How come...

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

how come it is always drivers of the smallest cars that give you the least amount of space or cut you up the most often?

 

[TheDoctor]

Because it's easier to position them?
In a small car you can accurately judge to miss someone by an inch. So they do.
Plus, gaps go from 'Can't fit through there' to 'I can just about make that'.

 

[ianrauk]

Funny you should mention that. I had one of those Smart hairdryer cars pass me very close today.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Funny you should mention that. I had one of those Smart hairdryer cars pass me very close today.

that and a couple on the new minis - the only other contender for a close pass was a VW golf that I very nearly ran into the back of after it overtook me coming up to a set of traffic lights that were on red and left me little room to stop. got the driver seriously worried about their paint work

 

[Black Sheep]

how come it is always drivers of the smallest cars that give you the least amount of space or cut you up the most often?

for the same reason that I can't get up the lane to my house, people in big cars driving in the middle of the road (can get two transits past at a squeeze) because they think their fat ass car is about to bump against the side of the road.

had to actually stop for one the other day she was taking up so much space - I was on the motorbike!

 

[Maz]

Small cars. That reminds of my ride home this evening...

Rush hour and I'd stopped at the lights and saw a new Citroen C1 stopped in the opposite direction, emergency lights on, blocking all the traffic. Felt sorry for the driver so after ummin and erring I finally decided to turn round and ask the driver if everything was OK. Spoke to her partner in the front passenger seat "We've run out of petrol and need to get off the road". So he and I pushed the car up the kerb - gave him directions to the nearest petrol station.

They were grateful and the traffic started to flow again, too! Job done.

 

[Drago]

I had a 107, same as the C1 - you gotta really try hard to run out of fuel in a car that does over 60 mpg no matter how hard you thrash it!

 

[slowmotion]

I don't seem to have a problem with small cars, it's the big ones that cost north of £35,000 that trouble me. Does the window tinting render cyclists invisible?

 

[asterix]

how come it is always sometimes drivers of the smallest cars that give you the least amount of space or cut you up the most often?

I drive a small car (as well as a white van), so your assertion requires adjustment please! I know what you mean however as when the old minis were common I often heard a car approaching and thought he can't be going to pass here, there's no room . And then you realise it's a mini and there is room.. Those car really are small by modern standards.

I had a 107, same as the C1 - you gotta really try hard to run out of fuel in a car that does over 60 mpg no matter how hard you thrash it!

Naah! You just forget that you have to put fuel in now and then.

 

[asterix]

Small cars. That reminds of my ride home this evening...

Rush hour and I'd stopped at the lights and saw a new Citroen C1 stopped in the opposite direction, emergency lights on, blocking all the traffic. Felt sorry for the driver so after ummin and erring I finally decided to turn round and ask the driver if everything was OK. Spoke to her partner in the front passenger seat "We've run out of petrol and need to get off the road". So he and I pushed the car up the kerb - gave him directions to the nearest petrol station.

They were grateful and the traffic started to flow again, too! Job done.

I did that once. Middle aged female driver, alone. Rush hour, big tail-back. When she saw me, a cyclist, approaching I heard all the door locks go on (middle of York). Still I pushed her and the car off the road and she never even said thanks! No doubt she was was on her way to buy the Da1ly M41l.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I drive a small car (as well as a white van), so your assertion requires adjustment please! I know what you mean however as when the old minis were common I often heard a car approaching and thought he can't be going to pass here, there's no room . And then you realise it's a mini and there is room.. Those car really are small by modern standards. Naah! You just forget that you have to put fuel in now and then.

OK - mostly but not sometimes. Yesterday and all of last week it was well over 75% of the people who cut me up, although on the whole they do seem to give me more room when I am not wearing my hi-viz top! And the "there is room" err - not when they are close enough for the wing mirror to hit my clothes (good thing my top is a size too big; that one was too close for my liking).

I might count the overtakes and percentage of small car cut ups today as I cycle to Spanish lessons today. I'll try to remember to do it in Spanish... might take my attention away from the -5C it is outside at the moment.

New Question...

how come it is always mostly drivers of the smallest cars that give you the least amount of space or cut you up the most often?

 

[Black Sheep]

I don't seem to have a problem with small cars, it's the big ones that cost north of £35,000 that trouble me. Does the window tinting render cyclists invisible?

often renders the car illegal - there is a maximum tint level allowed for the windscreen and front windows.

rear windows and rear windscreen it doesn't matter (probably because it can be argued that a van has those blocked up)

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Tinted windows - I have a theory which I wouldn't know how to research: it seems to be a refusal to engage with other people on the road. If the car's black, my experience suggests that this is a double refusal. Pure cocooned self concern and indifference to other people.

 

[Minotier]

I don't seem to have a problem with small cars, it's the big ones that cost north of £35,000 that trouble me. Does the window tinting render cyclists invisible?

It's not the window tinting it's the 'I'm the centre of the universe and nothing else matters' attitude!

You beat me to it Deptford marmoset!

 

[defy-one]

i have a big black BMW (not tinted) .... your theory does not apply to me, please don't tar us all with the same brush!