Apalling actions from an Arriva bus driver

[StuartG]

To indicate what?

Thank you for asking.

I think you were describing law-abiding motorist as an oxymoron.
Well one of my favourite stats I throw at the unwashed is 80% of motorists admit to regularly exceeding speed limits. The good news is 20% of motorists do not admit this. Let's be generous and assume most of these don't. Just like most cyclists stop at traffic lights some motorists try and drive within the law. Perhaps unsurprisingly both sets tend to be invisible to each other.

20% is good. Growing it to 30% then growing it to 40% and so on is what we want. IMHO law-abiding motorists should be treasured and supported and not lumped together with the criminal classes.

 

[glenn forger]

Thank you for asking.

I think you were describing law-abiding motorist as an oxymoron.
Well one of my favourite stats I throw at the unwashed is 80% of motorists admit to regularly exceeding speed limits. The good news is 20% of motorists do not admit this. Let's be generous and assume most of these don't. Just like most cyclists stop at traffic lights some motorists try and drive within the law. Perhaps unsurprisingly both sets tend to be invisible to each other.

20% is good. Growing it to 30% then growing it to 40% and so on is what we want. IMHO law-abiding motorists should be treasured and supported and not lumped together with the criminal classes.

What's that got to do with saying other posters will soon be dead because they use the word "piffle?"

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

[QUOTE 2613196, member: 45"]Whatever you might think of Matthew's approach, consider some important positives;

1. Matthew has a positive relationship with the depot manager. The problem with writing in is that you get, without exception, the standard bible-template response from a bus company "we take this very serious.....the driver has been spoken to". I know that on at least one occasion when I've had that letter it has been a lie. I also know that when I've spoken directly to customer services, at National Express for example, I've spoken to a person who has listened and who I'm satisfied is interested and committed to improving the experience that the public have of their company. It's great that Matthew was able to walk into the depot manager's office and speak to him.
2. During Matt's conversation with the drivers he made them aware that he knew the depot manager and that he had some experience of their training programme. You could see that these two facts had an impact on them and that they were less dismissive as a result. Matthew has worked to build this relationship. Few people criticise Magnatom for putting himself in the same position, and the only difference here is Matthew's level of "enthusiasm".
3. Matthew knows the HC. He had a copy. I've stood and argued HC with idiots and it's been nothing more than "Yes it is, no it isn't, yes it is" and got nowhere.Being able to pull out a copy, in front of a PCSO, and shame them with it is great and without doubt will have taught them something.

Yes, there may be an argument that Matthew gets himself into more situations than others think appropriate, but he's prepared and amongst any enemys he might be making there is evidence of valuable relationships being worked at, and he's willing to do more than moan about it on the internet which changes nothing. It's doing far more than a punch in the face would, which others advocate on here.[/quote]
Good point, very well made.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Or posting lurid fantasies about their death. That's reasoned debate right there.

I'm not sure where you get off on criticising people for posting 'lurid fantasies about death'. sir Forger. Here's one you posted on 5 January this year in the Mobile Phones thread (post #47) after I mentioned I had a daughter who cycled:

It's a sort of radical disconnect. "I've never been hit by a driver on a mobile so it's not a huge problem" repeated right up until the point of the closed casked funeral of his daughter, her face scraped off by a driver chatting on a mobile. Not a huge problem, cos it's never happened to him. A painful lesson waiting for him.

You were criticisoing me for not having a huge issue with drivers on 'phones. I'd mentioned my daughter in an earlier post in the thread - and for reasons I shall never understand, you thought it appropriate to conjour images of her disfigured corpse in a closed casket. I take it you do not have children and I somehow pray that you decide never to. My daughter remains a keen cyclist, unkilled and unmaimed.

If your post from January is not a lurid fantasy about death (in fact the fantasised death of a child of the person your post is directed at) then I'm not sure what is.

The smiley means I think you're a topping chap really .

 

[glenn forger]

Is responding with 'Bum', Piffle etc rather than a reasoned response likely to engage and convince? Or will people be more likely respond with similar abuse?

If you ride with a similar attitude you are a poor cyclist. In fact a poor person. More worrying to me is that attitude is more likely to make you a dead person. Whose fault will that be?

Once again, these are attacking your argument. Your argument is piffle. Society is not to blame for those driver's ignorance of their employer's instructions. Describing your argument as piffle doesn't mean I'm more likely to die, it just means your argument is piffle. What are you going on about people getting killed for?

 

[glenn forger]

I'm not sure where you get off on criticising people for posting 'lurid fantasies about death'. sir Forger. Here's one you posted on 5 January this year in the Mobile Phones thread (post #47) after I mentioned I had a daughter who cycled:



You were criticisoing me for not having a huge issue with drivers on 'phones. I'd mentioned my daughter in an earlier post in the thread - and for reasons I shall never understand, you thought it appropriate to conjour images of her disfigured corpse in a closed casket. I take it you do not have children and I somehow pray that you decide never to. My daughter remains a keen cyclist, unkilled and unmaimed.

If your post from January is not a lurid fantasy about death (in fact the fantasised death of a child of the person your post is directed at) then I'm not sure what is.

The smiley means I think you're a topping chap really .

I asked if you would have a problem with drivers on mobiles if your daughter got killed. Explain to me how this is the same as using the word "piffle" means I'm likely to get killed.

 

[glenn forger]

Clearly we will continue to differ on whether this attitude is helpful to your cycling, family, career ... life. I wish you a good afternoon.
(I'm really a petunia in case you were confused).

That's three times you've ducked the question.

 

[StuartG]

Say it's society's fault. Then say another poster will soon be dead. Then run away.

Three statements - all demonstrably wrong. I'm afraid you appear to have read what you wanted to read - not what I wrote and certainly not what I meant. But if you want any clarification please ask. However my position is nuanced. If you don't do nuance it may not be a good use of our time.

Oh and insults don't worry me - I am a long time cyclist after all

 

[akb]

If there had been a ped infront of him, I would have not only seen it from the other side of the bus (when I was behind him) and through the bus

Twaddle!

What if it was a child. A wheel chair user. A dog walker. I am almost certain you wouldnt have seen them, from behind / side of the bus. Unless you a secretly a member of the X-Men.

 

[akb]

Im defo going to be watching this confrontation on my iPhone during some point on my 50 minute drive home...

 

[glenn forger]

There is no requirement, worse still no encouragement, to know it beyond taking your test if you drive..

Yes there is, Matthew copied and pasted it from the Arriva website. You're squirming away from your earlier claims. That's dishonest.

 

[glenn forger]

Three statements - all demonstrably wrong. I

You are now denying you mentioned my death?

 

[Moderators]

@StuartG
@glenn forger

If you want to carry on arguing between yourselves take it to PM. Otherwise this thread will be locked.

 

[StuartG]

@StuartG
@glenn forger

If you want to carry on arguing between yourselves take it to PM. Otherwise this thread will be locked.

No problem here. That discussion isn't going to go anywhere but down.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I asked if you would have a problem with drivers on mobiles if your daughter got killed. Explain to me how this is the same as using the word "piffle" means I'm likely to get killed.

The post is there for all to see, in its entirity. It is also there for all to see in the original thread. It is there in full and I quote it above in full.

You do not ask me how I'd feel about anything. You make explicit and unelicited reference to the "the closed casked funeral of his daughter, her face scraped off by a driver chatting on a mobile".

It is a lurid fantasy of death. It is nothing else. This is what you are accusing others of in this thread. You don't just suggest the imagined death of my daughter (creepy and unsettling enough). You take the trouble to imagine and describe a closed-casket funeral after her face has been scraped off. One wonders what makes you think it OK to post this stark, unpleasant and personal image online.

You may defend your words. You may delete the post. You may even disappear up your own fundament in a puff of purple smoke.

But you cannot claim that the offensive post I quote earlier in this thread is anything but a lurid fantasy of death. A nasty, vindictive, personal one, too.

I'm not defending any other post by any other poster, just pointing out that one accusing others of posting 'lurid fantasies of death' may care to peep in their own slightly grubby closet before doing so.