First Incident in 800 miles

[HovR]

And it was a WVM! What a surprise!

My commute takes me past a secondary school zone, so in the morning it's busy with parents playing the "Let's see how close to the school I can drop my kid off" game, instead of parking a sensible distance away and allowing them to walk to reduce traffic. As such, this whole area is very hectic and the average speed is low - Definitely no room to overtake a cyclist here.

I'm cruising along and keeping up with traffic, when from behind I hear loud engine noises - I look behind and see the WVM approaching - I put the loud engine noises down to it being a large diesel engine.

By now he had caught up with me - Following only 4 or 5 feet behind, and revving his engine hard - His van was lurching towards me with each rev, at times he must have been lurching to only 2 or 3 feet behind me. I was holding a fairly strong position on the road, so at this point he couldn't force his way through, I turned and gave the palm pushing back "Give me more room" signal. More revving, angry faces were being pulled - He did not give me more room.

The road widened enough for him to push his way through - Which he did without a care for other road users coming the opposite way, or school kids who may have been crossing the road - Yet alone me.

Once he finally gets in front of me (after I sighed with relief that he didn't hit in to me), he tries what presumably was a brake test on me? Pulling the front of his van towards the kerb so it was spanning the whole lane (similarly to the silver London taxi in one of Gaz's videos), leaving me either to filter back in front of him (no thanks) or wait behind. I thought he was going to get out of his van, but no. He then proceeded to accelerate away fast, as the brake test had left a considerable gap in front of him. I continued on down the road.

A few hundred feet later, I saw him stopped at the side of the road right next to the school entrance (dropping off his daughter) - He was standing outside his van, as if waiting for me. I passed the school entrance where he was parked, with the intent of continuing down the road. He shouted as I passed "Have you got a problem, mate?!", whilst walking towards me, in manner as if trying to be intimidating. I responded "You were far too close to me" as I continued down the road.

As I continued on my way, he could be heard shouting a list of profanities strung together at me, at the top of his voice, right out side of a school. I'm sure everyone else (parents, teachers etc) had just as good of an impression of him as I did.


I've met inconsiderate motorists on the roads before, but this was the first time I had ever actually felt at danger - Despite this, I believe that the advice/tips I have picked up on here about defensive riding and dealing with driver confrontation possibly prevented that incident from being a lot worse.

Now that's enough for at least another 800 miles!

 

[simon.r]

It sounds as if you dealt with the 'situation' well

 

[Maylian]

The thought of people acting this way just seems absurd to me, both that people are in such a rush to get 100 yards down the road 10 seconds faster. That people dislike cyclists doing a decent speed and feel the need to break test them (get this quite often) and that a father (albeit a wvm) would want to make such a scene in front of his daughter.....

I get the occasional "hand signal" when cycling from motorists and the odd "dagger" shot at me from peds as I cycle along for the most part safely for all forms of transport and considerately. Fortunately I think the fact that I'm 6'4", 17 stone and pretty well built normally deters people from getting physical or overly hostile.

Sounds like you stayed calm and acted responsibly even if the wvm didn't.

 

[ManiaMuse]

Sounds like you did the right thing - there are some proper nutters out there who cannot be reasoned with so best to avoid confrontation and put as much distance between you and them. Sometimes that can even mean doing a U-turn if they are getting out of their vehicle.

I rarely gesture to motorists behind me unless I suspect they are going to be a proper numpty at a pinch point or something. Sometimes just better to do a shoulder check several times in a row which is less likely to be misconstrued as aggressive than a hand signal.

 

[Francesca]

you did the right thing - unfortunately there will always be the usual Uncle Knobhead's that you encounter. chin up , dont let them grind ya down. If a motorist was intimidating like that with me - I would have stopped and taken note their registration number and reported them immediately to the Police from my phone.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

The thought of people acting this way just seems absurd to me, both that people are in such a rush to get 100 yards down the road 10 seconds faster. That people dislike cyclists doing a decent speed and feel the need to break test them (get this quite often) and that a father (albeit a wvm) would want to make such a scene in front of his daughter.....

I get the occasional "hand signal" when cycling from motorists and the odd "dagger" shot at me from peds as I cycle along for the most part safely for all forms of transport and considerately. Fortunately I think the fact that I'm 6'4", 17 stone and pretty well built normally deters people from getting physical or overly hostile.

Sounds like you stayed calm and acted responsibly even if the wvm didn't.

i'm the same, 6'3-4 ish and hovering around 17 stone! lol no had a verbal confrontation yet though. im as placid as they come though and normally its a very visible shaking of the head or a flat palm on the rear quarter of a vehicle as its left hooking me! normaly im going slow enough in traffic to be ok.

 

[Francesca]

I dont get any bother at all.