a little tit for tat sparks a little road rage

[kedab]

afternoon CC'ers

so, my commute was blustery in more ways than one this morning...

those of you that know cambridge will know which stretch of road i'm talking about.

riding down the milton road heading out of the city towards milton - come to a set of lights, wait at the back of the queue as i approach as it's started moving, no point in filtering methinks.

Silver Van Man whips past me pretty close just as we get across the lights - he needs to be close as there's traffic queuing going the other way - no real problem i think and let it go, we were only pootling along so i wasn't put off.

Next set of lights are the crossroads at the golden hind. the traffic is queued and backed up so i filter through and as the traffic starts moving, i check my shoulder for a gap and fate has decided i can nip in in front of Silver Van Man!

this upsets him...the road now splits, a nice wide purpose built cycle lane on the nearside, a bus lane next to that and then your normal traffic - i'm riding in secondary but in the lane for normal traffic as i want to filter right in to the lane that takes me right at the next set of lights a few hundred meters ahead.

this time SVM passes me really close, intentionally so. i hold my right arm out in a 'that was close, give me some room' gesture and he points quite angrily across to the cycle lane, suggesting that's where i belonged. i check my shoulder and then hold both arms out wide to suggest it's a wide road and point to the right filter we're approaching that i want to use and then quite childishly gave him the sign...the lights went against me after this because i was thinking of having a word at the next set.

did i do something wrong here or was he blatantly being an ar$e?

 

[Moodyman]

Some drivers are ar$es, others are simply misguided about cyclists and cycling.

Best to ignore them as you'll never win.

 

[kedab]

yeh, i did have a laugh at myself after as it's gonna happen from time to time and i should just stay calm - i think i was just annoyed at his intention more than anything, he had no need to do it. he could have given me 6 feet if he wanted to.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

Some drivers are ar$es, others are simply misguided about cyclists and cycling.
Best to ignore them as you'll never win.

It's not always easy to ignore them though. A prat that overtook me too close and then cut me up at a pedestrian refuge on Saturday actually said: "The roads are for us all to share!". It's hard not to get angry sometimes.

 

[Biscuit]

Had a few incidences like this recently. Must be the warmer weather. Seems you can't win. Normally on my commute things are relatively sane compared with a lot of the stuff I read on here. However I now find that secondary is letting a few prats take unecessary risks, and the resulting primary at pinch points, and mini rbts in town causes abuse.

I try not to let it get to me, and like a few others on here, have become quite numb to the proximity of fast moving traffic after a while. Not sure if that's a good or bad point.

Stick with it my friend, I would suggest SVM is in a minority.