Footage posted to Twitter shows a huge road rage row between a cyclist and a driver in Toronto, Canada – although it is not clear what sparked the incident.
It seems that there was already some sort of altercation going on at the start of the clip, which is almost a minute in length and was filmed from an elevated position in one of the vehicles queueing behind.
The driver of a silver pick-up truck, stationary at an intersection, is leaning out of the cab, then gets out and pushes a cyclist – until now, out of view, in front of the vehicle – away, then gestures at him.
As the driver walks back round to the other side of the pick-up truck, the cyclist takes something from his pocket and appears to puncture – or at least, attempt to puncture – one of the vehicle’s tyres.
The motorist, who had seen it happen, runs back round and chases after the bike rider, who is just a little too slow to remount and the pair tangle, the cyclist turning round and trying to make his getaway on the sidewalk.
The driver catches him, however, and pushes him off his bike, which he then starts swinging at the wall of a building – just as a policeman runs towards the scene.
There still doesn’t appear to be any news on what actually sparked the incident, but hopefully tempers calmed down quickly.
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25 comments
What a couple of arseholes
Well, I wouldn't try getting away on the bike, not least because it would take me ages to clip in!
Looks like the cyclist actually got away at the end. With the police right there, there's a chance the motorist was dumb enough to admit what he did.
"He wouldn't get in the bike lane so I pushed him into it."
Lesson One: If you going to vandalise anything, make sure that you can accelerate away from it before the aggrieved owner can catch you.
The error here was not waiting until Mr Angry got back in his oversized truck, shut his oversized door, and put his [normal-sized, I guess] seatbelt on.
Need an e-bike with at least 80Nm of torque if you're going to pull that stunt.
Yeah, but that would be cheating....
That tall geared fixie doesn't accelerate too well!
Hipster on hipster violence is never a pretty sight.
Manbun-tastic!
My money is on the entitled driver trying to drive in the cycle lane and the cyclist not getting out of his way.
I hope there's an update to this so we can find out what started this all.
I doubt there will be. Video only started with truck driver getting back in from initial confrontation and remonstrating with cyclist before physically pushing him into the "cycle lane". So was the driver complaining he was in the wrong lane or did the cyclist do a wheelie upto his door first and deserve to be pushed away?
From the indication and placement of the truck, I suspect the driver wanted to suddenly make a right turn (which they can on red) but cyclist wouldn't move out of the way. This is just on the push out the way and the pointing at "lane" action that seems to happen. After that I don't condone the actions of the cyclist at all as he also started to endanger others with first cycling back up against other cyclists and then on the pavement towards a corner / junction.
The cyclists also tried to slash the vehicle tyre, and vandalism's not a good move. Maybe it was the red mist, who knows? In the end both the driver and cyclist come out of this looking like a pair of idiots.
The fact the cyclist was carrying a knife in general doesn't look good, but without the context at the start it's hard to know if the cyclist was attacked, or just aggressive.
Was it a knife? Wouldn't anything sufficiently rigid and pointy do that particular job?
Have you tried stabbing a 4x4 tyre with anything blunter than a knife?
No neither have I (or with a knife ftm), but I doubt you'd make much of an impression
But the point (see what I did?) is fair, we can't say for a fact that he was carrying a knife, although it certainly is within the realm of possibility.
In the interests of full disclosure, I've never tried stabbing a tyre full stop.
Save it for the judge....
Wouldn't a tubeless anchovie insertion tool almost be designed for that very purpose.
I had difficulties with my cheap version and upgrades to the Muc off one
Hmm, interesting, together with reason to carry! I'll bear that in mind, for future discussion of course....
Where exactly did you want to insert an anchovie?
The way he moved his hand when he got it out looked like a butterfly blade.
I said I didn't condone anything he did after the push on him but concentrated on the 'attempted getaways' because he was putting other people in danger there.
Note to self: If you regularly carry a switchblade / box cutter to defend your road conduct in Toronto, bike messenger is not the job for you! You will probably not live to see 2022 !! In a battle with a 5,000 pound pickup truck guess who wins?
I think this is one of the situations where cycling away from a pedestrian wasn't going to work. At least not towards the intersection anyway.