You were not a pedestrian.
Legally that is exactly the same as saying “I don’t care if I was in my car or not, I was a pedestrian.”
Ummm no you wern’t.
I’m not so sure… the OP was at the Pink Pony eating potato skins. Not enough evidence to make a judgment on the right of weight in this case just yet…
The way I see it, the OP was clearly in the wrong for riding a bike down a sidewalk in what seems to be “the wrong direction.” The guy in the truck is clearly wrong for pulling out when I think reasonable care would indicate that someone should have seen the illegal traffic on the sidewalk.
IMHO, I’d put the blame 60% on the bicyclist and 40% on the truck driver guy. I’d say everyone should apologize, thank the stars nobody was hurt, and not owe anyone anything.
ETA: But I see the truck guy bought the OP a new bike, and I think that’s pretty nice of him to do.
Or break off their antenna and scratch the shit of out their paint after they hit you while you are on your bike stopped at a red light.
Or drag the remains of your bike back and forth against the side of their car after they door you.
(Yes, I over-reacted.)
No, you were not a pedestrian. You were cycling, therefore you were operating a vehicle. Had you been riding a horse, you would have operating a vehicle. The truck did not hit a pedestrian. It hit a vehicle – a bicycle – being operated by you.
By all means say that you don’t like the law, or that you will not obey the law, but stop making up things that simply are not true.
I’m glad that things worked out your way, I really am. But I hope that you research the rules of bike riding, so that you don’t continue to have painful incidents.
Oh, so it’s not a hypothetical, it’s something you actually did.
If you actually damaged his vehicle, he certainly should have told the police. Maybe he was driving carelessly. That does not excuse your act of retributive vandalism.
I don’t think pedestrian means what you think it means.
I do know what it means, as much as it will shock most of you I’m not an idiot.
I’m using the term the same way you would say “I don’t care if it has chicken bouillon in it it’s still vegetarian!”
or something like that
So, “completely wrong” is the phrase you are looking for to describe such statements?
Is there some joke here that i’m not getting?
If it has chicken bouillon in it, it is most definitely NOT vegetarian. If someone insisted that it were, i would insist that they were an idiot. Not only that, but i don’t know a single person, vegetarian or otherwise, who would make such a claim.
I’m beginning to think he hit his head when he went down. IOW the child ain’t quite right.
Holy shit people it’s not that hard
Yes the statement is inherently false. I know that I was technically (God I’m starting to hate that word) a motorist because I was on my bike. But I was on a sidewalk where pedestrians are supposed to be and without the safety of a giant metal frame around me like a car has. In my eyes if you’re not in a car you are a pedestrian and have the right of way.
Hate me all you want because I have the gall to think of people as people and not walking definitions of law and that the guy who hit me (NOT the other way around) should have done the correct thing from the beginning and just spent the 150 bucks to get me a new bike and called it a day
I’d also like to declare that driving in a red car makes you a pedestrian, and therefore I have the right of way wherever I go. Oh yeah, and watch out on the sidewalks.
The correct thing is not to pay for someone else’s mistake. You screw up, you pay.
Exactly.
And you were on the sidewalk, where pedestrians are supposed to be, while riding a VEHICLE that is, by law, prohibited from the sidewalk.
If i drive my car on the sidewalk, does that make me a pedestrian? What about a motorcycle? How about a tractor? Or an elephant? Or a helicopter?
So, you believe that you should be able to walk on the road, in the middle of the lane, and retain the right of way? Do you think you should be able to step out into the flow of traffic and cause all cars to come to a screeching halt?
But, in hitting you (in the head, if your arguments in this thread are any indication), the truck driver’s responsibility is mitigated because you were violating the traffic law. If he had killed you, it would have been a tragedy (well, in a general sense anyway; your whining in this thread suggests it might have been a merciful act), but you would have been largely to blame for breaking the law.
I say all this as someone who makes a habit of jogging around my neighborhood, who cycles on the roads periodically, and who hates drivers that don’t share the road. I’m also willing to accept, simply because i’ve seen it happen before, that the driver in your story failed to look properly before exiting the property. But the fact is that those of us who use the roads as pedestrians and as cyclists (and no matter how much you bitch and moan, the two things are not the same) also have some responsibility to exercise caution and/or obey the law when we’re doing so. If you’re not obeying the law when you ride your bike, why should the guy in the car be held to a higher standard than you?
cyclist.
Good. Stop using it. You can’t use the word to magically permit yourself to do things that are prohibited. (Compare “You’re not supposed to murder people” with “Technically, you’re not supposed to murder people”)
And if you were on a runway where airplanes are supposed to be, would that make you a pilot?
“In my eyes” is your problem. You don’t get to make up your own rules, and then get upset when other people don’t follow them.
This entire statement is why this whole situation has just destroyed my faith in humanity.
Congratulations for being right.
Congratulations for wishing I was dead.
You’re clearly not going to stop unless I admit how lucky I am that the nice gentleman who hit me with his truck didn’t insist I call the cops so he can rub it in my face that he not only destroyed my bike but that he gets to see me spend money to buy a new one. All the while knowing just how right he was.
Feel free to ride your high horse into the sunset (but not on the sidewalk).
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like
You didn’t have a helmet on, did you?