I realise this is gonna make me look very bad and that's fair enough but hopefully the nasty incident from my commute this morning will teach me to keep my mouth shut...
Cycling along Albert Embankment, a girl cycles alongside me as we get nearer to a set of red lights, I stop and she kind of pauses at the line, then cycles through, I mutter 'they're still red', she continues on, and then I mutter 'b***h'. Totally wrong of me, I really shouldn't have said that but it slipped out and she 100% didn't even hear my statement let alone the b word.
Anyway, Mr 'hi-viz, fancy racing bike', cycles past and is just about to RLJ himself but as he's passing, he caught my insult, stops, turns around and gets right in my face [I'm paraphrasing here, I'll add the vid later for more accuracy]
Him: 'What's your problem etc etc.?'
Me: 'She's going through a red light'
Him: 'So?'
Me: 'It's illegal'
Him: 'There are a lot of things that are illegal, we don't have to all follow the rules'
Bit more back and forth including him saying 'you're gonna end up with a smack in the face', then he clocks my camera so starts on about that, and he's still going on as the light turns green (he's got his back to it) so I have to tell him it's green and can we go, he eventually lets me go.
I'm behind him all the way now and then over Lambeth Bridge, round the roundabout then he starts on again as we cycle up Millbank, going on about my camera, how angry I am (I WAS actually in a very good mood funnily enough) etc etc, I'm trying to ignore him but then I say 'you're the one carrying this on, let it go now'. Him: 'you can't go round calling young ladies b****hes', Me: 'let it go' etc., then I turn left and he wishes me a nice day and I say 'you too'.
Anyway, lesson learned, keep mouth shut, if others want to end up with a bus or lorry parked on their face (and she really could have on that junction) that's their business - not to mention all those road users who see bad cycling and think 'typical cyclist'.
It seems that muttering a name at someone that they can't hear is a capital offence but breaking an actual law (or any law really) is absolutely fine. Trouble is, when you resort to bad language, you instantly lose any moral high ground...
Cycling along Albert Embankment, a girl cycles alongside me as we get nearer to a set of red lights, I stop and she kind of pauses at the line, then cycles through, I mutter 'they're still red', she continues on, and then I mutter 'b***h'. Totally wrong of me, I really shouldn't have said that but it slipped out and she 100% didn't even hear my statement let alone the b word.
Anyway, Mr 'hi-viz, fancy racing bike', cycles past and is just about to RLJ himself but as he's passing, he caught my insult, stops, turns around and gets right in my face [I'm paraphrasing here, I'll add the vid later for more accuracy]
Him: 'What's your problem etc etc.?'
Me: 'She's going through a red light'
Him: 'So?'
Me: 'It's illegal'
Him: 'There are a lot of things that are illegal, we don't have to all follow the rules'
Bit more back and forth including him saying 'you're gonna end up with a smack in the face', then he clocks my camera so starts on about that, and he's still going on as the light turns green (he's got his back to it) so I have to tell him it's green and can we go, he eventually lets me go.
I'm behind him all the way now and then over Lambeth Bridge, round the roundabout then he starts on again as we cycle up Millbank, going on about my camera, how angry I am (I WAS actually in a very good mood funnily enough) etc etc, I'm trying to ignore him but then I say 'you're the one carrying this on, let it go now'. Him: 'you can't go round calling young ladies b****hes', Me: 'let it go' etc., then I turn left and he wishes me a nice day and I say 'you too'.
Anyway, lesson learned, keep mouth shut, if others want to end up with a bus or lorry parked on their face (and she really could have on that junction) that's their business - not to mention all those road users who see bad cycling and think 'typical cyclist'.
It seems that muttering a name at someone that they can't hear is a capital offence but breaking an actual law (or any law really) is absolutely fine. Trouble is, when you resort to bad language, you instantly lose any moral high ground...
. Luckily I was on the brakes sharpish and yelled 'whoa, whoa, whoa, WATCH where you're going!' No bad language or remonstrations needed but I was doing 20mph at the time so would have been nasty for us both if I had hit him.
(and I double checked again to make sure my lights were on!).
