“Dear PoPville,
Regrettably I have an addition to the MBT issues. Biking home from NoMa station to the bike dock on R street by North Cap at 12:10am (Saturday) and two teenagers tried to knock me off my bike for no clear reason other than to hurt me.
Mind you I’m a not scrawny 30-year old man and they decided it would be funny to try and knock me over, incredibly unclear what they thought they would get out of it other than simply hurting me. It’s a shame because I love the MBT but at this point it’s clear it’s not safe for people and I’ve seen enough posts of the police strolling down it doing nothing to deter teenagers from harassing and attempting to hurt people. I stopped my bike after they tried to knock me over and they laughed and threatened me with a lighter before I rode away.
As soon as I left, I warned a woman biking the other way about to ride past them to watch out as they hid on the stairwell by the north end of the NoMa station, but I don’t think that accomplished anything to make her safer. At this point I wouldn’t let anyone I cared about ride the MBT by themselves, the city is clearly waiting for a horrible incident by doing nothing to restore safety after repeated incidents.
I hate to spread fear but people deserve to know that the MBT isn’t safe (again, as a not small 30-year old man, if it isn’t safe for me, it isn’t safe for anyone.)
And to be clear, they physically struck me as I was biking past them and I stayed upright thanks to my weight and nothing else.”