Photograph courtesy of Flickr user jiangkeren.

So I ride my bike to work every morning, complete with helmet, backpack and business attire. I was getting on my bike on 10th street and riding down around 7:15am, and then at the cross section of N and 10th, this car full of men stops in the middle of the street and start catcalling and saying very vulgar things to me in Spanish. I was biking towards them and decided to continue my route by making a right turn onto Nth St (sic). Then men instead of continuing along slowed down the car and continued shouting at me and even reached out the windows to touch me. The street is narrow and I was stuck between their cars and the parked cars on the street. Frustrated, I decided to give them the middle finger but I lost my coordination and crashed into one of the cars parked on the side of the road, and then they just sped up and left. I hit my leg into my pedal somehow and now have a deep cut on my shin and a lot of bruising. I could have been really hurt and sure I didn’t have to give them the middle finger but they were harassing me enough that I probably would have crashed anyways.

Submitted on 7/16/12 by “Ambar”