Screen shot from a video uploaded by cyclist Kate Mundie
On Wednesday, local cyclist Kate Mundie uploaded a video to YouTube which, sadly, shows what some bicyclists have to go through on Philly’s streets.
While bicycling with her children in her cargo bike on the 1200 block of South 11th Street on Wednesday, Mundie spotted a pickup truck, unnecessarily, dangerously parked in the bike lane. After checking to see if any cars were coming, Mundie safely rode out of the bike lane, around the truck.
Once back in the bike lane, a man driving a 2002 red Chevrolet Trailblazer with a cargo carrier on top and a Pennsylvania license plate pulled up beside her and began verbally assaulting her.
The video is below. Keep in mind it contains graphic language which may be disturbing to some.
If you are harassed the way Mundie was while bicycling, we highly recommend you file a complaint with the nearest police district. As we noted on our Facebook page this morning, mounting cameras to either your helmet or handlebars, as Mundie did, can help prove the situation actually happened.
Unfortunately, Mundie says, this sort of situation is not that uncommon.
“This sort of thing was happening a lot,” Mundie told the Bicycle Coalition. “Not always as aggressive but enough to leave me shaken and not feeling like a confidant rider. So I got a GoPro. I have been riding with a GoPro for about 18 months. After getting the camera, people did not hassle me as much. But in the last month I am have been yelled at about once a week. This incident was by far the worst and most explicit.”
Using the camera, Mundie said she’s able to often go back to old incident footage and see if she were in error. “I can look at the footage and know that I am doing everything I can to bike in a safe and predictable manner,” she continued. “Also, in the heat of the moment when you have a driver yelling or driving too close you get really upset. When I review the footage later I can have a little more perspective and not feel as upset.”
Though what’s particularly alarming about this driver’s reaction to Mundie safely following the rules of the road was his willingness to use profanity (and explicitly calling her the C-word) in front of her children. They, she says, were a bit more alarmed by this than she was, which is understandable.
“As we rode away we talked about how the man would be angry at anyone on a bike and it’s not about us. But this morning my older son was worried the guy was going to come after us,” she said.
Katie did a great job with that. I reckon Philadelphia kids learn about anger and cursing and such complexities earlier than kids elsewhere, and kids on bikes more so. At least everyone was moving slowly.
Good thing we’ve got those trolley tracks there in case one day someone needs to take a trolley down the road.
I hope this is brought up to Kenny and his people after he wins the election. The pressure needs to be kept on officials with the power to affect positive change for people on bikes. Doing nothing implicitly endorses this horrible behavior.
kate mundie first took my son and daughter out in the cargo bike when they were two and I’d trust her to do it any day.
Absolutely despicable and completely disgusting that a grown man would use language like that in front of 2 young kids.
I stopped being amazed at the rudeness shown on our streets, but I am still impressed with the confidence such selish rude drivers have. It never dawns on guys like this that he was the driver speeding down the road oblivious of what was happening in front of him untill he was almost on top of the family riding the bike. Oh, and if he was a more aware driver, he would have seen the pick up truck illegally parked in the bike lane and the cyclist’s need to go around it and his need to proceed cautiously while she left the bike lane and entered the all-vehicle lane before returning to the bike lane.
How should we report road rage incidents in Pennsylvania? Does the state or PPD have a mechanism for bad driver complaints? I found these sites, but are the authorities using this data?
http://www.reportdangerousdrivers.com
http://www.zapatag.com
This is bullying of the first order. An uneducated , angry and embarrassing Neanderthal! Go back to your anger managing class. Did your mother teach you to speak like that?
The guy was obviously a sleazy person, collecting disability, no doubt.
I disagree. It is despicable that he would use that language to a woman ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. Whatever the male equivalent of Cxxx is, that would best describe him. I’m impressed Kate kept her cool. Stay safe, Kate.
We can express indignation at a poorly-brought up man driving a big car all we want, but the truth is some number of people are going to behave badly, and throwing cars and bikes into the same space like this with just a little paint to separate them is inviting angry conflict.
That’s why I blame the lack of separated infrastructure for this just as much as that jerk. A physically separated bike lane would not have had a pickup truck in it and would not have required a mid-block merge of a low-speed bike into high-speed car traffic.
It sucks that people like Katie and me have to ride our babies around on car streets and suffer this kind of abuse for our insistence on an ecological, convenient, cheap and fun way of getting around. But I wish we could all direct this anger at our Streets Department and politicians instead of the occasional, inevitable low-grade psychopath.
Hi. The guy illegally parked half in the bike lane was getting into his car, if she had waited just a few seconds she wouldn’t have had to pull out in front of him at all. That red car was really close to get there that fast. The guy was a jerk but as they say in drivers ed class don’t be dead right. Especially with kids i the bike Stoping and starting may be annoying but it’s the safest. the guy should have kept his mouth shut and should not have swore in front of her kids and the truck should not have parked there. but those things are going to happen. better not to be dead right.
I don’t defend the driver by any means but I do question Ms Mundie’s decision to shuttle around (what appears to be) about 120 lbs of children around on (what appears to be) a 60lb. bike. Philly is not a very safe place for cyclists and certainly not a good proving ground for Seattle-like idealism on 180 lbs of slow moving sloth-cycle. One bad pothole, one ignorant driver texting on their cell phone and something really bad could happen. Leave “taking back the streets” to the helmet-less’ tattoo havin’ couriers and Lycra clad roadies (I used to be one if those!). Until drivers give cyclists “Seattle-like” respect, Ms Mundie is putting her kid at risk.