you wish you had a helmet cam when...

[kedab]

the sheer idiocy of an individual leaves you speechless.

so there i was this morning, on the road section of my commute approaching the low bridge that has a traffic island on the descent clearly designed to prevent people from overtaking as the road narrows.

a good hundred meters or so before the island a lifesaver reveals a couple of cars being patient so i back off and they pass with a wave of thanks from me.

another lifesaver reveals nothing behind me, nothing in view at least and it's pretty straight piece of road, so i take a strong primary as i pick up speed towards the low bridge and the island - i then hear a revving engine and before i've even checked my shoulder again there's a clapped out volvo alongside me, half way in the oncoming lane not more than a foot from me - the oncoming traffic practically stop, volvo then pulls in tight making me move as he needs to get in before the island.

as he passes i'm shaking my head and raise my right hand suggesting that was a poor piece of driving and he was too close - he then leans out of his drivers window and yells, 'what the f*!* d'you think you're doing you f*!$!*g homo?!' to which i pointed at the traffic island and shook my head some more, his reply was along the same lines as his first insightful question...i couldn't believe it. i remained calm and didn't give him abuse but i'm not sure i'd have been able to remain so calm had the lights not been green for him a bit further on...i had to smile to myself after but the fact he was so outraged by my self preservation - which very nearly worked against me - shows that he clearly had no idea why i'd taken that position on the road approaching that island and that is quite a worry in many ways.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

There seem to be quite a few young idiots who need an attitude adjustment. On Saturday, I was making a right turn from a two-lane carriageway into a smaller road near home; a manoeuvre I've made hundreds of times there. Look back, wait for two cars to pass, signal, move to primary in lane 1. I notice a car is coming up lane 1 behind me, but he's some some distance away, so I move to primary in lane 2, signalling clearly all the time, then move into position in the small right turn lane that is there. The car that was behind then comes up lane 1 with the driver yelling all sorts of abuse through the open window and a rear seat passenger making a V sign at me through the rear window. I don't think he even had to slow down for me. I can only conclude that these people are mentally ill.

 

[fimm]

So I have a junction where there's a straight on lane and a left turn lane, and I'm in the straight on lane slowing for the lights when a landrover comes hoofing it the other way and swings out wide to avoid something parked on his side of the road - so he hoots at me in spite of the fact that I'm on my side of the road and he's the one who is overtaking...

sigh...

 

[sabian92]

I wish I had one when a lorry (artic job as well) here decided to overtake me with less than a foot to spare. Nothing coming the other way, and decided to see how close he could get without killing me.

Utter knob, to be honest.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Three incidents as to why I bought a Contour HD:

Cycling past Victoria Park in Bristol last year on a lovely sunny sunday afternoon, I stopped in a double parked section of the road to let an oncoming car full of..er..'youths' through. As car went by, a passenger in the rear shoved his head out of the window and spat a liquid into my face. Failed to get reg as I was wiping what tasted like lemonade out of my eyes.

On the Bristol Railway Path, I was overtaken by two teens on a moped, which are banned on the path. I took the reg, stopped to phone police and report it. As I was chatting to the police officer, I heard the sound of a motorbike approaching and naturally though it was the moped. Got a shock when from around a bend, some idiot came racing past on a full-sized off road trials motorbike.

Sitting in the middle of an ASL turning right, a motorcyclist barged his way into the box from behind and pulled up on my left. As the lights turned green, I moved out assuming he was turning left (he didn't indicate). The idiot then made a right turn, cutting me up badly...grrrrrr.

 

[RedRider]

Not quite in the same category as the above but I wish I'd had a helmet cam when Boris Johnson RLJ'd and almost ran into me We both had to slam the brakes and there's an outside chance his feckless riding might've cost him a few votes had footage been publicised. To be fair though, his apology was disarming.

 

[Ste T.]

Kedab, swearing at you and calling you a homo is a hate crime.
I wish I had that law to back me up last week when some fat oaf outed me as a "Ginger C**T"
Honestly, I didn't know where to look!

 

[jamm13dodger]

Wish I'd had one this evening for the fool that pulled a U turn from the opposite side of the road right in front of me this evening. Managed to stop in time and he was completely oblivious.

 

[gambatte]

Wish I'd had a 'dashcam' this evening.

Drove up behind a PoB and matched his speed till the road became a dual carriageway section, so as not to pass too close. 100-200 hundred yards on there's a junction, lights on green. As I approach, it becomes amber. I stop in the LH lane. PoB moves into RH lane and rides straight thro lights, which have been on red for a couple of seconds. I then see him approach the two lanes of traffic, queing for about 5 car lengths at the next RAB and he's wildly gesturing for any driver looking in his mirrors to move out of his way and let him filter up the left.

Its strange, although I don't condone it, I can definitely see how riders like this can wind up a driver.

In the next half mile I passed him (safely) twice more. I actually gave into temptation and positioned my vehicle well over to the left when I reached the next section of stationary traffic.

Oh yeah.....

How about the roadie this dinnertime, going through a short section of roadworks with restricted lane width, where you'd expect him to take primary. Riding between the 2 yellow lines and as he passed the mouth of a junction actually rode 6" to the left of the give way lines...

 

[addictfreak]

Could have done with mine tonight, police car failed to give way to me on a RAB!
Not even a wave to apologise. Good job one of us was watching the road!

 

[Jezston]

Not quite in the same category as the above but I wish I'd had a helmet cam when Boris Johnson RLJ'd and almost ran into me We both had to slam the brakes and there's an outside chance his feckless riding might've cost him a few votes had footage been publicised. To be fair though, his apology was disarming.

Oh man! Full story please!

 

[Arch]

I drive a little electric truck at work, she has a top speed of about 10 mph when fully laden. We get all the same impatient last minute overtakes, usually just before a traffic island, so that the overtaker has to cut in really close.

I've taken to trying to hold primary in her, but people still do it. And that's a vehicle which will cause their car a fair bit of damage if they get it wrong and sideswipe her. So I can at least hold primary in the knowledge that we have a lovely square edged metal box around us (and the back is full of rubbish!)

It's fun when you get the one who thinks they are going for it, and then they have to hang back after all. Or brake hard and get stuck in the middle of the road, and no one is inclined to let them back in...

Also, we are very careful about not going over large junctions on the point of green changing to amber, since her speed means she can be still on the junctions when the cross traffic starts (there is one particular one where the stop line is some way back, and timings are tight) - we always play it safe. So we get a lot of people overtaking us through amber and red lights, where we've stopped and they obviously wanted to just sail through.

I don't know what the answer is, save waiting for the oil to run out. Most of them will then be incapable of leaving the house.

 

[RedRider]

Oh man! Full story please!

It was while he was still editing The Spectator around the time it printed the ignorant editorial about Liverpudlians wallowing in victimhood after Ken Bigley was beheaded in Iraq so he was on my radar.

Our paths crossed at the Red Lion St/Theobald's Rd junction. It was dark but I noticed his hi-vis hair barrelling towards me and braked. He apologised in his posh boy/buffoon act way: "Awfully sorry, old chap. My fault entirely, are you OK? Harumph harumph etc". Sounded like he'd had a few.

I can't get that worked up about other cyclists RLJ-ing, there was no damage done and in the moment I was disarmed by his apology but I kicked myself all the way home for not thinking of anything cutting to say about the man.

With hindsight I'd already missed a trick by braking so fast, a front wheel would've been a small price to watch him flying through the air and my anecdote would've been far more satisfying.