Harassed by a Motorist in Wilmington?
Getting harassed or even threatened by motorists happens far too often to everyday cyclists. In my line of work I hear these stories often. Its sad and frustrating that people will harass and use heavy machinery to intimidate people who are–like them–just trying to get around. More frustrating is that it seems these louts can bully with impunity. I wrote to Joshua Mello, who works hard at the Wilmington Planning Department to make the city bike friendly, about this today and found some info local cyclists might be interested in. Unfortunately, their is no law in NC on the books about harassing cyclists, though evidently there was one recently proposed (anyone have more info on that?) Fortunately, Wilmington cyclists have a friend at the police department in Lt. Perkins, who has taken it upon himself to follow up on cases of cyclist harassment by sending the driver a letter reminding them of applicable bicycle road law. The cynic might say, so what? Well, people don’t like to get letters from the police. I would think it might make them think twice about doing it again, and it is heartening to know someone in the department is willing to do this work and has the institutional support of the chief and city attorney, who have both approved the program.
I don’t think many cyclists are aware of this effort to make riding a bike in the city enjoyable and jerk-free. If you’re harassed by a motorist, send an e-mail to Lt. Perkins with the date and time of incident, plate number, vehicle description, location and a summary of the event. A log of these incidents is kept and letters are sent to the owners of the vehicles if the incident occurred withing the city limits.
**A note for those thinking of visiting or moving to Wilmington (or to anyone who might get the wrong impression). I have only experienced one such incident in the two and half years I’ve lived here. I rarely get too far out of downtown, where pedestrians and cyclists are common and traffic slower, so I likely get less stick than someone who travels on the outer edges of the city (big surprise: drivers are more idiotic as the infrastructure become more car-centric).
