Today has left me utterly depressed....

[buggi]

when a driver is shouting at you, pretend to rev your bike and do this...

View: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kJdXDGhKJ40

 

[slowmotion]

It's easy for me to say , but just try and forget it. There are lots of considerate people in cars , vans, and lorries that you meet every day. They count a lot more than half a handful of plonkers.

 

[markharry66]

Just say in a polite way that is your opinion mine is different. Have you seen the recent deaths on the road. Thats the sort of attitude that probably helps cause it.

 

[ufkacbln]

The thing about my colleague that depressed me most is, that she had absolutely no concept of what was wrong about what she was saying. She's generally a lovely woman, very intelligent, sensitive and caring - but demonstrated to me that drivers have got no idea about why cyclists behave in the way they do, and rather tahn wondering why, just gets angry.
Same with the woman at the lights, as far as she was concerned I was the devil for slowing her progress to the red traffic light, and I was completely illegal for not being in the cycle lane that would have allowed her to pass me, albeit far too close to be safe.

Just be you

I had someone at work who was the same,and just used to smile until he came in ranting one morning about how I had held them up and "forced" them yo overtake

I then asked them if they would like yo discuss the problem after watching video

I the. Showed a few minutes of helmet cam footage of that morning,including them overtaking and a very close left hook through a red light now. witnessed (and condemned as stupid) by half of the office staff

Then asked how my stopping at a ref light was obstructing them, and how I had forced them to jump a red light

I have never had a comment made since

 

[ufkacbln]

The other on I pulled a few years ago was on a single lane bridge at Haslar

Narrow and light controlled it wasn't safe so used to ride in primary

Had a muppet blasting his horn on te rise, so as suggested above, assumed something was wrong with the bike and dutifully checked my panniers etc

By which time the lights changed and three or four vehicles came over the rise
to face on the single track

Me I walked down the pavement while he had to reverse a hundred yards bing sworn at and beeped by the drivers he had upset

 

[Cycling Dan]

I don't see why people get annoyed with cyclists least we are moving. Parked cars in two lane roads are more of a pandemic in my eyes. Takin up nearly an entire lane creating a choke point and resulting in people having to do the nasty which is be nice and give way!!! Far more annoying yet more acceptable??

 

[Spinney]

o and as for the bitch at the lights. pretend something is wrong with your bike and get off and take a look. ensure you look long enough to hold her up for one complete cycle of lights. that will make her have a really bad day.

And then wait around off the road somewhere until they are well ahead of you so you don't get a punishment pass from that car or the ones behind who could see it was you...

 

[binsted]

Of course light is at red, she proceeds to give me a gobful, her behaviour is justified because I wasn't in the painted on cycle path which I'm required to do by law according to her.

I wonder if she would have said the same to a male cyclist at the lights..............

It amazes me the anger generated by a car journey, complete strangers getting angry and wanting to "fight the world" ...............can you imagine the same situation with peeps walking along the pavement at different paces and shouting obscenities to anybody in their way.......

 

[mattobrien]

It's odd really, I think that driving can be stressful and can turn otherwise decent people into less than decent folk. I think that it may down down to a sense of entitlement that driving can bring if you have the ability to go at a certain speed, then you think you will be able to do that speed for the whole journey, when you can't or get held up, that isn't according to plan and can cause added stress. That can come from someone pulling out on you, nipping in in front (on a dual carriage way) or being held behind a cyclist while you (hopefully) wait for it to be safe to overtake.

If the roads were quieter, or people allowed a little more time for their journeys, the whole process might be a lot less stressful.

I haven't ever got wound up by cyclists and like to think that I am much more considerate to them and the prospect of them being around the next blind bend than before I started cycling again.

I do sometime find the behaviour of other drivers annoying and have to pull myself up when this happens.

It would be better to remember that everyone is on a journey and if we all help each other, the chances are that we will all arrive in a better state, either quicker or in better state of mind. There is the possibility that our 'busy lives' contribute stress to everything and that this can spill over into transport, of any form.

I don't commute so don't have this issue and the very vast majority of overtakes on my are very safe, I get the occasional closer pass, but it is probably more down to ignorance than on purpose. I normally raise a hand to let people know it wasn't right, but don't gesticulate or turn a hand into a fist. It is more about making someone aware that it wasn't right, without getting too grumpy. I don't let it interfere with the rest of my ride.

I also raise a more friendly hand to drivers who pass who have waited behind for it to be safe, saying thanks is probably more important than getting cross when things don't go as planned.

All just my random musings...

 

[Mizred]

I think my favourite journey to work was the day I was shouted at by the oversized passenger in a white van, because I clearly had the audacity to by cycling on his road and not on the badly surfaced unswept cycle lane on the pavement. Imagine his face when at the level crossing with the barriers down, I caught up with him and knocked on the window for a little chat. I am a very polite person, never swear and smile a lot. However this was still enough to make him go very red and apparently forget how to speak. Kept me amused for the rest of the day. Seriously just ignore the idiots, they are no worth getting bothered by, just keep smiling and keep cycling!

 

[screenman]

I think my favourite journey to work was the day I was shouted at by the oversized passenger in a white van, because I clearly had the audacity to by cycling on his road and not on the badly surfaced unswept cycle lane on the pavement. Imagine his face when at the level crossing with the barriers down, I caught up with him and knocked on the window for a little chat. I am a very polite person, never swear and smile a lot. However this was still enough to make him go very red and apparently forget how to speak. Kept me amused for the rest of the day. Seriously just ignore the idiots, they are no worth getting bothered by, just keep smiling and keep cycling!

I have done the same on a few occasions, funny how they react, although I would not suggest too many cyclists try it as one day it may backfire.

 

[Crankarm]

Considering I only ride about 4 miles to work, it's depressing.

Got beeped at a first time, by a driver who couldn't pass me due to oncomng traffic. Traffic cleared so he took his chance to deliver a punishment pass with another beep thrown in for good measure.

Two minutes later, similar situation, heading down hill, no room for following car to pass so driver leaned on the horn, all the way for about 30 seconds until we got to the next set of lights. Of course light is at red, she proceeds to give me a gobful, her behaviour is justified because I wasn't in the painted on cycle path which I'm required to do by law according to her.

Five minutes later, once again, riding along towards a junction, traffic oncoming on oppisite side. White van behind me. Oncoming traffic clears, white van man floors it, close passes, then cuts me up to slot in front of me and slams brakes on for junction.

Next, my colleague, a perfectly normal sensible woman asks me why I'm so quiet. I told her I'd had a bad ride into work, I'd been bullied by terrible drivers and nearly knocked off at least once. She then proceeded to rant about the really annoying cyclist riding on the 40mph dualled road, making really difficult for all the drivers to get past, when there's a perfectly good cycle path on the pavement along side. The cycle path she's referring to is notoriously crap, I tried to explain to her, she just couldn't get it and continued to rant on.

It's all left me feeling quite down in the dumps.

Just tell your colleague to go fark themselves.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I have done the same on a few occasions, funny how they react, although I would not suggest too many cyclists try it as one day it may backfire.

I always knock for a chat if they have been naughty children. They revert to type without the protection of their lethal weapon. Cowards.

 

[Crankarm]

Yesterday and day before 1 taxi and a car driver and an ar$ehole Stagecoach bus driver all leaned on their horns to try to get me out the way. The taxi driver was at the new traffic light junction at Hills Road and Lensfield road. He had stopped into the cycle feeder to the huge ASL that has been created so I just squeezed through, no left indicator on, and he took umbrage leaning on his horn startling me and the other cyclists in the ASL. He continued to lean on his horn so I turned around and lost it with him. When the lights turned green he shadowed me to the station turning gesticulating madly and as I passed in the right lane as I was continuing up the cycle lane along Hills Road and not going to the station he leaned out his driver's window and tried to whack me. daffodil! The last person who did that to me nearly got their arm broken as I grabbed it and hung onto it as I cycled pulling them flat against the inside of the bus cab. Nice one I thought. Then a bit before in regent's street a stagecoach double decker pulled in on me in the cycle lane so I banged on the side of the bus about 1/3 of the way down. Then at a red light just up the road the daffodil opened the bus doors jumped out and tried to come after me shouting abuse and making threats. I was gone I wasn't hanging around. What a total daffodil well Stagecoach drivers are they all hate cyclists and pedestrians. Then yesterday riding down the Milton road just before Union Lane junction going to work another daffodil in a mercedes van private taxi box came up fast behind me in the bus lane about 2 feet from my rear wheel. I thought the farker was going to run me down. He looked like that twat Kielty but younger. Anyway I slowed and turned around signalling to him to get back. The farker then lent on his horn and started threatening me reving the engine so I lost it calling him all sorts. Had he stopped and got out I would have decked him, seriously I was so scared and angry. He would not have got up. Anyway I got his reg and license number to report to CCC and Police. The latter who will probably do fark all. There is a lot of aggression out there towards cyclists so be careful.

 

[Crankarm]

I have done the same on a few occasions, funny how they react, although I would not suggest too many cyclists try it as one day it may backfire.

Years ago a friend of mine who was 6'5" and a good club cyclist caught a builders white van that had given him grief as the passenger gobbed on him as they passed by. Anyway at the red light just up the road where the van had stopped my mate pulled up along the inside, knocked on the passenger's window pointing to the gob on his cycling jersey. The occupant gave my mate the Vs. Bad move. Suddenly my mate then whacked the side of the door with his full weight. The daffodils inside must have sh1t themselves as the driver floored it jumping the red lights. My mate was not a happy bunny. The dent he left in the passenger door was huge!