Cagers getting even more impatient?

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XmisterIS

Purveyor of fine nonsense
I think they are ... there's a lot more bikes on the road now than there used to be, probably because of the recession + high petrol prices. I am noticing a lot more impatient drivers, close overtakes, drivers being aggressive.

I even had some complete knobber beep at me when I was in the car, hanging back and waiting for a safe place to overtake a cyclist! Needless to say, the knobber then roared past the cyclist with inches to spare. Shame he stayed behind me at the next lights or I would have had a "word" ...

The inconsiderate ones must all be cowards too, because when I'm on the motorbike I hardly ever get any crap from car drivers - the ones who will bully me when I'm on the bicycle will sit there meek as lambs, looking at me with eyes like saucers when they clock me giving them evils on the motorbike.

Same rider, different perception, completely different reaction.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Folk are very impatient, but it's the wrong place to be like that. Life/stress etc, but it's really stupid to take it to the road - folk do though.

These idiots are the same for all road users - that's how I explain it to folk that think cycling is dangerous....i.e. 99% of the time it's great, the idiots that are dangerous are the same for all users.....wins votes anyway with colleagues.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
I've had some very good ones lately, almost alarmingly so

I did a lot of hand waves today and even a thumbs up to full on considerate driving

and a near emergency stop upon someone pulling out on me got a shout of 'waht a self-gratification artist' from the car that was behind me passing me, safely. immediately after
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Logic would suggest that car drivers should be happy that there are more cyclists on the road because, while a bike may appear to hold a car up for a couple of seconds, they are actually leaving more room on the roads for motor vehicles than they would do if those pesky cyclists had taken their cars and completely blocked up the roads. But clearly it's not a question of logic, it's something else.

I remember a gay friend telling me that last year's homophobe - the person who used to go around seeking out and beating up homosexuals - very often becomes this year's latest faggot. I think that much of the aggression shown towards cyclists by car drivers is the road version of gay-bashing. In ever increasing numbers they sense cyclists filtering past them, somehow getting their own way almost for free in a completely different manner from the standard motor dream. They envy the freedom, the economy, the exercise, and the courage needed to go onto the streets without a metal shell around us. And they're jealous, and they're angry because they're jealous, so when a bike appears in front of them, let's say that they're somewhat reluctant to accept the presence of another way of doing things.

Oops, did that analogy just make cycling seem ghey?:rolleyes:
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
it's the opposite in London. Drivers are getting so much better. Far better then 5 years ago when I started commuting to work. I get very little incidents these days. I do think it's due to the huge amount of cyclists now travelling on London's roads. You only have to check out some of Gaz' vids to see how many cyclists there are these day's.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
I think that it very much depends on where you ride, and the state of the traffic. I commute in London and do not go down trunk roads. My trips are through solid traffic which has got a lot worse in the last year, and I think that motorists are better disposed towards cyclists than they were. Perhaps there is a sneaking admiration, rather than resentment?

I would love to see some statistics about the new cyclists. Are we refugees from public transport, the pavements, or cars.


Edit: cross post with Ian
 
Everyone seems to have "no time" any more, going on about jobs and kids etc, although a lot of us watch TV, play games and use the computer etc...

yet, they have no time...



It will get better overall imo, although there will still be some which just hate any idea of cyclists...
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
The good ones are getting better - I get more room, more folk hanging back at pinch points &c.

The bad ones...well, I think they're worse - I had a day last week that seemed like National Undertaking Day - had one lady zoom past me in the lh lane at the lights, and swerve back in front of me, all to get to a light that was red (and had been red before she started the manoeuvre). They can't judge distance or speed (when they bother to look) and crucially don't read the road beyond the end of their bonnet - they just have to be ahead of anything going slower than speed limit +10.
 

coffeejo

Ælfrēd
Location
West Somerset
The only problems I've had in Taunton are from drivers who are just incompetent (not indicating at a junction, for example, and then blaming me for getting in their way).

Out of town, on the main road, one lorry driver nearly sent me flying by beeping his horn as he started to overtake, holding it down until he was well clear, which made me jump and therefore wobble and for a moment it was touch and go whether I ended up in the ditch on my left or under his wheels! Luckily, my balance held, not helped by the fact that he passed so close, he left me no alternative but to steer to the wrong side of the white line.

Other than that, I've had one or two impatient drivers, where I've been not concentrating and drifting in to the middle of the road (my bad, I've learnt my lesson) but for the most part, round here, they seem to be extremely considerate. One guy even apologised for the fact that I had to climb into the hedge on a very narrow country lane, after I'd struggled to get up an extremely steep hill.

And whether it's through terror that they'll knock me off or something, I do not know, but I've had several cars pull over and let me go through when we've met on the lanes.
 

shunter

Senior Member
Location
N Ireland
The inconsiderate ones must all be cowards too, because when I'm on the motorbike I hardly ever get any crap from car drivers - the ones who will bully me when I'm on the bicycle will sit there meek as lambs, looking at me with eyes like saucers when they clock me giving them evils on the motorbike.

Same rider, different perception, completely different reaction.

As a motorcyclist and cyclist I see the exact same thing. Perhaps time to form a Hells Angels Cycling Club :biggrin:
 

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
The inconsiderate ones must all be cowards too, because when I'm on the motorbike I hardly ever get any crap from car drivers - the ones who will bully me when I'm on the bicycle will sit there meek as lambs, looking at me with eyes like saucers when they clock me giving them evils on the motorbike.

Same rider, different perception, completely different reaction.
I had one person give me a mouth full at a junction, a van driver. At the time I was resting my forearms on the hand bars so my jersey was a little lose at the front (as it should be) & the sleeves were draped low down my arms. I looked over at the driver & 'sat' up right with my arms straight from the 'bars to my shoulders, this resulted in my jersey pulling tight down my front & the bottom half of my upper arms being exposed. Suddenly the driver went very quiet & the window went up (I'm 5' 6.5", 170lbs & have a body fat of under 10%) the guy suddenly realised this & had eyes a little like this :eek:
:rofl:
 
I was thinking this last week, I'm noticing more close, impatient overtakes, often not even moving a wheel over the central line without anything on coming, and turning across my path too quickly, pull outs from junctions, turning across my back wheel with a foot to spare, lots of dirty looks! And mobile phone use at the wheel seems up & car red light/amber jumping.
When we had the bad weather I only had one or two nob heads doing the usual, most people were super.
 

gambatte

Middle of the pack...
Location
S Yorks
I’ve been thinking its better now than a couple of years back when I was commuting. I’m getting fewer close passes or ‘incidents’, more people waiting and passes seem to be wider.

However..

Last night I saw a prat in a mondeo blasting his horn at the guy in front, doing 30 in a 30. As soon as he could he dropped left into the bus/cycle lane and passed him at speed on the left. Leaning forward over his steering wheel and shouting obscenities.

Some of these idiots, doesn’t matter what you’re driving or riding. You just have to hope that one day they’ll do it to an unmarked cop car.

Problem is with the area this happened and considering the car and the guy driving... it makes you wonder how much of the car and the guys paperwork would have been legal or roadworthy
 

MLC

New Member
As a motorcyclist and cyclist I see the exact same thing. Perhaps time to form a Hells Angels Cycling Club :biggrin:


As an ex biker and current non motorised biker I will add another +1 to that

I tend to have not too much hassle on the bike aside from the odd "use the cyle path" grunt as they speed past in the car.

I never really had any hassle on the motorbike at all and the only incident I recall was from a very busy day on the mile end road commute home. Putting my foot down a cage driver decides it will be a good to pull up nice and close and park his front wheel on my foot ! naturally I gesticulated rather urgently at said driver's window and he would not even open his window eventually he wound it down a bit after I started knocking on it and then I explained what had happenned. If I was on a push bike I would wonder whether he would have jumped out ready to have a go back .

Must be the perception of leather vs lycra
 
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