Is there any way to change the narrative?

[50000tears]

Appologies for casting aspertions on your earier posts - albeit they did look a bit argumwntative, trollish even I'm afraid albeit not your intent. I see whatyou're getting at ie they could move off at any moment -but that said, someone parked up with hazards could be there a considerable time, typically is - else why put hazzards on, and is arguable as likely to reverse (into you) without looking as pull out without looking.

Anyhow, appologies for maligning your motives, although I still think your point is weak (in this case) even if (paraphrasing) "expect people to do something silly" isn't a bad counsel

It seems the key difference here is whether a car should be expected to stay stationary with the hazards on. The answer is clearly yes but I believe is heavily mitigated by the fact that they were part way through an entrance with the rest of the car on the pavement. The car is hardly parked and is in a position where nobody would want to remain for any length of time. So it moving was a real possibility and as it happens in the case it did happen.

I guess the perfect response would be to come alongside the car and tap on the window and ask if she had broken down and needed help. That way she knows you are there and you are effectively asking her to move (if she can) whilst coming across as a concerned passer by.

Hindsight is king though.

 

[glenn forger]

The car is hardly parked

It's in Hazard Light Limbo. That's why they're called Park Anywhere Lights. If your Hazard Lights are on everyone has to lie down and be quiet until you've finished.

 

[summerdays]

I saw a car parked on a residential street at 90 deg to the kerb (pointing towards a driveway that already had a car in it), ok I knew it was going nowhere (nobody in it), but it stayed that way with cars having to drive around it for the 10 mins I was chatting to a friend. Sometimes I wonder what goes through someone's head that they think that is ok even for a second!

 

[Pale Rider]

And an entire bowls club membership hurling abuse.

Wish I was there - abusive crinklies could be a Monty Python sketch.

 

[summerdays]

A company doing renovations on a house near me have parked their Transit van like that every day for a couple of weeks.

Wow unbelievable!

At that point I would have contacted the local PCSO for that area, he's often ticketing cars parked badly on his beat, it wouldn't have lasted the week! Unfortunately he seems to be the only one who seems to be active in dealing with bad parking but I couldn't be bothered for this hopefully short obstruction.

 

[jefmcg]

And an entire bowls club membership hurling abuse.

This is the crux. She had a near miss with a car, and her brain for flooded with adrenaline and other neurotransmitters, ready for flight or fight. Then immediately afterwards, before she could file it away as "nothing major" or "lesson learnt" or however she was going to deal with it, while she was still reeling from that brief "is this how I am going to die?" moment, a person wholly uninvolved with the previous incident launched into a fierce attack on her for nearly being killed. A different personality might have responded to that toxic combination of brain chemistry and abuse with physical violence. I could imagine someone punching that man in the nose, and probably going to court for it. @Sara_H, bless her, bottled up her reaction, and it was still worrying at her hours/days later.

This is a classic case of not being able to change the situation, just how you react to it. Try to remember he is an old, angry man. He's probably lonely and he'll be dead soon. See if that cheers you up.

 

[glenn forger]

Maybe she could play with some kittens?

 

[Sara_H]

Maybe she could play with some kittens?

Who me? I prefer puppies.

 

[Hitchington]

Objectivism. In contemporary Britain we are told that we are individuals who must provide for ourselves and our families and that anyone who can't are scroungers taking from "hard working families" blah, blah, etc, etc...
Wrongly, our success and wealth is measured on material and financial gain.
In some situations (like sharing road space) it appears that society has forgotten common values of decency, respect, empathy, community and the wealth of kindness. It's still there but spread thinly on the ground.
The conflicts which arise between car drivers and cyclists are a symptom of this overall problem. It took an event like 2012 London Olympics where society collectively owned the interest in cycling and the successes of our track and road teams for politeness and kindness to appear on the roads. This lasted a few weeks, then when the party was over it seems that everyone went back to their snarling angry selves; car driver v cyclist, taxi driver v motorcycle, bus v lorry, cyclist v pedestrian ....

 

[glenn forger]

Sometimes I feel like saying to a driver "Get to know me and you may hate me. At the moment you don't really hate me, you've been conditioned to hate people like me". So it's not just the defensiveness of people caught wrong-doing, it's the Pavlovian bile and aggression toward someone cos they happen to be on a bike. Much harder to cope with.

 

[Lemond]

Yet to find a driver that hates me or wants to do me harm.

 

[glenn forger]

Yet to find a driver that hates me or wants to do me harm.

You've been shown examples of people wishing death upon cyclists and you dismissed it as "hysterical nonsense", so you have been shown examples of this hatred, you just dismiss them for no clear reason.

 

[Lemond]

According to the OP: "If you scratch just a little beneath the surface of most average people in this country there's an absolutely vile hatred of cyclists". Like I said before, hysterical nonsense.

 

[glenn forger]

Yet to find a driver that hates me or wants to do me harm.

Here is where you were shown examples of the hatred directed toward cyclists

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/anyone-know-this-cyclist.180498/page-23

You dismissed them all as "hysterical nonsense" , then you personally abused a blogger who provided more examples, you then disappeared from the thread when the blogger appeared and now here you are a few months later claiming you've never seen the examples in that thread. You're dishonest. You dismiss evidence you disagree with, abuse people you disagree with then lie about what you've read.

 

[Lemond]

If I remember correctly, your blogger friend was also waffling on about how all drivers are out to get us, or some such nonsense. Your "them vs us" schtick is just so boring.