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Road Rage in Asheville | Shocking Video Shows Driver Punching Cyclist in the Face

Why is this not surprising?

Asheville, USA.

It might sound like a fictional city from a dystopian universe where America has been buried under a volcanic eruption, and funnily enough it is home to the world’s largest active archive of weather data, which would make for a great, if obvious narrative should that post-apocalyptic film ever be made, but actually Asheville is a fairly standard, rather pretty city in North Carolina.

Asheville has got everything you would expect a standard city to have.

Asheville has got a university called UNC Asheville. Asheville has got some awesome live music venues. The Beastie Boys once had a residency in Asheville. So did The Smashing Pumpkins. Isn’t that nice for Asheville?

Asheville has got a population of over 400,000. Which means Asheville has got a lot of drivers. And a lot of cyclists. Which means Asheville also has a sizeable problem with road rage and cyclist-driver relations, because at this point, what major city doesn’t?

The reason we’re highlighting Asheville in particular is because a video (below) recently dropped online showing these relations hitting boiling point in the city. Or rather, hitting boiling point, and then frothing over that point until those relations culminated in a boxing match.

 

The video literally shows a pick-up truck driver getting out of his car, and walking over to punch a cyclist in the face.

It’s absolute madness. News reports have told that the cyclist hadn’t even done anything wrong before he entered camera, either.

He had stayed in the cycle lane as far as possible, and roadworks had prevented the pick-up truck from passing him. When the roadworks cleared, the pick-up overtook the rider, and that should have been the end of it.

The YouTube video reads that: “The only words spoken occurred after the punches were thrown, when the driver said, ‘Get off the fucking road’.

“The driver, who left the scene, was later apprehended by police, charged with simple assault, and released. We do not know if additional charges are going to be brought against the driver.”

Let’s be clear though, even if the cyclist in this video had been an absolute dickhead, cycled slowly in front of the car and looked back winking (which he obviously didn’t, he was just casually riding along the road), this would still not be a valid reason to get out of your vehicle and punch them in the face.

There is very rarely a reason to punch a cyclist in the face. Cyclists are human beings too. And there is never a justification for honking your horn or screaming at, never mind punching, a cyclist who is obeying all the rules of the road.

Here is a useful pie chart to refer to if you are ever in doubt about whether or not you should punch a cyclist:

Long story short. Don’t punch cyclists. And stop saying you hate cyclists while you’re at it.

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