Charming!

[Arch]

Going over to a friend's house last night, crossing Lendal Bridge. Narrowish single carriageway. Not much traffic on my direction, queueing traffic backed up coming the other way. About half way across, I hear a siren, and a second later see the paramedic emergency responce car coming the other way, blue lights on, tryng to filter up the outside of the queue. The car in front of me (about 20-30 feet in front) immediately pulls right over onto the kerb to let it by, and I pull up right over against the kerb to give him plenty of room. Whereupon the car behind sweeps past me in normal position apparently oblivious, causing the paramedic car to have to slow and pull in until this car has passed it.

As the lights at the end of the bridge are red, I filter down the inside, intending to give the driver (a moderately respectable looking middle aged lady) of this car a Hard Stare as I pass. When I realise her passenger side window is open, I can't resist a comment.

Me: Did you not see the ambulance?
Her: What? Are you talking to me?
Me: Yes. There was an ambulance trying to get through, and I pulled over to give it space, but you came straight through and blocked it.
Her: I didn't see it.
Me: (in the act of riding off) Well, you should maybe get your eyes tested...
Her: F*** off!

I have to admit, I was momentarily astonished, stopped and looked back, whereupon she said "Yes, F*** off!". So I repeated my suggestion that she get her eyes tested, the lights had gone green and I rode off (safe, I have to admit, in the knowledge that I was taking a sharp left turn into a bike path blocked by bollards).

If we'd had longer to talk, I might have pointed out that the L-plates on her car either meant she was displaying L-plates on a car not being driven by a learner (I think this is technically illegal isn't it?), or she was a learner, and driving alone illegally...

I suppose there are two options. Either she really did fail to see an emergency vehicle, with blues and twos, or she did see it, didn't care, but thought "I didn't see it" sounded like a better defence. Either way, she needs to work on her driving techinque a bit. Presumably the expletive was down to embarrassment/anger at being challenged.

Still, the adrenalin boosted my speed for the rest of the trip as I worked it off, and with a bit of luck, she'll be brewing up a nice peptic stress ulcer. Let's hope if she needs an ambulance, it doesn't get stuck in traffic....

 

[Freewheeler]

If we'd had longer to talk, I might have pointed out that the L-plates on her car either meant she was displaying L-plates on a car not being driven by a learner (I think this is technically illegal isn't it?), or she was a learner, and driving alone illegally...

I think the Highway Code recommends that you remove or cover L plates if a learner isn't actually driving, but it isn't against the law to display them if a qualified person is driving. Come to think of it, that makes sense otherwise all the driving instructors would be breaking the law as they drove between pupils.

 

[Arch]

I think the Highway Code recommends that you remove or cover L plates if a learner isn't actually driving, but it isn't against the law to display them if a qualified person is driving. Come to think of it, that makes sense otherwise all the driving instructors would be breaking the law as they drove between pupils.

Well, I wondered about that, hence my query - anyway, it was a minor point compared with apparently failing to see or hear a vehicle with blue lights and sirens, when everybody else did....

Also, I realise I described her as "a moderately respectable looking middle aged lady". Of course, this could be a perfect description of me. I keep forgetting I'm middle aged...

 

[skwerl]

I'm concerned that she's driving a car yet is so unware of her surroundings that she failed to see an oncoming Ambulance. More likely is that she did see it and was trying to displace her guilt.

 

[yello]

whereupon she said "Yes, F*** off!"

Potty mouth, as someone said.

Reminds me off when I first moved into my East London flat many years ago. I was chatting with an elderly neighbour and she was quite happily f***-ing and, to my great shock, c***-ing. I soon realised that, in the East End, f*ck is more or less a filler, like others would 'umm' or 'err'.

My dad's language was foul, even on a good day, so I'm a bit prone to the odd choice word myself (though I do try not to!) I wasn't expecting to be out-oathed by an 80 year old though!

 

[Origamist]

A siren and flashing lights will often precipitate a paroxysm of ****wittery in many road users. Getting out of the way of an emergency vehicle on a bike is not usually a problem - avoiding traffic that suddenly takes on the characteristics of shrapnel, can be...

 

[jack the lad]

It's not just car drivers, unfortunately cyclists can be blind & ignorant too. I was walking on the footpath near the Rawcliffe Bar P&R this morning, minding my own business. Sudden screech of skidding tyres and a cyclist inches from my back screaming that I was on a cycle path. Long straight clear stretch, so had plenty of notice I was there. I pointed out that it was a shared use path and he could have used his bell to warn me he was was coming. I got "f*ck off" too as he rode off. Ignorant git - I hope it wasn't any of you!

I & most people I know usually slow down and shout 'cyclist on your left/right' or something as I come up behind pedestrians on paths, so they know which way to jump out of the way. It's not exactly difficult is it?

 

[PBancroft]

A siren and flashing lights will often precipitate a paroxysm of ****wittery in many road users. Getting out of the way of the emergency vehicle on a bike is not usually a problem - avoiding traffic that suddenly takes on the characteristics of shrapnel, can be...

Yes, we get a lot of that round this way. In the desperation to get out of the way of the approaching emergency vehicle, many people just stop dead in the middle of the road(!) or mount the curb... failing to take into consideration the pedestrians currently occupying it.

 

[Arch]

I'm concerned that she's driving a car yet is so unware of her surroundings that she failed to see an oncoming Ambulance. More likely is that she did see it and was trying to displace her guilt.

That was my thought too. I know it's easy to resort to temper when you're embarrassed at being caught out.

If she'd said "oh god yes, I cocked up there", I'd have thought "fair enough, lesson learned" and said no more.

My one hope is that she knew full well she'd cocked up, and takes more care in future. Alas, I expect she went home and ranted about cocky bloody cyclists.

The worrying thing is the possibility that she really was so unaware that she didn't see it. I didn't have any suspicion that she was on the phone or anything, although I didn't see her clearly as she passed me. One thing, I'd forgotten to mention, on the other side of the road there was some sort of procession of pedestrians on the pavement, with some drum banging going on. Maybe that distracted her. It had distracted me until I heard the siren whereupon my attention was right back where it should be.

Also, she didn't have music on loud, and had windows open both sides, so hearing the siren shouldn't have been difficult. She could certainly hear well enough to hear my voice.

 

[tyred]

I'm concerned that she's driving a car yet is so unware of her surroundings that she failed to see an oncoming Ambulance. More likely is that she did see it and was trying to displace her guilt.

Indeed. I never cease to be amazed by the amount of people who drive around in their own little world, completely oblivious to everything. That is almost certainly the biggest cause of road accidents.

 

[Arch]

It's not just car drivers, unfortunately cyclists can be blind & ignorant too. I was walking on the footpath near the Rawcliffe Bar P&R this morning, minding my own business. Sudden screech of skidding tyres and a cyclist inches from my back screaming that I was on a cycle path. Long straight clear stretch, so had plenty of notice I was there. I pointed out that it was a shared use path and he could have used his bell to warn me he was was coming. I got "f*ck off" too as he rode off. Ignorant git - I hope it wasn't any of you!

I & most people I know usually slow down and shout 'cyclist on your left/right' or something as I come up behind pedestrians on paths, so they know which way to jump out of the way. It's not exactly difficult is it?

Certainly not me, or the boss. Just goes to show, there's prats on all modes of transport.... Again, I suspect he wasn't paying attention, and took it out on you when he was jerked back into reality.l

I pride myself on my reaction to sirens - around the centre of York it can be very difficult, with the narrow streets at odd angles, and sound bouncing off buildings, to tell where a siren is coming from, so my default is to slow down, swivel my head a lot to maximise direction finding, and look all round for a) the emergency vehicle, and drivers doing unexpected things. If necessary, I just pull over and get off. I find I'm usually well prepared before many drivers have even noticed anything....

 

[Jim_Noir]

Somewhere, I will look for it later, a video of a brand spanking new BMW being taken out by a fire engine. It had trade plates on a test drive, the driver was truning right, taking the car back to the car show room, but failed to see and hear the two fire engines horsing it along . So the driver, even though it ws clear to every other person that the fire engine was going to do an over take on his right side, kept going.... the fire engine was untouched, BMW was wreaked. This ment the two fire engines had to stay there and radio in to get another watch to go to the fire!
I think a lot of driver freeze when they are faced with the blue lights and panic not knowing what to do... that at a lot of drivers are nuts on the road!

 

[Mr Creosote]

Not saying that this was the case but a lot of **** wittery around emergency vehicles could be down to unfamiliarity with the area.

It happend to me when driving in the USA. It was rush hour, I been driving a US roads for about 8 hours total and I was approaching a busy intersection when I heard the fire truck sirens behind me and my instinctive reaction was to try to move over to the left...

 

[Tynan]

most never ever see it or hear it until it's inches behind them, what the drivers of the emergencies vehicles must think would be fun

 

[ChrisKH]

You can't win. On the few occasions where I have been controlled and polite enough to point out a driver's shortcomings all I have got is abuse, aggression and on one occasion an assault. As the nice gentleman in the 4 x 4 said at the weekend; "Oh yea? Yer just a fackin bike! "