White Van Man alive & ignorant in Brum

kingrollo

Commuting home in the rush hour last night, I cycled past heavy traffic overtaking on the right (to many near misses undertaking !) any way at the end of the road I stopped to negotiate the roundabout - when I heard white van man introduce himself:-

WVM "you're an inpatient c**t aint ya"
ME: "Sorry"
WVM "Nipping through there , no patience"
ME "Im overtaking slow moving traffic - you overtake on the right"
WVM "You should wait in the Queue like everyone Else"
ME: "Why, what part of the highway code am I breaking ?"
WVM "Cyclists aren't supposed to overtake cars"
ME "Who told you that ?"
WVM - No response
ME "Its you who doesn't know the highway code not you"

As I cycle off - I hear WVM cursing
"Whats the f*ckn deal with all this traffic"

Yeah , and Im the impatient one !

W5454

What an ar$ehole.Well done for putting WVM in his place.

trickeyja

Sounds like a moody driver who's fed up of waiting in traffic in the gloomy weather got a bit jealous of the fact that you can pass the long queue all on your own power in a much more enjoyable fashion!

What a hypocrite though :-P You were definitely not doing anything wrong there, I'm glad you corrected him.

dazzawazza

I would have replied, "yes, that's why I cycle".

chuckcork

Had one of the directors in the firm i worked for complain about the traffic. I responded with the point that if more people cycled there would be less traffic, and that he was complaining about something that he as a part of, and was only making worse by being in it.

He thanked me for the editorial....

stephenballantyne

if more people cycled there would be less traffic

Firstly, I completely agree that more people should cycle. But if more people cycle, there would be the same amount of traffic on the road (or more if they previously used a bus or something). I do find that at rush hour in London the most difficult traffic to negotiate and anticipate is fellow cyclists. I'm most alert (and nervous) when there's a big pack of other cyclists around me.

alfablue

There is a bit of a paradox, the more congestion there is, the more deterrent there is to driving, and possibly more cycling. If congestion reduces, driving becomes more attractive, congestion increases. It may be like a system in dynamic equilibrium. I am therefore opposed to congestion reduction measures such as new road building or traffic flow measures as they offer only encouragement to motorists. Pedestrianisation, "bus gates" (like we have in Bath) or congestion charges offer a disincentive to driving even when congestion is reduced and are therefore likely to reduce the number of vehicles more effectively (however congestion charges may be disadvantaging those who are unable to afford it and favour of the wealthy). As it stands at the moment, congestion is a good thing IMHO.

chuckcork

stephenballantyne wrote:

if more people cycled there would be less traffic

Firstly, I completely agree that more people should cycle. But if more people cycle, there would be the same amount of traffic on the road (or more if they previously used a bus or something). I do find that at rush hour in London the most difficult traffic to negotiate and anticipate is fellow cyclists. I'm most alert (and nervous) when there's a big pack of other cyclists around me.

Stephen, your maths are correct, but for 2 considerations.

First is that bikes take up less road space than cars. The distance between bikes can be less and 2 can be abreast in a single lane, so the carrying capacity for a road vis. bikes is considerably higher than cars.

2nd point is that more bikes in London and less traffic means everything as a whole moves faster!

If only this logic was considered at policy level?

GeorgeShaw

alfablue wrote:

There is a bit of a paradox, the more congestion there is, the more deterrent there is to driving, and possibly more cycling. If congestion reduces, driving becomes more attractive, congestion increases. It may be like a system in dynamic equilibrium.

Isn't there a statistic somewhere that travelling speed in London has remained relatively unchanged since Victorian times - or something ridiculous like that. Or is that another urban myth?

It wouldn't be surprising. People's tolerance of an acceptable speed is unlikely to change much over time - we all have our limit on what we consider to be an acceptable commute time.

You can see the same impact when roads are built, for example the M25. The increase in mobility that this gave only led to longer commutes, more house builds in the M25 fringe, and then a rise in congestion until commute times went up to the acceptable limit again.

stephenballantyne

chuckcork, I totally agree with you on the volume point. All I'm saying is that cycle traffic seems to be more erratic, which would slow the pace and increase the risk.