Does commuting wind you up?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

KneesUp

Guru
Since we sold our second car the bike is my only means of getting to work, which is great - it means I don't have a 'get out'

However, recently I'm finding drivers to be more and more annoying. I don't know if it's because I experience them everyday, or because I now drive less, or because people are driving less considerately.

I only commute c. 3 miles (shortest route, which is always my way in - home is sometimes a longer route) but every single day I will get a lot who pass too close, and a few who pass far to close, and there will be one or two who clearly hadn't seen me. I'm lucky that a lot of the main route has a bus lane, and there are no complex junctions or roundabouts - in fact there are only two right turns on the way in - but in a way the fact that a third of my commute is in a bus lane and it's so relatively risk free everywhere else makes it even more annoying that I still experience thoughtless and/or careless driving so often.

Today I had a van pull out on me whilst the driver was on the phone. I get that sometimes when you're driving the phone rings and you realise it's important, and sometimes if it hadn't connected to the handsfree you might - based on conditions - answer quickly to say 'call me back' - it's not right or legal, but I totally get that it's a risk that sometimes you might judge to be ok - but this guy was on the phone as he pulled out of parking space without looking, and yet he still felt the need to give me a punishment pass and some verbal when he eventually got to an open bit of road - presumably because I did an 'on the phone' mime as I got around him. Thing is I know the mime would have made no difference to his attitude, and I knew it would possibly wind him up so I was waiting for him to pass, which made the time before he did more stressful.

So my question is, how do you remain 'zen' when you start your ride stressed by other stuff (lots of 'other stuff' going on atm) and then people take risks with your health by being thoughtless, careless or deliberately aggressive?
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
IMO the only use for a phone mime is to warn other road users about a phoney driver. It never helps with the phoney. Best if they don't even see you do it.

I remain Zen mainly by living somewhere that all of my journey to town or train can be on quiet roads or cycleways if I choose it to be so. It's currently silly season, the crazies are behind the wheel and annoyed by how much extra fuel their air con is using and their brains are oxygen-starved by the extra pollution they're drinking in from the motorist in front, but I don't have to mix with them much at all. And I've very strong brakes and know how to do an emergency turn aka diversion turn (I think that's the name in cyclecraft) ready for when the dozy ones drive along cycleways.

Can you find less motorist-infested routes for your ride?
 
I used to be like yourself. I was angry at other road users breaking the law, whether it was jumping lights, close passes or being on a phone. It also made me angry that I was getting angry at other road users!
As part of treatment I was having after an accident I was recommended a course of CBT. In the meetings, it was suggested to me that I could not influence other road users and the choices they made, so why worry about it? Why should it make you angry if it is an incident out of your control? One thing I found very helpful was to give a running commentary as I was riding (making observations on pot holes in the road, cars parked on the side of the road, taking primary etc). It made me realize that I was doing all I could do keep myself safe and it was not just luck that cars did not hit me. In reality it is only a very very small minority of motorists that do stupid things (and I like to think that most of them that put you in danger do not do it on purpose) but it is that small minority that you remember.
I do have a camera front and rear, but so far this year I have only had to report 3 people for their stupidity. That is a very small percentage of the drivers that have passed me!
 
Last edited:

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
It's not just you, @KneesUp : like @biggs682 I commute mainly on shared paths because as soon as I get onto the roads (and unfortunately I can't completely avoid them on my commute), I get wound up really easily. I wish I didn't get so angry and upset at other road users, but it's hard not to when you live in one of the most anti-cyclist countries in the world***.

*** I live in Australia, in case you weren't aware, and it rivals the UK for anti-cyclist idiots.
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
Commuting can wind me up but not because of other road users.

It's the permanent state of fatigue that sometimes wears me down.

But it's about perspective. I have a car that does not have air conditioning and in this weather it's pretty uncomfortable so bike wins.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
I prefer to cycle than drive to work, at least I get fresh(ish) air and exercise. I get as wound up in the car (can't bear sitting in traffic) without the benefits of cycling
 

MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
is there an alternative route the OP can take; quieter roads with fewer inconsiderate drivers?
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
What can I say?

If you cannot put up with the inevitable. All I can suggest is that you leave the bike at home and use public transport.

Close passes and bad driving is just part and parcel of riding a bike in the UK. Getting worked up about them does not solve anything. We get them in Denmark and my view is. If I am still upright after they have passed. It wasnt that close after all.

Learn to relax.
 
OP
OP
KneesUp

KneesUp

Guru
Thanks for all the advice - the route I take in the morning at the moment is the flattest route: the road basically follows the valley bottom. Any other route involves riding up a valley side and then coming down again around the bend in the river - which is fine for 3/4 of the year, but it makes me too hot in summer.

I'd like to make it clear that I wasn't aggressive to the van-man, I just made sure he saw me pretending to be on the phone as I passed - I didn't say anything to him. If pretending to be on the phone whilst cycling past someone who is sat inside a 2 ton van and who has just pulled into your path without looking whilst *actually* on the phone can be seen as aggressive then perhaps I need to recalibrate my emotions!
 

Jody

Stubborn git
Riding a road bike is starting to wind me up. Too many d1cks on the road. I can get over the people who don't know better but its the people who do things deliberately that annoy me.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Having to deal with busy London traffic on a daily basis for my cycle commute. I find that if you just concentrate on your own journey rather then worry about what others are doing, then it makes the journey so much better and nicer.

Of course, I'm not one who's going to let crap driving that effects me go with having words. But only if it effects me directly. Car drivers on mobile phones don't bother me much.
 
Location
Essex
I actually rather enjoy my commute but it's broken into sections which in total add up to roughly 75% zen, 25% [trying to think of a suitable adjective - will explain].

The zen portion is the cycle path, terrible though it is, alongside the A127. It's letting the bike flow, timing the bunny-hops that are needed at several key points and generally being in a calm headspace. It's also interesting to note that this even applies on wet or headwind days as, in the grand scheme of things, they don't make a great deal of difference to what time I get to work.

The non-zen portion is wherever I have to mix it with traffic. It's not non-zen in a bad way, as I actually enjoy that aspect - just naturally requires a lot more concentration.

There are occasional nobbers that I encounter, and a couple of points where I make my own ASL at roundabouts but even with the most adrenalized I've been while commuting (last November- van driver on phone, me off in pile of gravel) I've calmed down again by the end of the ride. I think the way my commute breaks up must help, now I come to think about it - there's always a cyclists-only portion just up the road.
 

simongt

Guru
Location
Norwich
As my physio has said I can get back on the bike again after my broken femur back in April - WAHEY - !!! - but gradually & gently fro several weeks - not so wahey - I took myself down to the local shops on my Brommy. On the way back, as some of the route is uphill, I decided it was wiser to take the pavement route across some traffic lights. I'd hardly started when a nutter on a bike decided that the red light didn't apply to him so he came onto the pavement that I was on, shot across the road and carried on, all at about 12 - 15mph. He missed me by rather less than I care to think about and he was moving so fast, I didn't even have time to hurl abuse at him.
Just as well I was walking in a straight line, or I'd have ended up in hospital again. So would he, but that's not the point is it - ?
 
Top Bottom