Angry Audi Man

RedHobbit

Hey all,

I commute every morning and evening along the Nottingham ring road, a busy dual carriageway. Almost everyone I share the road with is considerate and happy to see me pass them as they sit in the queues except for one guy whom I have started to call the "Angry Audi Man".

This guy really seems to have a problem with cyclists who try to share the road with him and his red Audi. At first I thought it was amusing. He would lean out of his window and shout at me to get on the f'ing pavement etc. Up to now I have laughed him off as a rather sad frustrated man with a big ego and a tiny dick; but this morning he came really close to wiping me out twice and it shook me up quite a bit.

Both times were clearly deliberate. First coming up on my left as we approached the back of a queue of cars. Holding his position to prevent me from moving out to overtake, then trying to push me into the kerb. Presumably so I was forced into the pavement. I had to slam on the brakes and managed to slip behind him and move around, with him shouting something unintelligable out of his window.

Again, later, from the outside lane. He seemed to wait until I was about to move past him between the lines of slow moving traffic (they were doing about 5mph, me about 20) and he moved into the middle of the road deliberately blocking my way and forcing me to swerve in front of another car or hit the back of him.

I was quite shaken up when I made it to work. I'm not a particularly confrontation person, and all I want to do is get to work in the best and most enjoyable way I know how. Thing is I am now pretty nervous of bumping into this guy and I am not sure what to do. I have decided that the next time I see him I'll get a picture of his car and # plate, and his face if I can. I don't believe the police will particularly care if I report him. He is certainly not going to stop me riding my bike but I don't want to think about him intimidating other cyclists in the same way.

What would you do?

RedHobbit.

Surf-Matt

Audi drivers seem to be the new BMW drivers - angry, rude, above themselves and aggressive.

He's clearly angry at the world for some reason - you aren't so you've already won.

Waste of space and time - but do clock the plate if you can. I bet it's a small engined rep Audi.

Clever Pun

you should certainly shop him and next time he does anything stop and mention that he's driving dangerously and that you reported him to the police

Do this in a calm voice when he's stuck in traffic... then tell him you'll be wearing a camera in future and it's be nice for the police to have a recorded version of his dangerous driving.. he'll be furious with impotent rage then make sure you wave to him every morning

Clever Pun

Surf-Matt wrote:

Audi drivers seem to be the new BMW drivers - angry, rude, above themselves and aggressive.

not generalising much then??

cee

RedHobbit wrote:

What would you do?

RedHobbit.

I assume from your story that you see this guy quite regularly? Is he too intimidating to confront?

How about get a copy of the relevant highway code sections from the net, and keep them in your bag, then if he does it again, you could provide him with the necessary information! Affirmative action through education and all that!

If you could get the incident on video camera, you could make a better complaint to the police, with your video evidence. Sadly, unless he actually does wipe you out, nothing is likely to happen. Although, if you can get another person to witness the dangerous driving, both of you could make separate complaints to the police, which could be enough for them to go on.

Failing all of that, go postal, swing your d-lock towards his windscreen and fold his wing mirrors in (in your mind)

cee

just one other thing....

Cycles ARE supposed to be on this dual carriageway right?

I know some dual carriageways are off limits to bikes, whilst others are not (look out for the signs at the on ramp).

Surf-Matt

Clever Pun wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Audi drivers seem to be the new BMW drivers - angry, rude, above themselves and aggressive.

not generalising much then??

Why not? I like Audis, but am noticing more and more being driven aggressively of late.

RedHobbit

I see him all the time. I only usually pass him once, but sometimes the flow of traffic is such that I pass the same cars several times on the way in. There are parts of the Nottm ring road to the south of the city that are clearways, but in the North from Mansfield road to the QMC it's prefectly legal to ride on the road. There is a dual use pavement, but I don't use it.

I like the idea of getting a witness. I am not the only person who rides this road, but I agree, unless I actually have an off as a result of a run in with him I don't think there's any point contacting the police

Surf-Matt

Maybe ride to work on one of these?



I bet if you managed to stop him, he'd be a quivering little man. I find most aggressive drivers are actually as scary as a vole when out of their big, safe metal boxes.

woodford2barbican

Take a camera & take pictures of him Even if it does little more than wind him up whilst you do it, it might make him moderate his behaviour once he spends a day thinking about the fact that you now have an easy way of identifying him to the police.

jedster

I think the camera idea is good. If you ever get him stopped in traffic then making a point of snapping his plate on your mobile might just bring him to his senses.

BTW - I personally think 20mph is too fast to be filtering between lines of traffic. Your call but you have very little margin if a driver does something silly.

J

Eat My Dust

If you see him all of the time. How about buying an old scrap car and ramming it into his shiney Audi and the hop out and do a runner. That'd teach him!!

Belv

I think we should always report things like this. It may be that the police are already aware of him and your evidence could be enough to get something done. Or if something more serious happens in future, your complaint might ensure he can't plead "one mistake after years of careful driving".

RedHobbit

jedster wrote:

BTW - I personally think 20mph is too fast to be filtering between lines of traffic. Your call but you have very little margin if a driver does something silly.

J

Fair enough. I do moderate my speed if it's wet or icy obviously, but I have been riding this route every week for 18 months without incident. Make no mistake, if I had been riding any faster the chances are I would have hit him.

Maybe I should get his plate and report it so there is at least some kind of record. He might even have form already.

redvee

Similar happened to me today. Road blocked by an offal wagon outside a butchers shop and followed a WVM past at which point a red fiat waiting for the road to clear decided bikes aren't traffic and as I passed the drivers window a word or two was uttered, one sounded like luck but wasn't :shock: . Given the circumstances I wasn't too far over, was I?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrKuVMdtooc

always_tyred

Well, you haven't been doing this route completely without incident, have you?

People are given, even when not trying to kill cyclists, to making precipitous decisions to change lanes in traffic, in the odd belief that this will get them to their destination faster.

You run the risk of getting nailed by riding between lanes.

BTW, I agree - take a picture, but do so from in front of him, so he can see you do it. He won't know either way what you are doing with the info and he'll be in the "waiting to see if there was film in the speed camera" position for a while.

Alternatively, call his bluff - fail to quite manage to avoid his swerving. If that's a bit on the edge for you, simulate this by rapping your knuckles on his rear wing. Its a convincing simulation and I've had a number of motorists doing kerbside bodywork inspections. You have the fail safe "you swerved into my path, sir" defense.

All motorists (except those who have actually injured a cyclist - in which case its about 50:50) are far more concerned about their bodywork and their insurance premium than the true consequences of their actions. So, make him worry.

cee

redvee wrote:

Similar happened to me today. Road blocked by an offal wagon outside a butchers shop and followed a WVM past at which point a red fiat waiting for the road to clear decided bikes aren't traffic and as I passed the drivers window a word or two was uttered, one sounded like luck but wasn't :shock: . Given the circumstances I wasn't too far over, was I?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrKuVMdtooc

Its easy to make a judgement in hindsight, with the benefit of video evidence, but....

OK you couldn't see the white van parked in front of the offal wagon, but it looks to me like the little red fiat had the right of way. Had you been a car, one of you would have had to reverse to get out of the situation where you were one the wrong side of the road

I would have done the same though, especially as there looked to be enough room for you both!

hamboman

I think it was his right of way, redvee (your lane was blocked by the van, his was clear, meaning he had right of way). Soz

Gambatte

Belv wrote:

I think we should always report things like this. It may be that the police are already aware of him and your evidence could be enough to get something done. Or if something more serious happens in future, your complaint might ensure he can't plead "one mistake after years of careful driving".

I'd agree, say you know they can't do much without a reg, but this guy will try it again and you want it on record, what he's done.

As Belv said - they may already have his reg!

rustychisel

If he obviously and deliberately swerves (deviates from his course) to impede or threaten you, then shop him. No question. Take camera, get a shot or two. Make sure you report the behaviour, make sure plod understands you're apprehensive and in your opinion this guy is a menace. Get some righteous rage working for you (passive, I mean).

One thing for sure, if you do nothing he'll keep using his vehicle as a weapon, on other cyclists beside you. And that could be very bad indeed. Perhaps (gasp, even perhaps) the plod would do something if they have reports from 3 or 4 cyclists about the same vehicle and the same driver. You didn't consider there might be others like you wondering whether they should take any action, did you?

dombo6

The offal van was obstructing your side of the road so you should have given way to the red car, whose way was clear, as you would have done had you been driving a car instead of riding your bike.

redddraggon

redvee wrote:

Similar happened to me today. Road blocked by an offal wagon outside a butchers shop and followed a WVM past at which point a red fiat waiting for the road to clear decided bikes aren't traffic and as I passed the drivers window a word or two was uttered, one sounded like luck but wasn't :shock: . Given the circumstances I wasn't too far over, was I?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrKuVMdtooc

There was plenty of space for both of you really, so I don't know what all the fuss was about. Offal wagon? Looks like a bin lorry to me.

dombo6

Don't forget, a lot of motorists have very poor spatial awareness, as evidenced by the numbers you often find in the cyclists' safety boxes at traffic lights.

Belv

Dombo6 wrote:

Don't forget, a lot of motorists have very poor spatial awareness, as evidenced by the numbers you often find in the cyclists' safety boxes at traffic lights.

One man's spacial awareness is another's stupidity/ignorance!

Clever Pun

Surf-Matt wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Audi drivers seem to be the new BMW drivers - angry, rude, above themselves and aggressive.

not generalising much then??

Why not? I like Audis, but am noticing more and more being driven aggressively of late.

I drive one and I can say I've never threatened a cyclist or abused any perceived power on the road

karl j

not going to comment on your riding / judgement etc as i don't know the place. But...

...he definitely needs reporting to the old bill. They won't be interested at first, and will tell you it's your word against his and, no doubt, he'd deny all knowledge. I had a similar experience a couple of years ago and it took me til the 3rd operator to actually take the complaint but you just have to keep going

But maybe (hopefully) they'll run his reg no. through the police database and find something else on him - no tax or insurance, wanted etc

Eat My Dust

Clever Pun wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Audi drivers seem to be the new BMW drivers - angry, rude, above themselves and aggressive.

not generalising much then??

Why not? I like Audis, but am noticing more and more being driven aggressively of late.

I drive one and I can say I've never threatened a cyclist or abused any perceived power on the road

I'm afraid to say that I've noticed an increase in Audi wank_rs of late as well. (soory but I have)

RedHobbit

Back from a day on the trains. Losing the car was a great idea but it makes getting onsite more interesting!

Thanks for all your comments. Next time I see Mr. Angry Audi Man, I'll be doing a little amateur photography and making a call to the local police. The general consensus seems to be with that, and I think it's right. The guy is obviously a loon and if he did hurt someone I would regret not having done anything.

RedHobbit.

andrewc3142

Audi drivers started to change when they changed the grill. I've had several Audis in my time and used to rate it as one of my favourite brands. But now they have that grill specifically designed to look aggressive (the "get out of my way" image) I wouldn't buy one again, but I expect there is a new customer group which likes them for that very reason.

nortones2

Very wary of buying another Audi, or some of the Peugeot range, for the same reason.

Parkey

I have to say, RedHobbit, that you are much braver than I am.

I really can't think of a more hostle cycling environment than the Nottingham Ring Road. For everyone who doesn't know it, it's a very busy 40mph dual carriageway with many roundabouts. Well, it's a ringroad. There is a cycle track next to it on the pavement, which is great if you like broken glass, dog poo and stopping to give way about 20 times in a mile.

Which part of the ringroad are you using and is there not an alternative route through the neighbouring residential streets?

As an aside, perhaps in this motorist you've found out the true identity of the infamous "B.J. Mann", a motoring troll that resides on the nottingham evening post website, among other places.