Splish-splash - Deliberate spray from a car's windscreen-wash

RainyDay

So I was on the last km of my cycle home this evening when I noticed a small hatchback that had just passed me slowing down to get level with me. The driver then sprayed me from the windscreen-washer and drove off, with the back-seat passenger laughing his head off. I was fairly pi$$ed.

I could see the car turning off ahead of me, and I was about 60 seconds behind the car, so I had pretty much given up on catching him. But I went round the longer way to where I knew the car would come back onto the main road. I was pretty sure he'd be well gone, but as I got to the junction, there he was, waiting to pull back out onto the main road.

So here's the Mastercard 'priceless' moment - I cycled up in front of him, threw my bike onto the ground in fury, and went round to the driver's window. He was in his early 20's and get got very tense and stiff as he realised that the cyclist he had showered was very much in his face. I really wouldn't be aggressive by nature, but I was pretty furious, and I guess it showed. He wouldn't get out of the car, but he did wind down the window and half-apologised with a 'we were just messin, it was just a bit of a laugh'. I told him he could have a laugh with the Guards when I reported him, and he looked fairly sheepish.

So where do I go from here? I'm not calling for capital punishment, but I do think he should at least get a visit from the Gardai. I was planning on calling the local community Gardai (I remember a newspaper article from some time back talking about his cycling experience) to see if he would follow up. Other suggestions are welcome.

Pherekydes

RainyDay wrote:

I'm not calling for capital punishment...

Maybe rethink this?

Pity you were on your own. I'd have loved to have been there to see his face (and roll around laughing) .

Ghost Rider

Good story. It sounds like you taught the guy a lesson. Maybe wisest to leave it at that?

Interesting how cycling can bring out the anger, though, isn't it? I sometimes surprise myself by how vitriolic I get on the bike. I'd put drivers to shame sometimes with the cussin'.

RainyDay wrote:

So I was on the last km of my cycle home this evening when I noticed a small hatchback that had just passed me slowing down to get level with me. The driver then sprayed me from the windscreen-washer and drove off, with the back-seat passenger laughing his head off. I was fairly pi$$ed.

I could see the car turning off ahead of me, and I was about 60 seconds behind the car, so I had pretty much given up on catching him. But I went round the longer way to where I knew the car would come back onto the main road. I was pretty sure he'd be well gone, but as I got to the junction, there he was, waiting to pull back out onto the main road.

So here's the Mastercard 'priceless' moment - I cycled up in front of him, threw my bike onto the ground in fury, and went round to the driver's window. He was in his early 20's and get got very tense and stiff as he realised that the cyclist he had showered was very much in his face. I really wouldn't be aggressive by nature, but I was pretty furious, and I guess it showed. He wouldn't get out of the car, but he did wind down the window and half-apologised with a 'we were just messin, it was just a bit of a laugh'. I told him he could have a laugh with the Guards when I reported him, and he looked fairly sheepish.

So where do I go from here? I'm not calling for capital punishment, but I do think he should at least get a visit from the Gardai. I was planning on calling the local community Gardai (I remember a newspaper article from some time back talking about his cycling experience) to see if he would follow up. Other suggestions are welcome.

Quigs Snr

I had the same thing done to me, passenger was spraying a bottle of water as he went past. Just ignored it, was on a back road and wouldn't have been able to catch them. I usually get "the rage" when someone pulls this crap. Half an hour later in town, they went passed me and did it again. So I followed them at a distance and saw them stopped at a light, yer man saw me coming and obviously thought I was going to cycle on, so he rolled down the window to do it again, but I was quicker on the draw giving him a full blast of my water bottle in the passenger window. I have to admit I made a mistake and rather than my water bottle gave him about 200ml of blackcurrant energy drink in the face and all over his white shirt instead as well as the tan interior of his utterly pathetic Seat Boy racer tin can. He must have been stuck to the seat the little toe rag. Wasn't so smart after that, saw him pulled in with the doors open of his crappy little boy racer mobile, looking at the mess. Good enough for him. Fair play OP.

copacetic

RainyDay wrote:

So I was on the last km of my cycle home this evening when I noticed a small hatchback that had just passed me slowing down to get level with me. The driver then sprayed me from the windscreen-washer and drove off, with the back-seat passenger laughing his head off. I was fairly pi$$ed.

I could see the car turning off ahead of me, and I was about 60 seconds behind the car, so I had pretty much given up on catching him. But I went round the longer way to where I knew the car would come back onto the main road. I was pretty sure he'd be well gone, but as I got to the junction, there he was, waiting to pull back out onto the main road.

So here's the Mastercard 'priceless' moment - I cycled up in front of him, threw my bike onto the ground in fury, and went round to the driver's window. He was in his early 20's and get got very tense and stiff as he realised that the cyclist he had showered was very much in his face. I really wouldn't be aggressive by nature, but I was pretty furious, and I guess it showed. He wouldn't get out of the car, but he did wind down the window and half-apologised with a 'we were just messin, it was just a bit of a laugh'. I told him he could have a laugh with the Guards when I reported him, and he looked fairly sheepish.

So where do I go from here? I'm not calling for capital punishment, but I do think he should at least get a visit from the Gardai. I was planning on calling the local community Gardai (I remember a newspaper article from some time back talking about his cycling experience) to see if he would follow up. Other suggestions are welcome.

i wouldn't take it any further myself, this has been on a couple of TV shows and have seen a few idiots do it. It's no big deal imo..

Civilian_Target

Once every now and again I get the rage, but I generally have to admit, it's usually the opposite, cycling often causes me to just not really care. Usually when a driver does something thick I stop and chat to them calmly at the next junction while they're waiting for the lights. Ironically, this seems to completely infuriate them, since the guy they tried to kill seems so bloody calm!

PeadarofAodh

I find I do become host to the dragon rage while cycling - probably because mistakes by drivers on the road result in their cars getting slightly scratched, while my head will probably look like a badly abused watermelon...

I remember once cycling through Ranelagh when a green jaguar swerved suddenly around a car turning right, driving right over the middle of the cycle lane where I was. Luckily I was awake and scraped along the kerb, avoiding getting a pretty severe bashing. Without looking I shouted pretty loudly at whoever was driving to "Keep off the f***ing cycle lane". For the next half hour as they followed my route and we met at countless traffic lights, the lady's two little kids in the back seat (Must have been about 5 and 7!) craned their necks to look out the window at the crazy man on his bike...

cunnins4

Quigs Snr wrote:

I had the same thing done to me, passenger was spraying a bottle of water as he went past. Just ignored it, was on a back road and wouldn't have been able to catch them. I usually get "the rage" when someone pulls this crap. Half an hour later in town, they went passed me and did it again. So I followed them at a distance and saw them stopped at a light, yer man saw me coming and obviously thought I was going to cycle on, so he rolled down the window to do it again, but I was quicker on the draw giving him a full blast of my water bottle in the passenger window. I have to admit I made a mistake and rather than my water bottle gave him about 200ml of blackcurrant energy drink in the face and all over his white shirt instead as well as the tan interior of his utterly pathetic Seat Boy racer tin can. He must have been stuck to the seat the little toe rag. Wasn't so smart after that, saw him pulled in with the doors open of his crappy little boy racer mobile, looking at the mess. Good enough for him. Fair play OP.

Hahaha! gold!

I get terrible "rage" but it vanishes as quickly as it comes. Sometimes I even laugh at these things because they're really not that harmful (unless ya fall off as a result, but we're supposed to expect the unexpected eh?;) ). Had a bird pinch my asse one time. The rage came over me but then i got a wink as they drove away and I just had to laugh. It's not the worst thing they could do to ya-at least they saw ya, most motorists don't!

Raam

I get that windscreen washer thing all the time. I've also had people try to get me with bottles of 7-up but miss by a long distance. Muppets.

rubadub

I thought I was the only one! surprised there are not more stories of "cycle-rage"

Civilian_Target wrote:

Once every now and again I get the rage, but I generally have to admit, it's usually the opposite, cycling often causes me to just not really care.

Same here, lots of time I breeze on by, but sometimes I am shot full of adrenalin and ready to kill someone. Plenty of times I have screamed in windows, arriving to work almost hoarse! Other times I have just stopped infront of the cars at lights, or roundabouts, infront of coaches too. Just stand there drinking water with them beeping and going mental.

The driver then sprayed me from the windscreen-washer and drove off

Invest in some pepper spray, even a tiny amount in the window will make the car unbearable to be in for a good 10-20mins. I nearly always have some and am dying to get to use it. Was thinking of hanging around in town to check out people trying to nick bikes, good spray and run, just to keep me fit!

I also thought it would be class to pick up the bike and jump up and walk over the boot, roof & bonnet of cars parked on cycletracks.

rp

In New York they sell these pointed, tungsten steel bar-ends, very handy when these muppets get too close to you: saves damaging your handlebars. Unfortunately, it'll make a fierce deep scratch in the car.

DITTKD

Does it get any easier to deal with the rage? I've been doing the commuting thing for a good few months now.
I always thought I was a calm collected sort, but I'm not, not. at. all.

blorg

I've had the windscreen spray a few times but never sure if it was deliberate, so always ignored it.

GF has had eggs and icecream thrown at her, her brother has been clapped on the back, etc. I haven't experienced those, just yelled at out the passenger window and the "joke swerve".

Good one Quigs, quite classic with the energy drink! Sticky things those...

Nasty sharp bar-ends sound like a good idea but you'd want to be careful you don't take out somebody's paintwork when you are the one trying to scrape through a tight spot... Although my god I wished I had these one time a taxi decided to turn into me, just left a trail of black rubber down his side. Also if you have STI levers you tend to want to avoid bashing your bars off people, they are expensive components.

I think you _can_ minimise your cyclist rage incidents by being more careful, being willing to yield to a driver doing something stupid even when you have right of way, etc. But obviously this is out the window if someone throws an egg at you, there is no dealing with that.

rubadub

Does it get any easier to deal with the rage?

Turn it into energy for cycling, I piss along with adrenalin after some bastards pulls something.

blorg wrote:

But obviously this is out the window if someone throws an egg at you, there is no dealing with that.

Carry a small rock and take out the back window. If they stop at lights kick the wing mirror off or just key the car. Then have your pepper spray at the ready if they stop, it is not like they are going to report you. If they did something really bad and I caught up with them I would fire the handlebars throught their side windows.

ednwireland

when i used to commuteon a bike (in the uk) one guy used to always leave his car parked at rush hour on my route. he stopped doing it after i smacked off his wing mirror a couple of times. ( mind you i stopped doing after seeing a volvo being dragged along the road by a truck by the wig mirror only broke off when it hit another car !) luckily i dont have to the rush hour commute anymore mind you it used to keep the weight off.

HJ Simpson

Yeah I keep telling myself to be calm when someone does something stupid. The red mist does decend every now and then. I do enjoy it when someone tries to pull across me and I just keep going while giving them dogs abuse. Or the one who try something and stop and you have to give them the deranged look or at least I think I am looking deranged.
I have to remember to give people the benefit of the doubt when they realise they have done something stupid like this morning a taxi tried to do a left across me and then waved sorry he hadnt seen me. I just roared about indicating and continued when an acknowledgment might have served cyclist better in future exchanges.
HJS

rubadub

HJ Simpson wrote:

a taxi tried to do a left across me and then waved sorry he hadnt seen me. I just roared about indicating

When a taximan gets his taxi licence his indicators are removed, I thought this was common knowledge. The only indicators they will use are their hazard lights which give them the right to park wherever they choose and perform whatever dangerous manoeuvre they want, even if was illegal for mere mortals to do it.

Hungrycol

I read somewhere that the worst culprits for bad driving were female BMW driver and male Lexus drivers (I think all BMW drivers are bad drivers!).

What annoys me the most is drivers pulling out in front of you because you're on a bike and couldn't possibly be do any level of decent speed :mad: .

On the flip side I think female drivers give you a wider birth when passing.

rp

Hungrycol wrote:

What annoys me the most is drivers pulling out in front of you because you're on a bike and couldn't possibly be do any level of decent speed :mad: .

The most frequent one I see (commuting in from the country) is the mad dash to pass the bike out, often on a blind corner, straight into the back of a tailback, so you have to pass them again. They risk their own lives as well as those coming the other way for exactly zero time gained. Fortunately, the bike is usually in the safest position in this scenario.

E@gle.

rubadub wrote:

When a taximan gets his taxi licence his indicators are removed, I thought this was common knowledge. The only indicators they will use are their hazard lights which give them the right to park wherever they choose and perform whatever dangerous manoeuvre they want, even if was illegal for mere mortals to do it.

whats with taxi drivers and indicators and esepically taxi drivers on round a bouts as well

Alkers

Had the odd incident or two, the only worth mentioning being got a half full beer can and a couple of eggs thrown at me while I was walking with my bike coming out of UCD Foster Ave entrance. I jumped onto the bike, cycled as fast as I could back into UCD after the car. I wasn't even thinking what I was going to do, pure headrush. The guy obviously saw me coming after him because he floored it, broke the lights there beside the Quinn school going right but then had to jam on to avoid a bus pulling out. I caught up to him, went on the outside, knocked off his drivers wing mirror, around the front of the bus and of into the back of the Engineering building where cars can't go. Didn't even realise my hand was sore from hitting the mirror 'till a good ten minutes later, adrenaline was pumping.
Haven't ever reacted in anyway similarly again though but nothing as annoying has happened since.

rubadub

Simona1986 wrote:

I caught up to him, went on the outside, knocked off his drivers wing mirror, around the front of the bus and of into the back of the Engineering building where cars can't go. Didn't even realise my hand was sore from hitting the mirror 'till a good ten minutes later, adrenaline was pumping.
Haven't ever reacted in anyway similarly again though but nothing as annoying has happened since.

CLASS! fair play to you, did you see their faces when you broke the mirror?

Didnt know so many "drive-bys" happened, have to get me a little rock holder for the rothar, can't wait...

DirkVoodoo

Classic!

I'm thinking Jack Nicholson and a golf club....

the_syco

RainyDay wrote:

The driver then sprayed me from the windscreen-washer and drove off, with the back-seat passenger laughing his head off. I was fairly pi$$ed.

...

He wouldn't get out of the car, but he did wind down the window and half-apologised with a 'we were just messin, it was just a bit of a laugh'.

Report him. If that had gotten into your eyes, I'd like to see how you could have braked suddenly, and not crashed.

=-=

Me, if it had hit my face, I'd have dragged him out of the car, and called the cops.

Alkers

rubadub wrote:

CLASS! fair play to you, did you see their faces when you broke the mirror?

Didnt know so many "drive-bys" happened, have to get me a little rock holder for the rothar, can't wait...

Unfortunately no, I just flew straight on. Hopefully it was a sight fro sore eyes though because I still had to cycle home covered in egg and beer.

jaycummins

i remember i was at the junction between merrion road and ailesbury road heading into town. a car was waiting to turn right and since it looked like he was the last of the traffic coming accross me i cycled slowly trhu the lights. just as i went through them a car came from behind the one turning right and drove straight towards me. he was so stupid, instead of just slowing down and letting me past, he speeded towards me and skidded just at thew last second beeping his horn repeatedly he made such a big deal out of it, as i had nearly killed him. i just started laughing at him and since i left the lights at such a high gear just slowly inched out of his way. that really pissed him off. i hate drivers like that.

uberwolf

lads I know tell a tale of carrying 2 water bottles on the commute, one filled with cement.

anyway, someone had received this advice and subsequently lobbed the bottle through the back window of an offender.

4 plains clothes hopped out

Danbo!

excellent thread... and no one giving out about 'oh you shouldnt damage cars thats not on...' brilliant. when its deserved, its deserved.

had an aul windscreen spray incident in templeogue last week, a white glanza with side skirts and about 15 fellas in the back seat slowed down beside me and i got sprayed with soapy water. the owner had obviously modified his car so that both sprayheads pointed left. he sped off, caught him at lights and (lets not revoke "spat at by merc driver" thread, i dont usually do it) a nice mouthful of phlem on the windscreen doesnt come off too easy when the sprayheads dont point in the right direction.

Snapper1

allow me to flip this thread on its head!...

had the same windscreen spray attack at the end of a 80k ride a few months back but it was a scorcher of a day and with little or no liquids left in my bottles I was glad to be cooled down for a few seconds.

Mind you if I caught the pr1ck I would have targeted his wingmirror like the rest of you. But given that it happened on a clear stretch of national road that wasn't really an option!!!

RainyDay

noblestee wrote:

the owner had obviously modified his car so that both sprayheads pointed left.

Yeah - I just realised thinking about this last night that my friends yesterday had at least one sprayhead pointing left, so this was definitely a planned pre-meditated attack. I'll definitely be making a call to the Gardai tonight.

E@gle.

i just got back from a ride there with the club and yes i was nearly killed.

i was cycling along a narrow country road and there was a silver SUV( yes it was a women) behind me i was at the back of the pack on my own. she went to overtake me and had to immediately brake to avoid hitting the others then she decided to pass us out and nearly kill one of the lads with her wing mirror i swear
she missed by a cm then when she finally passed us she was behind us for about
3 miles, she turned into her drive into her drive way of her house

all that for getting an extra 3 seconds home quicker

robfitz

RainyDay wrote:

So where do I go from here? I'm not calling for capital punishment, but I do think he should at least get a visit from the Gardai. I was planning on calling the local community Gardai (I remember a newspaper article from some time back talking about his cycling experience) to see if he would follow up. Other suggestions are welcome.

Try calling Traffic Watch on 1890 205805 and make a compliant. It's not very prominent on [url=ttp://www.garda.ie/angarda/statlinks/misc.html]Garda[/url] website.

You could also press for a charge of assault:

Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997

Assault.
2.—(1) A person shall be guilty of the offence of assault who, without lawful excuse, intentionally or recklessly—
( a ) directly or indirectly applies force to or causes an impact on the body of another, or
...
(2) In subsection (1)(a), "force" includes—
...
( b ) application of matter in solid liquid or gaseous form.
...

Thinking about it I've had water thrown at on me by passing cars on two occasions (I think both times on the Goatstown Road) while cycling home at night. And another time I had a glass bottle throw at me which smashed and cut my leg, I really should have called the Gardai for that one.

daymobrew

Jeez lads, these are scary stories.
I've not been the victim of any unprovoked stuff like this, until this evening.
Cycling up Fassaugh Ave in Cabra. Firstly a guy throws something at me from across the road. Missed.
A few hundred metres up the road a car is flying down the road toward me, indicating that he is going to turn right, across me. He starts skidding and the car veering toward me. I stopped to avoid a collision. The guy then drives on - he didn't turn right.
As I pretended to ring the cops another in-bred throws something at me from across the road. It landed a bit closer than the other guy and it seemed like it was a small rock. WTF??

I dropped into Cabra Garda station and told them that there were lads "acting the bollix" (Garda's words) and he'd send a car out to move them along.
We give them dole money and they're still assholes. They should be grateful to show paying their way. :rolleyes:

mockerydawg

Similar thing happened to me in ballinlough, car pulled up slowly and threw a load of water over me. Took the reg, make and details and reported it to Trafficwatch. It felt extra good as it was a Learner car. I hadn't it in me to catch them so a call from the guards would have to do. Made me feel a lot better about it too

bionic.laura

Best story I ever heard was this guy I used to work with. A taxi driver nearly knocked him off the bike so he caught up with him and used his metal pedal to scratch the whole side of the car. The driver went mental and even tried chasing him up a one way street all the time screaming that he knew his jacket and that next time he saw him he'd kill him.
The guy got into work and told us the story and went off to buy a new cycling jacket that day

rubadub

uberwolf wrote:

lads I know tell a tale of carrying 2 water bottles on the commute, one filled with cement.

anyway, someone had received this advice and subsequently lobbed the bottle through the back window of an offender.

4 plains clothes hopped out

He threw it in the back window of the cop car? what had they done to him?

The point of a lot of these

no one giving out about 'oh you shouldnt damage cars thats not on...'

is that there is no way the motorists will report them, I wouldnt cause damage if I thought they would report me. If somebody did something really bad I would love to destroy the car, handlebar in the window, pepper spray in, then open every door and slam them the wrong way -wrecking each door, pretty much total it.

I expect nothing much will happen if you report water sprayed at you, is there anyway of finding out where the peron lives if you get the reg?

Vegeta

ok I don't want to be a kill joy here as these stories are class and the drivers in each case were tools but I wouldn't be so open to carrying pepper spray

as far as I know it is classed as an offensive weapon here and you could get in trouble with the law for it

rubadub

Vegeta wrote:

as far as I know it is classed as an offensive weapon here and you could get in trouble with the law for it

Fair enough, I am not sure if it is classed as such, but it is also described as a defensive weapon, lots of women carry it in the US. I would sooner carry it than a knife/knuckle duster/baton/lock. In a court it would not be seen as such a vicious attack since the effects wear off after 20mins.

These people in cars are scum, they could be carrying a knife, just like a bike thief could. I would not approach them unless I knew I could fully disable them.

Some people do carry knives or batons, but they might never have the balls to use them, or worse might half use it and have it snatched and used against them. Stab a guy in self defence and you could still get 5 years, I cant see the same with pepper spray- even though it can be far more disabling to the person, for 20mins.

Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997

( b ) application of matter in solid liquid or gaseous form.

They attack you with liquid/gas you defend with the same. Courts might not like vigilantes, but they hate scum worse- and as I mentioned I cannot imagine the scumbags reporting an incident if what they did warranted it. It also has the advantage that they cannot see so will not remember your face.

Another more discrete form is extra strong tobasco sauce in a perfume atomiser- would probably go down better in court than a specific imported pepper spray can. They threw eggs at him, he threw tobasco sauce on them- doesnt seem as big a deal.

Raam

is anyone here actually seriously considering carrying pepper spray?

rubadub

King Raam wrote:

is anyone here actually seriously considering carrying pepper spray?

I do, I know several women who do too, and some taxi drivers.

blorg

You need to get a proper delivery system, something like this (prototype, even comes with an optional laser sight accessory):



I know pepper spray is popular in places like the US, you can even get handy handlebar mounts for the stuff, but often (from a touring cyclist point of view) more to protect against dogs/larger animals than people. I have never really seen the stuff around here, not sure a Dog Dazer would really work against a scumbag ;-)

Raam

this thread is getting more strange by the minute!

cunnins4

pepper spray, water guns, sharp bar ends? Why bother? What's wrong with a good old fashioned kick to the door or like quigs snr, a spray of the ole water bottle?!!!:D

kenmc

cunnins4 wrote:

What's wrong with a good old fashioned kick to the door

you have to unclip

cunnins4

kenmc wrote:

you have to unclip

Hahaha! Very true!

blorg

kenmc wrote:

you have to unclip

On a similar vein no roadie is going to be carrying around a waterbottle full of cement ;-)

The U-Lock is "traditional" for these circumstances but that's not too favoured either unless you really need it, for much the same (weight) reason.

Hungrycol

blorg wrote:

You need to get a proper delivery system, something like this (prototype, even comes with an optional laser sight accessory):



I know pepper spray is popular in places like the US, you can even get handy handlebar mounts for the stuff, but often (from a touring cyclist point of view) more to protect against dogs/larger animals than people. I have never really seen the stuff around here, not sure a Dog Dazer would really work against a scumbag ;-)

These would be so much better with paint guns like the ones used for paintballing. Yee Haw...

E@gle.

every day i go out on bike i witness some motorists do something stupid, all i do is give the middle finger and carry on cycling,

Marathon Man

I've noticed this type of behaviour increases with it getting darker earlier. The feckers seem to do it more under the cover of darkness. On Monday at around half 8 some fecker threw a mars bar at me from their car. it missed. but they seemed to find it hilarious anyway. if it was the same time in high summer and it was bright i doubt the fecker would be so brave.
Motorists interfering with cyclists stems simply from cowardice anyway.

kenmc

E@gle. wrote:

every day i go out on bike i witness some motorists do something stupid, all i do is give the middle finger and carry on cycling,

Yeah but you have to reward the good ones - occasionally someone will overtake me but allow me to pass by again before turning left in front of me. These get a 'thank you' wave to teach them they've done something good. Kinda like teaching a dog I guess....

PeadarofAodh

I just remembered the time one of the lads showed up for training looking scared out of his mind. I asked what had happened and he says slightly dazed "Some lad just threw a hammer at me!" Naturally the entire changing room exploded in laughter

Apparently he'd been cycling through Dolphin's Barn and noticed some drugged-up madman attacking a car bonnet with a hammer. The guy looked up, noticed the cyclist passing on the opposite side of the road and thought "Hey, I'll take a shot at him!" The lad said he'd never cycled so fast in his life to get away, classic!

I suppose it wouldn't be so funny if it had hit him though...