Sorry to my fellow Edinburgh Commuters

[HLaB]

I popped to a lbs at lunchtime and some idiot in a black hatch back jumped the lights straddling two lanes a sliding out as he did so. It was a bit out of control but I thought no more about it and must have overtook him in the subsequent congestion. A while later a bus was trying to pull out of the bus lane and the taxi courteously stopped to let it out, I stopped behind it in the main lane (and unclipped) as did several cars behind me, we were only going about 5mph anyway. Queue the idiot to undertake everybody only to find his path blocked by the bus and he swerved out in to my handle bars. It was relatively low speed so no real harm done but I looked to see if he apologised but he didn't he just made angry gestures. I then made the mistake reacting to that of calling an effing idiot . He then exploded further in a torrent of further abuse; apparently it had been my beep, beeping ...... fault as I was all over the middle of the road; funny that as I had been sat still for the last few moments and before that I had been directly behind the same spot on the taxi about 1.5 foot out side the bus lane for the slow short section before. So he saw me but yet he still hit me . After that (having been on the left in the bus lane) he swerved to the outmost right turn only lane.

Thank goodness I was going straight to the lbs and a little retail pherapy calmed me down but I'm sorry to my fellow commuters that I wound such an idiot up and I hope he doesn't take it out on somebody else.

 

[BentMikey]

*amazed* that anyone would even ironically blame a cyclist for that driver's behaviour. People like that are just angry little bundles of potential heart attack rolling around life. He'll vent everywhere he can for years on all sorts of victims.

 

[Landslide]

Aneurysm in 5...4...3...2...

I'm so glad I don't live my life like those people...

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

So you were standing still, he hit you and yet somehow it's all your fault?

You can't possibly wind someone like that up more than they already are: he must live his life in a perpetual red mist of rage and frustration at "all these other b******ds" getting in his way.

Hope you're OK.

 

[ianrauk]

What is it with people thinking it's 'your fault'.
I was stopped behind a bus when a pedestrian got off wandered to the back of the bus and got pi**ed off with me because he couldn't cross the road directly behind the bus and had to walk around the back of me. WTF is that about?

 

[4F]

I popped to a lbs at lunchtime and some idiot in a black hatch back jumped the lights straddling two lanes a sliding out as he did so. It was a bit out of control but I thought no more about it and must have overtook him in the subsequent congestion. A while later a bus was trying to pull out of the bus lane and the taxi courteously stopped to let it out, I stopped behind it in the main lane (and unclipped) as did several cars behind me, we were only going about 5mph anyway. Queue the idiot to undertake everybody only to find his path blocked by the bus and he swerved out in to my handle bars. It was relatively low speed so no real harm done but I looked to see if he apologised but he didn't he just made angry gestures. I then made the mistake reacting to that of calling an effing idiot . He then exploded further in a torrent of further abuse; apparently it had been my beep, beeping ...... fault as I was all over the middle of the road; funny that as I had been sat still for the last few moments and before that I had been directly behind the same spot on the taxi about 1.5 foot out side the bus lane for the slow short section before. So he saw me but yet he still hit me . After that (having been on the left in the bus lane) he swerved to the outmost right turn only lane.

Thank goodness I was going straight to the lbs and a little retail pherapy calmed me down but I'm sorry to my fellow commuters that I wound such an idiot up and I hope he doesn't take it out on somebody else.

I think the acceptable practice in this ocassion would have been to pull the offensive oik from his car and given him a damn good thrashing

 

[goo_mason]

I wondered why I had some idiot race up and sit 2 inches from my wheel going uphill on Groathill Avenue South tonight, right enough !

He then swerved out to overtake, only to realise that there was a traffic island so he had to swerve back in again. As there was another one, plus several speedbumps and rumble strips, he didn't get another chance to get by. So he rolled up to within inches of my wheel as we sat in the queue at the lights, and started revving the engine. I gave him a quick glance, then sat cleaning my nails and scratching my @rse. No sense getting wound up by a tiny-kn@bbed idiot like that.

Lights changed and I took off, but he didn't - since he'd parked up behind me to try and intimidate me, and not because he was going right like I was. He was going left, and the car in front in the left-lane stalled. Oh, how I savoured that moment as he got stuck again because the lights changed before the stalled guy could get started and through.

Instant Karma in action - I smiled the rest of the way home, especially when I was filtering up the outside of the huge queues of traffic on Ferry Road caused by the Newhaven Road junction roadwords. The road's down to a single lane, and traffic lights are letting each direction have their turn at getting through.

 

[Dayvo]

I think the acceptable practice in this ocassion would have been to pull the offensive oik from his car and given him a damn good thrashing

I couldn't agree with you more!

They just need to be taught a very simple lesson; they won't mis-behave again!

 

[Dayvo]

Thank goodness I was going straight to the lbs and a little retail pherapy calmed me down but I'm sorry to my fellow commuters that I wound such an idiot up and I hope he doesn't take it out on somebody else.

Glad you're OK, HLab!

Hope it didn't cost you too much, either!

 

[fossyant]

I gave him a quick glance, then sat cleaning my nails and scratching my @rse.

 

[Dayvo]

I gave him a quick glance, then sat cleaning my nails and scratching my @rse.

Nice move, goo!

But wouldn't you have to clean your nails after scratching your arse?

 

[snorri]

he just made angry gestures. He then exploded further in a torrent of further abuse

Tut Tut, this is the sort of behaviour one would expect in Glasgow, but in Edinburgh:?:

 

[Tetedelacourse]

That's the single biggest dilemma I face these days*. Do you just let it wash over you for the sake of your own levels of zen and calm, or do you attempt to change their behaviour either by having a word or doing an Olivia Newton-John (or threatening to)?

I can't decide what's best. Horses for courses I suppose. The few times I've taken exception to idiots, I've ended up feeling worse/ more angry/ depressed as a result of their stinkin attitude.

HlaB were you hit with a large bill at the bikeshop after Sunday?

*other than red or brown sauce on a bacon roll

 

[Landslide]

*red. Every time.