Lazy-Commuter
New Member
- Location
- Bottom Right Corner
On my way home last night, I was going along a wide-ish road through a housing estate. It's the "main" road through the estate with all the roads with houses radiating off of it, so it is plenty wide enough and sort of sweeps about a bit.
I was going slightly up-hill, sweeping right, in a fairly strong secondary-and-a-bit: the road tends to not have much traffic at the times I use it, but there can be plenty of ninja peds walking their stealth dogs so I stay a fair bit away from the path.
There was nothing behind me, but there was a car - well, a small van actually, a Fiesta Van?* - coming the other way. No problem, although he was quite out in the middle of the road but that's not unusual there 'cos the road was about to sweep left for me, and most do that lazy steering thing where they straighten the bend: as he was about to go round the bend I'd just done I was expecting him to swing back to his kerb.
Only he didn't. He kept coming straight at me. I couldn't quite believe it, at first, but then I started looking for escape routes. I waited until he got closer and then swerved towards the kerb in a last minute kind of way, while he followed an arc that took him quite close to me: kind of roof slapping close had he been overtaking me. It would have been a whole lot closer had I not swerved.
I was well lit: two Cateyes up front, one flashing, one steady, plus my jacket is nice and bright with reflectives. And I have further reflective tape stuck in various places on the bike. So I should have been visible.
Course, he might have been sending a text, or changing the CD, or playing with his satnav, or any one of the other things that people do but he didn't do a big swerve at the last minute in a "oh s**t I'm on the wrong side of the road and there's a corner" kind of way.
So was it deliberate? It sounds paranoid, but with hindsight the smooth arc he took seemed planned to get as close as possible to me in a "I'll s**t that bikist up fer a bit of a larf innit" style. And I did have a similar run-in a few months ago at a mini-roundabout about 200 yards up the road where a small van turning into the road I was on last night went over the top of the roundabout and came at me.
That first time, the driver and passenger were laughing .. though that could have been something on the radio or a joke of course, so I'd assumed they'd just not seen me / been paying attention. I couldnt see the driver last night: I was blinded by his badly adjusted headlights.
Course, I stopped both times and looked back for a registration number / company name. Each time, the van was unmarked .. the first time they were out of sight by the time I looked back and last night - wouldn't you know it!
- the lights on the number plate weren't working. 
So it seems that on that estate, there's a bloke (or blokes) who are either incredibly inattentive or who think(s) it's high humour to drive at cyclists.
I'll be keeping a watch out: the van last night had a very distinctive (knackered) engine sound so that is a clue at least.
And then this morning, the p fairy paid me a visit on the way in.
* Can you get such a thing? It was a van, but about Fiesta sized.
I was going slightly up-hill, sweeping right, in a fairly strong secondary-and-a-bit: the road tends to not have much traffic at the times I use it, but there can be plenty of ninja peds walking their stealth dogs so I stay a fair bit away from the path.
There was nothing behind me, but there was a car - well, a small van actually, a Fiesta Van?* - coming the other way. No problem, although he was quite out in the middle of the road but that's not unusual there 'cos the road was about to sweep left for me, and most do that lazy steering thing where they straighten the bend: as he was about to go round the bend I'd just done I was expecting him to swing back to his kerb.
Only he didn't. He kept coming straight at me. I couldn't quite believe it, at first, but then I started looking for escape routes. I waited until he got closer and then swerved towards the kerb in a last minute kind of way, while he followed an arc that took him quite close to me: kind of roof slapping close had he been overtaking me. It would have been a whole lot closer had I not swerved.
I was well lit: two Cateyes up front, one flashing, one steady, plus my jacket is nice and bright with reflectives. And I have further reflective tape stuck in various places on the bike. So I should have been visible.
Course, he might have been sending a text, or changing the CD, or playing with his satnav, or any one of the other things that people do but he didn't do a big swerve at the last minute in a "oh s**t I'm on the wrong side of the road and there's a corner" kind of way.
So was it deliberate? It sounds paranoid, but with hindsight the smooth arc he took seemed planned to get as close as possible to me in a "I'll s**t that bikist up fer a bit of a larf innit" style. And I did have a similar run-in a few months ago at a mini-roundabout about 200 yards up the road where a small van turning into the road I was on last night went over the top of the roundabout and came at me.
That first time, the driver and passenger were laughing .. though that could have been something on the radio or a joke of course, so I'd assumed they'd just not seen me / been paying attention. I couldnt see the driver last night: I was blinded by his badly adjusted headlights.
Course, I stopped both times and looked back for a registration number / company name. Each time, the van was unmarked .. the first time they were out of sight by the time I looked back and last night - wouldn't you know it!
- the lights on the number plate weren't working. So it seems that on that estate, there's a bloke (or blokes) who are either incredibly inattentive or who think(s) it's high humour to drive at cyclists.
I'll be keeping a watch out: the van last night had a very distinctive (knackered) engine sound so that is a clue at least.And then this morning, the p fairy paid me a visit on the way in.
* Can you get such a thing? It was a van, but about Fiesta sized.
