Road rage... what happens when they get out of the tin box?

bonk man

Has anyone ever got into actual fisty cuffs in road rage type incidents?

When they get out of the safe environment of the car do people turn human again?

The reason I ask is; we had an run in with a white van on Sunday, the driver was a big fat angry looking scrap metal type of guy with only one tooth in his head..
He had tried to overtake a car on a mini island and in doing so nearly caused a pile up involving cars and cyclists. Lots of blaring horns flashing lights and fingers going up. One of our guys called him some bad names, we pulled into a carpark and he followed us in waving his massive fists....... BUT as soon as his feet hit the ground he started apologising and trying to explain away his crappy driving. He could have ripped our limbs off and wrapped our bikes around our necks but he seemed to want to be our friend :? There were only 2 of us talking to him as the others were hiding

Cars seem to dehumanise everyone who drives them so should cars be banned and would you vote for a political party that proposed such a thing.. enough votes and I will start that party.

Eat My Dust

I've come to blows once, a couple of years ago in Wembley. The guy threw a punch and then quickly realised that I wasn't all together mentally balanced. He got back in his car and tried running me over several times, he wasn't very good at that either.

eternal_headwind

The car does indeed dehumanise, both from the point of view of the driver and those around.
I am sure we have all seen incidents where a driver suddenly becomes human again when faced directly, but how often have you heard someone driving/parking badly as 'that tw@t in a fiesta/corsa etc' even by other motorists. The metal box dehumanises in both directions.

In answer to the main question, yes. Twice. Or rather 1.5 times.

Th first time was about 3 years ago when two teenagers in a wrecked 205 came alongside me and the passenger tried to grab my rucksack repeatedly.
The idiots kept trying right up until a line of traffic waiting at lights. I then reached into the vehicle and pulled the passenger out of the car. I am not sure if he was about to turn all apologetic because I gave him an almighty beating. He called his mate for help but the lights turned geen and the friend sped off, never to be seen again. At this point I saw the look on the chap's face that said the broken friendship hurt more than the broken nose and let him run off down a nearby pedestrian lane.

The second time was last thursday. A taxi driver tried to run me off the road and once again failed to notice th temporary traffic lights about 6 inches from his nose. It is really easy to pin a driver to their seat by grabbing their right arm. Iturned off his ignition with my left hand (disabled engine and windows) and dropped the keys in the footwell.
Although the man was in his late thirties/early forties it was clear from his struggles and the overwhelming smell of fear that he was physically derelict. I left a dent in his wing instead.

Violence can be understood but not excused. In both of the above incidents I did nothing to improve things for any road user

markos1963

Not on a bike, but on my motorbike I was cut up by a car driver who then flicked his fag out which went in to my helmet through the visor. I pulled up alongside and told him what I thought of him, his answer wasn't the most complimentary so I reached in took his ignition keys and chucked them into the bushes. He got out of the car and went for me. I was already off the bike and set for him, the red mist had descended on him and he swung at me connecting perfectly with my helmet which was still on my head! I almost felt sorry for his broken hand but he had it coming anyway and so I left him with a broken hand,no keys and a big queue of irate drivers behind him :P

bonk man

My mate Jock had a falling out with a cyclist while riding a moped [ he did ride a bike as well] , the cyclist nearly rode into my mate on an island, Jock called him an idiot and the resulting scuffle resulted in the cyclists bike flying over a fence into a locked factory yard..... :?

eternal_headwind

It isn't all bad

This morning I had a good cause to say thank you to a motorist. A white van driver overtook me and then jammed their brakes on once they realised they were heading for a queue of traffic, in order to signal for a young lady to pull out of a left hand junction to turn right.

The woman smiled right at me and signaled for me to go first. If she had blindly out I would have been wrecked.

I even had enough time to shout 'thanks'...

The van driver didn't impres me, but the lady in question was alert and polite.

Tom Butcher

Twice for me - first time was a big guy in a Smart car who nearly pulled into me - I hammered on his window as I rode past - he later cut me up and jumped out demanding to know what I thought I was doing. Ended up with mutual apologies him for not seeing me me for over reacting.

Second one was an HGV was reversing into it's yard - I snuck past it and another guy who was riding out to the same chaingang thought it had put me at risk - in truth I should probably have waited and it didn't really put me at risk anyway but he gave it some verbals. 15 minutes later we are standing waiting for the chain gang and the cab pulls up and the guy jumps out waving fists about threatening my mate. Luckily I was there and calmed him down a bit but I really thought he was going to lamp him one. He had no problem with me - to be honest I could see why he was upset because he did get a load of abuse off this other cyclist for no real reason but it was a bit of an over reaction.

beatsystem

I remember years ago circa 1975 a teamate who had be continually cut up etc in the lake district met the guy in a camping site.John got off his bike jumped on the blokes car with his shoe plates on walked over the car from bonnet to boot, ripping off the windscreen wipers on the way. Got back on his bike and rode off with us looking on in amazement. The motorist never even got out of his tin box Not recomended behaviour but highly effective i believe.
Derek Pierce

bonk man

I got cut up by a mini van in Worcester many years ago, I caught the bloke at some lights and twisted his mirror about and called him some nasty words ..... then realised he was a local copper, infact he was a drug squad detective who had been making our lives difficult [ I was a right hippy ] by turning our pockets out at any opportunity...

He didn't react though and never mentioned it when next I was dragged into the cells, strip searched and beaten up by 6 coppers. Funny that.

irishdan13

I had a few incidents in a previous job when I used to cycle into work every day. On the way home one night I passed a compound and a car pulled directly out in front leaving me with no chance to stop. I hit both brakes and skidded sideways ending up clattering into the guy's rear offside door. I was really p***ed off as I had 2 sets of lights on the bike and reflective clothing and could not believe he didn't see me.

I bounced up off the floor expecting to get into a shouting match (or worse) but to my suprise the first thing he did was apologise and ask if I was OK. Fortunately I was fine and the only damage was the dent my steel toecaps had left in his door.

On other occasions I have had to resort to banging the drivers window when they are in traffic and advising them of the error of their ways (in my broadest Belfast accent of course) but never got into a fight over it..........perhaps the accent helped on that front

LingfieldXC

a friend at school failed his driving test for road rage. Aparrently a woman ran across the road infront of him and he slammed on the brakes and shouted abuse at her.

cee

LingfieldXC wrote:

a friend at school failed his driving test for road rage. Aparrently a woman ran across the road infront of him and he slammed on the brakes and shouted abuse at her.

On my driving test, a kid on a trike came out in front of me... :shock:

Emergency Stop.....Child alive......test passed

Mike Healey

A mad Scot of my (very distant) acquaintance was once bumped fairly firmly by an SUV (large) which pulled out in front of him. No real damage, but the driver got out and started giving him some grief + posh-voiced obscenities.

Jock - "D'ye ken what it's like to be hit by two tons of metal, glass and rubber?"

SUV plonker, looking down his nose - "Of course not"

Jock hoofs him in the groinal area, then, as he doubled up, grabbed hold of the back of his head and bangs his face against the bonnet. "Well y'ken the noo", leaps on his bike and disappears into the traffic.

Illegal, reprehensible, but immorally satisfying

meanwhile

markos1963 wrote:

Not on a bike, but on my motorbike I was cut up by a car driver who then flicked his fag out which went in to my helmet through the visor. I pulled up alongside and told him what I thought of him, his answer wasn't the most complimentary so I reached in took his ignition keys and chucked them into the bushes. He got out of the car and went for me. I was already off the bike and set for him, the red mist had descended on him and he swung at me connecting perfectly with my helmet which was still on my head! I almost felt sorry for his broken hand but he had it coming anyway and so I left him with a broken hand,no keys and a big queue of irate drivers behind him :P

When they make the movie of this, let me know - I want to see it. Probably at least four times...