Driver aggression toward bicyclists is nothing new. However, what happened on Monday in Porto Alegre, Brazil was absolutely unreal. (Porto Alegre is about 1,000 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro, for those of you wondering.)
A driver--supposedly enraged by the fact that bicyclists were "blocking" the street--plowed through the entire group of people who were riding with Porto Alegre's Critical Mass. Luckily, nobody was killed, though eight people were hospitalized with injuries.
Critical Mass is a community bike ride that happens all over the world on the last Friday of every month. One of CM's major goals is to demonstrate that bikers don't obstruct traffic; they ARE traffic. Having ridden in several Critical Mass rides in Pittsburgh and knowing fellow bikers a little too well, I will be the first to admit that some bikers can do some really stupid things (like riding against traffic in Pittsburgh's bus lanes, for example). However, there is absolutely no excuse for what happened on Monday; it was road rage, pure and simple.
Yesterday morning, the Brazilian news source O Globo, reported that the suspect had been arrested by police and is being charged with attempted murder. Considering that police usually side with drivers in cases of driver-cyclist aggression and rarely does anyone ever press criminal charges (when warranted), this charge of attempted murder is quite unusual.
If you want to see a video of the incident, click here. Fair warning, though, the video is brutal and not for everyone.
