Since he didn't see a bus coming, the gentleman in the picture above sincerely couldn't understand what the problem was. But his co-worker, also pictured below, was incensed, screaming at the woman and, indirectly, at me, for taking photos. He was angry and aggressive enough that the guy above asked him several times to calm down.

After about 10 minutes, the third man returned (they had stopped so he could use an ATM), and they drove off, honking as they went.

This woman, who could easily be someone's grandmother, is tired of the indignities that too often accompany city bus travel ...

... and this guy publicly berates her for sticking up for herself.

We linked to a story in this morning's headlines about yesterday's brawl between a yellow cab driver and a pedicab operator in midtown. A Fox 5 reporter on the scene covering the sex scandal du jour caught the whole thing on video. Via Gothamist, here it is.

It looks like the pedicab driver, tired of being honked at by the cabbie, throws his coffee at the taxi as the two exchange words. Not the most conciliatory course of action, to be sure, but the cab driver then raises the stakes considerably, accelerating and slamming into the pedicab. The pedicab operator hits the taxi with both fists, the cab driver exits the vehicle, and a street brawl ensues in the middle of the intersection of Broadway and 53rd.

The pedicab operator eventually throws a trash can at the cab driver, then pedals away. The cab driver sticks around to talk to police. You can't hear what they're saying, but at one point he appears to be pointing to damage to his cab. As with other drivers who've attacked cyclists and pedestrians with their vehicles recently, it's doubtful he 'fessed up to instigating the collision himself.

From a livable streets perspective, there's a lot to digest here. Consider this an open thread on incivility, street space hierarchy, vehicular violence, pedicabs and yellow cabs, or whatever strikes you about this pathetic episode.

According to a spokesperson with Brown's office, the case has yet to be assigned to a prosecutor. Oddly, though the driver was male, and Kim-Bee saw no one else in the car, Streetsblog has learned that the complainant is identified as Toya Robinson -- presumably a woman, and possibly the car's owner.

Like Ray Bengen, the Manhattan cyclist assaulted in June by an SUV-wielding hothead, Kim-Bee continues to live under a cloud of severe legal and personal repercussions, all for doing nothing more than attempting to navigate a city street unharmed. NYPD, meanwhile, continues to threaten others waylaid by motorists with a similar fate should they dare to seek justice.

Ray Bengen, pictured on the sidewalk below his assailant, is paying a steep price for defending himself while riding in the Ninth Avenue bike lane.

Already, though, Bengen is paying a price. He earns much of his living flying small aircraft for government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, and consulting on computer projects for Wall Street. It's sensitive work, he says, and the clients who employ him always perform due diligence before signing off on a hire. Last week, a potential client rejected him because his criminal background check didn't pass muster. This had never happened before. As long as the criminal charge is hanging over his head, Bengen believes the market for his services will be severely restricted. He also expects to shell out for some attorney's fees as the case progresses.

When we first published Bengen's story, some readers speculated that the driver who assaulted him was an off-duty cop. Maybe that's true (the alleged perpetrator, Gus Gonzalez, certainly knows how to make his identity difficult to trace). But there also seems to be some doctrine at work, which is very commonly applied to confrontations in traffic, where the default position of law enforcement is to either charge both parties or neither party, no matter who received the brunt of the assault.

The Manhattan DA's office won't comment about the specifics of the Ray Bengen case, so I asked attorney Bob Mionske, who writes the Road Rights column for Bicycling Magazine, about the thought process law enforcement applies to cases like this. The column recently analyzed a case near Portland, Oregon in which police charged a cyclist for slapping the sideview mirror of an SUV after the driver buzzed him and threatened to run him down. Mionske replied:

What usually happens in these types of cases is when the police arrive on the scene, they have two parties who have been involved in an altercation, and both want the police to enforce the law in regards to the other guy. Unless witnesses can verify one account or the other, the police don’t really have any way of determining who did what, so when both parties are alleged to have been involved, the police will often press charges against both parties, and let the courts sort out who did what.

The Ray Bengen incident is somewhat different from the Oregon incident, because (as far as we can tell from the news accounts) Ray Bengen is not alleged to have damaged the driver’s car, as was the case in Oregon. If he did not in fact damage the car, then it is likely that the criminal mischief charge reflects his role in precipitating a fight -- at least for purposes of bringing both participants into the courtroom, until prosecutors can figure the case out. If he is brought to trial, it will be because prosecutors feel that his actions contributed to the incident in a way that meets the definition of criminal mischief. Prosecutors may also elect to reduce the charges to less serious charges in exchange for a guilty plea -- another reason more serious charges may initially be leveled in a case.

Another distinguishing characteristic of the Ninth Avenue road rage case is that a witness has come forward with pictures and testimony consistent with Bengen's account. So, how about it prosecutors: Is slapping a three-and-a-half ton SUV in self-defense a provocative act that meets the definition of criminal mischief?

Center Boulevard and 48th Avenue, the Long Island City intersection where Max Kim-Bee was nearly mowed down by an erratic and angry driver. Locations approximate. Image: Google Maps/Carly Clark

On the morning of May 6, Max Kim-Bee was walking his two dogs on 48th Avenue in Long Island City, en route to Gantry Plaza State Park. When he reached Center Boulevard, which borders the park, Kim-Bee checked for oncoming traffic. Seeing only a black car to his left some distance away and moving slowly (Kim-Bee assumed the driver was looking for a parking spot), he started to cross. As he approached the middle of the street, Kim-Bee checked to his right for traffic that is obscured by a grassy median (pictured here). At that point, the car he had seen to his left barreled past -- on the wrong side of the street and, by Kim-Bee's estimate, traveling at 40 to 50 mph -- missing Kim-Bee by three feet, and nearly running over his dogs, who were in front of him. After passing Kim-Bee, the driver hit a piece of trash in the street, presumably an empty can or bottle, which issued a loud report.

Here's what happened next, in Kim-Bee's own words:

As soon as the black car stopped, I walked the approximately 30 feet from the pedestrian crossing to where the driver was sitting -- almost alongside the south facing parked cars -- but pointing the wrong way.

I was in a state of mild shock. I had almost watched my dogs run over right in front of me and I felt sickened. It must have taken me about 15-20 seconds to walk with my two dogs to the black car and when I reached it, I leaned toward the open passenger side window and shouted, "Hey buddy, where's the fire? You almost killed me and my dogs!"

The driver looked startled and disoriented. He also appeared to be holding a cell phone and in the middle of a conversation. Sounding confused, he asked, "Did you hit me?" It was apparent he had not seen me at all and had no idea I was in the crosswalk 30 feet behind him -- or that there was a crosswalk or an intersection.

I was taken aback and replied sharply, "Do you see me driving a car? I was on the crosswalk back there when you almost killed us!" I told him he should get out and check he hadn't run anyone over, because he had nearly taken me and my dogs out when he blew through the crosswalk, speeding the wrong way up the street, not looking where he was going. I told him I was lucky he hadn't killed my dogs and me. "You're reckless and dangerous. Get a grip!"

With that exchange, which lasted less than a minute, Kim-Bee walked away. But the driver then made a U-turn, Kim-Bee says, and drove straight toward him. Kim-Bee ran for the curb, dragging his dogs by their leashes. The driver stopped in a crosswalk and, remaining in his car, began shouting.

The driver appeared enraged and very hostile because I had criticized his driving and called him reckless and dangerous. He had no interest in apologizing for almost running me and my dogs over in the first place -– or chasing us to the curb soon after.

Kim-Bee says he repeated himself to the driver -- that he was driving carelessly on a residential street with many pedestrians and school kids -- until it became apparent that he was wasting his time. Anxious to get the incident behind him, Kim-Bee, who had been standing with his hands on his knees so as to address the driver, still in his car, stood upright. Shaking, dizzy and nauseous, Kim-Bee says he steadied himself by putting his elbow against the roof of the car. He then "staggered" away, and had to squat to keep from falling. For the first time, the driver got out of the car. He stood in front of it as Kim-Bee gathered himself, his dogs, and the newspaper he had planned to read -- he had lost the cup of coffee he'd been holding -- and headed toward the park. Some 10 minutes later, as he exited the park, Kim-Bee saw the driver, still parked in the crosswalk, leaning against his car and talking on his cell phone. According to Kim-Bee, he "appeared to be laughing." Kim-Bee says the driver called out to him, but that he "had no interest in any further interaction," and continued on his way home.

Though his route took him past the 108th Precinct, based on previous experience, and because he was not actually hit, Kim-Bee felt sure that going to the police would be an exercise in futility. So he went on with his day, commuting to work in Manhattan, then returning home to take his dogs for their afternoon walk. As he stood talking to neighbors, Kim-Bee was approached by two police officers -- an Officer Sorrentino and Officer O'Brien. Sorrentino asked Kim-Bee if he had been in an "altercation" earlier that day. As he told his story, Kim-Bee saw that the same black car was parked a short distance away, with two other police officers nearby. Not long after, Officer Sorrentino interrupted Kim-Bee and walked to the car, conferred with one of the officers, and returned.

I tried to continue with my account but Officer Sorrentino interrupted me and asked me if I had "any contact with the car." I tried to finish my account by way of explanation but Officer Sorrentino insisted -- repeating several times more and more insistently: "Did you have any contact with the car?" I replied, "He almost ran me over -- but missed -- me by three feet, my dogs by a foot." Again Officer Sorrentino demanded: "Did you have any contact with the car?"

Kim-Bee recounted the moment when he had leaned against the car for support, at which point Sorrentino returned to the black car. The driver was walking around it, pointing to its sides. Sorrentino again conferred with the other officers -- one of whom Kim-Bee assumed was his sergeant -- before returning to inform Kim-Bee that there were "dents, scratches and scuffs" on the car. Incredulous, Kim-Bee replied that it was impossible that any of the marks could be attributed to him, that he had not touched the side of the car, and that he had seen the driver himself leaning against the car after almost running him down. Officer Sorrentino replied that the car "looked pretty new to have any damage," Kim-Bee recalls. When Kim-Bee asked for proof that he had harmed the vehicle -- photos or fingerprints, for example -- Kim-Bee says Sorrentino responded that he had "been watching way too much TV."

Sorrentino asked Kim-Bee to come down to the precinct to give his story. Kim-Bee said he would be happy to, and asked if they could walk the short distance to the precinct house. Sorrentino said no -- they had to ride in a squad car. Kim-Bee was under arrest.

Kim-Bee stresses that Sorrentino was apologetic, though he was unable to "explain or decide" what exactly Kim-Bee -- who has never received as much as a speeding ticket -- was being charged with, only that it was "very minor" and that it should be over in a couple of hours, assuming Kim-Bee "checked out." Officers drove Kim-Bee to the station, dropping off his dogs at his apartment along the way.

At the precinct, where Kim-Bee was held for almost five hours, Kim-Bee says Sorrentino and another officer scolded him for not "clearing up" the matter that morning. As Kim-Bee sat in a holding cell, an officer who was not present during the arrest, laughing, told him: "You just don't kick a man's car." Kim-Bee replied that he had done no such thing, and that the officer was the first person to suggest he had.

Like Ray Bengen -- assaulted by a driver who almost ran him over with his SUV, then charged by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office for slapping the vehicle in an attempt to save his own life -- Kim-Bee was charged with criminal mischief, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison.

Streetsblog has a message in with the 108th Precinct for the officers' account of what happened on May 6. A spokesperson for Queens DA Richard A. Brown's office said that a prosecutor has not yet been assigned to Kim-Bee's case, as he was given a desk appearance ticket.

Kim-Bee's attorney, Frank Perrone, is a former Queens prosecutor. He believes that when the driver ran over the can or bottle in the street, he thought he had hit Kim-Bee. "And I think that, almost in a preemptive need to protect himself, he went and filed this completely bogus and erroneous complaint," says Perrone. "The police department, unfortunately here -- as long as the complaining witness is willing to swear to a supporting deposition, they have to file the complaint."

The driver's name, however, isn't on the desk appearance ticket. To this day, Kim-Bee does not know the identity of his accuser (believing the incident was over that morning, he did not note the license plate number). As of now, no deposition has been filed, according to Perrone. "All we have is a statement of the charge. So the assumption is that he [the driver] went into the police department and said that my client either hit, or bumped into, or did something to his car."

Perrone is confident that the charge against Kim-Bee will eventually be dismissed. "It really seems like this guy was just a lunatic," he says.

So, based on the accumulated evidence, we can safely say that the man who allegedly blocked the Ninth Avenue bike lane with his 7,000 lb. Ford Excursion, exploded in a fit of rage when cyclist Ray Bengen tried to ride by without getting crushed, and sped off after knocking Ray to the ground (severely bruising his leg and damaging his bike), is this guy:

Gus Gonzalez.

Here's how Streetsblog commenters crowd-sourced his identity:

• A commenter identifying himself as a lawyer obtained registration information -- name, address, and date of birth -- for the license plate pictured in photos of the confrontation. The car is registered to "Dispirito-Gonzalez, L."
  
• The DMV records matched information available through a reverse address look-up for a Laura DiSpirito, who resides in Flushing.
• Streetsblog commenters quickly found Laura DiSpirito's Facebook page (a "fan" of celebrity chef and Queens native Rocco DiSpirito!) where they came across photos of a man who resembles the SUV driver who allegedly doored Ray Bengen. Photo captions identify him as Laura's husband "Gus," leading to speculation that the alleged perpetrator is named "Gus Gonzalez." (As of this afternoon, the Facebook page is no longer online.)
  
• Streetsblog called Laura DiSpirito's home a few times to confirm this information, but to no avail. A CBS2 news crew visited the house in Flushing and also was not able to ascertain the driver's identity.
• Finally, we called the Manhattan DA's office yesterday afternoon and the communications staff confirmed that a defendant named Gus Gonzalez has a court date scheduled for July 13, when he will face a charge of third degree assault arising from an incident on May 21. That matches information about Ray Bengen's assailant which was already public.

It's worth mentioning here that third degree assault is a Class A misdemeanor, same as the criminal mischief charge filed against Ray Bengen. The message from Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office is clear: slapping an SUV with your palm in self-defense is tantamount to violently knocking someone to the pavement, injuring him, and driving away before the authorities arrive at the scene.

Which brings us to the reason we're posting Gus Gonzalez's name and photo. If you drive away from the scene of a confrontation after inflicting bodily harm on someone, and you get to preserve your anonymity, it's a license to act like a sociopath. Unless you are somehow identified and apprehended, you can go about your business and present yourself as someone who doesn't intentionally harm other people.

Even as this investigation unfolded, police did not tell Ray Bengen the name of his scene-fleeing assailant. That information usually doesn't come out until the case goes to court. Luckily, this time, there were witnesses and photographs.

Update: If you missed the broadcast, here's the report filed by correspondent Deborah Garcia.

The Manhattan DA's office is filing charges of criminal mischief against a cyclist, Ray Bengen, because he allegedly caused property damage to a multi-ton SUV in the process of getting doored by the driver. Too ridiculous to be true? Sadly, no. Here's how it happened.

Bengen, 63, was riding down the Ninth Avenue bike lane on May 21 when he encountered the Ford Excursion you see in this photo (curb weight: 7,190 lbs). A long-time city cyclist, Bengen had a green light and wasn't quite sure what to make of the vehicle in front of him. The car wasn't moving and its brake lights were off.

The bike lane on this stretch of Ninth Avenue is part of the city's first on-street protected bike path. At the 20th Street intersection, where Bengen came across the car, there's a left-turn bay for vehicles and an exclusive green phase for cyclists. The Excursion, as you can see below, was in the bike lane, not the left-turn bay.

Bengen rode slowly by on the left. Then he sensed the car start to move as he was passing. Alarmed, he slapped the side of the car with his palm in an effort to alert the driver as to his presence. A witness, who Bengen says has agreed to testify in court, snapped three pictures of what happened next. We'll let Bengen describe it:

The driver then went berserk. Talk about road rage. He threw open his door forcing me and my bike to the ground giving me some awful bruising down my leg. As I was now on the ground yelling at him that he's in a bike lane and was just about to run me over, he started to scream at me "Don't even think about it, don't even think about it." I'm still not sure what he meant by that. With me lying on the ground quite shaken, he suddenly stopped his assault and did something very unexpected. He moved away from me, picked up my bike where it was nearly underneath his truck. He then stood it up on its kickstand, and got back in the truck and drove away left into 20th street.

If the episode had ended then and there, one might assume that the driver, who remains unidentified, had counted to ten and wrestled his anger under control. But it looks like the guy may hold a grudge.

Last week, Bengen received a phone call from Detective Christopher Cipolli at the 10th Precinct. Officers from the precinct had arrived at the scene promptly following the altercation, Bengen says, and Cipolli had been very helpful during the investigation that followed. So it was with an apologetic tone that the detective informed Bengen that he had to come down to the precinct on Friday. The reason? Because the Manhattan DA had filed charges of criminal mischief against him. (The DA's office is also pursuing assault charges against the SUV driver.)

"I had to go through the very humiliating process of being handcuffed and put into an interview room -- locked and barred -- for an hour or so," Bengen recalled. After a fingerprint check, Bengen was released. He has a date in Manhattan criminal court set for July 14. The driver will appear on the 13th.

The Manhattan DA's office could not identify the prosecutor who filed the charge against Bengen. When we asked about the basis of the criminal mischief charge, a spokesperson said that when Bengen appears in court "there will be more details." The offense of criminal mischief entails causing property damage of $250 or greater, so presumably the prosecutor will contend that Bengen "recklessly" took aim at a 7,000-pound SUV. Criminal mischief is a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison.

We'll be keeping tabs on this case as it moves to court. According to Bengen's attorney, Mark Taylor, the accusations against his client shouldn't hold up. "There’s no basis for the charges against Ray -- it’s clear that he was acting to protect his own life," Taylor said. "It’s unfortunate that the DA is choosing to prosecute this case."

Here is Beavan's account, via an open letter to Klein: 

Though you may not know my name, you may recall that you and I met today under rather unpleasant circumstances on New York City's Broadway, just north of City Hall. You were driving your black Mercedes. I was riding a small folding bicycle and wearing a purple helmet.

To refresh your memory:

Traffic was moving rather slowly and you were heading in the downtown direction, as was I. You were in the far left lane and I was riding on the curbside of that lane, near your rear passenger door. Suddenly, you began to veer your Mercedes to the left, potentially crushing me between your car and the cars parked on the side of the road.

With nowhere to go to get out of your way, and to avoid serious injury or death, in desperation, I chose to knock on your window to let you know that I was there and that you should avoid veering further in my direction.

At this point, you brought your vehicle to an abrupt halt, not to avoid hitting me, but because you apparently needed to communicate something to me. You rolled down your window and said, "Get your hands off my car, you fucking asshole."

I said, "You were veering into me and going to crush me."

You said, "You better not touch other people's cars. You might find that touching other people's cars is more dangerous than traffic."

You may recall that Klein, along with Sen. Eric Adams, called for a suspension of bridge and tunnel tolls on holidays in order to keep as many cars as possible on city thoroughfares. Klein was also a leading opponent of congestion pricing. 

At least now the contempt we always suspected the Jeff Kleins, Richard Brodskys and Denny Farrells held for those on the other side of the windshield is, in Klein's case, out in the open. Beavan, who serves on the board of Transportation Alternatives, is calling on Klein to meet with him "to discuss transportation policy as it relates to bicycle safety, carbon emissions, the cultivation of New York City quality of life, breathable air, and traffic congestion." Beavan is also encouraging his readers to contact Klein (718-822-2049), along with Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith (718-528-4290), in support of his request.

Please show Klein more civility than he would show you.

Following two recent cyclist deaths in Brooklyn, conflicts between motor vehicles and bikes -- and how to reduce them -- are once again a subject of impassioned debate among Streetsblog commenters. Here is Colin Beavan, a.k.a. No Impact Man, with a story of a recent cyclist-motorist confrontation and an extraordinary resolution.

Riding my rickshaw on the bike lane on 9th Street on Thursday, the traffic was stopped and a car pulled to my left and overtook me by speeding along the parking lane and then swerving back out and through the bike lane, brushing my front tire.

I was fine, but he could have killed me. A bucket-load of adrenaline hit my bloodstream. He scared me so badly that I shook.

A red light stopped him up ahead and my adrenaline -- read fight or flight weighing heavily towards fight -- sped my bike up. I swerved my rickshaw in front of his car so he couldn't move and started shouting.

I'm not a shouter, by the way, but I attracted a circle of people standing around to watch.

I'm not even sure what I screamed but something like "you nearly killed me" and "I'm going to call the police" and I waved my cell phone in the air like a crazy person.

He said, "Go ahead and call the police." He crossed his arms across his chest defiantly.

Then I shouted, with swear words I don't write on the blog interspersed, "I don't actually want to call the police. I just want you to apologize. I want you to realize that you nearly killed me so you could get somewhere five seconds faster."

Then another bicycle rides by. I shout at the man, "Do you want to kill him, too? Why don't you just kill everyone. Is your rush so important to you?"

I'm not saying I wasn't out of control because, well, I was definitely out of control.

But then the most amazing thing happened. Suddenly, the man walked back out into the street and he touched my arm and he said, "You're right. I wasn't thinking. I did a bad thing. It's the job. I'd lose my job if I didn't rush..."

I was still a crazy man. "Your job! You think your job is more important than my life?"

"You're right," he said. "We are both immigrants," he said. "We should be kind to each other, and I was not kind. Please will you shake my hand and give me forgiveness."

And my heart broke open a little. I am not an immigrant, as he thought, but I am, like him, a human being. Suddenly I realized that he lived his life in fear. If he lost his job, how could he pay his bills? If he couldn't pay his bills, how could he stay in the country?

"Will you shake my hand?" he said.

"I have a daughter, you should know," I said.

At that moment, I looked in his eyes and knew that he really understood what had happened. "I am sorry, my friend," he said.

"Will you be more careful of bicyclists from now on?"

"Yes," he said.

And we shook hands. We shook hands as friends.

Photo: threecee/Flickr

One day it hit me: Why not erase the white line? Why not end the separation of cycles and pedestrians from each other, and allow them to mix freely on the curved arc across the East River. After all, under the "Shared Street" philosophy, pioneered in Holland and spreading around the world under the proselytizing of folks like my colleague Ben Hamilton-Baillie of Bristol, England, a number of good things might happen.

First of all, walkers would have more space. That's an obvious benefit. As the bottom and most important base of the pyramid of uses that occupy a public space, it's right that walkers should have as much space as possible in a public right of way. They are using the most efficient form of transportation ever devised in terms of moving people from point A to B.

Secondly, bikers would slow down. Just as the "Shared Street" studies show with drivers when faced with a street devoid of traffic signs and lines and full of kids playing and people walking, bikers would slow down when faced with the task of slowly navigating through the crowds of locals and tourists making their way from one shore to another. The bikers would not have some line on the sidewalk essentially giving them a thumbs up to speed along, shouting at pedestrians to get out of their way.

It's a problem now that quite a few cyclists feel no restraint in zooming down one side or another of the walkway. They risk collisions should a person on foot take a step the wrong way, and at the very least it's scary to have a cyclist hurtle past you while you're on a scenic stroll.

I can practically hear cyclists screaming "No" at my suggestion. It might turn what is an efficient morning commute for cyclists including myself into something much slower and less practical. That is a possibility. But I suspect if the lines were erased on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway, and pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of non-motorized traffic were allowed to mix, the people on wheels would still move at a reasonable pace.

It's a leftover legacy of modernist urban planning and design that separating things somehow makes them more efficient or more productive. It's being increasingly discovered that's not the case. New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has been very astute in trying things. How about erasing that line for a while on the bridge, and seeing what happens?

Photo: twharris 

Which probably explains how the guy on Avenue B over near 10^th Street opened his door directly in front of me, just after sticking his head out the window and looking back. He wasn't looking for a thin vertical line, i.e. a man on a bicycle. He was looking for a big bulky object that might be a car or a truck. He "edited out" all visual information that wasn't that.

I let out an involuntary scream, squeezed my handlebar brakes, swiveled to one side, half fell off my bike but did not completely lose control. I was not injured. I was happy about that, but shaken that such an incident could occur.

I was angry at the guy, but my anger really didn't make sense. After all, the guy had looked. He just didn't see me.

It's in this situation that I think the now studied "Safety in Numbers" phenomena will gradually help cyclists. Over time, and cyclists grow in number on New York City streets, drivers, whether parked or otherwise, will start looking for them. They will expect to see cyclists, and thus will see them. We, as objects, will start to exist.

I look forward to the day.

In Los Angeles County, bicycle-related accidents have increased in the past year. Road rage is an enormous problem, and as growing numbers of Angelinos choose bikes as transportation, clashes with motorists are on the rise. The Los Angeles Times reported in August:

Scott Sing has had a tire iron hurled at him, a water bottle thrown at his head and been bombarded with racial epithets. And all he was trying to do was ride his bike on Los Angeles city streets.

His cycling and running brethren tell similar tales -- of being peppered with flying objects, cursed or otherwise assaulted -- and those don't even include the stories of near-misses and actual collisions. Such are the perils of trying to do something healthful in a city that's not known as bike- or pedestrian-friendly.

Many like Sing, 48, who have been on the roads for years say that the hostility and congestion are getting worse, especially as traffic worsens and drivers become more distracted by cellphones and other electronic gadgets. Cyclists in particular have borne the brunt of the road rage because they most often have to share the asphalt with the four-wheeled. And, judging from the frequent shouted demands to get off the road, many drivers are unaware that cyclists have as much right to the streets as they do.

Photo: Wildbell/Flickr

The Boston Globe ran a front-page story yesterday about confrontations among users of the super-popular tree-lined Minuteman Bikeway in Boston. Police have already filed more reports of clashes between users of the bikeway this year than the previous two combined. As the Arlington Police Chief noted, "We have road rage, and now we have bikeway rage."

"It's a good thing that it's used so much," said David Watson, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. "But in some ways I guess you can call it a victim of its own success."

There are cyclists in full-body spandex suits, aerodynamic helmets, and titanium bikes that go fast enough to leave roadkill in their wake. There are roller bladers, swaying back and forth to music playing on headphones. There are dog-walkers, stroller-pushers, and frequent choruses of "On your left!" screamed by cyclists as they whiz by pedestrians.

On weekdays, some subway commuters take the trail to Alewife Station in Cambridge. Pedestrians can be seen reading books as they walk, and a few cyclists chat on cellphones, one hand on the phone and another gripping the handlebars.

This type of "modal conflict" is familiar to users of the West Side bike path and the Central Park loop. And as the New York Times reports in an article this weekend about clashes between dog owners and cyclists, there can be conflict between species as well:

The city Parks Department does not keep statistics on collisions between bikes and dogs. But almost every cyclist and every dog owner seems to have a story about a collision, and there is no lack of finger-pointing as to who is to blame.

"It's the owner's fault," said Alex Rodriguez, race director for the Road Club Association, which has been holding races in the park since the 1920s.

Nancy Kramer, a 59-year-old interior designer who lives on the Upper East Side, says most of the people she sees on her park walks are collegial. "Except for the bikers."

If you think handing out traffic tickets to Central Park cyclists or random seizures of locked bicycles qualifies as outrageous police behavior, check out what happened to Stephan Orsak when he tried to leave the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport on his Brompton folding bicycle. He says that he was pulled over by a police officer, harassed and then shot with a Taser stun gun. He has started a blog dedicated to the case:

Immediately as I was leaving and without any warning whatsoever I was thrown off my bicycle onto the pavement. I sustained abrasion wounds to chin and arm. My helmet casing sustained a new crack, but otherwise prevented a direct blow to my head. My glasses were thrown off by the force of the impact and bounced several feet away. Officer Wingate moments later would smash them into the pavement with his boot. But first, I was jerked into an upright position, and Officer Wingate jumped to the side and ordered me Tasered by his officer in training. This, too, happened immediately and without any warning or choice whatsoever. I was then handcuffed, body searched, and luggage searched. Three additional squad cars soon arrived, including Officer Wingate's supervisor. However, my conversation with Sergeant Karsnia was abruptly cut short on the grounds that I had allegedly 'tried to take a swing' at Officer Wingate. I was handcuffed and transferred to Hennepin County Hospital, then to Hennepin County jail where I was held without charges and without bail.

A letter in the Daily News this week reminds us of the need for better enforcement as well as the open source hit-and-run investigation conducted by Streetsblog readers last November:

Brooklyn: Last week, as I rode my bicycle along Third Ave. in Brooklyn, I was hit by a car as it cut around traffic in the parking lane. Other than a few scrapes I was not hurt, and my bike was not damaged. I argued with the driver and he sped off, hitting my bike again. I went to the precinct to file a complaint and was told nothing could be done because I was not hurt and my bike was not damaged. So, bicyclists, beware: You can be bullied, harassed and even hit without any repercussions. My suggestion: Fall down and scream for an ambulance. Then maybe the cops will do something.