Insane Land Rover driver
shoulder_of_orion
Posts: 529
Last night on my way home heading East along Embankment, I stopped at the lights at Calvert (sp?) street. I think it is the place you guys refer to as Death Star Canyon?
I stopped behind the first car in the queue as there was no room right at the front, and he nudged forwards to allow me properly into the lane. I had a vague knowledge of some guy in a modern gold coloured Land Rover glaring at me and attempting to close the gap between the two cars so that he could get away before me. This would have endangered my safety as I would have been between the two lanes of traffic, so I just moved my bike forwards so it was positioned quite safely and legally between the two cars.
When the lights turned green, I continued in the inside lane in a primary position, bang in the centre of the lane. The Land Rover driver decided to tailgate me and was honking his very loud horn repeatedly. There was traffic in the outside lane so he could not overtake me.
He then accelerated to within a couple of inches of my back wheel, continuously blaring the horn then braking and again accelerating to within inches of my wheel. At this point I noticed my speedo read 28.2mph and I was going exactly at the speed of the car on the outside of me.
I just proceeded to hold my primary position and the silly charade continued for a few hundred metres with this fruit loop within a couple of inches of my back wheel, blaring the horn. Me, holding primary, not turning or gesturing, extremely concentrated on cycling, any mistake at this point would probably have meant an horrendous accident.
Where the road widens in the approach to Vauxhall Bridge, he got past me, sped off and proceeded to jump the red light at Vauxhall Bridge. He sped off down Embankment towards the city.
Whilst I was waiting in the ASL at Vauxhall bridge a lady with a dulcet north-eastern tone jumped out of her car, asked me if I was OK and asked if I wanted her to report it to the police. Of course I said yes, she took my mobile number and left me a voicemail later to confirm she had reported it. Thanks to that lady and her friend in the black golf.
What a nutter.... I do think I get more anger towards me now I have given up RLJIng and taken a more assertive riding position. I guess I have a bit of a "holier than thou" attitude that pisses people off. I now never break the rules of the road, but the corollary is that I adopt an assertive position in the lane, which I think pisses off motorists off far more than RLJing.
I noticed on the Slowcial ride that I was taking a much more assertive position towards the centre of the lane than most or all of the other cyclists. I got shouted at twice by motorists on that ride which was more than anyone else (I think).
It's ironic that actually abiding with the rules opens you up to so much more rage.
I stopped behind the first car in the queue as there was no room right at the front, and he nudged forwards to allow me properly into the lane. I had a vague knowledge of some guy in a modern gold coloured Land Rover glaring at me and attempting to close the gap between the two cars so that he could get away before me. This would have endangered my safety as I would have been between the two lanes of traffic, so I just moved my bike forwards so it was positioned quite safely and legally between the two cars.
When the lights turned green, I continued in the inside lane in a primary position, bang in the centre of the lane. The Land Rover driver decided to tailgate me and was honking his very loud horn repeatedly. There was traffic in the outside lane so he could not overtake me.
He then accelerated to within a couple of inches of my back wheel, continuously blaring the horn then braking and again accelerating to within inches of my wheel. At this point I noticed my speedo read 28.2mph and I was going exactly at the speed of the car on the outside of me.
I just proceeded to hold my primary position and the silly charade continued for a few hundred metres with this fruit loop within a couple of inches of my back wheel, blaring the horn. Me, holding primary, not turning or gesturing, extremely concentrated on cycling, any mistake at this point would probably have meant an horrendous accident.
Where the road widens in the approach to Vauxhall Bridge, he got past me, sped off and proceeded to jump the red light at Vauxhall Bridge. He sped off down Embankment towards the city.
Whilst I was waiting in the ASL at Vauxhall bridge a lady with a dulcet north-eastern tone jumped out of her car, asked me if I was OK and asked if I wanted her to report it to the police. Of course I said yes, she took my mobile number and left me a voicemail later to confirm she had reported it. Thanks to that lady and her friend in the black golf.
What a nutter.... I do think I get more anger towards me now I have given up RLJIng and taken a more assertive riding position. I guess I have a bit of a "holier than thou" attitude that pisses people off. I now never break the rules of the road, but the corollary is that I adopt an assertive position in the lane, which I think pisses off motorists off far more than RLJing.
I noticed on the Slowcial ride that I was taking a much more assertive position towards the centre of the lane than most or all of the other cyclists. I got shouted at twice by motorists on that ride which was more than anyone else (I think).
It's ironic that actually abiding with the rules opens you up to so much more rage.
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Comments
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:shock:FCN 2-4.
"What happens when the hammer goes down, kids?"
"It stays down, Daddy."
"Exactly."0 -
I've noticed similar - in that taking the correct line will incur the wrath of idiots. I don't say motorists, I say idiots.
A minor (VERY minor) example of this happened this morning for me. There is a set of lights at a VERY sharp left hand bend. It is utterly impossible to get past a bike that is on the inside and I ALWAYS take the primary at these lights, I never filter down the inside, and always sit behind a car in the middle of the lane, you can't out accelerate me to the lights and I am always held up by cars having to slow for the turn. I have no problem with this but I do get people trying to edge past - one tried to this morning and failed. I get a filthy look for their poor judgement. :roll:
Oh yeah - and right before work this morning - A guy started to overtake even though I had my arm out to take the right hand side of the lane (roundabout), and was already half on to the chevrons with NO time to get past.
The best of it? He turned LEFT at the roundabout. I can't imagine how the hell he thought he was going to get past before the roundabout without left hooking me. :roll:Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
2011 Trek Madone 4.5
2012 Felt F65X
Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter0 -
I adopted primary postion on the nearside lane of a 3 lane roundabout approach this morning but some guy behind still decided to try to get in front before the roundabout, found himself 'hung out to dry' and then just tried to come across anyway, even though I was right alongside. I adopted my usual approach to alert him to my presence (as the high viz gilet and the fact that he was trying to overake me obviously ahdn't alerted him enough) which was to reach out to him with my longest extremity as he came across - my foot, on his back door. Seemed to work, he went back to the middle lane and then went across in the middle lane, which was perfectly legal anyway, so why he didn't just stay where he was but try to cut in on me is either explained by extreme ignorance or extreme hatred of cyclists. Hope my cleats didn't leave too much of a mark...0
