Description

Be on the lookout for this truck & driver. At 1:30 pm I had a large truck on Monday, May 4th, pass me very close while I was riding in one of our narrower bike lanes on campus where there's 2 lanes in the same direction (Service Rd. near the Clinical Ctr. where the E& W lanes are separated by a median). He had no vehicle to his left (see attached photo just after he passed me showing his wheels actually in the bike lane) and could have easily moved over but didn't. I saw him turn into the shopping strip mall just east of Hagadorn Rd. so I followed him and had a chat with him.

He made it very clear that he didn't give a crap about how close he came to me because "I was in the bike lane" according to him. I told him was much too close to be safe, and that if I'd crashed or had to avoid a pothole or dead animal that he would have run me over and killed me; he told me to not tell him how to drive his vehicle, that he's very experienced and wouldn't run me over if I'd crashed; I told him hundreds of bicyclists get killed by large trucks every year, that they're not able to move quickly enough to avoid running over a bicyclist in such tight quarters. He responded telling me he couldn't move over cause there was a vehicle next to him which my memory and photo proves was false. He then told me to get lost. I called his employer and filed a complaint. The driver was a black male in his late 30's to early 40's.

If you'd like to help support some proposed laws to help protect bicyclists from this sort of thing happening please attend the upcoming Lucinda Means Bicycle Advocacy Day on May 20, 2015:
http://www.lmb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=645:lucinda-means-bicycle-advocacy-day&catid=16&Itemid=23