Petrelis Files

KGO's Dan Noyes Behaves Badly in Bike Lane

Move over, hunky big bear TV scold Stanley Roberts of KRON. There's competition from me in the filming of people behaving badly on the streets of San Francisco.

I'm a slow biker who hews to the right in bike lakes, always wears a helmet, has endured too many scrapes with cars on Valencia Street because of people standing in the bike lane pushing me into vehicular traffic and avoids fast bikers.

I was in no mood this afternoon for going around a TV reporter, his cameraman and an interview subject as they colonized the bike lane in front of Fourbarrels Coffee. When I stopped to asked what they were doing blocking the bike lanes, we all quickly got into an argument. They wanted me to go around them, said they were shooting footage for a bike theft story (I had my hearing aids in but pretended I heard them say "bike _safety_ story", lol) and I began filming them.

The reporter was Dan Noyes of KGO, in my vid you see him acting chivalrously and in fine drama queen form, placing himself in jeopardy and closer to the oncoming traffic and giving me a wide berth, while his camerama extends his hand as if commanding me to ride on. Dude!

You hear Dan on the other side of the camera saying my name then laughing, I guess realizing it was me was reason to giggle. He came over and said "I read your blog!" We shook hands, enjoying the sunshine and goofing on each other, and I was on my way.

Thirty-minutes later, helmet-less KQED reporter Bryan Goebel ride his bike near me and stopped to ask, "What was Dan Noyes doing a story about on Valencia Street?" How the hell did Bryan know what had gone down?

He was riding on the opposite of Valencia and thought he heard Dan say, "I love your blog!" Nope, not what he said but still I was impressed Bryan heard anything Dan said from across three lanes of pavement. I should have snagged footage of Bryan without his helmet on and scold him too.

I'm just glad my biking today didn't involve coming across a homeless druggie pissing on Market Street and drinking his urine in the middle of afternoon. Enjoy the vid: