How do you deal with unfriendly dogs?

[happyslug]

18. Oh, good, when I read "Pulled out my pepper spray" I thought you used in on a dog.

Last edited Thu Jul 16, 2015, 10:37 AM - Edit history (1)

On a person that is different. Dogs do things because it is instinctive and thus best worked around by other means then actual harm to the dog. People, on the other hand, should be using the THINKING part of their brain.

As to weapons, I rarely carry any. The bike itself should be viewed as your best weapon. It will get you out of most situations or you can use it to block anything trying to attack you. It is quick to be "pulled" for your hands on already on it. Yes, a bike is a lousy offensive weapon, do NOT try to use it to club someone. In most cases the bike will provide enough blockage for any attacker to either back down or give you enough to to react more forcefully to the attack.

Now, I have been punched on the arms twice, once by a what appeared to be a white 12 year old sitting in the passenger seat of a pickup that past me (I suspect he did it on the urging of the person driving the pickup, who I suspect was the young teen's father). Once past me, the pickup kept on going. Why I was punched is unknown to me, but I suspect someone did not like the idea of a bike was blocking his use of the road.

The other time I was punched was by an African American late teen early 20s who punched me as I past him (He was walking with another African American side by side on the sidewalk). I was on the road. Once I realized I had been punched I stopped and looked back and the person who hit me and he looked like he wanted to fight. Since I was a "Mixed" neighborhood, I decided I did not want to get into a fight in that neighborhood so I remounted my bike and left. When I looked back the other African American male walking with the African American male who had hit me looked like he was in a state of shock, the Second African American looked like someone who could NOT believe his "Friend" had just reached out a punched anyone. He looked like someone who was saying "What have I gotten into, I do NOT want to get into a fight in this neighborhood, especially when the fight clearly started when my friend throw a punch for no reason?". My impression when I remounted my bike, was that the second African American was happy I decided to move forward.

Now, I have been hit by a Large Ford Ranger mirror in the arm (I suspect the driver of the Ranger did not know he hit me, those old Large Ford Ranger were built on the old Ford full size pickup, thus a very wide vehicle especially with large mirrors).

Now, in the last 20-30 years I have NOT been hit. The big time for such actions were in the 1970s and 1980s. I also moved from the inner city and older suburbs to a much more rural area, thus less conflict between bikes and cars. I suspect both are factors, people today are much more tolerate of bikes on the roads AND in more rural areas, you have less traffic on fairly wide roads, thus cars have more places to pass a bicycle by that is sharing the road with the car.

Now, I have seen some problems even today. I think about getting a Go Pro Camera to record my bike rides, so that if anything goes bad I would have a record of it. Go Pro cameras are expensive, but if you can show that the Automobile was the one violating the law when you were hit, would go to show who was at fault (Most Juries and Judges drive cars, they do NOT bike, thus identify with who ever is driving a car NOT the cyclist, thus the burden is on cyclists that they were obeying the law and a film from a GO PRO camera will be a huge factor in such disputes of facts).

Most accidents occur so fast you can not really judge what happened and in most cases Judges and Juries will support any driver of any vehicle over a cyclists UNLESS you have evidence other then you own word. Thus I strongly suggest adding a Go Pro to your camera just to preserve records of such accidents.

The Go Pro can also be used offensively. Most states still permit filing of criminal charges by the victims when it comes to minor crimes. Thus if you are riding and have film of a driver that harnessed you OR evidence that such a person has violated the vehicle code, you can file your own private criminal complaint against the driver. You have NO RIGHT to ask for a driver's license, but you can file an criminal case against the driver of a car with the license plate #. The police will not give you the driver's name or address, but once you file the criminal charges in your local Justice of the Peace office, they can get such information. Remember the fine goes to the state not you, but by filing it you force someone to address what they had done.