Stupid Motorists and Bad Driving

[Alasdair Geddes]

I've been cycling regularly on my road bike for about three months now and in that short time I've seen some very stupid motorists. The most stupid driver I've seen was about three days ago. I was going down a fairly quiet country road when I started hearing HONK! HONK! from behind me. As the horn grew louder I could hear the driver shouting through his window. He pulled along side me, still honking and shouting "PEOPLE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO CYCLE ON THE ROAD!!!" at the top of his voice. He then sped off into the distance. I am still unsure as to why he thinks that road bikes aren't allowed on roads and I have no idea how he passed his driving test.

The second stupid motorist is unfortunately very common. This usually involves a large 4x4 and a driver who thinks that their oversized vehicle gives them power over the world. The worst example of this scenario took place about a month ago as I was cycling down another country road. I was approaching a blind left hand bend when a large 4x4 sped up behind me honking violently. The driver swerved around me, swerved around another cyclist on the other side of the road, then swerved around another car that was going round the bend. All this swerving was done while at speed and honking aggressively. Somehow no one was killed. Again, this leads me to question how this person ever managed to pass their driving test.

Does anyone else have any such stories? I'm sure there are many more stupid motorists to talk about.

 

[BSRU]

I've been cycling regularly on my road bike for about three months now and in that short time I've seen some very stupid motorists. The most stupid driver I've seen was about three days ago. I was going down a fairly quiet country road when I started hearing HONK! HONK! from behind me. As the horn grew louder I could hear the driver shouting through his window. He pulled along side me, still honking and shouting "PEOPLE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO CYCLE ON THE ROAD!!!" at the top of his voice. He then sped off into the distance. I am still unsure as to why he thinks that road bikes aren't allowed on roads and I have no idea how he passed his driving test.
The second stupid motorist is unfortunately very common. This usually involves a large 4x4 and a driver who thinks that their oversized vehicle gives them power over the world. The worst example of this scenario was about a month ago as I was cycling down another country road. I was approaching a blind left hand bend when a large 4x4 sped up behind me honking violently. The driver swerved around me, swerved around another cyclist on the other side of the road, then swerved around another car that was going round the bend. All this swerving was done while at speed and honking aggressively. Somehow no one was killed. Again, this leads me to question how this person ever managed to pass their driving test.
Does anyone else have any such stories? I'm sure there are many more stupid motorists to talk about.

Unfortunately you get used to it.

 

[swee'pea99]

The giveaway here is the expression 'country road'. The countryside is full of people with eleven fingers. You should move to London where all the drivers are polite and courteous.

 

[akb]

Unfortunately there are some morons who drive cars out there who think that they have jurisdiction on the road. There are plenty of horror stories from cyclists on this forum showing unacceptable driving around cyclists. The commuting section on this very forum is a good place to start.

There are two things we as cyclist can do in an attempt to combat unacceptable driving:

1. Report them; be it to the police or local bodies, such as Roadsafe.

2. Learn to ride correctly. Road positioning being key to prevent manouvers such as your OP. Have a search for Cyclecraft. This has helped me no end with road positioning and has severley reduced stupid over takes on my rides.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Where on gods earth do you people live.....
In the last five years I can count on one hand incidents of car drivers shouting and giving abuse (and 2 of them were from the wife),,, if I were you I would move.

Don't go to London, most car drivers there past there test in places like Uzbekistan or Mozambique, come to the north where us country folk are born to be friendly , up north not only do people wave a exuberant hello as they pass, they stop and doff there caps, offering there sisters in marriage and loan of there best whippet or pigeon.

 

[Spinney]

I went on a long ride north through the Lake District and then back down the Shap/Tebay corridor. 4 close passes (the one by the bus was reported to the bus company by email, nothing other than 'sent to transport manager' back from them yet, one of the others was a 'timber products' type lorry on the A6 - 5 minutes later I came across their head office so stopped, the transport manager came out, took details, said he'd identify the driver and have a word! (Whether he does nor not is another matter).

This is just to demonstrate that 'the north' is not all sweetness and light, whippets notwithstanding!

 

[palinurus]

Does anyone else have any such stories?

It's possible, yeah.

 

[Linford]

The worst experience I've had was with a load of kids in mums Chavalier. The most discourtious drivers I've come across are commercial vehicle drivers (professional drivers by any other name). Many seem to think they own the road because they drive for a living, and give very little room when overtaking

Note....I didn't tar them all with the same brush. The vehicles don't drive themselves

 

[Alasdair Geddes]

Learn to ride correctly. Road positioning being key to prevent manouvers such as your OP. Have a search for Cyclecraft. This has helped me no end with road positioning and has severley reduced stupid over takes on my rides.

Yes, I try to use my road positioning to make it less likely that a car will do something dangerous but it dosn't always work. I always hear high vis clothing, I have flashing lights on the front and back of my bike and I have reflectors. Despite this, a lot of drivers still act as if I'm not there.

 

[Alasdair Geddes]

The giveaway here is the expression 'country road'. The countryside is full of people with eleven fingers. You should move to London where all the drivers are polite and courteous.

I've cycled in London once and I'd say London is worse from what I saw of it and from what I see on the news. I'm not quite in the middle of the countryside though (just Essex) so by 'country road' I mean a small road surrounded by farmland.

 

[hopless500]

I've been cycling regularly on my road bike for about three months now and in that short time I've seen some very stupid motorists. The most stupid driver I've seen was about three days ago. I was going down a fairly quiet country road when I started hearing HONK! HONK! from behind me. As the horn grew louder I could hear the driver shouting through his window. He pulled along side me, still honking and shouting "PEOPLE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO CYCLE ON THE ROAD!!!" at the top of his voice. He then sped off into the distance. I am still unsure as to why he thinks that road bikes aren't allowed on roads and I have no idea how he passed his driving test.

The second stupid motorist is unfortunately very common. This usually involves a large 4x4 and a driver who thinks that their oversized vehicle gives them power over the world. The worst example of this scenario took place about a month ago as I was cycling down another country road. I was approaching a blind left hand bend when a large 4x4 sped up behind me honking violently. The driver swerved around me, swerved around another cyclist on the other side of the road, then swerved around another car that was going round the bend. All this swerving was done while at speed and honking aggressively. Somehow no one was killed. Again, this leads me to question how this person ever managed to pass their driving test.

Does anyone else have any such stories? I'm sure there are many more stupid motorists to talk about.

They're fairly prolific. Had someone overtake me on a blind bend yesterday. Luckily the vehicle coming the other way wasn't so close as to cause an accident. What a prat - can't imagine what was so urgent that 5 seconds would have made any difference. .
But there were also drivers who waited for a sensible chance to overtake before doing so. Not all, but some