"Somehow I got too close to him..."

[oldroadman]

Has anyone reading this had the experience of waiting behind a bike when driving for a safe overtake when a proper (I recall the Eddy Merckx comment - when passing give a rider space to fall off) gap - 2 metres or so - is available. Then chummy behind is all over the back bumper hooting, gesticulating the usual self-abuser sign, pushing to "make progress" and getting fed up being slowed for a few seconds. Inevitably after the safe overtake they seem to skim the rider and at the first opportunity rush past other vehicles. It's a world of "me first and stuff the rest" ever since the loadsofmoney boys and girls of the 80's and 90's were seen as heroes by certain politicians. despite getting a bit older I'm glad I grew up and started riding when things were generally a bit better mannered and safer.

 

[mickle]

View attachment 148988

Wow, that's primary and then some!

 

[briantrumpet]

Wow, that's primary and then some!

Oh dear - I do enough riding in France that I wondered what you were on about for a few moments...

 

[Pale Rider]

Has anyone reading this had the experience of waiting behind a bike when driving for a safe overtake when a proper (I recall the Eddy Merckx comment - when passing give a rider space to fall off) gap - 2 metres or so - is available. Then chummy behind is all over the back bumper hooting, gesticulating the usual self-abuser sign, pushing to "make progress" and getting fed up being slowed for a few seconds. Inevitably after the safe overtake they seem to skim the rider and at the first opportunity rush past other vehicles. It's a world of "me first and stuff the rest" ever since the loadsofmoney boys and girls of the 80's and 90's were seen as heroes by certain politicians. despite getting a bit older I'm glad I grew up and started riding when things were generally a bit better mannered and safer.

Sad but true.

I've never been badly boosted on a bike, but when following one in my car I have been bollocked by the driver behind for leaving too much space and for not squeezing past the cyclist.

 

[TrishE]

I was riding along with panniers, camping gear, pip in the front basket and Bonnie trotting alongside (on a cycling/jogging lead attached to my waist) lots of cars overtaking giving plenty of room when a woman driver beeped behind, Bonnie jumped out of her skin but is used to traffic so kept going....she then stopped ahead and said where was I going she would take the dogs for me, very insistant and she had previously stopped going the opposite way and said the same thing and I'd said no thank you. I wasn't so polite the second time.

As if I'd hand my dogs over and wave them off

 

[Tin Pot]

How does a citizen complain to the justice system?

 

[briantrumpet]

How does a citizen complain to the justice system?

With difficulty, as 'the justice system' has so many parts.

At the moment the practical outcomes are sending entirely the wrong message to people driving potentially lethal modes of transport, so it's really in the hands of the politicians who can shift laws and sentencing guidelines to make adjustments, whether in the laws themselves, or in sentencing guidelines. The message at the moment is that it's relatively OK to kill with your car through inattention.

 

[briantrumpet]

Although it has to have the potential to have a substantive material effect on the outcome for it to be perjury - not every lie under oath is considered perjury.

Quite so, otherwise the whole process would grind to a halt. But blatantly lying about one's occupation to get leniency I would imagine would not be so readily overlooked by a judge.

 

[mjr]

Has anyone reading this had the experience of waiting behind a bike when driving for a safe overtake when a proper (I recall the Eddy Merckx comment - when passing give a rider space to fall off) gap - 2 metres or so - is available. Then chummy behind is all over the back bumper hooting, gesticulating the usual self-abuser sign, pushing to "make progress" and getting fed up being slowed for a few seconds.

Stop. Get out of car. Point at chummy behind and signal for him to stop. Open boot. Lift boot floor. Remove wheel brace. Close boot. Walk to chummy behind. Smash windscreen with wheel brace. Return to car at a canter and drive off.

Yeah, I know it probably wouldn't end well, one way or another, but I can dream!

 

[Drago]

Or just turn up the stereo and ignore chummy.

 

[wheresthetorch]

One of my favourites when being tailgated is to very obviously move the driver's mirror round to a 90 degree angle, making it obvious I can no longer see them!

 

[DaveReading]

Obviously the Exeter jury are of the anti-cycling brigade

Well not all of them, or they would have been able to return a verdict. They weren't.

 

[ufkacbln]

I can never understand the concept of perjury

On the simplest basis where someone deliberately gives a systematic false testimony then -fine


However in all the cases where someone defends themselves with a lie... why is that not perjury?

 

[Buddfox]

I can never understand the concept of perjury

On the simplest basis where someone deliberately gives a systematic false testimony then -fine


However in all the cases where someone defends themselves with a lie... why is that not perjury?

Common sense? Unless we are expecting all guilty defendants to just 'fess up at the start of the case, then we can presume at some point they are lying. Wasting a bunch of money for a perjury prosecution to add a few months to someone's sentence is not going to act as a deterrent on this, I wouldn't have thought.

 

[raleighnut]

Common sense? Unless we are expecting all guilty defendants to just 'fess up at the start of the case, then we can presume at some point they are lying. Wasting a bunch of money for a perjury prosecution to add a few months to someone's sentence is not going to act as a deterrent on this, I wouldn't have thought.

I think they add that bit on for pleading 'not guilty', people do seem to get a lighter sentence if they plead guilty at the start.