Here's my story.
As usual, this morning I was heading to work, coming down Greenfield Ave. in Squirrel Hill toward 2d Ave. After checking behind me and seeing some vehicle about 50 yards back at the top of the hill, I took the lane since the parked cars on the right can be dangerous. Seconds later, the vehicle (a large red Ford F-150 pick-up truck) roars up behind me and starts leaning on his horn. I look back - he's inches behind me. I motion with my hand for him to give me some room, but he responds by coming up besides me with inches to spare, then forcing me over into the gutter.
At this point, we roll up behind six cars waiting at a red light at the bottom of Greenfield. He rolls down the passenger-side window, shouts "[something something something] asshole." I say, "I'm going to report you to the police," and he responds, "Go ahead and do it, asshole," and roars off. By the time I can get my camera out of my pocket to snap a picture of his license plate, he is gone.
So I continue on my commute. When I get to downtown, I usually take a right off the jail trail, head under the Liberty Bridge, and roll past the jail itself to get on to First Ave. And what do I find parked in the jail's loading/unloading driveway on my right? The same red truck! I could recall enough of the license plate number to know.
The driver is out of the truck, and it looks like he may work for the county or contract with them because he was giving some attention to the jail's HVAC machinery. I get off my bike, make sure I get some good pictures of the truck and the license plate, and ask him for identification. He refuses to give me any, complains about my running a stop sign at the top of Greenfield Ave. (untrue and irrelevant), suggesting that his reckless driving was some kind of pay back, challenges me to sue him, and then drives off in his truck.
So I call the police, saying that I'd like to file a report. The police officer shows up about 30 minutes later, and somehow the driver knows to return just at the moment, too. It's possible that he was alerted by a co-worker who had remained at the scene.
Anyway, the police officer listens to my story, as I explain how I felt terrorized by the driver's completely reckless and dangerous, intentionally threatening driving toward me, but the only solution she offers is for me to file harassment charges with the D.A. Oddly, she seems to think it was his angry words to me that constitute the harassment, even though I feel it was his actions that were much more significant (and beyond harassment - I feared for my life).
I asked if there would be a police report to support any charges, and she said no, but she did give me an incident number, for what that's worth. And I did get the driver's information from her - name and address.
I'd like to get the community's advice on what more if anything I should have done or could do now. I don't really want to press for harassment charges or anything, as I know it would be his word against mine and I'm not interested in wasting the court's time. I was hoping there could be some more administrative remedy, where at least this report of aggressive driving could be tied to the truck's license number. If we are to identify repeat offenders of this nature (as I suspect he may be from his overall angry attitude), there has to be a way to make records of this sort. But I don't know.
Anyway, keep an eye out for a red Ford F-150 truck with plate number YKX-4441. Because I have a feeling that the driver is definitely keeping an eye out for cyclists, and not in a good way.
