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Another day in Portland traffic: A bicyclist holds up traffic near the Moda Center because a driver got stuck in a bike lane on Tuesday.

(YouTube)

What's worse than a bicyclist blowing through a red light? A motorist blowing through a red light, of course.

Or a bicyclist being a traffic-blocking, passive-aggressive jerk.

The next time you feel like road-raging, please remember that cameras are as ubiquitous as on-the-go coffee cups in Portland. And remember how psychotic this bicycle commuter near the Moda Center looked on Tuesday.

Here’s the back story, delivered with a link to the video, via a reader’s email:

To answer your first question: Yes, it's illegal to block a bike lane, whether it's in an intersection (you should avoid corking an intersection even if there isn't a bike lane) or along the right side of the street. I've written about this in the past.

To answer your second question: Yes, it was just as illegal for the bicyclist to block a busy lane of traffic (with or without the flying middle fingers).

But his greatest crime was reinforcing negative stereotypes about bicyclists when the vast majority of bike riders out there follow the laws and would have quietly dealt with the situation by just going around your bumper without acting like a fool.

Hearts and minds, dude.

Oh, and someone get this man a handkerchief. Wiping snot rockets on your glove and biking shorts: Grody.

Another day in Portland traffic ...

Update: The man who was behind the wheel called The Oregonian and explained that the bicyclist had been shouting obscenities and blocking his car for about two minutes before the video starts. "I took out my phone to make it look like I was calling the police, hoping he would stop and just move along," said the driver, who requested anonymity. "But when he kept it up, I thought it was so unbelievable that I shot some video."



Update 2: The driver removed the video from his YouTube account on Wednesday night, but gave The Oregonian permission to post it. He said he was concerned that comments about the bicyclist were more negative than he anticipated and wasn't interested in discussing the incident with several television stations trying to contact him after this post went live.



-- Joseph Rose