It all
began with a taxi... ..Oddly enough back in 1996 while I was working as an
Installation manager for an art gallery in Boston. One day I had an
install at Children's Hospital. I approached the Hospital and thought
I'd run in to let my contact there know we were looking for parking. I
found a space where I could pull over for a minute, leaving my partner
Jeff to watch the truck. I looked in my side mirror... nothing ...
glanced in the rear view ...nothing..... I opened the door .....
CRAaaaaaACK!!... glass
went flying everywhere, I heard squealing tires and crunching metal. We
jumped for cover, a second later I looked up to catch the distinctive
Black and White of a Town Taxi screeetch around the corner. The door to
the truck was hanging awkwardly by one hinge. The other hinge had been ripped
clean off.
The window glass was
shattered in a ba-zillion fragments all around, on the dashboard, in my
hair.
The fender was creased.
I couldn't believe what had
just happened! I had just looked a second ago! The cabs' side mirror was
left spinning amidst the wreckage.... I was freaked, We started laughing
and chanting "Holy Shit!" over and over. Luckily no-one got hurt....
I kept thinking, What if that
was a cyclists? I might have killed them.
I never thought about
opening a car door the same way again.
Fast forward to San Francisco
around the spring of 1997. At this point I'm a bycicle messenger riding
a tag down Bush street theres a slight drizzle. By now I've had numerous
close calls with doors. I learned to look through rear windows for signs
of activity but that logic failed me when a woman lying on her side in
the back seat of a taxi decided to kick the door open!
As I passed 333 Bush
traffic got tighter but was still moving, just coming to a stop... I
split the lane when Before I knew it !BAM! The side of a taxi door made
contact, scraping the length of my forearm. I saw flashes of legs, a Tan
skirt, the door and bags. The impact wrenched the handlebars away from
me, I lost contrtol. The front wheel seemed to flop from one side to
the other. I managed to stop the bike awkwardly after bouncing off a few
cars like 20 feet later. I was
stunned, after years of biking I finally caught a door. I looked back to
view a flustered middle aged woman slam the taxi door shut. I yelled to
her "You just hit me! to which She replied, "Fuck you! I don't have time
for this shit!" Now I was really shocked! The woman gave me the finger
and ran down the street into the crowd...my bike was still in the
street..the light had turned green and the taxi promptly speed away.
My arm was soaked in blood
and throbbing.
My adrenaline kicked in. The
bike was to messed up to ride. I took off on foot after her dragging it
beside me. I could see her a block ahead pushing her way through the
crowded sidewalk. As I caught up to her... She turned and screamed at me "What the fuck do you want
from me?" ....I screamed at her "You just fucking hit me with the taxi
door!" What the fuck?. She burst into tears. Immediatly began telling
me how she is trying to raise her kids alone and was late for a big job
interview that she really needs and on and on...I cut her short to
remind her that I was working too and was now going to loose a days pay or
more thanks to her carelessness.
All I wanted was for her to
apologize. To aknowledge what happened. Finally she did.
Having confronted her I
returned to the scene of the accident. Upon returning multiple people,
including the concierge of 333 Bush had seen what happened and asked if
I was ok. A couple of police cars arrived seconds later (the concierge
had called). Even a sweet pedestrian who witnessed the incident offered
to make a statement to the police in my behalf.
I started to calm down, This
all happened in under three minutes.
After a few years on the
streets of Boston and San Francisco. I became more involved in Cyclists
rights, see illustration below. |
