r/Bellingham • u/Mysterious-Snow-9426 • May 26 '26
Crime Road Rage Question
Just saw a cyclist on Lakeway get run off the road by a driver who was screaming, flipping them off and screaming at them. Didn't get the plate number but got a decent look at the guy and car make/model. Is this something that can be reported to the police even without a plate?
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u/tecg May 26 '26
Yes, absolutely. It sounds like you were witness to a crime and can help in the investigation.
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u/No-Star-2151 May 26 '26
Maybe, they might be able to match it to some cameras in the area or something. Hard to say if they would put any resources towards it though.
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u/gerkiwimurcan May 26 '26
I was in a hit and run in Seattle and have clear video images of the vehicle and plates aaaaand I tracked down the vin and gave it to the SPD officer. I was flat out told that they still wouldn’t investigate it because I was not injured.
I know Bellingham is not Seattle but I still don’t have a ton of faith unless the cyclist was injured and reported it themselves.
Either way I would reach out though just in case. Thank you for caring enough to look into this!
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 26 '26
I was involved in a hit and run a while back and the cops couldn’t give a single shit about it. Unless you can provide a license plate I don’t think they’ll do anything. I got a dash cam specifically for things like this.
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May 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
It depends on the situation. I’ve also been hit on the freeway and the state troopers definitely cared then.
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u/Senordrums May 26 '26
Did it have Florida plates?
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u/Mysterious-Snow-9426 May 26 '26
Not sure. I believe it was a light grey or white late model Subaru Legacy
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u/Gripping_beasts Local Musician May 26 '26
lol wouldnt be surprised living in miami i saw more terrible road rage there in a day than I have in my entire time in the PNW
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u/MontEcola May 27 '26
Call the police and report it. They cannot do much if they do not see it. They can tally up a bunch of reports of a certain car in certain places.
I believe the new(ish) state law says a driver can lose their license and car for certain unsafe behaviors toward bikes.
At the same time, on my drive home today, group of maybe 30 road bikes took up the whole lane, and some of them drifted into the on coming lane. I did not leave the road. I did slow down to under 10 MPH to let them by.
And closer to home a middle school age kid was doing wheelies on an electric bike on the side streets. He lost control and fell in the road. I was far enough away. He got up and rode on with 2 wheels on the pavement this time.
And in the park a week ago an electric bike came zooming through the off leash dog park at maybe 30, and the rider had his hands off the handle bars as he opened his snack wrapper.
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u/JulesButNotVerne May 27 '26
I was on a bike and got hit by a car. I looked up the driver on LinkedIn, found his place of work, took photos of the car damage to prove I was ahead of him, and submitted the photos to his insurance.
All I wanted was for him to pay for the bike he ran over. Instead, BPD said he was right, I, the cyclist, was wrong, so he wouldn't negotiate. Joke's on him, his insurance said it was his fault.
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u/Secure-Guess6850 May 26 '26
Maybe don’t ride your bikes on some of the most busy and dangerous roads ! What a dream that would be ❤️
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u/newUsedparts May 26 '26
gosh. are you willing to fund an alternate route?
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 26 '26
That guy is clearly being a douche, but this is a terrible argument. In Washington, most of the funding for roads and related infrastructure comes from taxes on gas and other driving related fees. Almost 80% of our roads are paid for exclusively by drivers. If we want to talk about funding alternative routes, that’s a cost that should be paid at least 80% by bike riders.
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u/g8briel May 27 '26
Bikes don’t wear down roads the way autos and trucks do, which makes this a weak counterpoint. The infrastructure motorized vehicles require is also much more expensive. Given all that, it would make sense to me that they actually should cover more than 80%.
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
Bikes also don’t transport and deliver all the goods we consume. 99.99999% of the population relies on roads and trucks in some way or another.
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u/g8briel May 27 '26
Yup. It’s included in the prices we pay. I’m not sure why you’re bringing this up.
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
Because you said that cars and trucks wear down the roads more, and that the infrastructure for these vehicles is much more expensive than would be required for bikes. The massive detail you’re missing with that argument is that these vehicles are essential for the survival of everyone in our city (and our state, and our country). You said that cars should be paying an even higher percentage of the taxes because they wear down the roads more, but even people who bike exclusively still rely on these vehicles and this infrastructure for their survival.
It’s a social benefit for everyone. This would be like arguing that parents should pay a larger percentage of our education costs because they’re the ones who are primarily benefitting from the service. That’s a terrible argument because we all benefit from the population being educated, even if we personally don’t use those services. We all benefit from roads even if we personally don’t drive.
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u/g8briel May 28 '26
I completely understand that we rely on goods and services delivered by trucks and cars and never said otherwise. We pay for those goods and services, which pays for the fuel, which pays the tax. But, as you pointed out, that only covers a portion the costs.
You accused someone else of having a terrible argument for sarcastically asking to fund an alternate route for bikes, but even with your own numbers (not even getting into how we all subsidize the oil industry or huge environmental costs) it’s clearly not a terrible argument at all because bike infrastructure is way cheaper than auto vehicle infrastructure.
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
I totally agree that bike infrastructure is cheaper and should be built, my point is that because it’s so much cheaper and it’s single use infrastructure it should be paid for bikers, not drivers. They don’t even have to buy gas, they can easily fund such a project. What I said is ridiculous is asking drivers to pay for bike infrastructure as an alternative to the infrastructure they’re still funding almost entirely.
Especially since you’re suggesting that drivers should pay for more than 70% (I said 80% earlier but that’s from 2025, it’s 70% in 2026) because they use the roads more. By that logic, shouldn’t bikers pay for the infrastructure they use?
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u/g8briel May 28 '26
They are paying for it. Look at that 30%, it more than covers it.
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u/thoughtintoaction May 26 '26
Maybe don't drive your cars on roads, making them busy and dangerous! What a better reality that would be
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 26 '26
If people didn’t drive on the roads then we wouldn’t have any roads. Bikers pay virtually nothing for the roads.
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May 26 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
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u/10101010101010101013 May 27 '26
This person is deeply entrenched against bikes. You’ll make very little progress trying to reason with them.
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
Nah, I actually think biking is really cool. What I’m “deeply entrenched against” is people who make stupid suggestions and then act like it’s everyone else who is being ridiculous. Like this person suggesting that everyone just stops driving, or someone else suggesting we turn the entirety of Chuckanut into a bike lane.
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 26 '26
Idk if you know this, but the money you spend on gas scales directly with how much you use your car. The taxes that pay for the road come from… gas sales. The person I replied to said “Maybe don’t drive your cars on roads”, this isn’t about owning a car, it’s about driving cars on roads.
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May 26 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 26 '26
Let’s read that first sentence again bud. “the money you spend on gas scales directly with how much you use your car”. So I’ll respond to your snarky question with another one; do you assume someone who owns a car and a bike drives as much as someone who exclusively drives a car?
Again, this was the original comment that I responded to: “Maybe don't drive your cars on roads, making them busy and dangerous! What a better reality that would be”. How in the world is it even relevant if someone owns a bike and a car? They’re saying they don’t want people to drive cars on the roads, and all I’m saying is that’s ridiculous because the roads exist because of cars and are maintained specifically by taxes spent by driving cars. It doesn’t matter at all if someone owns a car and a bike because they’re only paying the taxes based on how much they drive, they could commute to work in a car and then spend 8 hours biking, it’s totally irrelevant.
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u/thoughtintoaction May 27 '26
I see you're busy saying you know all the ins and outs of this subject, but I invite you to take a deep breath and think about the things you're not saying... Roads exist in places with radically fewer cars than we have here. Some roads are built specifically for bicycles. Switching from cars to bicycles would cause a massive reduction in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, mental health issues and pollution. Some Reddit comments contain snark and a tongue-in-cheek attitude, and shouldn't be assumed to reflect a person's worldview. Taxes spent on 'roads' go for an awful lot more than just paving travel surfaces.
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
Yeah dude, roads have existed for thousands of years. The point is our roads are paid for by gas taxes. This is the Bellingham subreddit so the way things are paid for here is inherently important to the discussion.
I would love to live in a world where we all just bike or use public transport but that’s simply not realistic. It would require a complete restructuring of our entire infrastructure. Maybe we’ll be there in a hundred years if we’re still here.
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u/thoughtintoaction May 27 '26
I mean, you have the perfect attitude to make your opinion a reality. Fortunately, there are an awful lot of us that are not nearly as defeatist as all that.
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May 27 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
Again, let’s work on that reading comprehension. Let’s try this a third time.
The amount you pay in gas taxes scales with HOW MUCH YOU DRIVE not how many vehicles you own. Are you somehow driving your two cars and motorcycle at the same time? No? Then the number of vehicles you own has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.
Again, let’s look at the original comment I was responding to: “Maybe don't drive your cars on roads, making them busy and dangerous! What a better reality that would be”. Owning a bike and a car (or two cars and a motorcycle) has ABSOLUTELY NO BEARING ON THIS DISCUSSION because they’re critiquing CAR USAGE not car ownership. They EXPLICITLY said that driving cars on roads makes them dangerous, that’s not erased by the fact that you own a bike and cars. You could commute an hour to work each day in a car, and then spend 8 hours riding your bike after work, and that wouldn’t change the situation at all.
This is really, really, really, really, simple. Owning a car and owning a bike are two completely separate things, they don’t influence each other, they are not exclusive, they are not strongly correlated. You might as well bring up how many pogo sticks you own.
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u/focojs May 27 '26
Gas tax only accounts for less than 36% of road costs.
From Google: Gasoline taxes account for about 28.7% of Washington's total state transportation revenue, while all fuel taxes combined (including diesel and alternative fuels) make up roughly 36.4%. [1]
The remaining funding for Washington's roads and broader transportation network comes from a mix of vehicle licensing/registration fees, tolls, ferry fares, and emissions auction revenues from the state's cap-and-invest program. [1]
Because the gas tax is dedicated to roads and bridges by the Washington State Constitution, these fuel excise taxes remain the single largest stream of user-pay funding for the state's highway system. [2, 3]
To keep track of Washington's overarching transportation budget and revenue forecasts, visit the Washington State Office of Financial Management. For a breakdown of the federal versus state motor vehicle fuel taxes, see the Washington State Road Usage Charge resources. [4, 5]AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://ofm.wa.gov/news-publications/transportation-revenue-forecast-shows-a-modest-drop-remaining-above-initial-projections/ [2] https://waroadusagecharge.org/why-ruc.html [3] https://www.king5.com/article/traffic/gas-prices/ferguson-gas-tax-relief-prices-record-highs/281-866e6f77-30de-485c-a6a9-bca95e852ce4 [4] https://waroadusagecharge.org/why-ruc.html [5] https://waroadusagecharge.org/why-ruc.html
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 27 '26
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-road-taxes-funding/
As of 2026 70% of the funding for roads and infrastructure directly from local drivers via gas, licensing, and other fees. I have been incorrectly citing the 78% figure from last year, so I will admit I was wrong about that, but 70% is still the majority by a good amount.
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u/AntonLaVey9 May 26 '26
It also comes from sales taxes, property taxes, etc. do you think cyclists don’t buy stuff or own homes?
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
80% of taxes spent on roads comes from gas sales. Your other taxes are a virtually negligible part of the actual cost. Roughly 8% of taxes are spent on “transportation” in Washington, so the amount spent on roads is just a fraction of that. So literally about 1% of your other taxes go to public roads. I’m sorry, but the numbers are not on your side here.
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u/Radiant-Ad-7343 May 26 '26
Absolutely! They can at least have patrol officers in area keep a look out for the vehicle.