Insults from passing drivers

BG2000

AndyManc wrote:

Any fight from a minority group has always had two factions, those that choose to do nothing and hope things will change, and those that force change by whatever means ...... take your pick.

The idiots who shout/throw things to impress their mates are the minority, not people who travel by bike, so as everyone is saying, just rise above it.

People who retaliate will probably only make it worse for other cyclists. If someone shouts at you without any reason (i.e. they're nutter), and you then attack their car, they'll be out to get the next cyclist they see, and it probably won't be a super tough bike vigilante like you, it could be someone new to cycling who might get very intimidated by such an incident.

If a driver does something genuinely dangerous, memorise their license plate and report them to the police.

UndercoverElephant

I used to live in Manchester and I can imagine Andy may have a point round there...

Now I live in Scotland, as Suzy says, there is no war here.

Clever Pun

I get stuff like... Nice legs... love the tattoos, that kinda thing

AndyManc

BG2000 wrote:

AndyManc wrote:

Any fight from a minority group has always had two factions, those that choose to do nothing and hope things will change, and those that force change by whatever means ...... take your pick.

The idiots who shout/throw things to impress their mates are the minority, not people who travel by bike, so as everyone is saying, just rise above it.

People who retaliate will probably only make it worse for other cyclists. If someone shouts at you without any reason (i.e. they're nutter), and you then attack their car, they'll be out to get the next cyclist they see, and it probably won't be a super tough bike vigilante like you, it could be someone new to cycling who might get very intimidated by such an incident.

If a driver does something genuinely dangerous, memorise their license plate and report them to the police.

I disagree, the reason why this behaviour continues (and by all accounts is becoming more common ) is because it's never challenged .

Don't challenge the behaviour of little kids, and you don't alter it.

I agree, those not wishing to take direct action should report, video incidents.

.

asprilla

I mainly suffer sexual harrasment and women throw underwear at me.

el_presidente

AndyManc wrote:

suzyb wrote:

thelawnet wrote:

Whereas on a bike you get some nonsense from someone several times per month (or week even).

Come cycle in Scotland then. No war going on here (and yes we do get Top Gear).

I think MagnaTom might disagree with you there !!!

.

Someday a real rain will come, Andy, and wash all this scum off the streets

Norky

el_presidente wrote:

Someday a real rain will come, Andy, and wash all this scum off the streets

Perfect

DVV

I once had someone pull alongside me on a quiet country road, and start shouting at me quite aggressively. I couldn't hear him for the wind in my ears, so just stared at him until he drove off.

Round the corner he had to slow down behind two people walking on the road (no pavement), and he honked them to which they disdainfully waved him off in a 'whatever' fashion. Then he got stuck behind a slow moving car which he also honked.

I don't know if he was really in a rush to do something really important, or just an A-hole who thought he'd better treat everyone else badly too, to show some consistency. He looked like a fairly well kept young father (I think he had a kid or chair in the back, can't remember which).

I was quite shaken and worried i'd done something wrong like swerve in front of him as he overtook or something.

Other than that, i've merely been nearly run off the road on country roads by 4x4's who refuse to move over for a cyclist(!).

Boy Lard

Last Friday I had a Lady pull up at the side of me almost in tears apologising because she thought she had nearly knocked me off of my bike. I explained to her it was my fault for undertaking what I thought was stationary traffic, but she wouldn't hear of it and held up all the traffic behind her, (honking horns and all), until I accepted her apology. I felt pretty bad afterwards, it was my fault.

I have had eggs thrown at me when minding my own business, just tootling along on a nice wide road with loads of room to pass and virtually no traffic on it.

I had a guy screaming at me because I nearly ended up on his bonnet on a very narrow section of road (down to single file traffic), because he thought it was on-way and it wasn't, just a very old road going under a bridge.

I have also had a guy slow down to shout encouragement as I was struggling up a very steep hill. That made me smile, drop a few cogs, stand up on the pedals and put in some real effort, until he moved off and I nearly collapsed.

I try not to get angry, you never know how psycho the other guy/gal is. I often fail.

cee

some folk do seem to attract a lot more abuse than others...wonder why that is?

personally...most if the time I am quite surprised how well drivers behave around me whilst cycling...

I don't expect them to right enough...but...

Had a girl once start singing 'theres a hole in my pocket..dear liza etc...' (i had crashed at the weekend and torn half my back pocket off...) I just said...'Are you looking at my bum'...she blushed, I laughed, she laughed everyone was in a great mood.

Also had some kids shout 'your wheels are going round!'...I screeched to a halt and said..ohno...can you help me find out whats wrong with them! they laughed, I laughed, everyone was in a great mood...

sure had a couple of close calls and been hit a couple of times (one SMIDSY, the other fled the scene), but other than that, I don't think I can recall a driver shouting random abuse ilke described elsewhere in this thread...

Aguila

Awwww,

I feel really let down no one's ever complimented me on my legs now, maybe I do need to shave them after all

Back on a serious note about retaliation to insults etc I'm certain it doesn't help. What I'm sure does is reinforcing good behaviour.

I always make a point of waving thankyou to people who wait or pass sensibly. There's definitely a few drivers (mainly vans) that I see regularly who now leave even more room (and often wave back now).

I could just be that they want to check out my legs though...... or not

notsoblue

I've had a whole fish supper randomly thrown at me on the approach to the Scottish Border at Gretna. But other than that around London theres a minimum of abuse. And what abuse you do get is mostly from people who just appear to be angry to be stuck in traffic and at their lot in life. I do retaliate occasionally though.

Was cycling up the Putney Bridge rise the other day at a fairly respectable ~20mph, bridge was entirely clear, and I was in lane to turn right at the lights on the other side. Car came up behind me and was honking to get me out of "his" lane. This pissed me off mainly because he was coming up to a red light anyway, and there was no need for that kind of behaviour. In a moment of weakness I decided to come entirely to a halt at the top of the bridge, get off my bike, and go over to calmly ask him what the problem was. People seem less willing to confront you when they're not existing vicariously through their car. Its much easier to mash the horn than it is to enunciate a reasoned critique of someone's behaviour.

Anyway, I just have the opinion that there will always be arseholes that act like arseholes whether either of you are in a car, on a bike, or on foot. I don't think anyone particularly hates cyclists. They're just intolerant of people in general and cyclists are a convenient group to pick on if you're an arsehole in a car.

notsoblue

el_presidente wrote:

AndyManc wrote:

suzyb wrote:

thelawnet wrote:

Whereas on a bike you get some nonsense from someone several times per month (or week even).

Come cycle in Scotland then. No war going on here (and yes we do get Top Gear).

I think MagnaTom might disagree with you there !!!

.

Someday a real rain will come, Andy, and wash all this scum off the streets

ROFL!

antfly

cee wrote:

some folk do seem to attract a lot more abuse than others...wonder why that is?
.

So why is it then, oh wise one?

richardvaltos

notsoblue wrote:

I've had a whole fish supper randomly thrown at me on the approach to the Scottish Border at Gretna.

Anyway, I just have the opinion that there will always be arseholes that act like arseholes whether either of you are in a car, on a bike, or on foot. I don't think anyone particularly hates cyclists. They're just intolerant of people in general and cyclists are a convenient group to pick on if you're an arsehole in a car.

Lucky git. If they were Scottish maybe they were being generous? After all a whole fish supper is anything up to a tenner, a significant financial expenditure for a Scotsman.

rml380z

"Your back wheel's on fire!"

Shouted at me by a car passenger while I was out in the country on my TT bike.

To this day, I'm not sure if it was a compliment or a variation on the schoolboy 'joke' of "Your back wheel's going round".


...but I'm taking it as a compliment 8)

desmosedici

Bunch of high school kids waiting at the bus stop on the evening commute home used to think it was funny to scream/shout close to my ear as I cycled past. I ignored them, figuring they would tire of it when I showed no response.

One evening, after a bad day in the office, was coming up to the bus stop, and I could see them getting ready to do their monkey act. As I drew up, I saw them bracing themselves to shout at top volume.

I came to a skidding halt, dropped the bike to the ground, walked up to the biggest of the lot and grabbed him by the collar, choking him very hard. I shouted at him (in local language), "You want to f**king scream at me now? F**king try it!"

He pissed his pants. I dropped him into his piss and rode off. Never had a problem with them after that.

If I'm in the mood one day I might tell you about the time a w**ker in a BMW cut me off and discovered I was carrying a sidearm.

noisemonkey

Cycling up a country lane to work and got called a twat even though there was enough room for the oncoming car and me plus I was virtually in the hedge anyway.. No point in reacting to that kind of thing.

cat_with_no_tail

Someone threw a pasty at me as I was riding home from the IOM End2End last year.

Wish I'd caught it, I was fookin starving! If their aim was better, I'd have asked them to run support crew for me this year

That's it though, in over 5 years of cycling and 3 of commuting that's the only incident (of this kind) I can think of on the bike.

I did have someone throw a MacDonalds milkshake at me when I was walking down the street once.

and I was squirted with a water gun from a car window when I was on the motorbike

nothing in the car (yet) though.

cee

antfly wrote:

cee wrote:

some folk do seem to attract a lot more abuse than others...wonder why that is?
.

So why is it then, oh wise one?

if i knew the answer perhaps i wouldn't have put a question mark at the end.....

I genuinely do wonder why some people do seem to get loads of abuse and others barely any at all...seems strange that it would be the case.

dhope

Reminded me of one about 10 years ago
'Nice bike, shame about the hair.'

Cheeky bastard. These days I'd be pleased that they notice I have hair.

mrc1

I have mentioned it before, but I got owned a year or so back by a girl who looked at my lycra clad nether regions and said "it must be cold out" before driving away.

Clever Pun

cee wrote:

antfly wrote:

cee wrote:

some folk do seem to attract a lot more abuse than others...wonder why that is?
.

So why is it then, oh wise one?

if i knew the answer perhaps i wouldn't have put a question mark at the end.....

I genuinely do wonder why some people do seem to get loads of abuse and others barely any at all...seems strange that it would be the case.

quite possibly location... seems to be a few scottish related incidents

saying that some people just scream "I'm a victim take advantage of me"

could be these? or just unlucky

cee

Clever Pun wrote:

quite possibly location... seems to be a few scottish related incidents

saying that some people just scream "I'm a victim take advantage of me"

could be these? or just unlucky

not sure about location related...some people in london seem to get abuse..others do not..

some people in glasgow seem to get abuse...others do not..

I could understand if it was significantly more for everyone in london..just because of how much busier it is there....but again..some people say they don't get much, if any...

unlucky? maybe...but some people seem to be spectactularly unlucky

Some people scream victim etc? hmm..not sure i like where that line of thinking logically goes....i genuinely don't think people 'are asking for it'....if you know what i mean..don't get me wrong..i am sure some folks ride into things where they know they are technically in the right, but it might have been nice to let that car into the gap etc....I'm failry certain I have been guilty of this myself at times...

It does seem to be quite random, that some folks get significantly more abuse than others...

mroli

AndyManc wrote:

It's media contrived hatred, Clarkeson being the biggest culprit.

..................................

It's a war out there, react accordingly.

.

The blessed irony of this post and your sig is fantastic. Its the media's fault that people are cocks. Right, I'll buy that. You think it is a war out there - and you have in your sig a thing for Call of Duty?! Awesome. Its not a war out there. Its people being inconsiderate dicks and there are cyclists/pedestrians/scooterists/motorcylists/car/van/bus/taxi drivers all at it.

Live your life how you believe it should be led, not how other people lead theirs.

lost_in_thought

I've never had anyone actually shout anything nasty at me, ever I think, on any form of transport.

I get a lot of 'wahey luv' 'awright gorgeous' 'go on girl' and random questions and chat from passing motorists. 'Excuse me, is your hair real?' is still my favourite.

I get occasional beepy motorists, my response is generally to turn around and smile at them then carry on doing exactly what I was doing. Occasionally a wave too.

I find it a bit worrying that some of the posters above react with such incredible rage to what is basically kids messing about.

rjsterry

mroli wrote:

AndyManc wrote:

It's media contrived hatred, Clarkeson being the biggest culprit.

..................................

It's a war out there, react accordingly.

.

The blessed irony of this post and your sig is fantastic. Its the media's fault that people are cocks. Right, I'll buy that. You think it is a war out there - and you have in your sig a thing for Call of Duty?! Awesome. Its not a war out there. Its people being inconsiderate dicks and there are cyclists/pedestrians/scooterists/motorcylists/car/van/bus/taxi drivers all at it.

Live your life how you believe it should be led, not how other people lead theirs.

Indeed, I think there might be a few chaps in Helmand who might take issue with AndyManc's description of cycling in Manchester.

antfly

I would say location, time of day and weather. It usually happens to me on the weekends when the lads are out cruising and showing off or on a particular cycle path alongside a busy road. There is nothing about me that screams victim, it`s purely random and I`ve never had abuse from someone not in a car. On the plus side I do get smiles from pretty girls sometimes.

chriskempton

I think the idiots who shout insults at people on bikes pick their victims, it's not the cyclists' fault that some people get more insults than others.

As a skinny, floppy haired teenager, I got insults every so often, but as a larger, older, more shaven headed gentleman now, it doesn't happen.

So some people get more insults because they fit the bill for who the motorists want to pick on from the safety of their cars, IMO.

rjsterry

On the point of some people getting more abuse than others, I'd say your appearance does make a difference. It's easy to shout something from your car at someone with a <ahem> 'climber's build' like me without fear of reprisal, but you might not try the same with someone of CP's appearance. A case of "Oi, mate yer wheel's goin...oh your that tall, sorry about that guv."

In LiT's case, it might be a case of some other thought over-riding the urge to shout abuse if you catch my drift.