Letting go of riding 'incidents'

[lejogger]

This post is two-fold.

Firstly to get off my chest what could have been a nasty accident this morning, and then secondly to see how everyone deals with and moves on from these things when they happen:

On the commute this morning I was riding straight on through a traffic light controlled cross-roads, probably doing 17-20mph as I was coming off a fast section but had slowed slightly as I approached the junction. As I had crossed the stop line the lights turned to amber but I was already entering into the junction, and it was safe to continue. A couple of seconds later, a souped up vauxhall corsa flies into the junction from straight ahead and attempts to turn right - obviously right through my exact position. I can't be categorically certain that he's come through on red, but it was a dodgy amber at best.

He sees me right at the last minute, when his wheels are already screeching from trying to corner at excessive speed, slams on the brakes hard which causes a skid, and evasive steering from both of us manages to avoid a collision that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have got up from.

Instead of pressing on at the usual pace I pootled for a while to let the adrenaline settle, I'll admit I was a little shaken, but I only had a couple of miles to the office and after a shower and obviously because of getting down to work I didn't really give it much more thought until now.

I'm not worried about the ride home, and something like this will not stop me commuting. I know most of us have minor incidents most weeks when you spend as much time on the road as we do at times in the day when traffic is rushing to work or home again, and on roads that are barely suitable for us all to be together on - so this is nothing new, albeit one of the hairiest incidents yet. I guess we just have to learn from the ones we get away with and use the experience to be safer in the future.

Do you find it easy to let go of anger/anxiety when you've been the victim of an 'incident'?

 

[PocketFrog]

It's something that i'm working on too, I just try to get on with things and learn from it like you say - it's certainly not easy because you want the driver to understand the severity of the situation they've put you in and that's usually what fuels the anger.

Now I just shout if someone needs to know i'm there and just hope that some point in the (hopefully near) future the driver will realise on their own and adjust their habits accordingly.

My big challenge is trying not to react to ignorance... the whole Road Tax/Cycle Lane/Primary position vs Secondary rants get me riled and i'm now realising that no matter how calm you explain your side of the 'argument' you will never win. Best to shake it off and move on.

 

[Jdratcliffe]

agree with pocket frog shake it off and continue i've had a few incidents like this and fine that turning the sat nav/garmin/strava off and taking it slower than normal ( 70-80%) and enjoying the ride chills me down and helps me get over the nerves and shakes that come from this sort of thing.

 

[numbnuts]

That's the good thing about old timers disease, now what was I saying …...Oh yeah two miles down the road I have forgotten about the incident, if you worrying about it, it's time to get off the road.

 

[HLaB]

I've had a couple of close ones and after a quick analysis what could I have done, or I must have been positioned right or I'd been dead, etc I like to move on fast; its a bit easier (if thats the right term ) since I lost a mate in a cycling accident (no cars involved) a year and a half ago I've realised there's more to life!

 

[glenn forger]

Don't let them live in your head rent-free.

 

[Arjimlad]

An act of kindness by you or by another driver towards you can deflect the anger/stress.

 

[lejogger]

I guess it's these incidents which shape us as cyclists, and explains why so many of the old codgers I cycle with seem to have a 6th sense for what's going to happen... They've been there, seen it all before and learned from the experiences.

I started enjoying my cycling so much more when I started to assume that everyone's an idiot and if it looks like there's the potential for a motorist to do something dangerous you should expect them to - so you're more prepared.

I'm sure it has, but even if it hasn't prevented any accidents, at least it's kept me a lot calmer because if you expect everyone to do something ridiculous it's far less surprising and stressful when they do!

There's no place for dwelling on the what-ifs or we'd forever be wondering what might happen and never do anything but sit on the sofa and watch corrie.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Don't let them live in your head rent-free.

I always try and ride well and try and stop most of the minor incidents happening, if I have a minor incident I dont dwell on it and just carry on riding, a major incident though can unsettle even a highly experienced cyclist, so if I've had an incident and find I cant settle down and put it out of my mind I'll wait till I get home then use what I learnt when I was doing Yoga to calm myself down and put it out of my mind.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

An act of kindness by you or by another driver towards you can deflect the anger/stress.

Its one of the things I enjoy when I'm cycling, interacting with the drivers around me to the benefit of both of us, as you say spreading the good Karma balances out the bad Karma.

 

[BSRU]

An act of kindness by you or by another driver towards you can deflect the anger/stress.

I usually always kind to drivers, I mean their stuck in their boring metal boxes

 

[Hip Priest]

I find such incidents quite upsetting. Losing my cool used to make it worse, because there's be shame, embarrassment and remorse thrown into the mix. So now I try to keep calm at all times, and forget the near misses.

 

[Davidsw8]

This post is two-fold.

Firstly to get off my chest what could have been a nasty accident this morning, and then secondly to see how everyone deals with and moves on from these things when they happen:

On the commute this morning I was riding straight on through a traffic light controlled cross-roads, probably doing 17-20mph as I was coming off a fast section but had slowed slightly as I approached the junction. As I had crossed the stop line the lights turned to amber but I was already entering into the junction, and it was safe to continue. A couple of seconds later, a souped up vauxhall corsa flies into the junction from straight ahead and attempts to turn right - obviously right through my exact position. I can't be categorically certain that he's come through on red, but it was a dodgy amber at best.

He sees me right at the last minute, when his wheels are already screeching from trying to corner at excessive speed, slams on the brakes hard which causes a skid, and evasive steering from both of us manages to avoid a collision that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have got up from.

Instead of pressing on at the usual pace I pootled for a while to let the adrenaline settle, I'll admit I was a little shaken, but I only had a couple of miles to the office and after a shower and obviously because of getting down to work I didn't really give it much more thought until now.

I'm not worried about the ride home, and something like this will not stop me commuting. I know most of us have minor incidents most weeks when you spend as much time on the road as we do at times in the day when traffic is rushing to work or home again, and on roads that are barely suitable for us all to be together on - so this is nothing new, albeit one of the hairiest incidents yet. I guess we just have to learn from the ones we get away with and use the experience to be safer in the future.

Do you find it easy to let go of anger/anxiety when you've been the victim of an 'incident'?

I'm glad you got out of your incident in one piece.

I totally understand where you're coming from in terms of letting things go. I've been commuter cycling regularly for 18 months and I still have problems with this but it's definitely getting better. I come across idiot motorists, cyclists and peds every time I get on the bike (to a lesser or greater degree) and I think the best piece of advice for me is 'Choose your battles'.

99% of the idiots you come across are just selfish or stupid and pose no real immediate threat to your safety. That their continued selfishness/stupidity will probably harm themselves or someone else is something you either have to forget or do something about. If you want to do something about it, get yourself a camera and report them. If you don't want to do that, then just put it down to experience.

For the 1% that are real dangers, they do need to be reported, don't deal with something yourself (unless someone has collided with you or assaulted you).

I found getting my helmet camera enabled me to feel that I had some control and a choice about whether to deal with things or not and that helps me to let things go.

 

[Leodis]

I caused a self inflicted left hook yesterday, what did I do? Did i sit around moaning, did I cry like a baby? No I went out and killed my bike.

Hope you are ok, I found the shock of it tough. My advice is don't fiddle with things that don't need mending.

 

[Matthew_T]

I dont like to dwell on the past. It stresses me out too much.

I will happily watch my videos of near misses over again but I hate watching things when there is someone getting out of the car or purposefully trying to knock me off. If I upload something to YT, I will go onto the comments section but not actually watch the video again.