Road rage incidents tend to have a clear cause, but one pickup truck rampage in Santa Monica, California, has the internet puzzled because it appears the car driver wanted to wage war against bicycles out of nowhere. The driver could be seen mowing down the whole bike lane, seemingly just because he can. The clip of his rather odd road rage has gone viral and placed the unknown driver under scrutiny, even igniting a debate regarding toxic car culture.
The incident occurred on August 9 and was shared on Reddit by user The_Naj from Santa Monica. In the clip, the Reddit user was driving along 23rd Street when he looked at his side mirror and saw a huge pickup truck recklessly driving in the bike lane, running through the rubber bollards and wrecking them by the dozens. The Reddit user couldn’t help but film the incident.
“They turned off the road when they saw me trying to get the plates after this. Hoping someone on here recognizes the car,” according to the Reddit user. Apparently, they also called a non-emergency number regarding the pickup truck driver’s vandalism, but the authorities never followed up on the call. At the time of writing, it appears that neither the pickup truck nor its driver has been identified yet, and it’s not clear what happened to the bike lane they wrecked.
Thankfully, it also appears that at that particular time, no cyclist was using the bike lane, or the road rage would’ve turned into a homicide attempt. Some social media users claimed that this incident was supposedly eligible for a 911 call, as it could possibly be an “erratic or impaired” driver.
People online are slamming the toxic truck driver
Many have criticized the truck driver for the rather unwarranted rage towards bike lanes and pro-pedestrian infrastructure in the city. Some even wished ill will upon the truck driver with comments such as, “Every fifth one of those should be filled with concrete,” regarding the rubber bike lane bollards. “I guess the city must upgrade to steel encased concrete bollards now,” suggests another user.
Others had some kind of realization as to why bike lanes tend to be poorly kept, “Straight 911. There can be cyclists ahead. [Expletive]. Explains all the broken barriers I see all over la.” The discussion, however, eventually veered off into the general toxicity of the car-centric culture in US cities. Some commenters even insulted the truck driver, “That insecure weakling feels so powerful pushing down rubber flex posts in his oversized truck he was brainwashed into buying.”
“Imagine driving a 6,000+ pound oversized vehicle and being intimidated by a bicycle. The fragility of their ego is astonishing,” claims another commenter. Certain commenters questioned why exactly the bollards were made of rubber instead of steel or concrete, and it appears they were deliberately made like that so that emergency vehicles like fire trucks or ambulances can pass through. The city likely didn’t take into account truck drivers who have an inexplicable beef with bicycles.
