atalanta
Über Member
OK. It is very kind of you to slow down (but not stop) in order to let me out into traffic. However, given that you don't actually fully stop, I have no way of knowing what on earth you're up to. You could be letting me in; you could be staring open-mouthed at a pretty bird in a tree; perhaps your child has dropped your iPhone behind your seat and you are slowing down as you frantically scrabble around on the floor back there, searching for it among a mound of old sandwich boxes and Ella's baby food packets, before the wailing in the back seat reaches its crescendo.
My point is that I have no idea why you are slowing down, much less when you might speed back up again. I wish to survive at least into my forties and so I am cautious when pulling out into busy roads in front of cars that are not, technically, stopped.
Here's where the "niceness" comes in. When you see that I am not taking the hint, gratefully cycling out in front of you and bowing as I go, you wave your arms in frustration. Here you have done this wonderfully charitable thing, you've taken time out of your busy schedule of whatever-it-is-people-who-can-afford-cars-in-London-do-all-day, and I have refused you! I have been Ungrateful. And so you flail about in the driver's seat, make sarcastic faces, sometimes honk at me. And then you pull forward, depriving me of the generosity you just offered, cruising past in contempt.
It's much easier if you just flash your lights at me, the way cars do when they are signalling to each other. I know what the lights thing means. I don't know what "slowing way down but not stopping and then lurching forward bit by bit" means. It could mean anything.
That's all. Thank you for having me, and good night!
EDIT: I am now reliably informed that a single flash of the headlights does not mean "go ahead, other road user" in the UK. Many thanks for the correction, it will probably end up saving my bacon some day...
My point is that I have no idea why you are slowing down, much less when you might speed back up again. I wish to survive at least into my forties and so I am cautious when pulling out into busy roads in front of cars that are not, technically, stopped.
Here's where the "niceness" comes in. When you see that I am not taking the hint, gratefully cycling out in front of you and bowing as I go, you wave your arms in frustration. Here you have done this wonderfully charitable thing, you've taken time out of your busy schedule of whatever-it-is-people-who-can-afford-cars-in-London-do-all-day, and I have refused you! I have been Ungrateful. And so you flail about in the driver's seat, make sarcastic faces, sometimes honk at me. And then you pull forward, depriving me of the generosity you just offered, cruising past in contempt.
It's much easier if you just flash your lights at me, the way cars do when they are signalling to each other. I know what the lights thing means. I don't know what "slowing way down but not stopping and then lurching forward bit by bit" means. It could mean anything.
That's all. Thank you for having me, and good night!
EDIT: I am now reliably informed that a single flash of the headlights does not mean "go ahead, other road user" in the UK. Many thanks for the correction, it will probably end up saving my bacon some day...
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