Three foot is too much

[Archie]

Coming home this evening I'm riding on the road along the top of the hill. It's a fairly narrow road, so if there's oncoming traffic the cars have to wait or take advantage of any gaps sharpish like, which a few have tonight. No problems. However the oncoming traffic clears, another car overtakes (no problem, then I'm buzzed by a Vecra. No oncoming traffic and he can't be arsed to leave a reasonable gap.

Of course, there's a junction at the end of the road where I invariably catch up with the overtakers, and tonight is no exception. As I roll up I see his window's open and sitting inside is an Old Biffer. The following conversation ensues.

A: Excuse me, next time you overtake me can you leave a bit more room?
OB:Well, if you weren't three foot from the kerb...
A: I'm perfectly entitled to be three foot from the kerb!
OB:...
A There's nothing wrong with it.
OB:Yeaargh!

By now the lights have changed so he drives off.

Got it on the cam and played it to my wife, who didn't think it showed too well how close he was, but you can see he's barely over the centreline. What annoys me is someone thinks it's OK to take risks with my safety because they don't agree with how I cycle!

 

[buggi]

LOL i can do better. tonight coming home i'm cycling down a road that has the occasional yellow bollard. then i hear a bip bip and i turn around and there is a HGV coming down the road pretty fast and it very quickly becomes obvious that he has no intention of slowing down and waiting for me to pass the next yellow bollard which, although was a good few feet away, we would have met at exactly the same time.... and he has bipped me to stop! what a fookin cheek! if he hadn't been so god damn big i would have carried on and given him the usual salute! the only thing was i don't think, at the speed he was travelling, he could have stopped if he tried!

 

[Twanger]

His brakes might have gone. Congrats for refusing to qualify for a Darwin award.

 

[fossyant]

Sh!t happens..all the time if you commute... you gain little...........don't worry until they actually hit you.........(ahem).........

 

[HLaB]

It happens all the time, close passes but I must admit I get irked like you Archie when you get a really close pass when the neighbouring lane is completely empty or even worse it a dual cw with an empty outside lane.

OT I've found my cam distorts thing a fair bit making things in front look closer than they are but makes things to the side seem further away.

 

[cyberknight]

Sounds like a normal commute to me over the white line sounds like a nice gap

Got a single track road where people insist on overtaking with less than a foot spare , Bollards where they have to try and squeeze past , a mini roundabout where i turn right and oncoming traffic ignores me ohh and the hill where i am doing of course the speed limit and again phoom they off again.

edit and this is the safer route hehe other way i have had close shaves with lorries pretty much every day

I use the primary riding position and give clear indication of what i am doing , where bright clothing etc etc , maybe most people are used to cyclists being on the pavement doing 10 mph and not proper commuters tazzing along at a decent rate and they just do not compensate for it?

And maybe im a little drunk atm and just felt like giving a light hearted post it is really safe on the road !!

 

[Jim_Noir]

It's a jungle out there, and we are the bottom of the food chain and truck is at the top... youu don't see many mice try to fight a bear do you? or live to tell their wifes!

 

[Archie]

Sh!t happens..all the time if you commute... you gain little...........don't worry until they actually hit you.........(ahem).........

I find it's not so much the sh!t that winds me up, it's the attitude you get in the aftermath. If the Old Biffer said sorry, I'd accept that and on we go. But he makes like he meant it? Grrr!

 

[Twanger]

Is carrying caltrops illegal?

 

[HJ]

Unfortunately there are far too many out there who have no respect for other road users or their right to use the road.

 

[Archie]

LOL i can do better.

Strewth, first reply and the thread's hijacked already!

 

[purplepolly]

Scream, very loudly, when they're alongside.

I did this the other night to a woman who tried to drive into me on a roundabout. She then kept her distance for a few hundred yards before there was room to overtake on the other side of the road rather than staddling the centre.

 

[buggi]

His brakes might have gone. Congrats for refusing to qualify for a Darwin award.

Strewth, first reply and the thread's hijacked already!

i can do even better than that . had 3 incidents recently where drivers have tried to pass between me and the yellow bollards and all of them clipped their wheels on raised bollard platform. serves 'em right. one of em was a caravan, i thought it was gonna topple over!

 

[MacB]

Agreed on all the posts here but I've also noticed another one when you're given the utmost courtesy. A vehicle waits patiently behind me and only overtakes when safe to do so and gives me maximum room. I can almost guarantee that whoever was behind the courteous vehicle will then pass me very closely. This is so often the case it no longer surprises me. It's like they get the hump with the vehicle for showing me courtesy and me for being on the road, double whammy.

Obviously I fully understand that my presence, and some good manners from another driver, have added a massive 5 seconds to their journey time. It can only be right that they then take it out on me for my very existance.

 

[Bman]

What gets me is that you can still string a sentence together after catching the car! . For me, the conversation would go like this :

B: <PANT> <PANT> <PANT> <PANT> <PANT>
OB:...
B: <deep breath> Errr.... <PANT> <PANT> <PANT>
OB:...
B <PANT> <PANT> <PANT>
OB:Bye!

By then the traffic would have cleared!