Ugly cyclist-car encounter in Kensington

A bicyclist who GoPro'ed herself as she followed a car, argued with the driver and then hit or kicked the rear view mirror lit up Reddit yesterday by posting the video of the encounter. The post picked up momentum when the driver joined Reddit and gave her explanation of what happened.

Neither the driver nor the cyclist, both female, could be easily identified.

The video starts with the cyclist pursuing the red car as it heads east on Adams Avenue just west of the 15 freeway.

The car turns right into the parking lot across Adams from Ponce's, adjacent to the building that houses the Kensington theater and the Ken Club; and the bicyclist follows.

The cyclist bangs on the car trunk and orders the driver: "Get the fuck out bitch..... I need to talk to you."

"Why are you so upset with me?" the driver asks at one point.

The cyclist insists she saw the driver texting on her phone, which the driver has tucked on her lap between her thighs.

It devolves into an argument that goes: No I wasn't, Yes you were. The driver admits she didn't see a pedestrian in a crosswalk before the video starts, and says she stopped in time to yield and apologized to the man.

"That means you were texting," the cyclist says.

"Are you a cop?" the driver says. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm a cyclist," the cyclist says.

The encounter ends with the cyclist saying, "You know what? Fuck you" and hitting or kicking the driver side mirror so it bends completely forward. The cyclist then slips between the barriers that prevents cars from going south on Terrace Drive. She moves quickly down Terrace, and onto Central Avenue and then takes the sidewalk (legal in San Diego) to go the wrong way on a well-marked one way street. At El Cajon Boulevard, the video stops. Along the way, the camera — and presumably her eyes — swivel to the side streets that intersect her route, in a move that looks like making sure she wasn't followed.

Reddit users seemed mostly sympathetic, with some complimenting the driver for how calmly she handled the situation. At no time in the video does the red car appear to put the cyclist at risk.

Using the sign-on ReddRobin03, the driver described the cyclist as "female, black & grey hair curly & short. Big white helmet with predominant GoPro mounted on top. Wearing matching neon cycling top and pants. WEARS MATCHING TRIANGULAR CYCLING MASK ON FACE (LIKE A BANDANA) REVEALING ONLY EYES AND BAD ATTITUDE. MASK WAS NEON SQUARES IN A PIXELATED FORM. SERIOUS PENIS ENVY."

On Reddit, the driver said her mirror wasn't broken, it just went fully forward.

San Diego Police Lt. Scott Wahl said the department hasn't received any complaints that match the incident.

"Without a victim, we don't have a crime," he said.

But, he added, police always urge people to avoid such encounters.

"You don't know what's going through the other person's head and what they're capable of. The other person could have a gun or could be someone looking for a fight," Wahl said. "We tell people don't approach them, don't look at or talk to them, and get away as quickly and safely as possible."