Anyone encountered road rage?

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theborofc

New Member
Was cycling today and had a full can of macdonalds finest pepsi hit me clean on the face by a chav type in a Nova.

Rode off towards said chav who ended up stuck at some traffic lights.:biggrin:

Wish i had my iphone for that "element of surprise"!

lets just say that they rode off quietley!:biggrin:
 

darkstar

New Member
First time the other day, some old bint overtook me whilst i was turning right on a roundabout, in a range rover. The wing mirror hit me and she then decided to shout at me and beep her horn. Needless to say I gave my fair share back, i was s angry i didn't manage to take down her personalised number plate.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Well, nothing too bad has happened yet, and I remain faintly optimistic. That said, the constant "drip drip" of bad encounters by those posting on CycleChat tends to leave me a bit more gloomy recently. Crankarm's experiences gave me the Willies, especially when he explained his decision to retire from two wheels after many years.

Good luck to all, and safe rides.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
I know, reading this forum is getting downright depressing!!

And yes, many many moons ago, I was shouted at by some dick in the passsenger seat of a car whilst waiting at a roundabout. I had only been trying to get into lane.
To be fair, I was not in the right lane so I tried to change once stopped (a foolish move maybe but I didn't feel comfortable going round in the other lane and I was about 16 at the time, so didn't really have the experience), and they were in the car behind.

It only appeared to be the passenger who was annoyed at me as a woman was driving and she just looked apologetically at me, as if to say, 'sorry for this'.

The ferocity of that guy annoyed me for years (he was practically trying to launch himself out of the window at me) but going on his behaviour and by the fact that he was a passsenger, he must have been drunk or on something at the time (and if he wasn't, boy, he must have been a right bundle of laughs!).

Although it was a genuine mistake, I have always made sure that when possible, I get into the right lane ever since, so maybe he was right after all.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
TBH, I don't think I've ever had a problem. The first 21 years of my cycling renaissance were off road where militant red socks were the only hazard and the last year has been on road here in the Ribble Valley where, so far, I have been treated with great courtesy by the few cars I do meet on my early morning or evening jaunts. I really can't remember a single incident. If anything happened I would simply ring the Police non-emergency number that's stored on my phone and report them, Lancashire Police are quite happy to log reports on the PNC and if that car gets seen by a patrol car equipped with ANPR they will get stopped for a chat and given a Producer notice.
 

Bad Company

The Next Stig !
Location
East Anglia
lit said:
Yep, nothing that some motorists will do suprises me now.

Absolutely. It's always motorists. Cyclists are never wrong and never ever lose their temper.;)
 

XmisterIS

Purveyor of fine nonsense
I am seldom subjected to outright road rage, although strangely it always seems to happen when there is hardly any traffic on the road rather than when there's a lot!

E.g. During rush hour, the worst drivers do is give me a few close passes (which I'm used to by now), but if I go out at 7am on a Sunday, there's more likely to be some complete twunt who sees fit to abuse me for no reason at all.

I do sometimes get people blocking me deliberately though, happened yesterday when I was on my motorbike - twunt in great big people carrier in traffic jam decided to deliberately go to the extreme left of the right hand lane when he saw me coming up to filter through the traffic - so I stopped, politely folded his wing mirror body in towards the vehicle (to keep it safe), patted it, waved at him, and carried on. ;)
 

upsidedown

Waiting for the great leap forward
Location
The middle bit
Ford Focus FA02 LWC

About an hour ago, silver Ford Focus FA02 LWC, i took primary across an exit which made him miss his exit as he was trying to squeeze past on my right.

Shame
 

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
Last summer, while cycling past a house a few miles from where I live, I got left hooked by a woman turning into the drive in a Ford Ka. I just about managed to avoid a collision. I thought nothing of it, chalked it down to experience and carried on. The very next evening, the same woman done the exact same thing. A few days later, she did it again. This time, I decided enough was enough and I went up the drive after her and told her in no uncertain terms what I thought about her driving and observational skills. She was as white as a sheet after I had finished my "lecture" and when I see that car now, it gives me lots of room so a result!
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
Yes.

Lots of gesticulation, occasional shouting.

The worst?

I used to thank people who waited at side roads by nodding & saying "Thank You".

I did this one day and the guy in the car chased after me, drove alongside shouting "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?" over and over, then swerved in front, got out of his car and squared up to me. There was a lot of posturing, and he drew his fist back as though to punch me (although he didn't). He lip read my thanks as "F*CK You" and wouldn't believe that that wasn't what I'd said.

On my commute though, the larger danger is indifference and inattention. I gave up counting the number of people driving whilst talking on handheld mobile phones a long time ago.

Here's the thing about riding a bike in Britain. No one in authority gives a shite about you. The government make big noises about promoting cycling, and most of the political parties who want your X in their box will do so too. But when it comes to actually making a difference to the way you are treated, they aren't interested. Both times I was knocked off due to driver inattention, the police did precisely f*ck all, despite the drivers in question being unable to see 6'2" of man dressed in bright yellow with 5 lights on the go. It's just one of thiose things to them, you see. Both drivers are still out on the road, and nothing has happened officially to revise their attitudes, or retrain them.

Hunter S. Thompson wrote that the only thing keeping drivers in line was the threat of legal or physical consequences for their actions. Both are vastly less likely and severe if they choose to take their frustration out on you, rather than another motor vehicle or the street furniture. We are a country that can trumpet about it's road safety record whilst ignoring the fact that we do incredibly poorly when it comes to the safety of people not in cars. We are a country where supposedly rational people can laugh at "jokes" about driving into cyclists deliberately, and make the assertion that strict liability would result in cyclists throwing themselves under cars deliberately. Where thuggery that would see you up before the judge in any other circumstance is just "a bit of road rage".

Which isn't to say that it's not possible to ride a bike here and have fun doing so - that happens pretty much every day for me, and most people are ok, and rides aren't frustrating as long as I expect fellow road users to be distracted and indifferent to my safety.

On balance, I think the positives to riding a bike outweigh the negatives, but keep your wits about you and be VERY wary of escalating things with drivers.
 
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