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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 09 2017, @07:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-get-mad-get-even dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Velonews has this story, http://www.velonews.com/2017/05/news/legally-speaking-brought-justice_437651 which describes an incident of road rage against a bicyclist. Turns out, this was the wrong cyclist to buzz, he was a lawyer and eventually settled with the cager's insurance company for USD $4500 -- setting a price for cyclist harassment in Louisiana.

The road-raging driver had just endangered the life of the cyclist and his toddler, and now he was spoiling for a fight. It began on a calm Sunday morning in New Orleans. Charlie Thomas had gone for a ride with his young daughter Colette, towing her in a Burley trailer, enjoying the ride and time together. But on the edge of the iconic French Quarter, their peaceful Sunday morning was violently interrupted when a speeding car buzzed them, passing within a foot of Charlie and Colette.

[...] "I'm not trying to start anything," Charlie said, "but you passed way too close to my daughter and me."

And that's when the driver, motioning that he was about to get out of his car, responded with his tough-guy threat: "How about I get out and f—k you up in front of your kid?" Charlie's emotions surged, but he knew that any further engagement would be unproductive, and with his daughter there, unsafe. So he broke off the encounter, and the driver sped away.

[...] Although the incident didn't involve a physical impact, Louisiana has both a three-foot passing law and a non-harassment law on the books. Charlie filed suit seeking damages for the driver's harassment. There had never been a case setting the value of damages for a harassed bicyclist under Louisiana's law, so Charlie and the driver's insurance company were in uncharted negotiating territory.

Eventually, Charlie negotiated a settlement that established a value of $4,500 damages in a civil case for cyclist harassment in Louisiana; the proceeds were donated to Bike Easy, the New Orleans-area bike advocacy group. The official case on the books is Thomas v. Arbona, Case No. 16-03127; First City Court for the City of New Orleans. Now, any other cyclist who sues a driver for harassment in Louisiana can use the value for damages established in this case.


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 10 2017, @03:16AM (1 child)

    by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday May 10 2017, @03:16AM (#507266) Journal

    And the advantage California got were that the military spent insane amounts of Cold War research money there to get all the gadgets they needed to fight that (cold) war.

    Dunno if Houston counts as "the south" but it seem to have a tech industry that can compete. Maybe some places in the south can be made to new research valleys provided there's a blue sky investment for decades. But the problem with cultural incompatibilities will remain. Performance thinkers will want freedom to express the result of their thinking and have a lifestyle that stimulates their active mind. This often collide with people having a static thought process. The thinker then realizes that it's more efficient strategy to move and spend the resources elsewhere than fighting the locals. And the region looses. Mathematically it can be suspected that once the sum of certain threshold factors collude, it's a runaway process.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @06:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @06:56PM (#507679)

    Dallas (telecom corridor) and Atlanta also have strong tech industries.
    And there has been lots of military spending in the south too. Consider Hunstsville Alabama which is defense/aerospace contractor central.
    Martin Marietta, now Lockhead Martin, was founded in Marietta just outside of Atlanta.
    And of course NASA on Florida's "space coast."