On being targeted for taking the lane.

Yesterday I was riding my mountain bike with my cousin Peter in Alameda,
California going for what I thought would be a nice 30 mile ride along the Bay
Shore. We had just stopped at the light at Central Ave and Webster. Central is a
four lane residential street with light traffic and a 25 mph speed limit.

I was in the center of the right lane, with Peter to my right at the curb, a car
in the left lane, and a car behind us all waiting for the line to change so that
we could continue south on Central.

We started up as the light changed, I taking the center of the right lane, Peter
20 feet behind to my left closer to the left lane, about 1.5 feet to my left. A
car passed us in the left lane.

A second car passed Peter closer than any car that he has ever had pass him. The
car then swerved to the right and as it passed next to me on my left it hit my
left handle bar with its mirror. I have never had a car come that close.

I automatically hit the left brake in fear and flipped over the handle bars
smacking my right shoulder and bouncing hard off the pavement.

I was in the center of the right lane for a couple of reasons:

1) There are parked cars on my right and I don't want to get "doored."

2) When I have stayed to the right in this area cars coming behind me have often
passed me too close on my left (less than the legal mandated 3 feet) in the
right lane so I wanted to establish my presence in the lane so that they would
get all the way over into the left lane and give me a safe space between us.
Again, light traffic, residential street, 25 mph speed limit. I think about this
every time I ride in this area.

3) I do have the legal right to the whole lane, but I also know that they are
bigger than me.

The guy stopped and yelled at me that I had hit his mirror as I pulled myself
off the ground in pain. He also yelled that it was "his lane." I assume that he
was the driver behind Pete and I at the light and was inconvenienced by having
to go around us in the left lane.

I explained to him that he had broken the law (3 foot clearance) and that I had
every legal right to be where I was. I didn't state at the time that it was his
mirror that hit me, not the other way around. Assault with a deadly weapon.

Essentially he saw the lane as his and he was going to teach Pete and I a
lesson. That's what I got from his statements.

There will always be people like this who are willing to hurt or kill others for
their own good reasons. When you share the road with cars, every now and then
one of them will be driven by a person like this, who will have it in for you.

After my "conversation" with the guy, Peter and I rode back to my sister's house
a short distance away. I didn't want to have to deal with the police and get
this guy arrested.

Belinda took me to the hospital and fortunately my shoulder bones were not
broken. At least that is the preliminary read of the X-ray.