Sorry guys, I have done it again.

[Matthew_T]

Had an incident with a driver I mean.

Centre of a busy town in heavy traffic, I pull up to some traffic lights behind one car. The lights change and I head off, I move into the left lane (one way system) and hear a beep from behind me. I see a silvert BMW right up my backside.
I stop at the next set of lights (only just), turn around and he is pointing at me and doing the w*nker sign. I look at him for a bit and then say "I am a self-gratification artist?", he nods. So I say "Oh okay then, good to know" and put my thumbe up.
The lights change and I move over to the right as i pass a parked car on the right. The road is now big enough for him to pass but he doesnt do so without another blast on the horn and a friendly "self-gratification artist!" shouted at me. I simply toot the airzound.

Around the corner he is inevitably held up by more traffic lights and he is in the left turn lane and I am in the right. The lights change before I get to them but he doesnt move. As I approach, I feel the need to give him some of his own medicine (wrong move).
He quickly turns right and follows me, cutting up a van in the process. He pulls along side me and forces me into some parked cars on the left. So I stop and he starts getting out.

I didnt like how this situation was panning out so I didnt hang around. I hopped on the path and knew that there was a police station just up the road so headed for that.

As I am on the path, the driver pulls along side me and says "what the f*ck did you call me a w*nker for?". Me: "because you are one".

I then reach the police station and head inside, not before remebering that I had him on camera so I made sure I got his face.


I go in and the lady at the counter was very helpful and it allowed me to calm down. She explains that I need to call 101 to report it. As I am leaving, guess who turns up! He comes in and says to the receptionist "this prick needs to learn how to ride a bike", receptionist: "So you are the driver".
That is all I heard, I decided to make a quick getaway as he was held up in the police station. I do not know what happened after that but after I finish sorting out the video, I will post it up and report the incident straight away.


Now I know I did some things wrong (shout at him), but I was in a cheery mood before and now he has spoilt my day. I will be pursuing the incident and ensuring the police know how irrisponsible his attitude and driving was.
Sorry to all those cyclists who I have let down.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Since getting a BMW I've been in a few waiting areas in showrooms. Some people think that badge entitles them to treat anyone as they like.
Now I know why the staff like me - I'm not a to$$er like half the owners they deal with!

 

[G-Zero]

Sorry to all those cyclists who I have let down.

Matt,

Irrespective of who is in the wrong, or who has the moral high ground, once again when reading one of your posts, I can't help but think that it's only a matter of time before you get hurt.

By all means report those incidents that need reporting, but don't get so involved, otherwise I fear there will be someone putting up a "Has Anyone Heard From MatthewT" type post up some time soon.

 

[Rancid]

The bloke sounds like a tool.
But let face it the roads are full of tools, in car/trucks and on bikes and not forggeting the tools on feet who can just as absent minded.

The only thing you can do is avoid being a tool yourself and let the rest of them get on with it.

 

[400bhp]

Had an incident with a driver I mean.


I go in and the lady at the counter was very helpful and it allowed me to calm down. She explains that I need to call 101 to report it. As I am leaving, guess who turns up! He comes in and says to the receptionist "this prick needs to learn how to ride a bike", receptionist: "So you are the driver".
That is all I heard, I decided to make a quick getaway as he was held up in the police station. I do not know what happened after that but after I finish sorting out the video, I will post it up and report the incident straight away.

Why are you posting up the video here??

In my eyes, you have everything skewed.

Your story is a little confusing, but it appears you went into the police station to report the incident, at which point the driver somes in-they you leave sharpish. Why??

And, you should be concentrating on reporting the incident to the police, not worrying about posting on here.

 

[Matthew_T]

Why are you posting up the video here??

In my eyes, you have everything skewed.

Your story is a little confusing, but it appears you went into the police station to report the incident, at which point the driver somes in-they you leave sharpish. Why??

And, you should be concentrating on reporting the incident to the police, not worrying about posting on here.

Sorry, I will clear that up.

I went into the police station for a place of zen. I was intending to report it there but the nice lady at the desk convinced me otherwise (she didnt say that). I was leaving when the driver entered. I was not up to having an arguement in a police station so allowed him to exert his frustration at the receptionist.

Now I am home, I have realised that the receptionist was my neighbour. I knew she was a police officer but didnt know she worked in there.

I am going to post the video up here so that people can comment on the situation and give me goo advice. I dont want to start another "Matthew_T giving sh*t to drivers post".

 

[400bhp]

Sorry, I will clear that up.


I am going to post the video up here so that people can comment on the situation and give me goo advice. I dont want to start another "Matthew_T giving sh*t to drivers post".

Look, you don't know what the driver has said to the police. Given that your neighbour is a police officer and knows the particular situation then you need to be doing something about it. Forget about posting here until you have cleared the matter up with the police.

 

[Matthew_T]

Look, you don't know what the driver has said to the police. Given that your neighbour is a police officer and knows the particular situation then you need to be doing something about it. Forget about posting here until you have cleared the matter up with the police.

Okay then. It is going to take too clong to upload it anyway. Youtube seems to be working slowly.

 

[snorri]

I went into the police station for a place of zen.

I thought I'd had my full quota of laughs for the day, but it just shows you, CC comes up trumps again.

 

[potsy]

Around the corner he is inevitably held up by more traffic lights and he is in the left turn lane and I am in the right. The lights change before I get to them but he doesnt move. As I approach, I feel the need to give him some of his own medicine (wrong move).

While understandable, this is what people have been trying to get you not to do.
If you have an incident on camera, then use that to report it, confronting drivers as often as you do will only end one way in the long run.
Friendly, patronising wave as you pass them would be better,

 

[Bicycle]

None of us can make a judgement of any kind from your post, but I do see something not unlike a pattern emerging here. I'm sure you were paying full attention to the traffic all around you when you moved into the left lane, but it is rare for a horn to be the first sign of a car behind you in heavy traffic (your description). Not unheard of, but jolly rare.

I cycle, as do my three children (ages 12 to 18). You seem to have clocked up more potential confrontations and angry exchanges with motorists than I have in over forty years - and more than all my children have in their combined years of independent riding. If any of my children had as many tales to tell about poor driving, I might be inclined to go out for a ride with them and see what it is that attracts all this awful behaviour.

I fear this may not simply be down to bad luck or what you describe elsewhere as the very poor driving standards in North Wales.

In another thread you described an insult you'd been hoping to use on a motorist that evening. You said you hadn't had the chance then, but you were sure you would on your next ride. That, in combination with your OP here and other posts of yours, paints quite a disturbing picture to me. Your fondness for your Airzound also casts an image that some will find disquieting.

It's a grand thing that you apologised, but I'm not sure it will make much difference.

Really, it's not a war out there.

 

[Matthew_T]

While understandable, this is what people have been trying to get you not to do.
If you have an incident on camera, then use that to report it, confronting drivers as often as you do will only end one way in the long run.
Friendly, patronising wave as you pass them would be better,

As harmless as it may seem, this driver would have still come after me if I had done that.

I was using some methods taught here about joking with the driver and thats what I did at the start (ignored him). But once again I let myself go.

 

[Matthew_T]

In another thread you described an insult you'd been hoping to use on a motorist that evening. You said you hadn't had the chance then, but you were sure you would on your next ride. That, in combination with your OP here and other posts of yours, paints quite a disturbing picture to me. Your fondness for your Airzound also casts an image that some will find disquieting.

It's a grand thing that you apologised, but I'm not sure it will make much difference.

The simple explanation to that is; I have no idea why I have so many incidents.

I am not a bad cyclist and observe all the rules of the road. I am assertive and smile at people who are kind enough to overtake me safely. I give plenty of notice when I am turning/moving positions. I am not a confrontational person but from the sheer amount of dangerous manouvres I have seen over the years, I have built up a hatrid of people who think they can get away with putting my life at risk.

I am gradually getting more calmer and have stopped shouting at most people, the comment I made was simply a joke, I meant if a situation arose. It did but I was concentrating on riding and what the driver was doing than what I was saying.
I only remebered that I had everything on camera at the door to the police station, if I had remebered at the initial beep, then I wouldnt have said much.

At the first set of traffic lights, I knew he was behind me. The beep made me realise he was a BMW bender.

 

[Hip Priest]

Matt, you're not letting anyone down, you just need to let these incidents pass. Regular confrontations will only demoralise you.

 

[stowie]

Matt, I understand your frustration but I would advise some deep breaths when these things happens and let it go. Easier said than done, I know.

I found using a camera helped me simply allow things to pass. Because if it is really bad you can report it, and if it is simply annoying then it shows that it is barely worth getting worried about. But maybe that is just me.

I had a conversation with a driver the other night - I rarely do because it is always ultimately pointless, but he was concerned with my filtering and I ended up next to him anyway. He was perfectly polite, and I kept it very jovial. In my incident many car drivers would have held back to let me through, but he didn't as the traffic started to move around a bus at a stop so I dropped back behind him. Absolutely no issues, but he was uncomfortable with me going up the side and dropping back. I think he thought I was going to try to cut in front and got nervous. Anyway, on the few occasions drivers have spoken with me, I have kept it very jovial but firm and this seems to diffuse the situation - I still think it best to simply ignore.

If someone behind is tries to bully in a car then I simply ignore and most of the time they give up - they are simply trying it on. On the occasions where you meet an utter nutter then it is best simply to get out of the way because life is simply too short to have any kind of interaction with these types of people. And I manage to achieve Zen by sending really back examples to roadsafe and get some satisfaction in the fact that the driver probably won't be happy getting a MET letter on their doormat.