'Seemed to lose it' | Cyclist records dangerous encounter with enraged driver on Houston street

HOUSTON — A Houston cyclist is sharing a video of a close call on one of the city’s busiest roads to raise awareness of aggressive driving.

Alex Maldonado and other cyclists told KHOU 11 News that they’re frustrated after seeing recent headlines about cyclists being hit, including one fatally on a group ride.

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On Oct. 9 around 6:30 p.m., Maldonado was making his 6.5-mile bike ride home from work, heading westbound on Westheimer Road.

“By the end of Midtown, heading into Montrose, that’s when a lady became impatient with me, started honking at me from behind as opposed to getting around me in an empty left lane,” Maldonado, who does not own a car, said. “So, she eventually gave in, took that lane (and) passed me dangerously.”

Down the road, Maldonado said he passed the same driver.

“That’s when she seemed to lose it ... yell at me out of her window with the phone in her hand while still honking and chasing me for about a mile and a half," he said.

Maldonado said he eventually got away and reported the incident to the police.

He said he’s seen drivers’ level of patience and distraction worsen since the pandemic.

“Just the day before (Sunday’s incident), apparently, I had heard my friend ... got clipped by a car, and she was leading a bike tour down south of here,” Maldonado said. “It was a similar scenario where a driver was very angry, yelling at her out of the window, and then decided to keep accelerating towards her anyways.”

KHOU 11 News shared Maldonado’s video with Joe Cutrufo, the executive director of BikeHouston.

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“In a city that’s designed almost exclusively for driving, this is the preventable, predictable type of behavior that we see all too much of in Houston,” Cutrufo said.

Cutrufo said Westheimer is emblematic of the problem: A destination-rich street that looks like a place people could walk and bike safely but instead operates like a highway.

“We’ve already begun to change the way we’re thinking about this, but we need the resources and the political will to make real progress,” Cutrufo said.

The Texas Department of Transportation said cyclists and pedestrians made up one in five traffic deaths on Texas roads in 2021.