Small victory

[skwerl]

This morning on Holburn Viaduct/Newgate St. EC, heading East:
WVM gets flashed through gap in traffic, into side street. I'm in cycle lane but he goes for it anyway (hell - I'm only a cyclist after all). I stop just in time, muttering something at him. He's done a U-turn to park up and takes offence at my muttering. He goes ape, every other word is f**k and basically says I should look where I'm going; he was turning right so it can't be his fault, etc. I point out there's two lanes, one for cars plus a cycle lane. More effing and blinding and I'm seriously annoyed by this ignorant git by now so I don't give in.
As luck would have it he'd parked on double-yellows about 50 yards from Snow Hill police station. I pop in and ask the desk Sergeant if he can do anything. Just then a squad car arrives at the station and one of the PCs is asked to have a chat with me. I tell him what happened but WVM has disappeared down an alley with a delivery. Just as I'm giving a description he re-appears and just as he sees me I point at him and say, "that's him". The PC goes and has a long chat with him then returns to tell me that the WVM recounted the incident exactly as I had, so he wasn't hiding anything but really believed he had done no wrong. PC gave him a bollocking, explained highway code etc, that bicycles are vehicles and just cos you're flashed across etc., etc.

So, result. Immediate bollocking for shitty driving.

I felt a bit bad when the desk sergeant said he wasn't sure anyone would be available as there'd been a suicide in the Thames earlier that morning. S'pose it puts my moaning cyclist behaviour into perspective but I've had enough of drivers using abuse to cover for their crappy behaviour.

 

[BentMikey]

Nice to see some immediate karma being handed out like that. Well done you for sticking to your guns!!!

 

[spen666]

...
I felt a bit bad when the desk sergeant said he wasn't sure anyone would be available as there'd been a suicide in the Thames earlier that morning. S'pose it puts my moaning cyclist behaviour into perspective but I've had enough of drivers using abuse to cover for their crappy behaviour.

That's no excuse- the deceased wouldn't be going too far or need urgent police assistance

 

[ChrisW]

Brilliant ...well done!

 

[spen666]

...and aren't there a couple of bodies pulled out of the Thames every week?

I don't know. Is it as many as that? Sad to think it may be true

 

[Wobbles]

Yesssssssss!


How perfect was that! So nice to think that he's been made to made to stand still and listen to the rules of the road being explained to him!

How many times have we all wished for that?

Small victory??........Nah - Major triumph

 

[buggi]

I felt a bit bad when the desk sergeant said he wasn't sure anyone would be available as there'd been a suicide in the Thames earlier that morning. S'pose it puts my moaning cyclist behaviour into perspective but I've had enough of drivers using abuse to cover for their crappy behaviour.

and... if they were available they would be preventing another death (which wouldn't be of your own doing) so, yes, i agree, naff excuse

 

[Twenty Inch]

Well done. What Wobbles said.

 

[PBancroft]

That's good news, and speaks volumes.

I honestly don't think that most people are bad drivers, but the ones that are don't realise that they are doing anything wrong. Sure, there are exceptions to that, but I reckon in a similar situation most people would do as your WVM did...and recount it exactly as it happened with a smug grin on their face.

Sadly that's true for a number of cyclists too. The Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid.

 

[bonj2]

Good result. Just a tip, though - don't fall for officialdom wheeling out the sob stories. Not wanting to cast cynicism on the victim* if it's true, but "sorry we've had a suicide in the thames" sounds like a textbook line designed to get you to go away without feeling aggrieved at being asked to do so. Hospitals are exactly the same: "we can't see you today, we've got lots of cancer patients to deal with."
As far as he's concerned, it's the difference between you going home feeling like a bit of a whinging cyclist who should be glad he managed to get a bollocking administered, and a militant cyclist who only managed to get a bollocking administered. Job done.

*is 'victim' the right word in the case of a suicide?

 

[magnatom]

Hospitals are exactly the same: "we can't see you today, we've got lots of cancer patients to deal with."

You really do talk a pile of horse manure don't you bonj?

Well done to the OP!!

 

[col]

I was expecting something to happen with him parking on double yellows,that would have been icing on the cake

 

[bonj2]

Please give the name of just one person who has experienced this.

Me.

 

[bonj2]

Riiiigggghhhhtttt.

So you rocked up at the hospital and they told you that they couldn't see you because they had too many cancer patients to treat.

Now describe what really happened.

Basically I was booked in for an appointment, and they rang me up to say sorry, we're postponing your appointment by about a month. I wasn't really too happy with this, as I'd already taken the day off work, so I must admit I voiced my discontentment with their efficiency down the phone, and their tactic in palming me off and deflecting my rant was to claim they had lots of cancer patients to see instead.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting cancer patients shouldn't get priority or making light of it, and I have complete sympathy with anyone who has got cancer; and this was reflected in my acceptance of the reason they were postponing, but I do think that wheeling out sob stories does tend to be a tactic the public sector often reaches for all to easily as an excuse for inefficiency.

 

[Tynan]

good man