Seething
squigglescp
Posts: 43
Sorry folks, just need to get some stuff off my chest which has been bugging me all night and this seems to be the best place to do it.
I had a great ride in to work this morning and was looking forward to another good ride home. The traffic coming out of central Oxford wasn't too bad - a few kamikaze pedestrians plus the usual bun-fight getting round The Plain - nothing I haven't seen before.
So there I am, noodling along Iffley Road behind another cyclist, and ahead of her is a car carrying 'P' plates which is taking its time, waiting for the right moment to pass yet another cyclist further ahead of us... then Supernumptywoman turns up just in the nick of time to sod everything up for all of us.
The first I know of anything going wrong is the blaring of her car horn which amazingly is almost matched in volume by her screaming abuse out of the windows at the driver in front for daring to hold her up. By the time I had managed to think of something suitably offensive to yell back at her she had already gone storming off up the road and I was left slowly rolling along in a daze wondering how I didn't get squashed between her and some parked cars. The woman cyclist ahead of me had managed to find a gap in the cars parked ahead of us to pull in to so thankfully she was fine but I didn't manage to get a chance to talk to her and find out her take on things or get the reg number of psycho-hatchback-driver-from-hell as I was too busy trying to shout back at the car. Pah!
But the thing that bothered me the most about the whole episode is not that I might have got hurt, because I was riding out away from parked cars to avoid a dooring, so I had plenty of room to get out of the way. What really rattled me was the driver's attitude - aggressive way over and above anything I've ever encountered (apart from a run in with Mid-Life-Crisis-Man in his shiny BMW actually trying to nudge me in to the gutter - its amazing what the threat of a cleat to shiny paintwork can achieve in getting these sort of bullies to back off). However, this encounter was more than just bullying, it was an attitude that said that nobody had any right whatsoever to be on that bit of road at the same time as her, not bike, car or bus and she didn't care who she had to kill to get us all out of the way.
Now I'm angry. Real moping-around-the-house-in-a-grump angry. Not just because of the danger she posed to me and to other cyclists, but also because of the abuse she gave to that other motorist. What must that person have come away thinking? They've only just passed their test and they're trying to do things right by sharing the road with other people and they get this sort of grief for their efforts. What will that do to their confidence as a new driver?
But I'm more angry with myself. After that run in with the BMW I went out and bought an ATC2K which I nailed to the handlebars. OK, so the video quality isn't brilliant and it eats batteries, but it gets noticed. It protects me in a way I never considered when I first got it. For example, I've made eye contact with people on the roundabout outside my village who I just know are going to pull out in front of me and cut me up. They just have that look that says 'I spit on your primary position' but int that last split second they spot the camera and they just panic and hit the brakes because they know that if they hit me then 'SMIDSY' just won't work... and this evening I didn't use it. I had let the batteries go flat and thought 'well, I've had a quiet week on the road, it'll be OK till I get home tonight and put new ones in. I'll leave it in the pannier'. Whether it would had any effects on the outcome this evening, I don't know, but I had a chance to stack the odds in my favour and didn't do it. Stupid stupid stupid!
Anyway, sorry, its a bit of a ramble, but it helped me to sort things out in my mind and calm down some. Thanks for reading.
Squiggles
I had a great ride in to work this morning and was looking forward to another good ride home. The traffic coming out of central Oxford wasn't too bad - a few kamikaze pedestrians plus the usual bun-fight getting round The Plain - nothing I haven't seen before.
So there I am, noodling along Iffley Road behind another cyclist, and ahead of her is a car carrying 'P' plates which is taking its time, waiting for the right moment to pass yet another cyclist further ahead of us... then Supernumptywoman turns up just in the nick of time to sod everything up for all of us.
The first I know of anything going wrong is the blaring of her car horn which amazingly is almost matched in volume by her screaming abuse out of the windows at the driver in front for daring to hold her up. By the time I had managed to think of something suitably offensive to yell back at her she had already gone storming off up the road and I was left slowly rolling along in a daze wondering how I didn't get squashed between her and some parked cars. The woman cyclist ahead of me had managed to find a gap in the cars parked ahead of us to pull in to so thankfully she was fine but I didn't manage to get a chance to talk to her and find out her take on things or get the reg number of psycho-hatchback-driver-from-hell as I was too busy trying to shout back at the car. Pah!
But the thing that bothered me the most about the whole episode is not that I might have got hurt, because I was riding out away from parked cars to avoid a dooring, so I had plenty of room to get out of the way. What really rattled me was the driver's attitude - aggressive way over and above anything I've ever encountered (apart from a run in with Mid-Life-Crisis-Man in his shiny BMW actually trying to nudge me in to the gutter - its amazing what the threat of a cleat to shiny paintwork can achieve in getting these sort of bullies to back off). However, this encounter was more than just bullying, it was an attitude that said that nobody had any right whatsoever to be on that bit of road at the same time as her, not bike, car or bus and she didn't care who she had to kill to get us all out of the way.
Now I'm angry. Real moping-around-the-house-in-a-grump angry. Not just because of the danger she posed to me and to other cyclists, but also because of the abuse she gave to that other motorist. What must that person have come away thinking? They've only just passed their test and they're trying to do things right by sharing the road with other people and they get this sort of grief for their efforts. What will that do to their confidence as a new driver?
But I'm more angry with myself. After that run in with the BMW I went out and bought an ATC2K which I nailed to the handlebars. OK, so the video quality isn't brilliant and it eats batteries, but it gets noticed. It protects me in a way I never considered when I first got it. For example, I've made eye contact with people on the roundabout outside my village who I just know are going to pull out in front of me and cut me up. They just have that look that says 'I spit on your primary position' but int that last split second they spot the camera and they just panic and hit the brakes because they know that if they hit me then 'SMIDSY' just won't work... and this evening I didn't use it. I had let the batteries go flat and thought 'well, I've had a quiet week on the road, it'll be OK till I get home tonight and put new ones in. I'll leave it in the pannier'. Whether it would had any effects on the outcome this evening, I don't know, but I had a chance to stack the odds in my favour and didn't do it. Stupid stupid stupid!
Anyway, sorry, its a bit of a ramble, but it helped me to sort things out in my mind and calm down some. Thanks for reading.
Squiggles
Said the tiny Ant to the Elephant, "Mind how you tread in this clearing!"
But alas, cruel fate, she was crushed by the weight, of an elephant hard of hearing!
But alas, cruel fate, she was crushed by the weight, of an elephant hard of hearing!
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Comments
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It sounds like you've had a rather nasty run in with one of the worst type of drivers. I fully understand how you feel as I've meet a few like that before that seem to have no regard for other road users. In my case the worse one was a lovely young man in Brixton who seemed to think the bus lane was there for him to rapidly undertake the normal lane of traffic, regardless of the fact that he shouldn't have been in the lane or the numerous cyclist's in there.
At the end of the day the way I see it is that whilst it was dangerous and wound me up quite a bit (I did have a go at him when he pulled into a petrol station and ended up having to race off as I wasn't as polite as I should have been :-)) is that it was only 1 driver. Just like there are dangerous cyclist's, there are dangerous drivers but thankfully they are in the minority. I pass hundreds of other cars on my daily commute and and even more when out driving and as a whole most of them are sensible and considerate. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world so there are going to be a few idiot drivers out there!0 -
As compulsory therapy, go for a meandering ride on some of your favourite roads this weekend.
Console yourself that she is probably angry ALL the time and thus not particularly happy. At least she didn't threaten to shoot you.
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squigglescp wrote:... an attitude that said that nobody had any right whatsoever to be on that bit of road at the same time as her, not bike, car or bus and she didn't care who she had to kill to get us all out of the way.
Squiggles
Unfortunately that is an all too common attitude. I'm more important than you. Why does anyone drive like that, well who knows...
As the post above says, take some time out to on your favourite roads this weekend and try to forget it.
atb0 -
Always Tyred wrote:Console yourself that she is probably angry ALL the time and thus not particularly happy.
And so prolly more at risk of a heart attack or an anearism (I dont know how to spell it, sorry :oops: )
Petty revenge is where its at sometimes... On thursday morning great ride in to work, guy in a red transit cut me up as i was turning left so I found myself shouting "YOU F***ING PIKEY B***ARD!" Just sheer reaction.
Then nothing else until I was riding up a hill behind two cars, keeping up with the flow. A woman on the left wanted to pull out of her drive and after the two cars had gone she tried to pull out actually on me, so I shouted wait. No sooner had i done that she began revving her engine as if to say "get out of my way", so I just rode very slowly infront of her knowing she had nowhere to go - the road ahead was too narrow. 0 -
squigglescp wrote:.. and this evening I didn't use it. I had let the batteries go flat and thought 'well,
Squiggles
All new bikes should come with in-built camera's
I'm still prevaricating which is the best system to buy .... , not touching the ATC series .... but cams are essential.Specialized Hardrock Pro/Trek FX 7.3 Hybrid/Specialized Enduro/Specialized Tri-Cross Sport
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I had the same thing with a couple of muslim boys in a new looking mini. I checked behind me to make sure the way was clear, signalled my intentions to turn right and then suddenly this fecking mini comes roaring up behind me, engine having the f8ck revved out of it and horn blaring!
So I just stayed in the centre of the lane and cycled to the next right turn past my house, probably the longest time its ever taken me to ride 50 meters
They could have run me over but given the rather pristine condition of the car I bargained that they wouldnt want to foul up their paint work with blood and guts!
F8cking tossers...watched as they raced off, abuse flowing out the windows, at full tilt to the road work traffic lights which were on red (and had been on red for the entire duration of this incident).
Mailman0
