“Dear PoPville,
I had an unfortunate incident Saturday around 5 PM in the 1 St NE separated bike lane in NoMA. Uber and Lyft drivers blocking the lane is a constant occurrence on weekends and unfortunately there is no enforcement by the city. As a result, I try and just remind drivers in a friendly way they they’re creating a hazard by parking here. I always try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and just ask they not do it again. No one is going to feel like complying with the law if they get screamed at, even if they’re in the wrong.
Saturday, however, I encountered a stop Lyft in the lane (it was obvious based on the app the driver had mounted to the dash). When I tried to quickly remind the driver he shouldn’t be in the lane, one of the passengers became belligerent, cursing at me and then came around the vehicle, put his hands on me, and shoved me.
Then he headed off to the Wundergaten with his friends. Everything was captured on video below – the best video of the physical contact is the rear one but I included the front one to show the entire incident from start to finish.
I ended up not calling the police and just going home because I was pretty stressed about the encounter and didn’t want to spend another hour of my evening making a police report, potentially needing to ID the guy in the beer garden, download the footage and get it to the officer, etc. But it’s just a shame that the city won’t step up and conduct some traffic enforcement here to keep the lane clear. It was less of an issue the way I was heading, but anyone heading southbound is forced into oncoming traffic.
Videos are here:
Short rear video
Full front video“