On June 29, an older man in a red Jeep laid on his horn behind a Jimmy John’s bicycle deliverer on University Avenue.
The driver sped down University around the cyclist, who was riding in the lane once the light had turned green, close enough for the cyclist to touch the Jeep.
Witnesses said the driver attempted to open his door onto the cyclist, intending to push him off his bike onto the road, but the cyclist was focused on getting off of the main road.
The Jeep followed him.
Gunning it, the Jeep flew past the cyclist and swerved in front of him — slamming his brakes.
That caused the cyclist to crash into the back of the vehicle and ricochet off into the lane of oncoming traffic, hitting another car before he fell off his bike and scraped his shoulder and back across the hot asphalt. The driver emerged from the Jeep and yelled at the cyclist but quickly silenced when he realized there were witnesses to his attempt on the cyclist’s life.
The driver walked away with a citation, attributing his episode to road rage.
The cyclist left the scene with hundreds of dollars in damage to his bike that he bought with tips from happy college students, blood on his shirt, a lost shift and a trip to the emergency room.
And I got a call from the cyclist, my boyfriend of almost four years, with his steady voice telling me he had been assaulted by a vehicle but would be OK.
“What does OK mean?” I asked. Does he have internal bleeding? How fast can I get to him? Was he breaking any laws? Then:
Is he OK to ride his bike still? Will he still be able to pick me up and swing me around? Is his shoulder still strong enough to play tug-of-war with my Boston terrier, Buddy?
Luckily, he really is OK.
Road rage isn’t an excuse for trying to kill someone. And ignorance of road rules is not an excuse for road rage.
“The most basic right of all vehicle operators, including bicyclists, is that they are entitled to the use of the roadway.”
Flbikelaw.org outlines basic statutes of cycling laws from the Florida Legislature and offers easy-to-understand translations of the legal language.
Being entitled to the use of the roadway has many responsibilities, a few being cyclists and drivers must obey all traffic signals, if you intend to pass a vehicle, there must be enough clearance, (to pass a cyclist, there must be 3 feet between you and the bicycle) and both cyclists and drivers must move with the flow of traffic.
But maybe the most relevant:
“Bicyclists in narrow lanes are not required to keep right or ride single file, regardless of the presence of drivers desiring to go faster. (A) bicyclist must only move right and ride single file if the lane is wide enough to share.“
“A bicyclist remaining far to the right in a narrow lane is at risk of unwittingly encouraging drivers to attempt to unlawfully and unsafely pass within the lane.”
Gainesville is No. 37 on Bicycling.com’s list of most bike-friendly cities.
Keeping these statutes in mind can help make this community better and safer, but driving your more-than-4,000-pound Jeep at a cyclist really just takes away from the magic of the ranking.
So that cyclist who is “in your way”? That cyclist has the same right to be on the road as you do.
[Emily Cardinali is the Alligator copy desk chief. A version of this story ran on page 7 on 7/8/2014 under the headline "Drivers: Share the road with cyclists — it’s the law"]
