By way of BikeBlog I stumbled on this series of photos of a punch-up between a motorist and a bike courier in a Toronto street. And yes, the cyclist is a woman.
At first I thought this was staged, but apparently no.
When I viewed it a note on the page said: "This article has been viewed 9924 times in the last 36 hours" - high traffic indeed. And there is a quantity of comments to go with it. I only got through about half of them, but the most sensible seem to be by hool, the photographer:
hool: 26th Jan 2006 - 19:09 GMT
i did not see the beginning of this, but the report goes as follows:
motorist throws food out of window. courier, disliking littering, picks up food and throws food back in car. motorist dumps coffee on courier. courier scratches car with key. road rage ensues.
the courier is female. i 'got away' with taking pics by just doing it openly. nobody noticed me because the focus is obviously on the altercation at hand.
i followed the motorist back to his car to photograph his license plate number. he proceeded to open his trunk, take out a baseball bat, and charge me. i walked away, and was one of only two witnesses to stay at the scene and give a statement to police.
hool: 26th Jan 2006 - 23:58 GMT
i was told by police that the courier could be charged with assault for throwing the food at the motorist, and mischief for the car damage (if the motorist chose to press charges) - and that the motorist could be charged with assault for his response in attacking (if the courier chose to press charges). the motorist drove away but was soon pulled over when we reported his license plate number. i do not know what the final outcome was in this situation. clearly, it shows how quickly a situation can escalate in the streets. choose your responses carefully.
to those who suggested attacking with the u-lock would have been an appropriate response: i disagree. that could lead to an assault with a deadly weapon charge, which carries a prison term. also, any weapon you use can be taken from you and used against you. a food fight should not escalate to skull cracking nor murder.
Sounds like fault was on both sides, but coming to blows over it is a bit extreme. Even so, attempting to stomp the woman's bike while she's still on it is hardly equalling the score on scratched paintwork.