Coordinated stalking on the road

[Westinghouse]

"Absolutely no need for this at all. A beautiful wide shoulder, totally destroyed for all intents and purposes by this chip seal rubbish. Brutal to ride on, but you have to go there when trucks approach. How do you know a truck is coming from behind? Theres a car coming from the front too. Never ceases to amaze me, no traffic for hours, and then one from fore and one from aft, cross right next to you. Incredible how often this happens."


The quote above comes from Crazyguyonabike.com. Search southern tier. The first entry should be Rufus and Dave do Alaska to Florida. Go to page 68 on his journal. Has anyone else seen that kind of deliberate coordination of vehicles to intercept cyclists? I have seen it many countless times. I have seen it used for illegal stalking and annoyances. Has anyone here encountered these four-wheeled miscreants on tour?

[Pat Lamb]

Can't remember who said it, "Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity."  Or perhaps, in this case, chance.  How would two cars or trucks time things so perfectly without another one to alert them when and where that solitary cyclist is riding?  Remember, "no traffic for hours" to cue them.

[jamawani]

"Scissors" occur when a cyclist has a car overtaking as well as oncoming.
How often do scissors occur in a given stretch or road?
It's geometric.

If 100 cars are eastbound and 100 westbound, there will be 10,000 scissors.
If 200 cars are eastbound and 200 westbound, there will be 40,000 scissors.
(Provided all cars cover the entire route and the last eastbound departs before the first westbound finishes.)
* Real time traffic models are far more complex, of course.

But that gives you an idea - - scissors are not uncommon.
In fact, they are to be expected.

[RonK]

Some people love to see conspiracies where there are none. I think your humour detector may be broken - or perhaps you simply cannot pick a South African's dry wit.

I've remarked about this phenomenon in my own journals. I think of it as Murphy's Law of Traffic, of which, I'm convinced there are several.

[BikeliciousBabe]

Some people love to see conspiracies where there are none.

Yep. See reply #12 in this thread:

https://forums.adventurecycling.org/index.php?topic=13772.msg71648#msg71648

[Westinghouse]

It's outside your perspectives. No cars for hours is not 10,000 scissors. When that same pattern persists, scissors as you say, only at the first expansion crack of EVERY bridge from FL to CA, that is absolutely not simply chance. You read a few words about events that go on for months, and you seem to arrogate that you are more competent on the subject than someone who was right in the middle of it for 60 days or longer. When the scissor happens precisely at EVERY small thing in the side lane that causes you to swerve into the motorized lane, every time from FL to CA, even where, like Roofus said, there was no traffic for 30 or 40 minutes at a time, mere happenstance is ruled out. When one of these four-wheeled miscreants, a complete stranger, stops and approaches you in a convenience store parking lot, and walks directly up to you and tells you who they are and why they are doing it, noise and crowding, the idea it is mere chance is completely inappropriate and unacceptable. Seems like a conflict of interest somewhere.

[Westinghouse]

That fact is, there are people following lone cyclists and scissoring them for whatever reason they have. That happening in exactly the same places from FL to CA, every time, is not chance. It is coordinated. How do they time it that precisely? You would have to ask them. I know they do it. There is more to it than I have revealed. Several times when approaching a bridge on the ST, I would stop or slow to throw off their timing. Looking in front and behind I saw them slowing down too. Often the trucks would gear down to slow to keep the timing right. I experimented with the timing element several times, and ever time they adjusted their speed. The so called scissoring became absolutely 100% accurately predictable at EVERY bridge and EVERY side lane blockage all the way from FL to CA no matter how infrequent the cars and trucks. It is not possibly mere chance. The bridge interceptions caused loud, penetrating, ear-splitting noise. The side lane blockage interceptions caused crowding. I happen to know this. I did, after all, have a revealing conversation with one of those involved. Unlike many on the www, I do take the time to verify before I write.

[Westinghouse]

That fact is, there are people following lone cyclists and scissoring them for whatever reason they have. That happening in exactly the same places from FL to CA, every time, is not chance. It is coordinated. How do they time it that precisely? You would have to ask them. I know they do it. There is more to it than I have revealed. Several times when approaching a bridge on the ST, I would stop or slow to throw off their timing. Looking in front and behind I saw them slowing down too. Often the trucks would gear down to slow to keep the timing right. I experimented with the timing element several times, and ever time they adjusted their speed. The so called scissoring became absolutely 100% accurately predictable at EVERY bridge and EVERY side lane blockage all the way from FL to CA no matter how infrequent the cars and trucks. It is not possibly mere chance. The bridge interceptions caused loud, penetrating, ear-splitting noise. The side lane blockage interceptions caused crowding. I happen to know this

[Westinghouse]

Can't remember who said it, "Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity."  Or perhaps, in this case, chance.  How would two cars or trucks time things so perfectly without another one to alert them when and where that solitary cyclist is riding?  Remember, "no traffic for hours" to cue them.

Approaching from the front and rear, once the target is in sight it is merely a matter of adjusting speed to come abreast of each other and the cyclist.  Believe me, I have seen this many countless times even on back roads on Sundays with almost a complete absence of traffic. I adjusted my speed to throw off their timing many times, but only to see them adjusting theirs. Another matter of note. All their license plates were obscured in some ways. You could not read them standing still at 20 feet, much less at 60 mph. I checked many tags in those parts  thinking that kind of dirty obscured tag situation was common in those areas. All tags were clean and easy to read. Only the scissoring vehicles had impossible to read tags. On one vehicle there was a black piece of something fastened over the tag. I know more about this than I have said here. I am simply reporting a problem. I verified it many times before I saw it for what it was. Why anyone would want to say multiple stalking crimes did not happen seems suspicious.

[Westinghouse]

"Scissors" occur when a cyclist has a car overtaking as well as oncoming.
How often do scissors occur in a given stretch or road?
It's geometric.

If 100 cars are eastbound and 100 westbound, there will be 10,000 scissors.
If 200 cars are eastbound and 200 westbound, there will be 40,000 scissors.
(Provided all cars cover the entire route and the last eastbound departs before the first westbound finishes.)
* Real time traffic models are far more complex, of course.


I thought about that and tested it. On interstate side lanes where noise making and crowding were not possible, I watched carefully. I watched for vehicles on east and west bound lanes coming abreast of one another and me at the same time. It almost never happened, 10,000 scissors, 40,000 scissors, whatever. It happened so infrequently if at all that I tired of watching for it. This so called scissoring I write about was stalking--timed, coordinated, stalking. Anyone who insists  otherwise may be complicit in some way. One thing these criminals do not want is exposure of their activities. I will say this about on the interstates. Whenever I came to an overpass I would take the flat exit and entrance ramps past the uprises. I would look over to the beginnings of the overpasses. Every time there was a vehicle, usually a truck, hitting the first  expansion crack about exactly abreast. They could not make the noise that way, but they did make the point. There were other examples which were unquestionably deliberate and timed and coordinated.

But that gives you an idea - - scissors are not uncommon.
In fact, they are to be expected.

[jamawani]

Oh, my. Wall of words.

[Pat Lamb]

Some people love to see conspiracies where there are none.

Yep. See reply #12 in this thread:

https://forums.adventurecycling.org/index.php?topic=13772.msg71648#msg71648

It's possible this only-seen-by-one-person phenomenon is recurring after two years.

All their license plates were obscured in some ways. You could not read them standing still at 20 feet, much less at 60 mph. ... On one vehicle there was a black piece of something fastened over the tag. I know more about this than I have said here.

Or maybe we're being trolled by an expert.

When one of these four-wheeled miscreants, a complete stranger, stops and approaches you in a convenience store parking lot, and walks directly up to you and tells you who they are and why they are doing it, noise and crowding, the idea it is mere chance is completely inappropriate and unacceptable.

Or maybe this is an object lesson: don't piss off the guys flying the black helicopters.

[Westinghouse]

No trolling. No being seen by only one person. It has been mentioned by others in other articles. What we have here is what we have on many US forums---a problem being exposed while others try to say the problem did not or does not exist. Perhaps there is a conflict of interest. I do know this. I have been on many open internet forums since 2002. Discussions regarded matter of fact, not opinion. Unpopular facts were not received. Most people who posted did not really know their subject. They always tried to undercut those with contrary but studied and authoritative facts. When those who did research as to the facts proved the others wrong, it was the ones who knew the subject who were banned or otherwise attacked. This pattern has held true almost 100 % invariably. The answers are the same on all forums. They say the person is trolling when it is absolutely nothing of the sort. It is a simple matter of presenting tangible facts. Accusations of trolling is such a lame cop out.

[David W Pratt]

Regardless of their motives, or whatever highly encrypted communications they use to coordinate their nefarious activities, the solution is simple: more bicycles.  To perform the scissors requires two motorists for every bicycle.  Each additional cyclist needs two additional motorists.  It is simple math, we can bury them.

[Westinghouse]

That's something. It is a shame a person cannot go out across the continent on a bicycle, minding his own business completely, without crooks  following and trying to mess it up for him. With all the people in prison and jail in this country, 25% of the world's prison population, we should be safe, but still the country is rife with crime. It is an utter disgrace.