Odd driver behaviour

Eat My Dust

There's a 30 mph limit section of my commute home where I usually reach 35 mph+ (it's down hill) I quite correctly take a very primary position whilst doing this and often have cars beeping at me or accellerating well over 40 mph (keep in mind it's a 30 mph limit) and overtaking extremely dangerously into oncoming traffic. The night before last I'm bombing down the road only to catch up with a line of traffic. There was about 3 or 4 cars stuck behind a Volkswagon that was doing 19mph (according to my computer) he did this speed for over a mile and there was not a sign of any impatience or annoyance what so ever. Don't figure!

BentMikey

It's called Rule Number One, or the golden rule: "You MUST overtake a cyclist, no matter how stupid, dangerous, illegal, or pointless the overtake."

Shadowduck

Meh, nothing odd about that I'm afraid.

You're on a bike, therefore you're holding them up* - simple as that. :roll:

*Regardless of how fast you're going.

Gazzaputt

Eat My Dust wrote:

There's a 30 mph limit section of my commute home where I usually reach 35 mph+ (it's down hill) I quite correctly take a very primary position whilst doing this and often have cars beeping at me or accelerating well over 40 mph (keep in mind it's a 30 mph limit) and overtaking extremely dangerously into oncoming traffic. The night before last I'm bombing down the road only to catch up with a line of traffic. There was about 3 or 4 cars stuck behind a Volkswagon that was doing 19mph (according to my computer) he did this speed for over a mile and there was not a sign of any impatience or annoyance what so ever. Don't figure!

I figure an accident waiting to happen sooner or later.

You adopt primary at 35mph+ car passes you to close as you've pissed them off.

35mph crash on a bike hurts and I know it I have the scars. That was with no traffic around. Come off and a car coming the other way think about it.

I'd do this speed if the road is clear but I feel that 35mph on roads with traffic can end in disaster. You have to look at reality and that is cars need to pass bikes regardless of their speed. Piss them off and they pass to close.

Eat My Dust

On this section of road you have to adopt primary regardless of what speed you are doing. I've always felt that it's safer to go faster as then you only get the occassional idiot who will squeeze past no matter what. Whereas a speed of say 25mph would mean that every person would squeeze past. It's kind of like sheep.

Kafka\'s Doll

My favourite is the bus driver who, when finding you doing a decent speed in his bus lane, will enter the standard traffic lane to overtake, spend two minutes (at your speed plus 0.25mph) getting ahead by half a yard, then nudge in front of you only to slam his brakes on because he has to stop to let people off. Barmy.

cee

Kafka\'s Doll wrote:

My favourite is the bus driver who, when finding you doing a decent speed in his bus lane, will enter the standard traffic lane to overtake, spend two minutes (at your speed plus 0.25mph) getting ahead by half a yard, then nudge in front of you only to slam his brakes on because he has to stop to let people off. Barmy.

my favorite is slowing down to let them pass, overtaking them on the right, and standing up and pressing the 'Emergency Engine Stop' button....

They LOVE that

tardington

! that is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Soooo tempted! But possibly cause a lot more trouble than it's worth!

(I have the same bus whizz past me every night, and then crash stop into a bus-stop as soon as it's ahead of me... :evil:

Jamey

Is it a requirement for bus drivers to begin indicating after they've actually started pulling out as well?

Seems like it.

Porgy

Shadowduck wrote:

Meh, nothing odd about that I'm afraid.

You're on a bike, therefore you're holding them up* - simple as that. :roll:

*Regardless of how fast you're going.

I asked a bloke at work about this becasue it was happening to me when I was coming down Woolwich common every morning. I'd be going at least 30 in a 30 mph road, and every bugger in a car would try to overtake me. Once they succeeded they'd suddenly notice the speed camera and slam their brakes on to about 25 - and I'd be forced to slow down too - usually far too close behind for comfort.

In the end I had to give up going so fast down this hill - ended up pissing more drivers off - but it was safer for me.

Anyway - this bloke at work said he would always overtake the cyclist because he reckoned it was safer for the car to be in front. I tried to get him to explain this, but he wasn;t able to - but kept repeating that he thought it was safer for him to overtake the cyclist even if he had to go to 40 mph to do it.

It confused me - but wonder how many other drivers ahve this bizarre philosophy.

redvee

Jamey wrote:

Is it a requirement for bus drivers to begin indicating after they've actually started pulling out as well?

Seems like it.

Is that what those orange lights on cars etc are called :shock:

graham_g

You think that's odd - I changed lanes into a lane of STATIONARY traffic behind a bus (each lane goes in a diff direction - bottom of Whiteladies Road in Bristol if you know it), no room to overtake and didn't want to undertake a bus. Car behind sounds it's horn and driver starts gestures to get me to move over. We are not moving. We are sitting in a huge row of traffic. Behind a huge double decker bus. I look back, incredulous and point at the bus. Once again he signs for me to move over, I shake my head, he makes gestures to call me a dickhead. 30 seconds has now passed and the bus still hasn't moved. 10 seconds later I'm 100 yards ahead after the bus moved forward enabling me to overtake traffic for the next mile.

Seriously. WTF? I was astounded - this has got to be the oddest behaviour I have ever experienced and could easily be turned into a comedy sketch highlighting Mikey's rule No 1.

Porgy

Graham G wrote:

Seriously. WTF? I was astounded - this has got to be the oddest behaviour I have ever experienced and could easily be turned into a comedy sketch highlighting Mikey's rule No 1.

Not that unusual in my experience. black cabs seem to be the worst offenders.

cupofteacp

If anyone beats me it's a national disgrace, I PAY TAX

how big is you peni$

I drive a car, I'm big and powerful.

See how much I spend

On a c%ap form of transprt

Hey ho, it's life forget it, the stress will kil you

graham_g

cupofteacp wrote:

Hey ho, it's life forget it, the stress will kil you

You are very right here. One thing I've noticed since moving to Bristol (from Birmingham) is that I get more grief from drivers by a long chalk. I am getting a bit wound up by it, even to the extent that I'll start thinking about it before I go to bed and end up feeling agitated again!
It's going to take a little getting used to but I'm generally very laid back.....

On the plus side, more motorists go out of their way to hold back before overtaking and give room etc. etc. so I guess I have to take the rough with the smooth.

Clever Pun

Kafka\'s Doll wrote:

My favourite is the bus driver who, when finding you doing a decent speed in his bus lane, will enter the standard traffic lane to overtake, spend two minutes (at your speed plus 0.25mph) getting ahead by half a yard, then nudge in front of you only to slam his brakes on because he has to stop to let people off. Barmy.

or to completely miss the people at the stop to save face

saveswalking

It appears that some motorists have an inherent dislike of a cyclist in front of them but recently I had an encounter with a White Van (plus Man) who took exception to me standing on the pavement (with bike) waiting to cross the road. His 'problem' was that I was 'stopping him from parking' but he had crossed the road from the direction he was traveling in and driven up level with me. When I asked why he was being so aggressive he became more abusive and threatened 'to do me'. He regularly parks up across the road from where I live (visiting his dear old muvver I guess).
I think this is an example of an inherent dislike of the sight of a cyclist that some drivers have.

sw