My first truly scary experience

[e-rider]

I would have taken the reg number and reported the incident to the police. If this happened to me I'd have just stopped and beaten the shoot out of him! however, I know not everyone is in the position to do that or don't agree with violence (which I don't but I can make exceptions)

A good point about removing road shoes first though - those cleats don't provide a good stable platform for swinging a punch!

The ever growing number of motorists that seem to really hate cyclists is worrying though. The smallest thing can trigger total rage.

 

[HLaB]

There's been a few bad reactions to taps on this forum recently, I think theclaud above links to them. I've only done it once (a tap that is) and it was tooken how it was meant to be understood (Help, I'm here don't squish me). I was in a two lane road (a bus lane and regular lane) a hgv overtook in the normal lane but at the bend the bus lane ends and they started to drift in to undertake queing traffic. Faced with railings to my left I decided to let him know I was there he reacted well to that.

 

[PJ79LIZARD]

I've had a few incidents recently, one guy drove me into the gutter whilst on the inside if him doing 30 on a wide road, I really would of stopped and confronted him, he could of killed me as I hit a sunken drain! Having look cleats on stopped me as I knew I wouldnt have been able to stand up like others said, that's why I've changed my pedals on my commuter to spd, and using spd mountain bike shoes with the cleat resessed. Much easier to stand up on!

 

[wesa]

I bet he is normally a really nice man!

I had a run in a while back and after a lot of advice on here I reported it to the Police. I was about to call 999 at the scene but the driver vanished as soon as he realised I had a phone. Even with only three digits from the reg the Police seemed genuinely interested; they did advise that in that situation again, even if the driver leaves, get onto to 999 (yes I know it is 112 from a mobile but I still think of it at 999)

I didn't appreciate it at the time but it made me feel a lot better knowing that if 'my' idiot killed someone in the future I had done everything possible to prevent it.

In years gone by I used to tap cars that got too close and on several occasions they got a water bottle hurled after them, once in a while it would hit them). I never got grief from the driver, they either got their right foot down or apologised. At the time I put it down to being 6'3", 16stone, fit and warmed up but that doesn't seem to apply now.

Why do we have to worry about offending people who through action or ignorance persist in trying to kill us!

 

[Arfcollins]

Typical BMW tosser.

Don't know if it's the same in the UK, but here it appears that all BMW drivers are retarded.

Rather a sweeping and pointless generalisation, a bit like saying all Rockhopper riders are lacking in the noodle department.

 

[campbellab]

Police! you have 2 other witnesses

 

[Bollo]

Hello Mr Cheese! (from the shiny show?)

Horrible experience and you should do all you can to get this tosspot into trouble, but don't let this experience put you off. Despite all the tales of woe, cycling is still a reasonably safe way to get around and such encounters are rare (unless you're Crankarm - Cranky is cursed).

 

[Tynan]

this one is easy, touch a lot of drivers' cars and you may as well slap them i the face, that simple

 

[400bhp]

To stop doing what you did isn't the answer.

This type of turd would have done the same whether you beeped your horn whilst in another vehicle, picked your nose and it was mistaken for the middle finger or dared to have a faster can than yaow.

It seems clear from his reaction that he knew exactly that he drove far too close, otherwise he would have had a wtf moment and would have only surmised you touched his car.

Being right at the bottom of the food chain in the road pecking order you have to impose yourself.

 

[Simba]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

I am not one for confrontation (I think it's an allergy!) so I'll not use the tap on the car wing technique in future.

Many good points about not carrying on with the car behind me, but with the adrenalin pumping I suppose I wasn't really thinking, although I did have my wife and dad to worry about, neither of whom are strong cyclists.



Yes, it was dropping down from High Crompton into Rochdale. It was a very flashy BMW in white, so not easy to miss!

You got a location on google street view? I will look out for this nutter when I get back on the bike.

 

[Andrew_P]

I have found in the past that these situations escalate to this situation when the tosser thinks they have you on the run and scared, most of the time standing up to them or taking over the agressive stance they will back down or get back in the car shouting expletives, only once has it back fired and that was in the eighties when 4 builders piled out the back of the transit van!

The last time it happend to me on the Bike, I realised that I am vulnerable if they do not let me take control, I cannot out run them and I do not have a protective shell to retreat to, my taking over the agression worked luckily but it did bring on a sense of vulnerabilty, so I try and avoid it now and ignore the turds as much as possible. What I realised was the sense of wow I really am going to have to stand and fight if he wants to, it felt genuniely like I had no choice, which felt pretty strange to be honest.

I would report it to the plod if you have reg details, but I doubt they will do much other than play lip service.

 

[beanzontoast]

An unnerving experience.

You can never know what frame of mind a motorist is in - your action in tapping the car might be the thing that just sends them over the edge of what's reasonable behaviour - so the expedient thing to do is not to deliberately make contact with the vehicle. If you feel your safety has been compromised to a severe extent, you could note the registration and inform the police.

Close overtakes are relatively common and not easy to deal with - you only have to read the forum to see the number of posts that mention the subject, and not all turn out well. I doubt there's a cyclist here who hasn't had experience of this several times.

 

[cd365]

JoysofSight has it right, "it was your fault, you hit me cutting back in", stop and ask them for their insurance details, pull your phone out and tell them you have to report it to the police, they will soon back down! Well I'd like to hope so.

I would normally be in the "attack them first and hard" camp but not everyone has that in them, so scaring them into thinking that you will claim against their insurance and will be contacting the police will put, in my opinion, 95% of people off.

 

[Jezston]

Mr Cheese:

Can we please get some confirmation that you have gone to the police about this? One of you at least must have got his reg, right? You have three witnesses - if that's not enough to press charges it is at least enough for him to receive a rather humiliating visit from the old bill.

Please if you are going to post such stories we need to know that you are following it up. It's not fair to put the wind up us by telling such a story, but not being prepared to tell the same story to the people who's job it is to protect us from such incidents.

 

[661-Pete]

Nasty experience. Hopefully it won't happen again to you.

I don't think I've ever tapped a car, and I suppose it depends on the driver. Think - those of you who are motorists, how would you react if some other person touched your car? If it was just a slap - not a punch that causes a dent, I mean? Of course I wouldn't react - and I hope, nor would 99% of other drivers. What affects the temperament of some behind the wheel, beats me.

However even a shout can trigger something. Witness some videos posted on this forum! I have had that: drivers stop and become somewhat threatening after I've shouted at them (I back off if that happens).

But sometimes it goes all right. Last night I had an oncoming car, overtaking a parked car on their side, drive almost straight at me. I had to swerve into the gutter. I yelled back something like "&%$@# *&%#! How much space do you call that?" at the top of my voice. My voice must have carried and the window must have been open, because from the car (by now stopped at traffic lights) a female voice apologetically called out "Sorry!". This time I thought it was sincere. I left it at that. Hopefully, lesson learnt.