Do cars feel pain?

[CopperBrompton]

You collided with someone else's vehicle, entirely unnecessarily, because you were too impatient to wait in a queue of traffic for a minute or two, and you can't understand why they weren't very happy with you?

Ben

 

[SW19cam]

I think this post is a really interesting one.

However, I think the self rightous cyclist is as bad as the self rightous car driver. I would say the point is we need to work together on the roads, or one of us is going to 'get dead'.

In this case, a cyclist buggered up. They need to accept they buggered up, and accept the verbal abuse (most probably the driver repositioned their mirror when they got home, and forgot about it). At the end of the day, it would have been an annoyance to both parties, but both are still alive and unharmed...let's just forget about it, and cycle better next time.

On a side note, any cyclist who thinks they ride 'perfectly' is deluded. I have been the victim of bad cycling, and bad driving.. but I have also noticed myself cycling badly / making bad judgements. When the latter happens, I take the verbal, and acknowledge I buggered up....knowing next time I will not make the same mistake.

 

[dudi]

To be quite honest with you, if I were to collide with someone's car during slow moving traffic I would expect to feel the wrath of the driver. no matter how small the collision was, how unavoidable it was. I would expect an exchange of details and further contact to discuss any damage that was caused.

That is if i was driving a car at the time.

If I'm riding a bike, i don't think I would expect any different.

If i were clipped by a car whilst on my bike, and didn't get any kind of apology from the driver (yes, I know you said you apologised, but if they didn't see it, you didn't do it well enough) I would chase after that impatient driver and demand their fullest attention once they had stopped.

I dont think you have anything to moan about. you were in the wrong to squeeze though a pinch point when you knew it was possibly too small. you collide your vehicle with his and you made only a limited attempt to show your consideration for the property of the driver.

Cant say you have my sympathy.

 

[John the Monkey]

I mean its a vehicle that is driven around at speed surrounded by various objects. You can't expect nothing to touch your vehicle or is it part of your personal space.

This argument is a bloody slippery slope - not far away from the "you're on the road with the cars, you takes your chances" guff trotted out by the bus driver that hit me last month.

 

[handsome joe]

Look, to all those who want to vent their frustrations. I am a big boy. I know when i made a mistake. Let me make this clear. I can accept a rollocking when its justified. But, please read this properly, its the whether the rollicking is in preportion, which i felt it was not. If i had whacked into the side of him and caused some damage then i can understand him getting so cheesed off. I don't make it a habit of knocking cars. I will be taking Wing Mirror Avoidance Training.

 

[grhm]

I am salivating here.......
Before i am hung by my B******* from the nearest tree. Yes, i was wrong by being impatient but i only clipped his mirror and said sorry. But obviously this was not enough for him.

Ignoring the facts up to hitting his mirror. I'd have been pissed off if someone had hit my mirror. I believe you said you bent it out of position, and then seemed to ride off without apologising and without bending said mirror back.

He's on his commute, never the happiest journey in a car, stuck in traffic at road works (not going to enhance his mood) and to add insult to injury, has got to get out of the drivers seat to go an replace a mirror some *cyclist* has just thwacked!!

Not suprising he reacted as he did - and he'll see no point stopping to discus it man to man as you obviously couldn't give a fig that you damaged his vehicle and any discussion may lend to violence and more damage. (Not impling that you would, but that *may* be his thinking)

It's no wonder some drivers hate cyclists.

 

[LLB]

Look, to all those who want to vent their frustrations. I am a big boy. I know when i made a mistake. Let me make this clear. I can accept a rollocking when its justified. But, please read this properly, its the whether the rollicking is in preportion, which i felt it was not. If i had whacked into the side of him and caused some damage then i can understand him getting so cheesed off. I don't make it a habit of knocking cars. I will be taking Wing Mirror Avoidance Training.

The word which springs to mind is 'respect'. If you give it on the road, you should expect it back in equal measure.

 

[Cab]

I am salivating here.......
Before i am hung by my B******* from the nearest tree. Yes, i was wrong by being impatient but i only clipped his mirror and said sorry. But obviously this was not enough for him.

Obviously.

You were wrong, you admit it, good.

If you did no damage and he ranted at you, well, accept it. You made a mistake and the other guy over-reacted. Maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he's a complete tit all of the time, doesn't matter. The important thing is that you accept the error and learn from it.

We all make mistakes, the trick is to learn.

 

[redjedi]

Look, to all those who want to vent their frustrations. I am a big boy. I know when i made a mistake. Let me make this clear. I can accept a rollocking when its justified. But, please read this properly, its the whether the rollicking is in preportion, which i felt it was not. If i had whacked into the side of him and caused some damage then i can understand him getting so cheesed off. I don't make it a habit of knocking cars. I will be taking Wing Mirror Avoidance Training.

You did whack into the side of him and cause damage. You need to accept your rollicking (and you should be lucky that's all you got) and learn to be less impatient.
If there's not enough space to filter without making contact, then don't filter.
The driver probably wouldn't have been so angry if you had stopped, apologised and re-placed his wing mirror, rather than just cycling away albeit apologising as you went.

Your not getting much sympathy on here, and rightly so.

 

[the reluctant cyclist]

I did the same once - squeezing up the inside of a row of traffic - one foot on the kerb (!) and I accidentally scraped the end of my handlebar against the wing mirror of a mercedes.

I was mortified - I know how much those things cost and I stopped straight away and tapped the window and said I was sorry but it didn't look like the handlebar had damaged it in any way and the driver was okay with me.

However, my action didn't bend the mirror out of place - sounds to me like you hit it pretty hard to me to be able to do this to it - they are pretty rigid things in my humble opinion.

Also - how could there not be enough room for your feet for you to stop and have a proper word?

I learned my lesson in trying to squeeze through and I was lucky enough to have got away with it without an earful from the mortorist.

I am really precious about my car - I don't want any scrapes, dings or dents on it and if you had done it to mine I would have been livid! Some of those electrically adjustable mirrors are really easy to break and time consuming and tricky to fix - plus isn't it illegal for the driver to then drive around with a broken mirror on his passenger side?

 

[LOGAN 5]

Handsome: I bet you wished you'd never posted It's easy to get a lecture on here.

Touching a car to a motorist is like physically assaulting them personally. They're in love with their cars. Look at all those sados washing their cars regularly on Sunday mornings when I imagine there's loads of housework to do instead but that's not as important as their cars.

Who hasn't sweezed past the inside of traffic at some point, I know I have and do and have even occasionally clipped a mirror but always apologise (as you did).

 

[Blackandblue]

I think he's got the point now....

For my part, Willow has summed up all relevant aspects pretty bloomin' well.

 

[Willow]

Thank you so much I take a bow and hereby close the thread enoug said.

ps I came by car today!

 

[dondare]

Wing mirrors can cost 100s of £££s. They cannot be ajusted from the outside, it's all done with little motors controlled by a button on the dashboard so if you knock one the motorist might have a real problem and real expense. It'd be better if mirrors were replaced by cameras which would eliminate blind-spots, not stick out and not be any more expensive.

 

[handsome joe]

There is no point in banging on and on. Because, apart from myself and the driver, no one was there. Its hard to explain what actually happened and i think people are jumping to conclusions without reading my explainations. If i had broken the guys mirror i would not be on here telling the story. I did not damage the guy's mirror, which is an important point. Thats why i stopped further along the road because i thought maybe there was damage i could not see.

There is one point to make. I have been involved in near misses and accidents with motor vehicles. I can't recall any driver stopping to check if me or my bike is alright. Just a point.