BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

That stinks. Glad you outpaced them.

Last night on our night-ride, towards the end (I don't know where exactly) some kid yelled something at dan in his recumbent. As I turned the corner he was running and stared at me. I stuck my tongue out at him a-la Einstein style (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/86/Einstein_tongue.jpg/220px-Einstein_tongue.jpg), and he tried to chase after me yelling something like "come here b****!" or "I'll get you b****!" I don't remember exactly what, but it was to that effect.

I wasn't really concerned since I was on a bike, and I have a feeling he was just trying to scare us. But I'll consider carrying a knife next time.

Also, this behavior appears to qualify as different forms of Assault as described in the PA Code. If you feel threatened, there's no shame in calling the police.(http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/18/00.027..HTM)

As chemicaldave said, this is considered assault. Even if you don't feel threatened, the more folks who let the police know, the more likely a patrol will wind up in the area and we won't have the sort of awful things happen to our fellow cyclists that happened last year.

I moved here in August. What awful things happened last year?

See the Cyclist attacked on East Liberty Blvd--Memorial Day weekend thread.

There was something more recent re: ELB - maybe in the spring - but my google fu is failing on the search for the thread.

I considered calling the cops at the time, but things weren't dire by any stretch. I'll follow up with a call to zone 5 in the am.

I carry a pepper spray. It's a 3 oz Fox Labs 5.3 stream spray with a flip top cap. They're like 18 bucks on ebay, and last 3 years or something. I'd suggest the 2 oz, the 3 oz is rather large.

You can get the cone spray too, which I guess is better as a throat irritant, but I was concerned about wind and getting myself with it. The stream has an extra 3 ft of range too.

Haven't had to use it thankfully, but it gives you more confidence through some areas and keeps you focused on riding. I wouldn't suggest using it unless there really was no way out of a situation, avoiding confrontation to begin with usually is the better option. Even threatening to spray someone is often enough of a deterrent.

CompetitiveCyclist sells one that's self propelled cartridges in a pistol grip configuration (okay, more like a water gun), but it only has two rounds in it, which makes it rather worthless if you're not a good shot. The Fox 2 oz can will get you 16 half-second bursts, or I guess you can do 8 seconds of continous spray.

Oh. Yay! This again. Gonna have to make my ulock a little more accessible instead of just burying it in whatever bag I have.

And don't forget, wallet, phone, other valuables on your person, not in a bag on the bike. In the inescapable Bad Situation, you want to be able to just hand over the bike, bikes are replaceable.

If you are gonna carry it make sure you can get it out quickly. Mounting it on a messenger bag strap might work well. The biggest issue of retaliation of any sorts is the reaction gap and recognizing you are in "a fight" of sorts.

ETA: And just so people know, OC spray, is one of those things that does not work very well. You might scare away a bunch of teens or you might piss off the mob. OC spray generally cannot be deployed without getting everyone, including yourself. If your mode of escape requires your vision, reconsider.

Just to help balance out some of the fear in this thread, I have seen more walking patrols along negley and ELB in the last 6 months than I've ever seen before.

I may be wrong but I seems things get worse the colder the weather gets.

It's one incident, let's try to keep some perspective. "It gets worse as it gets colder"? Really? Most of the past incidents I'm aware of (which are few in number, all things considered) were in the summer.

Yeah, seriously. I've never heard any other city dweller say that street crime goes up in colder weather.

If every neighborhood where kids yell stupid things is scary, the world is your ghetto. All I'm saying is that if I was to avoid everywhere that a kid has yelled something stupid at me I'd have nowhere to ride but my living room.

@Brad: "All I'm saying is that if I was to avoid everywhere that a kid has yelled something stupid at me I'd have nowhere to ride but my living room."

Fantastic quote. You must not have kids, though. I wouldn't even be able to ride in my living room (insert winky emoticon here).

Brad, have you considered putting together a book of bike proverbs?

Perspective is good. I live in the area and to my knowledge there hasn't been a sketchy incident in many many months. There's no reason to feel unsafe, just be conscious of your surroundings around there.

This is just one incident. I ride by this area everyday and have yet to encounter any issues. Let's just hope its an isolated (Halloween time frame) incident.

Vaguely related: apparently there were a serious of attacks/attempted attacks/car-jackings around Construction Junction over the last few weeks. Apparently after the latest incident (perhaps last week), the perps were apprehended.

Scary. I live within a mile of Construction Junction, and I ride by there several times a week, but I had no idea stuff like that had been happening. I should probably pay slightly more attention to local news. I've never had any trouble around there, though.

Apparently the last victim was headed to the climbing gym (which is how I heard about it). Not sure if it made the news.