When someone overtakes with nowhere to go

[swee'pea99]

Don't know what happened last time, but that's pretty shocking - I'd imagine that last case warrants a referral to the Police Complaints Comission.

You might get someone less lazy this time. You have the name of the company. Their employers will not want to be seen to not be cooperative with the police, so all it will take for the cops is for someone to turn up at their offices, ask them about it, and they'll tell them everything they need to know.

Seriously, go to the police. You don't just owe it to yourself, you owe it to all other road users who have to share their space with this dangerous lunatic.

+1. It's amazing how arbitrary these things can be. All you need is Case#1 - a cop who doesn't much care for cyclists and Case#2, a cop whose sister was knocked off her bike by an aggressive moron three months ago, and bingo. Action. Don't let it go: follow up with extreme prejudice - with the employers and with the authorities. This guy should not be professionally in charge of 2 tons of metal on the Queen's highway, period. Next time he really could kill someone.

 

[Spokesmann]

Ive had this, you gotta keep your cool, but with some its hard to avoid the red mist. Hopefully reporting this prat may get some results.

Bottom line is you have every right to be there and there is no way you should compromise your safety because some jerk is in a hurry.

 

[Number14]

I've had a few days to calm down from this one and reflect on my own actions as well as the nutcase who tried to attack me.

Cycling home I go down an industrial street in Islington - it's got numerous big depots all along it including an ambulance station, Mann and Overton's main showroom, a recording studio, a car hire place, a PA hire place, you name it. This means continuous van/lorry/coach movements and a lot of taxis parking up temporarily awaiting repair. Plus there's my kids' school - my main reason for going down there regularly. It's a 20mph limit.

Anyway, it's usually fine as long as you don't hug the gutter - everyone manoeuvres at low speed and I know a lot of the drivers to at least wave at.

Friday lunchtime I was going home early and was following several cars. We'd just left a light controlled junction so were gently accelerating up to around 18/20mph. I was out in primary and arguably a little too close to the car in front, but was pacing it nicely. Tailwind

Suddenly, there's a white courier van on my right, driver gesticulating wildly. He's tried to overtake but of course has nowhere to go. I told him to back off.
He then proceeded to chase me down the road, revving away, swerving alongside me then dropping back repeatedly, then tried to push me sideways so quickly that I had to slap the side of the van to get him to back off enough to allow me room to brake and drop behind him.

Of course this causes him to brake and swerve to the road, screaming out the window to Come Here! Not wanting to get into a fight, I kept going. He chased me again, overtook properly this time and then cut in again with me on his inside. Shouting about my "being in the middle of the road" I tried to explain as calmly as I could through the adenaline that there was no room for him to overtake at that point, there was nowhere for him to go.

This was when he got out of the van and ran round to try and kick me. I accelerated as hard as I could and he made contact with my rear pannier - it was that close. He then sped off.

Now, forget prosecuting him, cutting his goolies off, etc, etc (I've talked to his company, am writing to his boss etc as the taxi following us chased the guy down and got his plates), the nagging worry is that I COULD have avoided all this by braking and dropping behind the guy right at the start. As in, if I'd allowed him to cut me up, we'd just have proceeded. He'd have had his bad driving rewarded, but I'd have been arguably safer. Sure I'd have not known that, but at the time I didn't consider it.

Challenged to a fight for road space, I rose to it and then had to deal with the consequences. Something to think about.

And how would you feel if, when you go the same way the next day, you're following him and see him do the same thing to another cyclist that results in them being knocked off their bikes?

 

[mark i]

I think that the comments further up this thread trying to guilt the poster into reporting the incident based on what if are a bit out of line. It is up to the poster.

For my part after three unreasonable overtakes by our local councils bin vans, one of which forced me onto the verge I reported it to the council. I suggested that the drivers behaviour was agressive and dangerous, and that I expected the council to review the driver training and examine how they could improve the road safety of users around the bin wagons. (The incidents were overtaking me with oncoming traffic forcing me into the verge, an overtake on the approach to a roundabout. Before the roundabout I was indicating right, the bin wagon driver wanted to turn left. As I was doing 24mph he could not get past so just veered left). The council took the report seriously and the driver undertook training. The result is that I have had nothing but good driving from them since!

 

[swee'pea99]

I think that the comments further up this thread trying to guilt the poster into reporting the incident based on what if are a bit out of line.  It is up to the poster.

Well, yes it is. On the other hand, arguably each of us owes it to all of us to do what we can to make the roads safer, insofar as we're able. And reporting aggressive/imbecile driving is one of the ways we can do that. As the remainder of your own post exemplifies, it works. I don't think anyone was 'trying to guilt' the OP; just suggesting that a word or two in the right ear might be in order.

 

[chthonic]

Well, things are happening - got a very detailed letter back from the company's HR boss by return of post.
This letter, along with the usual guff about it being unacceptable/not company policy/blah blah, made reference to the fact that all their vehicles are GPS tracked.

Which means they have his location and speed throughout the incident.

Which is great, because it's no longer my word against his. Plus they've promised a follow up when they've interviewed him, so this wasn't just a fob-off letter. Let's see what happens now...

 

[summerdays]

Some good points made on this thread.
I think you need to look at each situation as it is and then decide what to do. Hold your road position as normal but if someone is truely being an ass, it's best to have them in front, be them in the wrong or not. Then i slow down and pull over to let them in front. That way i can keep out of their way and get on with my ride happily. I'm not one to go looking for confrontation or incidences (despite what people might think)

I know that I may antagonise a motorist by choosing the primary position but its a case of weighing up the risks. Once I've had one idiotic manoeuvre by a motorist, if they make a second I definitely go for the let them pass as I would rather they were in front of me. Its not always that easy to remember on the road, rather than just after any events when you are reviewing what you did and if you could of handled it better (hindsight is wonderful isn't it).