Catch yerself on lady - !

[mudsticks]

You’ve reminded me of a near collision I had on a roundabout. One of the roads leading onto it is an exit slip from a motorway and drivers are terrible about adjusting their speed on approach.

As I approached this off-slip a driver was clearly not paying attention to her speed, the traffic ahead of her already blocking her path through the roundabout, or my presence so I sounded my airzound. She braked hard but still blocked most of my escape path and I narrowly avoided a collision.

I think I shouted a “Look where you’re bloody going!”. She wound her window down and apologised profusely, which I accepted and assured her I was ok but told her she needed to watch her speed and surroundings better. She kept on apologising and I could see she was becoming very upset and in the end I was saying *I* was sorry for upsetting her.

It’s the only time I’ve felt somewhat sad for a bad driver, given her reaction. I think she had a real fright at what she could’ve done to another human being.

I got shoved off, on a roundabout in similar circs..
Not injuriously , but on the floor.

The driver did have the grace to stop and apologise, but her parting shot was

"I don't really like cyclists being on the roads, they make me nervous..."

 

[HMS_Dave]

I got shoved off, on a roundabout in similar circs..
Not injuriously , but on the floor.

The driver did have the grace to stop and apologise, but her parting shot was

"I don't really like cyclists being on the roads, they make me nervous..."

Thus explaining why you were knocked off in the first place....

There's a letterbox ready to consume her driving licence and have it defecated onto some shirt and tie in the half empty DVLA office...

 

[carpiste]

Cycling home from work last week on one of the dedicated cycle paths provided by our nice council in our fair city when a lass in a car suddenly tried to cut me off when she decided to turn left immediately in front of me. When she realised that I wasn't going to give way to her on MY cycle path, she was forced to stop. I yelled 'Tosspot, cyclepath - !' and carried on whilst she looked at me rather meekly - !

Only after she realised that she was about to knock me off my bike. Her timing was well out as she'd assumed she could cut in front of me and I was going to give way.

Ok, what was it? You refusing to give way or her timing out and she assumed you would give way?
I really don`t see why you wouldn`t give way when there was a chance, any kind of chance, that you could be knocked off your bike! How can anyone be so reckless with their own life? I know, if it was me, that I wouldn`t risk my life to make a point that she shouldn`t be in my lane!
You called her a tosspott after she stopped and you rode off. Very brave of you but like I say I wouldn`t take a risk like that.
People make mistakes, and she seems to have done by driving her car near to you. Yes she may need to look at her highway code and have a bit more thought for cyclists but it still doesn`t excuse your rant. Sorry if you don`t like it but that`s how I feel.

 

[mjr]

Great idea ... shall we close down a few women’s refuges or maybe a care home or 2 to pay for your multi million £ surveillance project.

CCTV is cheap these days. People put cameras in doorbells. Motorists are crap. The scheme would pay for itself until it wasn't needed any more.

 

[gbb]

'Catch yerself on lady' i would have thought that was a Northern Irish saying. We have friends...i can clearly imagine them saying something like that in broad N Irish. To the effect...get a grip woman

 

[Landsurfer]

CCTV is cheap these days. People put cameras in doorbells. Motorists are crap. The scheme would pay for itself until it wasn't needed any more.

If motorists are crap why are you on this site since 90% + of us on here are motorists ? Don’t be so rude ...

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I was riding along a dead quiet road on a housing estate yesterday when I had my first little "interaction" for a while. There was one parked car ahead to my right, in effect making the road half width. A black Mercedes w*nkpanzer then comes toward me (and the parked car on his side), I could see right away that he had no intention of giving way as per the Highway code. I was only doing about 9-10 mph anyway, but I slowed right off to walking pace to allow enough gap for him to get back in, and avoid me being run over.
For my consideration I got a shout from the Mercedes of "f**kin slow down!".
Slow down? Jesus mate, I'm already only doing 4mph precisely to allow for your crap overtake, you're doing 25. It's a good job I wasn't doing 25 too.

Nothing you can do about it, some drivers are idiots, some just make mistakes. Breathe deeply, take a minute if you need to. Plan for for people's fallibility, you can nearly always see these situations coming if you're observing and expecting the worst.

 

[Arjimlad]

At the point of my expletive, she'd had to hit the brakes, and I'd had to swerve to my left, so we were about level at the time - !

I think in the light of this, criticism of the OP is unfair.

We all expect people to obey the rules of the road, are wise to be alert to the fact that often they do not. When they don't it's common for both parties to have to take evasive action.

How are we to know that a particular driver is not going to stop when they should do so? The usual telltale signs and sixth senses we develop with experience can help us to predict when a situation might arise, but not in every case.

The first post was the OP's analysis of the driver's behaviour after the event.

Her failure to stop made it apparent that she had assumed the cyclist would give way. The OP could not have known what her perception/intention would be until after it manifested itself in her driving. When we're forced to unexpectedly swerve or brake or whatever it's totally excusable to let out a few choice words. I think criticism of the OP is unfair, especially when we weren't there.

 

[mudsticks]

Thus explaining why you were knocked off in the first place....

There's a letterbox ready to consume her driving licence and have it defecated onto some shirt and tie in the half empty DVLA office...

I don't think she meant it in an aggressive way , just that she felt it added to her own nervousness on the road .

Which isn't an excuse for poor roadcraft, or lack of awareness, or clipping my front wheel, of course.

But it didn't compare with some of the downright, nasty and deliberate aggression I've had off of some drivers .

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

If motorists are crap why are you on this site since 90% + of us on here are motorists ? Don’t be so rude ...

Where do you get that figure from? Oooh, was there a survey? Must have missed it.

 

[Landsurfer]

Where do you get that figure from? Oooh, was there a survey? Must have missed it.

Thank you for your contribution ..........

 

[Andy in Germany]

Mercedes

The rest was inevitable...

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

This discussion reminds me of a comment on the local paper website yesterday
Basically a couple of cyclists had shot otu from behind a stationary car on the right of the road and got wiped out by a car coming up the middle lane
Cyclist got thrown about 8 foot up in the air - looked totally the cyclist's fault - but they walked off with their bikes and were not seen again
driver was a bit shaken - understandably

so - comment from ' a local'
something like
"they spend millions putting a cycle lane down and THEY still ride like this"
i.e. ALL cyclists
just like people say ALL drivers - or imply it

so - 2 points
everyone makes mistakes - we just try to make sure they are small ones and don;t have serious consequences
the vast majority of drivers drive well the majority or the time

brought home yesterday when I was driving to do some family ferryig - involved driving from Speke to Netherton - including the whole length of the M57 (it ain't long!)
The start of the dual carridgeway and M57 show some of the worst driving I have seen outside London
different people have different ideas about which lane you should be in and when
resulting in multiple instances of high speed undertakes and cars switching lanes at high speed into small gaps then braking
I commented that every driver on the road is a total somethingsomethingsomething
but in reality there were about 4 drivers who did something wrong - out of a couple of hundred maybe


just something to remember!

 

[mjr]

so - comment from ' a local'
something like
"they spend millions putting a cycle lane down and THEY still ride like this"
i.e. ALL cyclists
just like people say ALL drivers - or imply it

But as shown above, when someone implies or even just leaves open a possible interpretation of all drivers, even on a cycling forum some cyclists will leap to the defence of the poor, down-to-earth, normal, hard working, honest, sensible, normal, law abiding, tax paying (ish), normal, hard working, honourable, decent, reasonable motorists who just don't want to pay speeding fines.

But when an explicit all cyclists accusation is made on any non-cycling site, motorists usually pile in with the criticism, not make any distinctions.

Curious, eh?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Basically a couple of cyclists had shot otu from behind a stationary car on the right of the road and got wiped out by a car coming up the middle lane

We only have the motorist’s account of this encounter.

Due to the shear number of cars parked on obstructing our highways, it is inevitable that you will get pedestrians and cyclists emerging from behind them. It’s unavoidable. An alert motorist will be aware of this possibility, slow their speed and be prepared to stop for that kid that runs or cycles out from behind a car. We don’t know what they mean by shot out. It’s likely emerged at a not that fast a speed.

As a kid I remember being taught not to cross the road behind a parked car. But with today’s volumes of parked cars that’d be a very long walk before crossing.

Cyclist got thrown about 8 foot up in the air - looked totally the cyclist's fault - but they walked off with their bikes and were not seen again
driver was a bit shaken - understandably

I find it incredible that someone would be thrown 8 feet in the air and then just walk away. That’s some impact and damage.

Please post a link to the article. I’d be interested to see it in full including the comments. Presumably the motorist included a picture of their dented bonnet as there is no way it isn’t badly damaged if the cyclist was thrown 8 feet in the air.