Driver slashes cyclist's throat in South Side attack (Pittsburgh, Allentown: living, move)

[groar]

more information about the incident and the victim:

South Side bicyclist stabbed in road rage incident - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

it mentions that no arrests have been made in any of the incidents this summer involving cyclists getting hurt or killed, including the 2 where they caught the drivers - i'm surprised that they didn't arrest the guy who hit the cyclist in highland park the other day. i wonder if there was some medical issue going on with the driver or something. he was reportedly speeding and swerving into things for quite some time but they didn't find that he was intoxicated. edit: i just looked into it further and the driver was arrested and charged. damn p-g!

i also wonder what happened to the woman who killed anthony green. there's not much info out there about that incident. she was driving without a license but i don't know if she was driving recklessly. it's so weird that you can hit and kill someone and apparently not face any real repercussions.

[toosie]

Originally Posted by julian17033

Both are bicycles and both are being powered by human beings within the same setting.
Hyperbole? Perhaps. Unreasonable? Hardly.

Actually, I do think it's unreasonable. I also think it's off-base to bring a gun to this knife fight (as a few others on this thread are doing.)

Julian, your comments are unreasonable to me because there's no indication at all that this crime even involved people of different races, let alone that it was racially motivated. That hypothesis is unfounded and inflammatory. Many of us on this thread used disparaging terms about the cutter so calling him garbage might not seem so far off-base. In context of your post, though, it sure comes across like, as long as he was a poor, black, inner-city kid, you'd be calling him garbage.

There's also no indication that the bike was pricey or that the cutter was jealous. Based on the little we know I'd guess that he wasn't jealous or he would have stolen the bike instead of ruining it by throwing it down the cliff. Besides bike geeks, most non-cyclists can't tell the difference between a regular bike and a high end or specialty bike anyway.

[groar]

appropriately enough, i just came across a description of the stabber. keep an eye out! hopefully the other media outlets will catch up and get this description out there.

Cyclist slashed in South Side | TribLIVE

Albright described his attacker as a white man in his 20s who was clean-shaven with short hair and was driving a small, gray two-door car that was possibly a later-model Mercury.

toosie, i cannot rep your post above mine but i would like to!

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by groar

and if people have started randomly generalizing about drivers lots and lots of times in a way that is comparable to the victim blaming that goes on when cyclists and pedestrians get hit by cars, feel free to give an example. i would love to see a thread about a 2 or more car crash where people start talking about how drivers all break the law and shouldn't be on the road.

Unfortunately, until we have a major cultural shift in the city, it just isn't going to happen. I try to avoid reading the comments on these types of news stories because I know they'll just drive me insane. I do think that if our bike culture continues to progress at its current rate, we will see some of that cultural shift start to occur, but it will probably be very slow.

For the foreseeable future, we just have to suffer the fools and their ignorant comments and do our best to avoid their dangerous behaviors. One day, though, Groar, one day. Hahaha.

[groar]

Originally Posted by CaptainPittsburgh

Unfortunately, until we have a major cultural shift in the city, it just isn't going to happen. I try to avoid reading the comments on these types of news stories because I know they'll just drive me insane. I do think that if our bike culture continues to progress at its current rate, we will see some of that cultural shift start to occur, but it will probably be very slow.

For the foreseeable future, we just have to suffer the fools and their ignorant comments and do our best to avoid their dangerous behaviors. One day, though, Groar, one day. Hahaha.

yeah, i shouldn't read the comments on those sites either. they get really terrible - worse than just about anything i've seen here (relating to cyclists, anyway).

my coworkers and i were talking about this incident at lunch yesterday and one of them said "well don't ride your bike in the street then.". i told him to think about what he just said. that if you don't want to get stabbed, you shouldn't ride your bike in the street. ok. that argument sort of makes sense if you're talking about getting accidentally hit by a car, but getting stabbed? and of course the same argument could be made (but never is) when someone gets hurt or killed in an accident involving only cars.

i've said this before, but it's a double-edged sword - things won't be safer for cyclists until drivers get used to seeing them on the road. but drivers can't get used to them unless they're out there. and the transitional period is a killer, literally. i have a lot of respect for people who are braving the roads right now on bikes and making it safer for us wusses (i mostly ride on trails myself and i ride on the street very timidly and only occasionally, although i want to change that).

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by CaptainPittsburgh

I see these bicycle hooligans with their tattoos and tiny hats just blowing through the stop signs all the time, everyday of my life! It's like they want to get stabbed! Look, I'm not saying it's their fault. I'm just saying, they want to get stabbed! Maybe they deserve it; maybe they don't. I'm not getting into that. I'm just saying...

Bicyclists are no worse than motorists when it comes to thinking they are somehow above the law insofar as traffic laws are concerned. Most drivers I know would "blow" through stop signs also if they thought they could get away with it.

Many bicyclists get their comeuppance for their attitude when they do actually connect with vehicles, because it is a rare day when they come out on top of that kind of scenario. I figure 99 times out of 100 if they are involved in a serious accident they deserved it.

But nobody deserves to be stabbed by a bunch of low life coward pukes. That's just wrong. If you get angry at someone, have a fair fist-fight, one on one if you are man enough.

20yrisnBranson

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

can't wait to hear what the ethnic persuasion of the perps are.

20yrsinbranson

1. the perp was white.

2. you live in missouri and are trolling a pittsburgh board.

3. go sit in the corner and eat a confederate flag

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by Sideblinded

Jeebus! I hope this wasn't a random attack. It is insane!

You hope it wasn't random?

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by CaptainPittsburgh

Unfortunately, until we have a major cultural shift in the city, it just isn't going to happen. I try to avoid reading the comments on these types of news stories because I know they'll just drive me insane. I do think that if our bike culture continues to progress at its current rate, we will see some of that cultural shift start to occur, but it will probably be very slow.

For the foreseeable future, we just have to suffer the fools and their ignorant comments and do our best to avoid their dangerous behaviors. One day, though, Groar, one day. Hahaha.

A lot of those comments are from people who live outside of the city or even outside of the county.

I wish the P-G would remove their comment section. I really takes away from their journalism and makes them about as eloquent as youtube.

[groar]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

You hope it wasn't random?

i think the gist of that post (and some others like it) is that truly random attacks are scarier for the general public than attacks between people who know each other and have some reason to attack each other.

it seems very, very unlikely that it wasn't random though.