Yesterdays muppets

[benborp]

Just bringing my experiences to a wider audience again, though this time some advice on what I can do to stop the second incident from happening again would be appreciated. 20mph limit travelling at 20mph, three speed cushions across the road in slippery conditions. Morning and afternoon is civilised but after dark is frightening.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3uO8GbzMw

 

[Davywalnuts]

God, even my heart jumped on that idiot clio driver!!

All too a regular occurance however too...

 

[sheddy]

I'm assuming you're well lit and wearing bright gear. If so strap a 4' piece of timber widthways to the bike !

 

[hackbike 666]

Can you actually stop the save a few seconds at any cost mob from doing that?

I was going to say that sheddy but I was under the impression he was seen whatever he was wearing.

 

[bryce]

Advice?

Cycle slower to regain your place in the traffic food chain in the eyes of drivers, i.e. below cars and above peds, then there will be order and less danger. Your speed is challenging muppets to take you on. I'm being serious. If you were a day-glo slow roller with white socks up to your knees and knees at right angles, you wouldn't be a threat to their egos.

 

[hackbike 666]

Advice?
. If you were a day-glo slow roller with white socks up to your knees and knees at right angles, you wouldn't be a threat to their egos.

 

[purplepolly]

I'm assuming you're well lit and wearing bright gear. If so strap a 4' piece of timber widthways to the bike !

Doesn't have to be 4' I've cycled at night to art classes with an art tube* across the rack, adjusted to the width of the handlebars and with a hi-viz slap-band either end. Some of the drivers would overtake slowly on the other side of the road as though I was riding a horse.

* adjustable length plastic tube to carry rolled up paper

 

[downfader]

If you want my advice... if any of those plates are recognisable go to the police. Or even go anyway and ask them what they can do as thats unacceptable and potentially lethal behaviour.

 

[Origamist]

In each of those incidents you were seen - driver attitude is the problem and there is not a lot you can do about that. In clips 1 and 3 you anticipated the problems, but in 2 there was not much else you could do if someone wants to pass you that close and at speed.

Bryce's advice is, I'm sure, well meant but I doubt it would make any difference to the way you are treated. The thorny driver/cyclist relationship cannot be overcome simply by slowing down.

 

[HLaB]

In each of those incidents you were seen - driver attitude is the problem and there is not a lot you can do about that. In clips 1 and 3 you anticipated the problems, but in 2 there was not much else you could do if someone wants to pass you that close and at speed.

Bryce's advice is, I'm sure, well meant but I doubt it would make any difference to the way you are treated. The thorny driver/cyclist relationship cannot be overcome simply by slowing down.

If you slow down with some folk it annoys them also, you're holding up traffic (even though your not) and some twerpsdrivers judge they can and have time to fit through that gap; you just can't win

 

[Scratch]

Nasty, as far as the second one goes I don't know what else you could do. I'm rarely overtaken through areas of speed bumps like that and normally I get stuck behind some driver who can't work out how to line their wheels up with the bumps. I'm not saying I'm fast, just nobody is normally that mad! Unless it happens regularly I'd put that down to an even more lunatic than normal driver

 

[D-Rider]

Dreadful driving in all three of those incidents but the second one, with the speed bumps, is almost unbelievable. Do you think the driver didn't see the speed bumps? .... Not that that's an excuse for the close pass.

 

[benborp]

The second clip is fairly representative of how a fair proportion of drivers deal with this section of road. I've posted a similar clip before and I have one somewhere of an oncoming car that managed to pass even closer in an attempt to miss the speed cushions. Of course I caught up with the car in this clip within 15 seconds. Other roads with similar traffic 'calming' in the area are just as pleasant to ride on.

 

[D-Rider]

Frightening! This might be a bit random but the only thing I can think of is a strategic wobble on approach to the bumps might discourage some of the numpties....? Won't endear you to them though....

 

[Bollo]

Nothing you can do about those - grim one and all.