Hello,

My name is Gina Overshiner. On Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 at 3:45PM, your aggressive driving endangered my ten-year-old son and me, while we were riding our bikes home from school. I would like to take this opportunity to share some things with you.

I am a 42-year-old mother of two. I am active in my children’s school and my community. My husband and I have a small remodeling and renovation company, which we own and operate as a bicycle-based family business. I believe in working to make our community and our world a better place to live. Towards that end, I paint art, improve homes, grow gardens, and ride bikes. I have some successes of which I am proud and lots of failures, which I am trying to improve upon. I am not an obstacle; I am a human being.

My children and I use bicycles as our primary means of transportation and have done so for the past several years. We prefer bicycles to cars for many reasons, the primary reason is that it’s fun and empowering to get where we need to go under our own power. On the first day of this school year, my ten-year-old son made a commitment to ride the seven miles to and from school every single day regardless of the weather. So far, we have met that goal riding in sleet, snow, rain, and sub-zero temperatures. By the end of this year my children will have ridden over 1,300 miles…pretty impressive for a ten-year-old and an eight-year-old, don’t you think?

As part of our commitment to make our community a better place to live, my husband, Tim, and I are both Licensed Cycling Instructors with the League of American Bicyclists. We both work part-time teaching cycling competency classes and giving educational talks in our community. We work to teach people to use active transportation and to foster good car-bike relations. Due to my work with cycling education and advocacy, I am familiar with the laws regarding cyclists and their rights to the road.

On Thursday, 02/19/09 at approximately 3:45PM, you harassed and endangered my ten-year-old son and I, as we were riding home from school. Not only was your behavior frightening, threatening, and harassing, it was illegal and potentially dangerous. The accompanying description contains full incident details and list of legal infractions.

Unfortunately, the police were not able to do much about this, lucky for you. I have shared this information with friends and associates throughout the state. This incident has started an active discussion regarding the protection of cyclist safety. Hopefully, it will underscore the importance of making it illegal for motorists to hassle, endanger, or threaten cyclists and pedestrians. I will continue working with the Columbia Police Department, city council, Missouri Bicycle Federation, and State Law Makers to ensure that this type of reckless behavior towards cyclists is no longer tolerated.

In the future, I hope that you will be a bit more tolerant of cyclists and pedestrians. I hope that you will have a little patience and exercise some restraint if someone slows you down for a minute or two. Remember, we are not obstacles; we are human beings, just like you.

If you would like to discuss this matter further, my phone number is 573.268.9751.

Thank you for your time.

Best, Gina Overshiner