'Assaulting' other vehicles

[skudupnorth]

I've given a few vehicles a knock when they have tried to kerb me.I had one guy who clipped me with his mirror to the point that it actually folded mirror on my backpack,i folded it fully with a good wack to make sure he knew he cannot get away with bad driving near cyclists because we always catch them up in the gridlock.
Left hand junctions are also problem for some motorists who think they can overtake just as you are approuching the give way line and cut in.My tactic for that if i am in front is to ride slightly further out so they have to stay behind or face the chance of a head on with a vehicle turning into the road concerned.They would not do it to another car of a motorcycle so why try it on with us ???

 

[paddy01]

Tricky one.

As pointed out, the grown up logical person in me says that by doing so you lower yourself towards their level.

I've never been in a situation where i've felt I've be put in such danger than anything more than a stern look and maybe the odd shout is warrented.

However if someone, through sheer arrogance or simply because they care not one iota, has put my safety or even life at needless risk, they'd do well to count them lucky that all they'd got was a bang on the roof.

That said it would take something very serious I think for me to tip into that mindset, if it's a genuine mistake on their part I have no beef with that. It's a mistake, we all make them and in other circumstances it could be me making the mistake. You learn from it and you move on.

I was knocked off my motorbike a few years back by a car pulling out from a junction. It was demonstrably their 'fault', and I have friends who I know would likely have gone apoplectic at the driver, however I know just how badly designed the junction is and on any other day it might have been me pulling out and another motorcycle coming off the roundabout.

It was an accident, and over a long enough period of time, they're statistically inevitable.

 

[ketka82uk]

I wouldn't recommend it unless absolutely necessary...

Once rapped my knuckles on some woman's BMW after she cut me out of the traffic queue at a junction. Saw her jump but thought nothing more of it until the next junction when, as I was overtaking her on the right, she started screaming at me like a banshee out of the window "Don't you touch my f***ing car!! How dare you touch my f***ing car!!". Seriously, we were talking beetroot red here and almost spitting.

I think I replied with something nondescript like "well, don't cut me out then!" and moved ahead to turn right at the junction. The lights then went and as we were both turning right she decided to point her car at me and just drive right into me. I just dodged it at the last and carried on but I kid you not, she meant to hit me! I just cycled off through the traffic and as she tried to catch me, screaming and beeping the horn like a crazy person, she almost took a scooter driver off as well! Seriously, the woman was deeply disturbed...

The moral of this story; if you ever pass a blonde woman aged about 35-40 in a grey BMW 7 series on the New King's Road, don't touch her f***ing car!

On second thoughts... Scrap that and kick the bugger's door in!

 

[Norm]

I've done it several times on a motorbike.

I also had one chap yapping on his phone so hard he didn't even notice me as he squeezed my in traffic. At least, he didn't notice till I reached in, grabbed the phone and chucked it under his own rear wheel.

I had that guilty-but-smug feeling, feeling good but knowing that no-one would ever know what a bad boy I'd been, and rode the 3 miles home. About 5 minutes later, I was just wheeling the scoot into the garage when a neighbour pulls up in his MG laughing his tits off, having watched the whole thing.

I also kicked a fecking big dent in the side of a car when some dopey cow hit my hand when she RLJ'd at some lights in Staines. I asked her to stop so we could exchange details, she refused so I kicked the biggest dent into her door and rode off. Figured that, if she got my details and complained, at least we could then discuss her leaving the scene of the earlier accident.

On second thoughts... Scrap that and kick the bugger's door in!

Most people who drive like they own the road don't even own the cars they are driving.

 

[BentMikey]

Wow, that first is IMPRESSIVE!!!

 

[gaz]

I would never kick someones car. but i have slapped the roof, doors and windows with my hands, which often gets the same message across but without the damage.

 

[hackbike 666]

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.

Never done it in all these years but would for that reason.

I must admit I banged someones rear window (Maryland 1987) with my hand and left a paw print,he stopped suddenly just as I was looking behind me.He was very good about it.

 

[ComedyPilot]

To the OP, were you in trainers etc, or cleated/clipless?

 

[Vikeonabike]

[Job Head On] Kicking / hitting a motor vehicle....mmm tough one. Could you justify the fact that you had no other option but to use physical warning too a passing vehicle? Could you have taken avoiding action (brake/accelerate)? Would a shouted warning (Never swear words though because I can give you and £80 ticket for section 5 offence for that) have been effective? Did you make contact with the vehicle more than once? Did you cause damage to the vehicle? Were you clearly visible to traffic, ie lights clothing weather conditions? Was the driver of the vehicle otherwise pre occupied (using phone, eating, putting on make up, shaving, reading map, chatting to passenger etc). What was the traffic like, heavy and slow moving? were you filtering in primary / secondary? How far from road junctions / road signs / other hazzards such as drains and manhole covers. How experienced a cyclist are you? Are you on your usual commute?

All questions I would ask if I was too investigate such and incident! Might be worth keeping hold of this post incase you have to write a statement!

You now have point two of a nano second to answer these questions and decide wether you are justified in making contact with the vehicle. If you do make contact, the driver takes avoiding action and then hits another vehicle, stop laughing and stay where you are because you have been involved in an RTC and you cannot leave the scene!

[job head off]

 

[lukepinkhandbag]

I always prefer, and I know this can be difficult, the good hard stare at any driver who even thinks about a dodgy manouver (can't spell !). Pre-emptive strike is always better. Eye contact is all in this game. Many many years ago when I was but 16 or 17 a woman pulled out on me at a roundabout on my commute to work. I followed her into the parking lay by for a row of shops and politely asked why she had done it and received an apology. Still find it hard to believe I did that....I must have been really teed off though. Isn't it odd how drivers assume an anonimity that their vehicles fail to provide. I've found loads of vehicles and their owners after the event without having to try and pursue, just look in the next car park or two.

 

[purplepolly]

Would a shouted warning (Never swear words though because I can give you and £80 ticket for section 5 offence for that) have been effective? ..... Were you clearly visible to traffic, ie lights clothing weather conditions?

I should think there's enough evidence on CC to prove that neither shouting a warning nor going round dressed like a christmas tree makes any difference whatsoever. The former merely provokes aggressive responses and the latter is not help whatsoever when the driver doesn't look.

But what of the drivers trangression of highway code rule 163?

It's obvious that if the driver was overtaking in an appropriate manner then there would have been no opportunity for the cyclist to kick the car. That the driver is overtaking dangerously, in an inappropriate way and not giving a vulberable road user anything like appropriate room is justification enough for said vulnerable road user to feel intimidated.

If not, then why does rule 163 exist?

 

[ComedyPilot]

I should think there's enough evidence on CC to prove that neither shouting a warning nor going round dressed like a christmas tree makes any difference whatsoever. The former merely provokes aggressive responses and the latter is not help whatsoever when the driver doesn't look.

But what of the drivers trangression of highway code rule 163?

It's obvious that if the driver was overtaking in an appropriate manner then there would have been no opportunity for the cyclist to kick the car. That the driver is overtaking dangerously, in an inappropriate way and not giving a vulberable road user anything like appropriate room is justification enough for said vulnerable road user to feel intimidated.

If not, then why does rule 163 exist?

The OP was not about overtaking, but about a bike and car converging paths whilst simultaneously turning left/right respectively.

 

[purplepolly]

The OP was not about overtaking, but about a bike and car converging paths whilst simultaneously turning left/right respectively.

They were both moving at speed and the car pulled alongside the cyclist. The cyclist still needs as much room as when a cyclist and car are both going at speed, the car pulls alongside the cyclist and then goes past.

It's the being close to the cyclist when travelling fast that's the issue, not whether the manouevre is completed by the car turning right or going straight on. And after all, extra care is required at junctions


170

Take extra care at junctions. You should

• watch out for cyclists

 

[rusky]

[Job Head On] Kicking / hitting a motor vehicle....mmm tough one. Could you justify the fact that you had no other option but to use physical warning too a passing vehicle? Could you have taken avoiding action (brake/accelerate)? Would a shouted warning (Never swear words though because I can give you and £80 ticket for section 5 offence for that) have been effective? Did you make contact with the vehicle more than once? Did you cause damage to the vehicle? Were you clearly visible to traffic, ie lights clothing weather conditions? Was the driver of the vehicle otherwise pre occupied (using phone, eating, putting on make up, shaving, reading map, chatting to passenger etc). What was the traffic like, heavy and slow moving? were you filtering in primary / secondary? How far from road junctions / road signs / other hazzards such as drains and manhole covers. How experienced a cyclist are you? Are you on your usual commute?

All questions I would ask if I was too investigate such and incident! Might be worth keeping hold of this post incase you have to write a statement!

You now have point two of a nano second to answer these questions and decide wether you are justified in making contact with the vehicle. If you do make contact, the driver takes avoiding action and then hits another vehicle, stop laughing and stay where you are because you have been involved in an RTC and you cannot leave the scene!

[job head off]

Day time, not raining, hi-viz jacket.

"I unclipped as I thought I was going to come off & as I was in a life threatening position adrenaline cuased me to subconcsiously over compensate & my foot hit their door"

"No officer, I never swore, I think the driver is making this up as they know they are in the wrong"

 

[ComedyPilot]

180

Wait until there is a safe gap between you and any oncoming vehicle. Watch out for cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and other road users. Check your mirrors and blind spot again to make sure you are not being overtaken, then make the turn. Do not cut the corner. Take great care when turning into a main road; you will need to watch for traffic in both directions and wait for a safe gap.