Posted on 10/08/2015 3:55:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A video of a truck and a cyclist who caused gridlock in a southern Swedish town when they got stuck in stand-off with neither willing to budge has sparked a huge debate after going viral.
The David-versus-Goliath incident in the small community of Vättersnäs between Swedish towns Jönköping and Huskvarna happened last week, but only went viral on Wednesday after a video filmed by bus driver witness David Magui was shared online.
It all began when an articulated truck tried to pass at a narrow section of the road between the two towns, despite a bicycle coming from the other direction technically enjoying right of way.
Now, most cyclists would settle for angrily waving their fist at the driver and, depending on their mood, even muttering a few well-chosen insults under their breath.
Not this one. Instead, he refused to move and demanded that the truck get out of his way, despite the driver vocally arguing that his articulated vehicle was unable to reverse.
"The cyclist yelled and shouted at the truck driver that he should move. ( ) The cyclist refused [to move] and said that he had right on his side," Magui told the GT tabloid when he described the incident.
The incident, which lasted more than 10 minutes, caused all traffic on the road to grind to a halt, with several dozen cars and a bus queuing up behind the two stubborn adversaries.
It did not end until a student who was on his way to a university exam ran out of patience and forcibly grabbed hold of the bike and moved it to the side of the road.
The stand-off sparked a massive debate on Wednesday about the law-abiding Swedes' penchant for sticking to the rules at all costs, with some praising the cyclist for standing up for himself.
"Respect, hats off to the cyclist," commented one person on Twitter. But others had a very different view with one calling him the "querulant of the century", and another added "Sweden's most hated biker now".
Jönköping was not one of 15 other Swedish towns and cities that closed off streets during European Mobility Week, an annual sustainable transport campaign, last month.
The high-profile initiative saw cars banned from large parts of Stockholm city centre as the Swedish capital for the first time took part in the Europe-wide initiative.
Oh. . .you are bad. . . confusing the poor guy. . .funny, though.
Commercial Driver’s License (for trucks/buses, etc.)
Agreed, I ride too and can’t stand most riders. Deserve their trips to the hospital or morgue.
Pray America is waking
You need some cheese to go with that whine.
got the same weenie dicks here in utah, dearie
Central NY is rife with them.
Obnoxious for the most part, riding three abreast on the back roads and never even pulling over when a car comes up behind, and having ridden bicycles often enough (NOT competitively, just for fun and exercise) I KNOW you can hear when someone is coming up behind you.
For all the *share the road* nonsense I see and all the warnings about motorcycles and bicycles and to be courteous to them, I wish that they would tell that to THEM.
They all demand courtesy and don’t deliver themselves. They block the roads and weave in and out of traffic in the absolute worse conditions, and then expect out of everyone else, what they don’t give themselves.
Forget it.
I’ll just add, we have over 1,000 miles of taxpayer-funded bike paths in our state. And those are just the ones in our State Parks!
You can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting a bike trail through any Cow Town or Municipality. I’ll bet every state has just as many, if not more. I swear EVERY unused railroad corridor has been re-vamped to be a bike trail at taxpayer expense.
In, ‘The People’s Republik of Madistan’ it’s a running joke in the winter that the BIKE PATHS are cleared of snow before the roads are.
I mean, I like Nature as much as the next gal, but it borders on the ridiculous around here.
Joe Biden said it was the first clean, well-articulated truck in Swedish driving.
Idiotic Liberal tree-hugger alert.
Im a cyclist but this guy is an idiot. Move the heck over and let the truck go by, regardless of the rules. Good grief!
Article says he couldnt go in reverse. Bummer.
Dont judge all cyclists by the actions of one moron.
This guy was just being a jerk. It’s not like there was no place to go. Sidewalks on both sides of the road. He could have easily moved to one of them, passed the truck, and gone on his merry way. He just wanted to be a jerk. Bet he rides on the sidewalk at other times when it’s convenient for him to do so, but not when he’s trying to get his 15 minutes.
Today I learned a new and useful word
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