker on my right hard bag, and
  • A round Lone Star BMW Riders sticker on my left hard bag.

Pretty tame stuff. At least I think its tame.

Something got under that guy's skin about me or maybe motorcycles generally. All I can think of is that maybe he didn't like my being on the far right of the lane, and that was his way of saying "straighten up and fly right, and get into the middle of the lane where you belong." But still, what he did is a fairly dangerous little stunt on a highway. It just doesn't make sense.
 
Kinda had a similar incident.

I think that the problem here is that some motorists don't think that motorcycles warrant/deserve/need the whole lane width, and that they can occupy the same space.

Actually, there are far to many motorists that have have absolutely no clue how to respond a motorbike.

:banghead
 
He doesn't like incapable "dirt bikes" on his freeway?

His wife ran off with a Beemer owner?

It's the Dallas metroplex? :stick

Seriously, glad it ended well.
 
Personally, I'd rather have a driver like that ahead of me, where I can keep an eye on him, rather than behind me.
 
This could be as simple as a driver who thought lane splitting was legal, he may have even been from CA. He may have been confused, and felt he did nothing wrong.

Or not, still the best thing is to safely get away.

I am very glad you did not get hurt,

Rod
 
Actually....

His Ex ran off with a Beemer rider....

and he was afraid you were bringing her back!
 
Some people are naturals at various skills.... including being an a**h*le. Seems you have come across one of those in his natural habitat.

My advice? Just let it go.
He will always be what he he is and it is not something you want to be!:)
 
Like Mary says to me in such situations "Bob, some people use guns to settle this stuff" ya, she's right and like Tom implies, you can't negotiate with terrorists. I think that your choice to split lane ahead a bit was the best choice. But then again, there is likely some nut bar up there too who doesn't like you split laning.:banghead Found that out in NYC a while back. - Bob
 
I've had cars pull up beside me at stop signs, but I am a small person on a small bike. They see there is room and decide to share. Yes, their move is illegal, but I'm not the one who is going to argue the point. I let them get ahead so I can see what they are doing. No sweat. I still get where I'm going just as soon as I would have anyway.

Holly
 
There are certainly nutzos out on the road. Today my wife and I were taking a walk along our well-traveled backroad, me in front with our dog on a leash. A car slows and parallels me for a while, window up. (I'm thinking, this person needs directions, but why doesn't she roll down the window?) Finally she does and says "can I talk to your dog?" Then it dawns on me. This is the same old lady who made the same request a few weeks ago.

That time, I was the nutzo who stood on the centerline with my dog on a very short leash while she "talked to my dog." Today I just said "my dog doesn't talk," and kept walking. It took some time before she finally slowly drove away.

Yes, I feel sorry for anyone who is so lonesome they have to stop their car in the middle of the road to talk to somebody's dog.

It was also a reminder to me that, when I cruise the backroads on my bike, I should add Old Dears to my list of John Deere's and real deer that can block my lane just past a blind corner.
 
I once had a car pull up into the lane with me. Two lane divided highway, he followed behind me normally at the posted 45 MPH for a couple miles. Then, without any warning or cause, he pulls up, right into the space my bike had just occupied. If I hadn't moved out of the way he'd have run over me.

The entire time there was a marked cruiser behind us. Right behind this guy. That could explain why I know we were going the speed limit. The cop saw it all and ticked the guy but geez! It was like I was invisible. Or worse, like I didn't matter. After that I started riding like they were out to get me because they were. OK, paranoid rant off but you sometimes have to wonder.
 
I once had a car pull up into the lane with me. Two lane divided highway, he followed behind me normally at the posted 45 MPH for a couple miles. Then, without any warning or cause, he pulls up, right into the space my bike had just occupied. If I hadn't moved out of the way he'd have run over me.

The entire time there was a marked cruiser behind us. Right behind this guy. That could explain why I know we were going the speed limit. The cop saw it all and ticked the guy but geez! It was like I was invisible. Or worse, like I didn't matter. After that I started riding like they were out to get me because they were. OK, paranoid rant off but you sometimes have to wonder.

probably using a cell phone or maybe, worse, one of those texting idiots. - Bob
 
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