“Dear PoPville,
On Monday, September 14th around 8:00AM, I was biking my kid to school along with two other parents/children. While going south on 11th Street NW by Cardozo High School, a driver in a blue Tesla from Maryland started honking at us repeatedly for no reason. He then passed us at a high rate of speed dangerously close: particularly the parent/child in front, the driver was within inches of running them over.
There’s a stoplight at the bottom of the hill where cars were stopped at a red. The driver stopped, got out of his car, and started yelling at us. He was ranting incoherently about the rules of the road, swearing, and threatening us — all while our children watched. While flailing his arms and pointing exuberantly at the bike lane he smacked me in the face several times hard enough to leave a scratch. Eventually a bystander was able to calm the situation enough that we were able to bike away.
In all the mess,
we did not get a picture of the person’s license plate. And even if we had I’m not sure what I would do with it. I’ve tried to file police reports for similar incidents in the past, and MPD has basically laughed in my face.
It’s inconceivable to me that this driver could very easily have killed somebody this morning, then somehow felt that he was the victim, and now he’s still out there driving around. I’m hoping in sharing this story people will understand — when bikers ask for dedicated bike infrastructure, it’s not just for the fun of it. We’re asking because we should not have to share space with people like this driving machines that could easily kill us.“