Spotted somewhere on the other side of the railway bridge in Cambridge yesterday, a shop selling geeky stuff I fancied having a look at, so I cycled down there during my lunch time today.
The railway bridge is single lane in either direction due to the major roadworks down there, and they're NARROW lanes; you physically couldn't have a car and a bike there at the same time with more than a gnats whisker of space, so cyclists using the bridge are for the most part being treated okay there, especially at peak times when there will be three or four cyclists in each direction at a time. In effect, the rate of the traffic there is the rate of the slowest cyclist. However, at lunch time, I was on my own with the cars...
A car came past too close to enter in front of me, and a taxi tried to follow him; I couldn't let him, because I'd have either been squeezed off at the kerb or hit him, it was either stop (and goodness knows what the next vehicle would have done) or keep going, so I held my ground and yelled at him to back off. He did this, and proceded to be right on my arse all the way over the bridge; I slowed on the way down the other side, because the light at the end was red and there was no hurry, and because being rear ended very slowly is better than being rear ended at speed, and, naturally, he rear ended me. Gently, no obvious harm done, but still, rear ended. His excuse? I'd slowed down. Sorry, to be accurate, he said I'd stopped. So its my fault he was driving too close...
Now I've been there before with Plod. "You were rear ended? Were you hurt? How much damage was done? So what do you want us to do about it, you're only a ******* cyclist?" is their normal response (the last thing I reported to the Police I've just lodged a complaint about, because after promising to have words with the taxi driver in a video link I posted here, said incident happening over two months ago, they have done precisely swee FA). Hence that ain't going to work. So I challenged the guy for his contact details, which weren't forthcomingt... so out came the phone camera, which obviously took a good while to warm up, and then multiple pictures... And the taxi driver is resolutely refusing to cooperate, and the cars behind are honking, etc. Basically, the guy tried to bully me off the road, and ended up being delayed and embarrassed by it.
I know, I oughtn't have inconvenienced everyone else, but seriosly, the Police just aren't going to do anything with that, so its either ignore it, or take matters into my own hands. I choose to do the latter, but to be mischievous rather than damaging.
The railway bridge is single lane in either direction due to the major roadworks down there, and they're NARROW lanes; you physically couldn't have a car and a bike there at the same time with more than a gnats whisker of space, so cyclists using the bridge are for the most part being treated okay there, especially at peak times when there will be three or four cyclists in each direction at a time. In effect, the rate of the traffic there is the rate of the slowest cyclist. However, at lunch time, I was on my own with the cars...
A car came past too close to enter in front of me, and a taxi tried to follow him; I couldn't let him, because I'd have either been squeezed off at the kerb or hit him, it was either stop (and goodness knows what the next vehicle would have done) or keep going, so I held my ground and yelled at him to back off. He did this, and proceded to be right on my arse all the way over the bridge; I slowed on the way down the other side, because the light at the end was red and there was no hurry, and because being rear ended very slowly is better than being rear ended at speed, and, naturally, he rear ended me. Gently, no obvious harm done, but still, rear ended. His excuse? I'd slowed down. Sorry, to be accurate, he said I'd stopped. So its my fault he was driving too close...
Now I've been there before with Plod. "You were rear ended? Were you hurt? How much damage was done? So what do you want us to do about it, you're only a ******* cyclist?" is their normal response (the last thing I reported to the Police I've just lodged a complaint about, because after promising to have words with the taxi driver in a video link I posted here, said incident happening over two months ago, they have done precisely swee FA). Hence that ain't going to work. So I challenged the guy for his contact details, which weren't forthcomingt... so out came the phone camera, which obviously took a good while to warm up, and then multiple pictures... And the taxi driver is resolutely refusing to cooperate, and the cars behind are honking, etc. Basically, the guy tried to bully me off the road, and ended up being delayed and embarrassed by it.
I know, I oughtn't have inconvenienced everyone else, but seriosly, the Police just aren't going to do anything with that, so its either ignore it, or take matters into my own hands. I choose to do the latter, but to be mischievous rather than damaging.
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