'Assaulting' other vehicles

[Bristol Dave]

I had an incident last night of which I'm slightly embarrassed. Approaching a fast left turn at a T junction the car waiting to turn right decided to parallel turn with me. As we rounded the corner I was drifting right due to speed and the car was drifting left. This caused me to lose my cool and kick the car whilst yelling "Wait your turn". The middle aged female driver was visibly rattled and drove off at speed.

What is the general feeling on CC about banging on car roofs or 'sticking the boot in'? I can't even justify it as fending off with my foot as I could have braked to avoid the situation but felt that the driver was taking the piss.

BD

 

[Chamfus Flange]

Some drivers do need waking up, even middle aged women.


.

 

[siadwell]

It's got to be shaky ground.

If you cause any damage and it wasn't unavoidable (such as the result of a collision), that's criminal damage.

If the driver takes exception to your actions and decides to seek redress, you could very likely come off worse.

However, I would feel justified banging on a roof of a car or the side of a van/bus if the vehicle is closing and there's nowhere else to go (I'm sure there's been a few reports of this on here where buses have come alongside then moved to pull in at a bus stop).

 

[Woz!]

I had a woman in a traffic queue decide she HAD to be in front of my bike even though there was nowhere to go, so once she got alongside me, I vanished from sight and therefore didn't exist anymore. She pulled in and squashed me against the kerb with me frantically hammering on her roof.
In retrospect I wish I'd have had an actual hammer in my hand.

 

[Arch]

I suspect it could only be counterproductive done in cold blood. But I wouldn't blame anyone for lashing out in a protective manner, if it was really more sensible to keep your hands on the bars and your feet on the pedals, sometimes instinct makes you try to push something away, even a bus...

I generally employ a verbal "Whoa!", which is half warning, and half a mere reflex at finding myself in peril.

 

[ComedyPilot]

[Sensible head on] Despite being in the 'right' you have undone all moral high ground positioning by lashing out at the vehicle. BOTH driver and cyclist when seeing an impending possible collision have a duty of care and responsibility to avoid said collision. It's no use being in a hospital bed claiming to have been in the right. You are soft and squishy, cars aren't.[Sensible head off]

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I've banged a car roof before in traffic, it was that or get squashed! Driver wouldn't have heard anything of my bell, or my yell, and would have ridden over me even if I'd stopped.

 

[MartinC]

a) The use of violence rarely does any good in the long term

or

They don't give a toss so why should you

take your pick.

 

[thomas]

I've hit cars a couple of times.

First time with a bus...and I didn't fancy being squished. Went to the Police with that (who did nothing).

Second time was being overtaken at a pinch point. Wasn't strictly neccisary so probably shouldn't of done it.

Last time was coming back from work, got overtaken closely and just slapped the car...slightly hitting the rear window. Driver stopped, didn't really see what he'd done wrong but thought I was a t....

 

[BentMikey]

It's wrong, but not very IMO. I try very hard not to touch their cars, because that's often taken as an extreme personal insult. OTOH I can't blame a cyclist for doing this after some careless james blunt has just risked their lives. Just make sure you can honestly claim to have fended yourself off for your own safety.

 

[summerdays]

I think if the car was close enough that you could do it - then it was definitely too close (unless your legs are really 3 feet long!!!).

If you have to use that junction regularly could you change your position slightly to prevent it happening again or is it a wide junction?

 

[ufkacbln]

Surely some mistake........

Don't you mean fending yourself off from the vehicle as a perfectly natural and understandable reaction to a vehicle being so close?

 

[HJ]

If you could hit it, it was too close. Sometimes drivers need to be reminded that they are responsible for their driving, however this might not be the best way to go about it...

To echo summerdays comment, better road positioning on your part might stop it happening again.

 

[Jonathan M]

I had this problem with a WVM a couple of weeks ago. Cut me up twice, so when he had to stop dead after the second cut up I rattled his back door with my (gloved) knuckles. Still made a decent noise from outside, so how it sounded in an echoy metal box I don't know!

 

[PBancroft]

Never hit a vehicle, or been inclined to. Definitely wouldn't want to hit one whilst its moving. Agree with the comments about criminal damage should it occur... wouldn't be surprised if some people pulled that particular card after trying to run you off the road. It's only going to be a lose lose situation on that one.