This mornings idiot

[Origamist]

Actually the youtube threat can be very effective at turning an aggressive situation into a calmer one. I have used it in the past and will continue to use it in the future.

If anything, you are actually giving them a chance to say that they would rather not end up on youtube. Although my conversation with the information commissioner suggests that permission is not required anyway, though it could be seen as being polite.

I don't have a camera - that's why I wouldn't have mentioned U-tube!

 

[magnatom]

I don't have a camera - that's why I wouldn't have mentioned U-tube!

But if you had a camera.....

 

[Cab]

I don't have a camera - that's why I wouldn't have mentioned U-tube!

Fair enough

 

[Cab]

I don't like to imply anything, but are you really considering spending a few hours of your life filmimg traffic?
Why not go for a beer instead?

Not an ideal way to spend hours of free time I don't have, but helmet cam footage of the area is easy to acquire (what with riding that section once, sometimes twice a day).

 

[magnatom]

I don't like to imply anything, but are you really considering spending a few hours of your life filmimg traffic?
Why not go for a beer instead?

Because it might improve road safety? Good enough reason I would have thought. I haven't done it myself, but if there was a section of road where I thought tere was a particular problem, then I would consider it.

You can go for a beer any time!

 

[Cab]

I'd have opened with:

"Mate, cyclists have priority on this road - did you see the give way sign back there?"

Not a bad opening gambit. I've used, almost word for word, that phrase. On one occasion the response was that the passenger got out and pushed me off the road (wearing his employers logo all over him and the van, wasn't hard to track him down and see to it that Plod paid him a visit). On another a taxi driver drove, gently, straight in to me.

The presence of a camera takes the sting out of thise situations; these guys know that they're in the wrong, knowing that theres absolutely no way it will not be recorded is a great motivation for them to back off.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Not an ideal way to spend hours of free time I don't have, but helmet cam footage of the area is easy to acquire (what with riding that section once, sometimes twice a day).

Riiiight. I had an image of you making a special journey and standing by the roadside for three hours filming buses and taxis.

 

[Origamist]

Not a bad opening gambit. I've used, almost word for word, that phrase. On one occasion the response was that the passenger got out and pushed me off the road (wearing his employers logo all over him and the van, wasn't hard to track him down and see to it that Plod paid him a visit). On another a taxi driver drove, gently, straight in to me.

This is the problem with any confrontation - an escalation. However, if you are more emollient, you stand a (slightly) better chance of reasoned dialogue. I thought your apporach was more of a school master ticking off a naughty pupil.

The presence of a camera takes the sting out of thise situations; these guys know that they're in the wrong, knowing that theres absolutely no way it will not be recorded is a great motivation for them to back off.

I agree in the main.

 

[domd1979]

Ranting? This is some new use of 'rant', I believe, where you really mean 'politely and assertively stated the truth'.

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=rant&title=21st

Fits the bill nicely.

Politely would have involved saying "thank you" when he agreed not to be a naughty boy and never to do it again, but I don't recall hearing that....

 

[BentMikey]

You were right to move out and herd the driver into slowing down - I'd fully agree with that. Take note, however, of how many people told you you were wrong for the lecture added on top.

Learning from your mistakes is a good thing, I'm sad to say seems not to be the case here.

You mean, the one where when people stopped whining and simply making noise, the original poster accepted that the point I was putting to her was correct? The one where I was, according to the one eye witness we had, correct?

She only did that to shut you up, not to admit you were right, so stop falsely claiming some sort of points victory on that.

 

[Mr Pig]

I need to so unsubscribe from this thread. Night all :0)

 

[Cab]

Riiiight. I had an image of you making a special journey and standing by the roadside for three hours filming buses and taxis.

I have considered it, and I think such footage would prove quite clearly what the problems there are... But there are only so many hours in the day!

 

[Cab]

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=rant&title=21st

Fits the bill nicely.

Politely would have involved saying "thank you" when he agreed not to be a naughty boy and never to do it again, but I don't recall hearing that....

You've got to be loud and clear to be heard over engines and through glass. To then ask someone politely, at volume, is always going to sound rather assertive. No way around that; you either make a little more noise and get heard or he sits there revving his engine at you and not hearing what you've (validly) got to say.

Of course, what you don't see is a smile and a slight inclination of the head when he has agreed to behave next time.

 

[medals]

What it shows is that some motorists don't regard cyclists as traffic.

A point I thought of this morning.
I was going past a road on my right when a driver at the give way line pulls out of it to turn right, to go the same direction as me, regardless of whether I'm passing the junction. Ok, he drives on the right hand lane for a bit while he overtakes me. But I thought, 'would you have done that to a car'. Er well no 'cos he would have hit it. But it just goes to show that some drivers just don't regard cyclists as legitimate road users.

 

[CopperBrompton]

If a word is necessary, I find a polite tap on the window and motioning (non-aggressively) for them to open it works wonders.

I had a case recently in the Stratford one-way system where a driver cut rather close to me while changing lanes. I caught him at the lights, knocked on his window, put a friendly expression on my face and motioned for him to open the window. Conversation:

Me: "A bit close back there, mate"
Him: "Oh, sorry, didn't realise"
Me: "It can be a bit scary for cyclists when you cut in close"
Him: "Ok, will look out"
Me: "Thanks!"

Which of the two encounters do you suspect did most good?

Ben