How i educated a motorist.

[fenlandpsychocyclist]

On sunday while i was out on a 70ish miler ride i had a nice hill to freewheel down.
I used my brakes to hold the bike to a sensible 20-25mph as it was in a built up area.
All the time i knew i had a car quite close to my tail!
Anyway, down on the flat my speed dropped to 15mph and i resumed pedalling, with this
car still on my tail, for ages, even though there were four easy periods when the driver could have passed.
I saw a nice bench where i could stop for lunch, and after glancing my mirror and seeing the car
was further away from the kerb than myself i did just that ... stopped!
Zombie also applied maximum brakes ... and stopped with her passenger seat level with me.
And then i just yelled "NOW YOU KNOW YOU WERE FOLLOWING TOO CLOSE".
I often listen for tyre noise from vehicles approaching behind, and its surprising the amount
of "bonnet watchers" who only apply brakes ten feet from ramming me. I can hear that
change in tyre noise and its quite alarming.

And then further up the road i was cycling a section with lanes about 12 feet wide, nothing
approaching from the opposite direction and had ANOTHER zombie following me.
I could explode and leave entrails all over that 12 foot lane and he'd still have plenty of room to
get past if he switched his brain cell on and moved to the other side of the road.

 

[mr_hippo]

Am I reading this correctly? You performed what, in effect, was an emergency stop for no reason although you knew there was a car behind you. Next time you go out riding your bike, please take your brain cell with you. Did you think of what may happen? Brakes pulling to one side, driver sneezing, etc. If you want to put yourself in danger, it is alright by me but do not involve other road users!

 

[steveindenmark]

So this car was further away from the kerb than you, which means you were not in any danger of being hit but you piled on the brakes to see what would happen.

What does it matter where they are driving? If they want to ride at 17mph behind you all the 70 miles home to your house let them. The "Zombies" are you so nicely put it actually pay road tax to drive wherever they want on the road.

It does not sound as you were in danger but maybe you have a bigger private space barrier than the rest of us.

Steve

 

[doctornige]

There is an accepted right hand signal to indicate you are slowing down. Did you use it?

 

[subaqua]

So this car was further away from the kerb than you, which means you were not in any danger of being hit but you piled on the brakes to see what would happen.

What does it matter where they are driving? If they want to ride at 17mph behind you all the 70 miles home to your house let them. The "Zombies" are you so nicely put it actually pay road tax to drive wherever they want on the road.

It does not sound as you were in danger but maybe you have a bigger private space barrier than the rest of us.

Steve

Panto season has finished but for an encore .........


oh no they don't !!

 

[Matthew_T]

There has been a bit of confusuion here: You state that glanced in your mirror and stopped.

Now I have deduced two things from that:

1. You Stopped immediately, wanting the car to come right up your backside. You did not indicate or shoulder check, just used your mirror which might have lied about the distance of the car.
2. You stopped gradually and yet the car come besides you to have a few words. Still with no signal or shoulder check.

 

[Herzog]

Panto season has finished but for an encore .........


oh no they don't !!

Damn, you got in there before me

 

[fenlandpsychocyclist]

There has been a bit of confusuion here: You state that glanced in your mirror and stopped.

Now I have deduced two things from that:

1. You Stopped immediately, wanting the car to come right up your backside. You did not indicate or shoulder check, just used your mirror which might have lied about the distance of the car.
2. You stopped gradually and yet the car come besides you to have a few words. Still with no signal or shoulder check.

1: incorrect.
2: incorrect.

I moved away from the centre of the lane towards the left, whilst starting to reduce speed down
to about 10mph.

This would have indicated to most drivers that something was "about to happen".

I observed in my mirror the car had moved to the right slightly, meaning she was ready to pass,
BUT she had still kept to that same following distance she had been at for the last 1/2 mile ... about 2-3 meters behind.

A young inexperienced cyclist could do anything, and vehicle drivers should know better than to
follow any cyclist at 2-3 meters. (unless of course the speed is minimal).

Just my little attempt at educating this driver, in the hope she doesn't have a little 8 year old
johnny swerve in front of her in future.

Just for the record i've cycled some big miles, but there have only been three incidences
over the past few months of what i class as "close following" worthy of mentioning.

.... Unlike some who post nearly every day on the subject of motorwrists vs cyclists.

 

[fenlandpsychocyclist]

The "Zombies" are you so nicely put it actually pay road tax to drive wherever they want on the road.

Steve

Yep, its panto season!!!!

I've paid for two lots of V.E.D this year, plus there's the little bit of tax i pay on the petrol for my car. (BMW 740i, 24mpg average ... 8500 miles last year ... yep, i've contributed to my little patch
of the road).

 

[BSRU]

Tailgating seems to becoming more prevalent, I see lots of cars driving a couple of metres behind another car doing 30 or even 40mph.
It seems some people do not understand the concept of a safety gap or the "two second" rule.

 

[BSRU]

The "Zombies" are you so nicely put it actually pay road tax to drive wherever they want on the road.

You are obviously new to this forum/cycling since you have written a blatantly incorrect statement like that.

 

[migrantwing]

You are obviously new to this forum/cycling since you have written a blatantly incorrect statement like that.

Agreed!

 

[akb]

The "Zombies" are you so nicely put it actually pay road tax to drive wherever they want on the road

Uh oh!!

 

[mr_hippo]

I moved away from the centre of the lane towards the left, whilst starting to reduce speed down
to about 10mph.
In your first post you said "I saw a nice bench where i could stop for lunch, and after glancing my mirror and seeing the car was further away from the kerb than myself i did just that ... stopped!" So which one is correct?
Just for the record i've cycled some big miles

Just for the record, I have known people who have been driving for years but I would not get into a car with them

 

[Linford]

It sounds good in theory, but you need to have a bit of metal around you if you are going to do a brake test. I did it about 25 years ago when a car was tailgating me on a dual which had been coned from a dual to a single on the A40 east of Oxford on my motorbike (not a massive stoppie, but from about 40 down to about 25). The car did a massive swerve into the cones and took a few out.

I taught him alright - he was absolutely livid - but it was a reckless and frankly a bloody stupid move on my part as I knew how close he was to me and it would have hurt massively if he punted me off and then ran over me.

Best to hold the primary and slow to about 10mph if you wanted her to pass you IMO.