Woman driver

Eat My Dust

Me, primary position, doing just above 30mph approaching set of traffic lights that have just turned to red. I notice a car trying to bully me out of the way. I move across when I reach the red light to see what they have to say for themselves. A woman rolls down her window. The conversation went something like this. (BTW, she had one of those whiney English voices, that really annoys me!!)

"You shouldn't be in the middle of the road"

"why not?"

"Because you're a cyclist" (no sh_it Sherlock)

"In these wet conditions, all the more reason for me being in the middle of the road"

"but you're a cyclist" she repeats again!

"Were you in a rush to get to the red lights?" I say, now amused.

"But you're a cyclist, you shouldn't be in the middle of the road!"

"were you in a rush to get to the red lights?" I repeat, now smiling at the sillyness of the situation.

"BUT you're a cyclist!!!" she says again!

The lights turn green, and we are on our way.

The oddest, most amusing discussion I've had with a driver. BTW, I KNOW I'm a cyclist, the bike's a give away!!!

jedster

I find it "interesting" that drivers feel that they are able to give advice to cyclists when they would be reticent in giving advice to other drivers. I mean, clearly most drivers (like this woman) know nothing about cycling and haven't even tried to think things through. Must all come down to the road caste system (I am higher status than him because I'm in a car and he's on a bike). Muppets.

by the way EMD, doing just over 30 mph towards a red light seems odd. Unless I was blasting down a hill I'd have to be giving it serious hammer to hit 30mph and as soon as I saw amber and backed of the pedals the wind resistance would be puling me below 20mph.

J

JustRidecp

Eat My Dust wrote:

(BTW, she had one of those whiney English voices, that really annoys me!!)

You don't live in Edinburgh by any chance?

Reminds me of a post a bit back that was either on here or C+ forum about a bloke who was sitting at a red light in the primary position and a wifey was in a car behind him telling him he shouldn't be on the road and asking him to get out the way!?

Like all intolerances in the world, only education will fix it.

A - W

I never seem to get any comments from anyone, am I doing something wrong?

Eat My Dust

jedster wrote:

by the way EMD, doing just over 30 mph towards a red light seems odd. Unless I was blasting down a hill I'd have to be giving it serious hammer to hit 30mph and as soon as I saw amber and backed of the pedals the wind resistance would be puling me below 20mph.

The traffic lights are situated just after a roundabout which you can't actually see for bushes, etc. The roundabout is very fast moving, with a slight hill as you come off of it, so reaching 30 mph is no problem (for some of us )

Eat My Dust

JustRidecp wrote:

Eat My Dust wrote:

(BTW, she had one of those whiney English voices, that really annoys me!!)

You don't live in Edinburgh by any chance?

No, this was in London. I am however Scottish!

wai

That's sweet.

I do find it surprising when cyclists want to adopt primary when I drive and to be honest, before getting on a bicycle myself, I'd very often see it as an annoyance.

I have no problemsif a cyclist decides to adopt primary position if they felt their safety required it. It's adopting it for the sake of adopting it and preventing any traffic passing that tends to be less well received, regardless of the speed the cyclist is doing. You could be doing 50 in a 30 and someone will still want to overtake you.

BentMikey

Yes, but that sort of cager attitude is pure ignorance.

wai

'cager attitude'?

I agree that it's not the correct way for cars to interact with other road users, but it's clear that a great many drivers do perceive cyclists as an obstacle to be overtaken as soon as possible, regardless of whether it's right or wrong to do so.

There is also a clear correlation between consideration and relative vulnerability amongst road users and it's a sensible one, if not just. Attempting to buck this trend is laudable and I wish you luck it in.

BentMikey

Ah yes, I'm going to sacrifice my safety for your convenience? You need to buy two copies of cyclecraft and read them both, IMO.

Keithp88

Out of curiosity, was said whiny voiced woman in a BMW? All the ar*eholes are in the damned things. It is better to be on your bike and thought a fool than to buy a BMW and remove all doubt.

rdaviesb

Ah. BMW. Great for scratching. So much more satisfying than less prestige marques.

smiorgan

wai wrote:

There is also a clear correlation between consideration and relative vulnerability amongst road users and it's a sensible one.

Game theory of driving suggests there is no social pressure to drivers actually being nice to one another. Or in other words, no matter how "nice" one is as a cyclist there will always be other people in cars to whom this is irrelevent. Any correlation you see is subjective.

wai wrote:

You could be doing 50 in a 30 and someone will still want to overtake you

Now that's just silly.

dazzawazza

wai wrote:

preventing any traffic passing that tends to be less well received, regardless of the speed the cyclist is doing. You could be doing 50 in a 30 and someone will still want to overtake you.

Surely because the driver is breaking the law they are absolutely in the wrong. The cyclist has every right to be in primary position, especially if they are travelling near the speed limit. You can guarantee that if the cyclist was replaced with a car they wouldn't receive abuse.

This morning I adopted primary position approaching some red traffic lights. I checked behind and signalled; there was a large gap behind me. The car behind swerved on to the other side of the road at speed yelling abuse and sounding his horn. After the overtaking manoeuvre he had to slam on his brakes and almost hit a stationary car waiting at the lights. Are these people only morons when behind the wheel or are they always morons?

misterben

dazzawazza wrote:

Surely because the driver is breaking the law they are absolutely in the wrong.

Indeed.

The cyclist has every right to be in primary position, especially if they are travelling near the speed limit. You can guarantee that if the cyclist was replaced with a car they wouldn't receive abuse.

<Hollow laughter>

Try driving at 30 on any non-built up, straight piece of road and watch what happens. Sadly, even driving _on_ the speed limit is too frustrating for a sizeable minority, if not a majority, of drivers.

Eat My Dust

It gets even better!!!! this morning I'm approaching a set of red lights in primary position, when a double decker bus decides he's overtaking me. As we get nearer the lights, he realises that he's not going to make it past, so tries to 'push me into the kerb, I held my position as there was only 20/30 feet until the traffic stopped at the lights. Where was the bus stopped? lol, he was on the wrong side of the road, he wasn't very popular with the first car that came along the other way!!!!


BTW, I didn't let him pull in because if he had taken the time to look beyond the red light, he would have seen a long line of stationary traffic, so I would have just had to filter past hom anyhoo!!

Jacomus-rides-Gen

Good work EMD, its a shame he will hate all cyclists even more now, but you protected yourself from a dangerous and potentially fatal move.

Thats the key - let them call you whatever names they like from inside their giant red box, but as long as your alive, it doesn't matter. Its no good them being all sorry when they park 4 tonnes of metal on your head, as it is a little too late by then.

To counter your bad driving point, I had a bus wave me past today. We were approaching a set of lights and he braked early and waved so that I wouldn't have to filter past him at the queue. Shows that some drivers use those funny shiny things attached to their vehicle

janm399

Indeed, well done EMD. It is important to make drivers realise that they can't bully us! If this were me, I'd do exactly the same thing.
If a driver gives me enough room and then tries to filter to another lane, there's a good chance I'll wave them them in. If they're just trying to bully their way through, then I will try to hold my way as much as practical.

Random Vince

misterben wrote:

<Hollow laughter>

Try driving at 30 on any non-built up, straight piece of road and watch what happens. Sadly, even driving _on_ the speed limit is too frustrating for a sizeable minority, if not a majority, of drivers.

in my oppinion, as i pull into the right hand lane of the M1 in a transit mini bus at 70mph, leaving a fair gap for the guy who is now behind me,

they can go and screw themselves for all i care, i'm going to go the speed limit

it is also my attitude when driving the car.


the other night, someone was driving 2ft away from my rear bumper while we were going 60mph, had i tapped the brake he'd have hit me, so i decided if thats the braking distance he wants, then we can do teh speed for that braking distance

he overtook me and went on to be a div somewhere else,