Chased for miles by a driver: what would you have done?

arewenotmen

Well, today I got to call 999 for the first time ever :?

Some lunatic in a souped up 306 overtook me holding down the horn, gesturing that I should be in the cycle lane off the road. I was doing about 25mph at the time. I gestured back, and this obviously upset him.

He then tried to stop me four times, mostly pulling into laybys and one time getting out of the car and standing in the road. We exchanged shouts a couple of times but after that I just threatened to call the police. After he disappeared for a bit, I rang 101 and reported what had happened, then continued on my way. A bit after that I saw him again - he turned around twice, and harassed me over about three miles of countryside A27. I thought 'this is bollocks', pulled off the road into a little street, and rang 999. Not long after that he found me stopped. Massive argument but thankfully no violence - I flagged down a passing van to make sure nothing happened, and it calmed down a bit.

No stopped witnesses, and the police didn't turn up in the end (because they couldn't find the road!). I think I've got to give a statement at some point but it's unclear to me what exactly happens now - they've got my address & number so I guess I'll see. For some reason he gave me his address and phone number. I didn't give him mine.

In future I'll straight ignore them, absolutely no response, but apart from that I wonder whether I did the right thing, and what to do now. If I ever have this misfortune again I reckon I'll get off the route and basically hide - I guess you've no idea what these people will do.

zero303

Yeah, no shame in hiding or running, some of the idiots about these days just aren't to be trusted not to do something outrageous...

graeme_s-2

I think in the same situation my priority would be to find somewhere busy and loose the moron. My commute is either out of or into Cov City Centre, so if I ever have the misfortune to find myself in such a situation it shouldn't be too difficult to give someone the slip. Glad to hear you escaped without injury!

JoeSoap76

arewenotmen wrote:

For some reason he gave me his address and phone number.

Are you sure he was angry? You weren't wearing lycra, were you?

arewenotmen

Ha, I do my 10 mile each way commute on a mountain bike, in baggy shorts and sweaty T shirt. There's nowt sexy about that. I still average a heartwarming 19mph though, at least on maniac-free days 8)

downfader

Arewenotmen! I have had similar experiences too. One time the guy came up behind me at the roundabout and decded to follow me for a few hundred yards (there was virtually nothing on the roads - every oportunity to safely overtake). I too decided to just dismount and walk for a bit. All over my shouting to give me a little space when I'd been cut up. :?

My advice is dont swear or make hand signals. It just gives them an excuse to act like a cock. Most times now, unless its too close for comfort, I'll just ignore them (and maybe post a video on youtube, lol). Dont be persuaded into a fight, you never know what they have under their seats, if threatened with violence back off.

My second bit of advice is to get a helmet camera. This will not only capture evidence (well most times), but can be a useful aid with insurance in mind (eg driver says you smacked their car or you pulled out without looking, etc)

arewenotmen

I'm wondering about that actually, partly for XC rides and partly for this reason - but I kind of got the impression I'd need to spend about £400 with Dogcam or someone to get anything good. Even then battery life seems pretty limited.

downfader

arewenotmen wrote:

I'm wondering about that actually, partly for XC rides and partly for this reason - but I kind of got the impression I'd need to spend about £400 with Dogcam or someone to get anything good. Even then battery life seems pretty limited.

There are a few reasonable makes out there for around a hundred quid. If you check out JoeSoap76's, and Magnatom's youtube pages you can see some of what is acheivable.

Obviously spending a small fortune on a wired system seems to offer up more options (wider lenses, better optical resolution and sharpness, etc). If you just want to stick a rugged compact digicam on the handlebars you can go in a good photo shop and order the manfrotto 035 superclamp and the 037 camera adapter (around £25, its what i currently use)

I'm hoping to upgrade my camera at some point.

dirk_van_gently

Good to see the Police took it seriously :shock: Too busy munchin doughnuts no doubt. :shock:
Glad you're OK. You have his address, can I suggest a can of Nitromores, useful stuff

boybiker

You should have invited him to try riding in the cycle lane so he could see for himself how dangerous they are.Here on Button moon we have one which follows an A road for about 100 meters and then just stops with a nice lamppost in the middle of it.

gandhi

Where on the A27? I had a guy do exactly the same thing to me near Romsey, but I stopped first try and had a conversation. He was in a silver 306, and probably about 5'10". I know it's a long road, but it would be pretty weird if he's a serial road rage sufferer.

dang65

arewenotmen wrote:

Not long after that he found me stopped. Massive argument but thankfully no violence - I flagged down a passing van to make sure nothing happened, and it calmed down a bit.

No stopped witnesses, and the police didn't turn up in the end (because they couldn't find the road!). I think I've got to give a statement at some point but it's unclear to me what exactly happens now - they've got my address & number so I guess I'll see. For some reason he gave me his address and phone number. I didn't give him mine.

Can you tell us more about the argument?? Did the guy think you were legally required to be on the off-road path or something? It seems like an incredibly petty point to hunt someone down for! And have you had any more ideas about why he would have given you his address and phone number? The whole thing is quite bizarre. Glad he wasn't a full-on psycho anyway, just a common or garden nutter by the sound of it.

arewenotmen

Yes, exactly that. I wrote a long and boring statement, as I've got to give one later, so here's the bit about the argument in the end:

Several minutes later he appeared from the ---- direction, pointing at me, and continued along the road. He then turned round again, coming from the ---- direction, and pulled into ----. He got out of the car and approached me. He initially threatened some form of violence but there was no physical threat. I flagged down a Transit van driver for help by standing in the road, and the situation calmed down.

We then argued for some time, and he told me how he pays his road tax and insurance, how he knew that the law compels me to ride on a cycle path when one is available, how his car was worth seven thousand pounds, how he "hates cyclists" and various other opinions. He said he was concerned that if a cyclist hit an obstacle and swerved, and was then hit by him, he would be blamed and would have to live with the consequences.

I asked what would happen if using the horn distracted me and caused me to crash, to which he answered, "I hope you do you c**t". I also said that using a cycle path would be dangerous, as there was one opposite with an elderly couple walking on it, and he responded that the answer was to "go slowly then".

At some point during this discussion he gave me his name and address, and as the police phoned me back, his name and phone number. The operator said they couldn't find the location, that noone was available, and that they would take statements. I passed this information on.

Eventually the argument was concluded - we didn't agree on anything but I explained that I found his prior behaviour intimidating and threatening, and he apologised for that. He then returned to his vehicle and drove away, shortly after 17:30.

Unfortunately I don't think reading the Daily Mail is illegal

arewenotmen

Yes, exactly that. I wrote a long and boring statement, as I've got to give one later, so here's the bit about the argument in the end:

Several minutes later he appeared from the ---- direction, pointing at me, and continued along the road. He then turned round again, coming from the ---- direction, and pulled into ----. He got out of the car and approached me. He initially threatened some form of violence but there was no physical threat. I flagged down a Transit van driver for help by standing in the road, and the situation calmed down.

We then argued for some time, and he told me how he pays his road tax and insurance, how he knew that the law compels me to ride on a cycle path when one is available, how his car was worth seven thousand pounds, how he "hates cyclists" and various other opinions. He said he was concerned that if a cyclist hit an obstacle and swerved, and was then hit by him, he would be blamed and would have to live with the consequences.

I asked what would happen if using the horn distracted me and caused me to crash, to which he answered, "I hope you do you c**t". I also said that using a cycle path would be dangerous, as there was one opposite with an elderly couple walking on it, and he responded that the answer was to "go slowly then".

At some point during this discussion he gave me his name and address, and as the police phoned me back, his name and phone number. The operator said they couldn't find the location, that noone was available, and that they would take statements. I passed this information on.

Eventually the argument was concluded - we didn't agree on anything but I explained that I found his prior behaviour intimidating and threatening, and he apologised for that. He then returned to his vehicle and drove away, shortly after 17:30.

Unfortunately I don't think reading the Daily Mail is illegal

cee

bizarre

Surf-Matt

He reckons his chav'd up 306 is worth £7K?!

Clearly straight out the lunatic asylum.

Well handled I reckon - I would have knocked him out and got in trouble :oops:

dang65

Yes, well handled I would say. You did the right thing all the way, with the possible exception of the (instinctive) hand signal at the first incident!

Someone needs to take this guy to one side and put him right on a couple of points. It sounds like the costs of running a car are really starting to freak some drivers out now. They genuinely see it as a grave injustice that anyone else should use their road for free.

Paulie W

No criticism of the OP here - this was obviously a very unsettling and scary situation - but the notion expressed here (implictly and explcitly) that we as cyclists must not react in any way to driver intimidation (physical or vocal) on the basis that the driver may turn out to be a psycho seems very unsatisfactory to me!

cee

Paulie W wrote:

No criticism of the OP here - this was obviously a very unsettling and scary situation - but the notion expressed here (implictly and explcitly) that we as cyclists must not react in any way to driver intimidation (physical or vocal) on the basis that the driver may turn out to be a psycho seems very unsatisfactory to me!

I think I can generalise this a bit more to be honest:

snip.... but the notion expressed here (implictly and explcitly) that we as PEOPLE must not react in any way to intimidation from other PEOPLE (physical or vocal) on the basis that the PERSON may turn out to be a psycho seems very unsatisfactory to me!

I don't really give a monkeys whether the other party involved is a driver, hot air ballonist, space shuttle pilot, pedestrian or other cyclist....... I refuse to live my life in the fear that some other prat MIGHT be a psycho. If I am unhappy, I will communicate that fact.

dang65

Paulie W wrote:

No criticism of the OP here - this was obviously a very unsettling and scary situation - but the notion expressed here (implictly and explcitly) that we as cyclists must not react in any way to driver intimidation (physical or vocal) on the basis that the driver may turn out to be a psycho seems very unsatisfactory to me!

Yeah, well, you takes your choice with that one. Depends on my mood whether I do the w*nker sign at car drivers. I did it to a couple of them the other day after getting beeped and close overtaked for no reason. Felt a bit silly afterwards. It feels much better not to react at all, especially if you think they were trying to get a reaction and will be disappointed if you don't.

cee

yeah...maybe the w*anker sign was also inflammitory

andrewc3142

Absolutely correct. Avoid confrontation, not least since you'd probably come off worse as a cyclist, but report him to the police. Next time, and it sounds like there will be a next time for him, the consequences could be much worse.

Even if there's no prosecution a heart to heart from a policeman and some explanation of what the legal position actually is regarding cycle paths should make him think twice before being so stupid again. And if he does, there is a track record on file.

Although not sure about the Daily Mail .....

Surf-Matt

People like that don't respond to being politely informed about the law.

What's all this about "he might be a psyco?" He already has proven himself to be one!

I think he needs someone to get medieval on him. That would sort the situation out.

mrchrispy

I’m afraid to say I'm with cee on this one but I'll choose my battles wisely, most drivers are all mouth when they are in their cage but soon change their tune when confronted and I reckon I can spot a true nutter a mile away.

A lot of them just don’t know the law when it comes to cyclelanes. Chester road in Manchester, 3 lanes and a 30cm wide green strip, I was doing 25 in secondary when some guy decided to sit on my rear wheel and beep me despite traffic being very light and having another 2 lanes to use, he then shouts something as he goes past waaay to close. Chase ensues (me after him) and he’s daft enough to pull over, after the initial shouting we end up talking like real people. I apologised for threatening to ram his car up his arse and he explains that he was annoyed that I wasn’t in the cyclelane, he thinks we have to use them and I think a lot of drivers think the same. I think we parted company on terms.

robmanic1

I think you did very well to remain calm, I reckon the adrenalin would have been pumping so much I'd probably have taken a swing and regretted it afterwards. Sometimes a shake of the head is all that's required, get on with your ride and forget about it, after all there's always another idiot around the corner.

redvee

Surf-Matt wrote:

He reckons his chav'd up 306 is worth £7K?!

Clearly straight out the lunatic asylum.

Well handled I reckon - I would have knocked him out and got in trouble :oops:

£7k is probably what he's spent in total on the car and go faster bits for his chav chariot. Obviously he needs to spend a little more on roadsense and consideration for other road users, howvever there is no help for his brainless chav passengers.

karl j

I think if you do get into "conversation" with that sort of individual you have to be prepared for it to descend pretty quickly. So, in essence, my advice would be to only get into such "conversation" if you are able and willing to deal with it fully. Otherwise keep your gob shut and head down.

Johnpsanderson

Have been in this sort of situation as a motorist and as a cyclist - and have come to the conclusion that some people are just MENTAL!

So, in essence, my advice would be to only get into such "conversation" if you are able and willing to deal with it fully. Otherwise keep your gob shut and head down.

is probably a fair point. But, especially when giving it some stick on the bike, I tend to get a bit worked up anyway - typically this just gets directed into the pedals - but once the adrenaline is flowing it can easily redirect itself!

GEPC

What is it about 306's? I had an altercation with a chav in a lime green 306 in Stockwell. He tried to run me off he road after I objected to him cutting me up. He then tried to wait for me after a set of lights.

At the time I did the right thing which after some initial verbal exchanges of our respective points of views I simply waited until he had gone bofre carrying on. Although I was fuming I figured my life could only be beter if I had as little as possible to do wtih the prick.

What I would have liked to have done was to smash his precious car with a baseball bat, or maybe even his head. But apparently that is considered to be an overreaction so as several people have said on this thread. Keep your head down and don't get involved.

I still see his car around though so his wing mirrors having and accident is very tempting.

GEPC

What is it about 306's? I had an altercation with a chav in a lime green 306 in Stockwell. He tried to run me off he road after I objected to him cutting me up. He then tried to wait for me after a set of lights.

At the time I did the right thing which after some initial verbal exchanges of our respective points of views I simply waited until he had gone bofre carrying on. Although I was fuming I figured my life could only be beter if I had as little as possible to do wtih the prick.

What I would have liked to have done was to smash his precious car with a baseball bat, or maybe even his head. But apparently that is considered to be an overreaction so as several people have said on this thread. Keep your head down and don't get involved.

I still see his car around though so his wing mirrors having and accident is very tempting.

tiny_pens

I don't think this link has been posted for a while but it normally makes me smile and feel more calm about things after confrontational incidents.

Spike Bike

tiny Pens