When cars take up the public road (every evening from 3 pm to 6 pm), or recklessly speed (in the a.m. commute) where is the LAPD to cuff these lawless maniacs? Somehow when we get on bikes on a Saturday night, we’re a problem? If we did it in cars, it would all be okay I guess.

When traffic is backed up, and bikes are the faster means of transportation on the road, do the cops show up with their horns blaring, revving their engines and demanding the all the cars “MOVE TO THE RIGHT!! NOW!!” to let one bicyclist through in the left-hand lane? This regularly occurs during rides with 300+ people. When you’ve got 300 people in the streets – does it really matter whether they are in cars or on bikes? They have the right to be there! They are setting the speed limit, que no?

On the issue at hand, wonder why the Dep. Chief doesn’t talk about educating DRIVERS of their responsibilities towards cyclists (and others on the road). Only talks about cyclists obeying the rules. Both parties need to play nice. Bikes always lose in a wreck though–no matter whose fault it is. Sounds like he’d rather not have cyclists on the road. Luckily, not his call….

As long as our society places power in those who drive these deadly vehicles, they will be perpetuating this bias and this violence.

“You take a stand (on an issue) from where you sit (in the hierarchy).” If cops only walked and rode bicycles, you can bet the house that every auto v. bicycle case would be considered as a potential assault with a deadly weapon, and that justice would swing toward the cyclist as the default rather than the current demonizing of the marginalized cyclist.

Ultimately, it will be entirely useless to attempt justice when those presiding come from a place of privilege, safety, and security predicated on the domination, threat, and violence of the less well positioned. wtf.

But Will is right. The so-called witnesses clearly didn’t see the accident; all they saw was a bunch of rude, scary cyclists harassing a driver. The same sort of thing bystanders saw when they saw me yelling at the woman that hit me; they just saw me being an a**hole, without knowing I was angry because she’d just purposely hit me with her car.

I learned the hard way that no matter what the other party does or says, you say “yes sir” and “no ma’am.” You have to be the most polite, sympathetic victim in human history if you want a fair shake from the witnesses — let alone the LAPD.

Or better yet, you take a picture or write down the license number and let them flee the scene. Police take hit-and-run a lot more seriously than they do a “bike accident.”

This is pretty scary. I understand that the policemen are trying to be objective about this, but it seems unlikely that a bike would hit a hummer and then the entire group would get upset and perceive that incorrectly.

I wish that the cyclists would have kept their cool during all of this. I think we’d have seen a different outcome from the police. It is important to remember that no matter the circumstance or situation, in all aspects of life, when you lose your cool and become loud or angry, your standing, opinions, and qualifications quickly come under question.

Hopefully the councilmen will find something in the report to shed some more light on this!

Test your materials, please.