Almost mangled this morning

[JamesAC]

There I was, trundling along at about 15 mph. 20 yards ahead, red TL, with stationary car indicating left. I wanted to go straight on, so I adopted primary. I'm now 15 yards from the stationary vehicle. A stupid cow in a car starts to overtake me. Where, in hell's name, does she think she's going? There's a red TL and a stationary car ahead - there's no where for her to go!! Just then, a car turns the corner at the TL and drives up towards her. So, she pulls in .. straight over the place where I would have been had I not braked sharply and swerved. I would have been splattered.

So, when we come to a halt at the TL, I ask her (without any swearing) what on earth she thinks she's doing. She completely blanks me. Her eyes don't even flick in my direction. She just sits there, hanging on to the steering wheel, gazing out of the windscreen. I raise my voice, and ask her again. No response. So I get angry, and bang on the windscreen a bit. Still no response, so I give up.

When I talked to my wife later, she said that the girl was probably terrified; a great hairy man shouting and banging on her car. Good! I thought. I was quite terrified for a moment or two when she started to swerve into me.

Maybe next time, she'll think and look beyond the couple of yards in front of her car.

 

[biking_fox]

"Still no response"
You're a cyclist she just hasn't seen you yet. ...

Good cycling and proper road positioning mean you're just annoyed rather than leaking.

 

[JamesAC]

"Still no response"
You're a cyclist she just hasn't seen you yet. ...

Good cycling and proper road positioning mean you're just annoyed rather than leaking.

Quite.

A new poster/cycling commuter (in another thread) was asking for tips: probably the most important lesson I have learned is that adopting primary position, when it is MY interest for MY safety (and sod the temporary inconvenience for motorists) is a Good Thing. It gives me options that I control -- ie space on the left into which I can go if the going gets tough.

If I had been cycling in the gutter, where this woman thought (if thinking was something she actually did) I should have been, then at the TL's my safety would have been compromised: there was already one car signalling left, and just because this nutter who bullied me out of my space wasn't signalling left didn't mean she would actully turn left when the lights changed!!

 

[Maz]

If they blank you out, they've definitely seen you. They know they're in the wrong and don't want to get drawn into an argument which they'll lose.

And she was probably cackin herself as well.

 

[fossyant]

She probably pooped in her pants !


I was in primary approaching a roundabout last night - one lane then splits into two. Standing traffic, so I sit there - some fool tries to pull past the inside of me on the single lane - get's stared at by me. I pull forward - gave him the benefit of the doubt, but the fool was going the same way as me..

 

[02GF74]

I really hate popping into to this section as it is the same old story every time. Some dozey f***wit driving a car with the brain disengaged.

"sorry I didn't see you" What a load of bollocsk!

After a while you develop a sixth sense where you can predict what drivers are doing, takes a bit of time if you survive that long.

Always ride defensively thihnking of what if situations like:
"what if the car door is opened?"
"what if the car stopped at the TL turns left without indicating?"

and so on....

only good thing about this incident you are still around to tell the tale.

thinkg is that 99.9 % of driver are fine, it is the 0.1% of near misses that you remember.

 

[swee'pea99]

"adopting primary position" - sorry, but what does that mean? (Google doesn't recognise it, nor can search find it in this sites FAQ's)

 

[yorkshiregoth]

http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/book_reviews.html

 

[Twenty Inch]

Glad you're ok

 

[Maz]

[quote name='swee'pea99']"adopting primary position" - sorry, but what does that mean? (Google doesn't recognise it, nor can search find it in this sites FAQ's)[/QUOTE]
Riding in the middle of the lane directly in line with other traffic.
...which is where I was stopped the other day and you squeezed down the left side of the cars, but I still beat you...even though you claim it's not your manor.

 

[Terminator]

Glad you are okay.I had quite a boring commute as usual.

 

[4F]

[quote name='swee'pea99']"adopting primary position" - sorry, but what does that mean? (Google doesn't recognise it, nor can search find it in this sites FAQ's)[/quote]

Taking a good position in the middle of the lane to stop half-witted fools driving you off the road by overtaking you when there clearly is not enough room to do so. If they beep their horn or rev their engine because you have slowed them down by 0.00001 of a nano second then the accepted practice is for you to slow right down and blow them a kiss when they do finally overtake

 

[Terminator]

Primary position means blocking motorists no?

 

[tdr1nka]

Primary position means blocking motorists no?

To car drivers it appears to be blocking motorists whereas for cyclists it is the safer choice between holding up a motorist for a few seconds or being railroaded into the gutter.

T x

 

[Tynan]

I suggest that when it's done conservatively the following cars understand perfectly, for me it when I'm travelling at the speed of the traffic or where the lane is clearly only wide enough for one vehicle