Chat with lady BMW driver this morning

[dand_uk]

This morning I met a nice lady in a BMW convertible....


Approaching Stoneham Lane from the south, reach the Bassett Green Road junction. I stop at the red light in the centre of the straight on/turn right lane behind the general traffic white line (the junction has an ASL but this only extends accross the LHT lane and half the width of the straight on lane due to long vehicles turning across this)

My linkgsv

BMW pulls up behind. Light turns green so I set off up Stoneham Lane. Now this stretch has a terrible surface from road works and is very bumpy so to avoid this you have to cycle where the driver side wheel would be in a car. This lasts for 50m maybe. Riding in this position obviously annoys BMW lady so I get beeped. I point at the poor road surface and continue. 5-10 seconds later I reach a straight section of road where I wave her on to overtake. She screamed something at me thru the closed windows as she passed, didnt hear it. As I was a bit annoyed I gave her the Vs to her rear view mirror.

So then I am pleasantly (?) surprised that she had to stop in 100 or 200m or so around a bend for temporary traffic signals (single lane give take). I pull up to her driver window, conversation like this:

(she was so angry I had to say calm down)
...bloody cyclist think you own the road...
...riding in the middle of the road...
...not in the green box at the junction

...trying to avoid potholes
...green box doesn't matter
...do not think I own the road trying to ride safely

think she was still just as angry afterwards even tho I was trying to act calm and not confrontation

...deep breath and continue...

 

[Wankelschrauben]

I'd just laugh in the face of nubs like that, wind them up a bit more, finish it off by calling them suger plum, tinkerbell, fruit cake or sweet cheeks.

Works better if the recipient of said mild abuse is male and overwieght.

 

[Arch]

Every time you go out on your bike, you are getting healthier.

Every time she goes out in her car, by the sound of it, she's one step closer to a heart attack or apoplexy.

You win.

 

[asterix]

OK that's a 'nice' lady. What are the nasty ones like where you cycle

(Mental note: avoid Soton at all costs..)

 

[gambatte]

"Own the road? No, I've read the highway code.... I take it they had it when you passed your test?"

 

[Coco]

(she was so angry I had to say calm down)

Phew! Thankfully you didn't end that with ",dear"

 

[downfader]

OK that's a 'nice' lady. What are the nasty ones like where you cycle

(Mental note: avoid Soton at all costs..)

Its better than London traffic imo. Though even a sensible rider/driver can deal with London.

For every bad pr*ck or pothole theres about 10-20 good things like quiet routes, many of the roads now being sorted out (after a 20 year wait in some places like Medina Road or Shirley Road), three Tory councillers who ride bikes, the hills are a peice of piss.

Dand_uk My guess, from knowing some of the locals around that area (I work with them) is that she's quite possbly paying a small fortune to drive that thing badly, and is quite possibly driving less than a mile to work. I would also lodge an educated guess that she moans a lot about how much the car is costing her.

The Council have been noting problems with many of the roads over that side of the water - the fact that people park all over the place (esp near the hospital) and cause obstructions. They've slowly been rolling out the residential parking permits and fining some very bad parking.

..infact the parking enforcement was so effective on one road near the hospital that the guy got death threats and physically chased off the road.

 

[ianrauk]

Should have left a nice long cleat scratch along her cars paintwork...

 

[Leaway2]

Phew! Thankfully you didn't end that with ",dear"

ROFL

 

[dand_uk]

cheers for the encouragement guys, maybe she was just having a bad day or late for work, who knows...

It worries me tho when such people are so on edge that they fly off the handle on the slightest provocaction.

 

[Tynan]

seriously, heaven forbid, goading someone in a car sharing the road with you is stupid

 

[BentMikey]

seriously, heaven forbid, goading someone in a car sharing the road with you is stupid

Isn't that leaping to conclusions? I read the OP quite differently, in that he was just calmly and quietly trying to explain how he was avoiding the potholes, and could barely get a word in edgewise. Besides, with a driver that angry, she was already goaded and he couldn't make it any worse.

 

[dand_uk]

seriously, heaven forbid, goading someone in a car sharing the road with you is stupid

not sure how I goaded her? please clarify.

I went to her window to explain my road positioning. I was not looking for an argument

 

[DrSquirrel]

I read that as sarcasm...

as it starts with "seriously..."

 

[ferret fur]

FWIW I think it is a stupid ASL really. If they needed to allow extra space for long vehicles turning into the junction they should have moved all the stop lines back a bit & put in a full width box.