Mis-directed anger in Brum

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
Bizarre incident yesterday morning. I see a guy cycling in who I've seen a number of times before (this is unusual in brum!), but he never returns my 'morning!' because he cycles with a whistle in his mouth (!).

Get to a busy junction with the outer ring road where there is always traffic and a bus lane disappears meaning the road narrows into two lanes. I've slowed down to filter carefully between the two lanes behind a motorbike. He bombs along in the gutter whilst a taxi slowly moves over to stay in the left lane after merging with the bus lane. Screach of brakes, the cyclist declares the taxi driver a "f***ing twat" and comes round to the drivers side to tell him to look in his mirrors.
I'm absolutely flabbergasted at this point and just said, "mate - you were undertaking!" at which point he rode off.

This guy is wearing lycra shorts, a luminous yellow waterproof jacket and a helmet.......

F**kwit. I wish I'd pulled him up 'cos the daft bugger will get in a bloody accident the way he's going but I was just too astonished at his attitude that he was totally in the right!
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Did the taxi driver see your reaction? If so, that may go some way to persuading him that not all cyclists are like that...

You could try riding up behind him one day, with an airzound....
 

Maz

Guru
Arch said:
Did the taxi driver see your reaction? If so, that may go some way to persuading him that not all cyclists are like that...

You could try riding up behind him one day, with an airzound....
...he'd end up swallowing his whistle like Wheezy the penguin from Toy Story.
 
OP
OP
G

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
I just looked at the cab driver (elderly guy who seemed not to care) and shrugged my shoulders.

The response just really took me by surprise as he was a middle aged bloke, the type you can picture driving a silver Audi and yet he seemed to think that drivers have some duty of care to undertaking cyclists approaching from their blind spots.

Ah well, on a positive note, a car overtook me with 1" to spare (if that!) the night before - I caught up and just told him calmly that was 'a bit scary' and I needed more room. He apologised and we both waved each other off.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
if the lanes merged then both vehicles are responsible I'd have thought

and if the cab didn't see the bike then he's largely to blame
 

CotterPin

Senior Member
Location
London
See this quite a lot, I am afraid - the holier than thou cyclist who thinks everyone else should be looking out for them.

There was one this morning coming through the City of London, effing and blinding at every car that was in his way and every pedestrian that tried to cross the road, as he trundled through all the red lights.

Part of me is grateful that he is a cyclist. Think how much more damage he could do behind the wheel of a car!
 
OP
OP
G

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
Tynan said:
if the lanes merged then both vehicles are responsible I'd have thought

and if the cab didn't see the bike then he's largely to blame

Lets just say that the cab had 90% merged and only moved over about a foot and at about 5 mph....
 
Location
Herts
Tynan said:
if the lanes merged then both vehicles are responsible I'd have thought

and if the cab didn't see the bike then he's largely to blame

WHY?

and the bike bombs along in the gutter

]a taxi slowly moves over to [B]stay[/B said:
in the left lane
[/B]


Graham was there and saw what happened. The taxi was in front, the bike came from inside behind. The only reason for your nonsense is that the taxi had 4 wheels.
 
John Ponting said:
WHY?





Graham was there and saw what happened. The taxi was in front, the bike came from inside behind. The only reason for your nonsense is that the taxi had 4 wheels.


Wrong. You need to check your mirrors before you perform a manouevre. I also drive a car. I wouldn't move off my line of travel without checking that it's safe to do so - this is basic good driving.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
I didn't say anyone was in the wrong

I did say IF the driver hadn't seen the cyclist while 'taking' a lane as part of a merge than he was at least in part to blame

And of course I didn't see it, none of us other than the OP did, we can only surmise from what we were given which wasn't much

If a cyclist is making progress in secondary and a car blocks his route, especially unknowingly then the cyclist has some right to be aggrieved surely?
 
Top Bottom