Today's commute began with a delightful breakfast of conflict.
Gaining on another slower cyclist as we approached a raised zebra crossing a van overtook me, cutting in infront to squeeze in between me and the cyclist ahead before inevitably braking for the crossing and causing me to brake too. Here the van remained; hanging ominously close behind the cyclist infront, unable to overtake thanks to the very obvious and clearly visible line of parked cars and vehicles travelling towards us on the other side of the road.
As the van drew further across me towards the kerb, out of frustration I gave the back of it a tap with to soft outside of my fist; inviting the inevitable torrent of abuse through the now open window after the van braked to draw level. While I usually give as good as I get I really had no appetite for it this morning; I think partially because I knew any attempt at reasoning would be futile considering the dickhead's actions to this point, and also that I was genuinely fearful of the outcome of escalating the situation for the same reason.
Instead I just refused to engage; continuing to look ahead and keep my mouth shut while pulling onto a parallel side road and coasting, forcing the van w*nker to stop completely if he wished to to continue his abuse. Fortunately he evidently thought better of it and carried on.
It was a livered van for a local company and I was mulling submitting a complaint to them - however ultimately while his driving was poor and his conduct grossly disproportionate, his actions were arguably selfish and inconsiderate rather than outright dangerous (towards me at least), while I'm aware of my part in escalating the situation. Further, I've seen the van around and the last thing I want to do is perpetuate a grudge towards me it the mind of some irrational, reactionary idiot who could just decide to run me over because he's having a bad day.
All that said I don't really regret my actions as I'm sick of being treated as if I'm expendible in the face of other peoples selfishness / stupidity, and had I done nothing the fact this lack of assertiveness would have eaten away at me all day.
This once more gave rise to thoughts of getting a camera for the bike, but again I suspect that while the driver's actions were unnecessary and inconsiderate I doubt they'd be enough to earned him a telling off from the babylon.
Thankfully the rest of the ride was mostly nice and chilled; although the last stretch of the tow path was convincingly flooded thanks to water flowing over the path into the river from the adjacent meadows. At first this was a little adventure; relishing the challenge of trying to keep going whilst keeping my feet out of the torrent by keeping the cranks close to horizontal and giving a bit of input, back-pedalling slightly and repeating.
This worked until it didn't; my feet eventually succumbing to the the wave deflected from the for-once counterproductively low mudflap on the front Longboard mudguard.
At least the wheels and probably mudguards got a bit of a clean though
Now sat in the office in a spare pair of socks and my "office clogs" while my shoes and socks dry out over a hot server....
Gaining on another slower cyclist as we approached a raised zebra crossing a van overtook me, cutting in infront to squeeze in between me and the cyclist ahead before inevitably braking for the crossing and causing me to brake too. Here the van remained; hanging ominously close behind the cyclist infront, unable to overtake thanks to the very obvious and clearly visible line of parked cars and vehicles travelling towards us on the other side of the road.
As the van drew further across me towards the kerb, out of frustration I gave the back of it a tap with to soft outside of my fist; inviting the inevitable torrent of abuse through the now open window after the van braked to draw level. While I usually give as good as I get I really had no appetite for it this morning; I think partially because I knew any attempt at reasoning would be futile considering the dickhead's actions to this point, and also that I was genuinely fearful of the outcome of escalating the situation for the same reason.
Instead I just refused to engage; continuing to look ahead and keep my mouth shut while pulling onto a parallel side road and coasting, forcing the van w*nker to stop completely if he wished to to continue his abuse. Fortunately he evidently thought better of it and carried on.
It was a livered van for a local company and I was mulling submitting a complaint to them - however ultimately while his driving was poor and his conduct grossly disproportionate, his actions were arguably selfish and inconsiderate rather than outright dangerous (towards me at least), while I'm aware of my part in escalating the situation. Further, I've seen the van around and the last thing I want to do is perpetuate a grudge towards me it the mind of some irrational, reactionary idiot who could just decide to run me over because he's having a bad day.
All that said I don't really regret my actions as I'm sick of being treated as if I'm expendible in the face of other peoples selfishness / stupidity, and had I done nothing the fact this lack of assertiveness would have eaten away at me all day.
This once more gave rise to thoughts of getting a camera for the bike, but again I suspect that while the driver's actions were unnecessary and inconsiderate I doubt they'd be enough to earned him a telling off from the babylon.
Thankfully the rest of the ride was mostly nice and chilled; although the last stretch of the tow path was convincingly flooded thanks to water flowing over the path into the river from the adjacent meadows. At first this was a little adventure; relishing the challenge of trying to keep going whilst keeping my feet out of the torrent by keeping the cranks close to horizontal and giving a bit of input, back-pedalling slightly and repeating.
This worked until it didn't; my feet eventually succumbing to the the wave deflected from the for-once counterproductively low mudflap on the front Longboard mudguard.
At least the wheels and probably mudguards got a bit of a clean though
Now sat in the office in a spare pair of socks and my "office clogs" while my shoes and socks dry out over a hot server....
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