I'm starting to hate motorists

petemadoc

I think I might have a problem, I'm getting more angry with them by the day.

One just beeped at me for overtaking a stationary traffic jam then slotting in in front of him when it started moving again. All at a very very slow pace.

It got me so mad I made him wind his window down and explain his reason for beeping. They wouldn't do it to a motorbike.

Yesterday a dopey old git completely didn't see me at a roundabout. Pulled out right in front of me and still didn't see me as I was cycling right next to his window. It was only when I shouted something rude that he even looked in my direction.

Ggggrrrrrrr

Bring on higher petrol prices!

petemadoc

Oh and on of the guys I go out riding with had a nasty hand injury yesterday cos and old woman clipped him as she went passed. Didn't bother to stop.

rick_chasey

As someone that used to get road rage, I found the best solution was to give up the ADP and leave 10 minutes earlier.

Then you never feel in a hurry, you have that little bit more time to spot stuff, you don't always feel the need to squeeze past, etc.

petemadoc

I don't think I'd wait for a line of stationary traffic if I had 3 hours to spare. There was no danger and I was just kind of tootling past, it wasn't like I was swerving in and out.

I suppose this is a venting of anger over daily incidents of bad driving.

freehub

Motorists get angry because they can't do it, his car would not fit in a space that big, and he could not get by because he's smash into oncoming traffic, so he starts moaning because he cannot do it.

simonaspinall

Bring on higher petrol prices!

+1

GiantMike

simonaspinall wrote:

Bring on higher petrol prices!

+1

Er, no. I'm a cyclist, but I'm also a driver as are the rest of my family. People will still drive because there are rarely any alternatives, people will just stop paying road tax or insurance.

The only solution to stopping bad drivers is to make them aware of the problems they cause, preferably by making them ride for a day on normal roads. But as that's not going to happen, the next best solution is to ride with a helmet cam so we have some comeback if things go wrong. Get a couple through the courts and word-of-mouth will help make people more considerate. That, and beating the sh!t out of anybody who tries to kill you.

About a month ago my group was overtaken by a Passat on a blind bend, straight into the path of an oncoming car which had to take to the grass verge (all 4 wheels) to avoid a head-on collision. I don't think another 5p on a litre of fuel would stop this. However, physical violence might.

Anonymous

If it makes you feel any better it's not just bikes that car drivers hate, they also hate vans, taxis, busses, pedertrains and even other car drivers.

It's just on a bike you feel more vunrable (because we are) and feel car drivers should rember this (which they should).

I spend a lot of tine driving in London and it's tyhe most stressful part of my job. A lot of people just don't give a dam about anyone else but theyselves as soon as they get behind a steering wheel. :evil:

rake

RichardSwt wrote:

. A lot of people just don't give a dam about anyone else but theyselves as soon as they get behind a steering wheel. :evil:

or at any other time for that matter.

Anonymous

rake wrote:

RichardSwt wrote:

. A lot of people just don't give a dam about anyone else but theyselves as soon as they get behind a steering wheel. :evil:

or at any other time for that matter.

Yes, sadly that is very true, but it seems to be amplified when people are in cars as they suddenly don't feel they are accountable to others in the same way they would if they were, for example , in a que at a bank.

Pross

I take it none of you who hate motorists ever drive yourselves or if you do then I guess you are one of those who thinks you're a great driver? I see loads of idiot motorists but I also see loads of idiot cyclists and the percentages of idiots to sensible drivers or cyclists are probably fairly even. Also, when I drive (25,000 miles a year) I make mistakes that annoy other road users just as they do to me, same goes on the bike.

antikythera

RichardSwt wrote:

A lot of people just don't give a dam about anyone else but theyselves (sic) as soon as they get behind a steering wheel. :evil:

I suspect this is more cultural than specific to a mode of transport. We can all testify to dumb-ar*e behaviour by pedestrians and (dare I say it) cyclists. I see it every day without fail.

I've seen tossers on bikes going the wrong way on one-way roads or running red lights just as often as I see pedestrians jump onto a road without looking or jumping in front of a car and then give the driver the finger for using their horn :roll:

There' no fouller language than the response I got from a (pedestrian) granny when I pointed out that she was "jumping" a red light :oops:

mroli

I live in London and have an 8 mile commute each way and it is by far the most enjoyable part of my day (might say something about my job that though!).

Generally in London, motorists tend to be courteous and considerate with a few dickheads that ruin it for others. Same could be said for motorcyclists/scooterists, Pedestrians and other cyclists.

If you get angry about stuff, you're just going to use poor judgement. If you know you're in the right, you're in the right - so what? What does yelling at someone through a window do apart from confirm their suspicions that all cyclists are cocks.

I dinged a bell at a scooterist in a bike lane last week and he responded at the next traffic lights with a mouthful of abuse. I just smiled and replied that he might want to think about his reaction later on and consider whether he was embarressed by his behaviour. Same with you - do you think that making someone wind down their window so you could yell at them makes you a better person than someone beeping you for filtering? If you skip a light - could that same driver drive in front of you and give you a load of abuse for you not obeying the rules of the road?

Ride safe, ride courteous.

verylonglegs

simonaspinall wrote:

Bring on higher petrol prices!

+1

Quite why anyone thinks this is a good idea just because they happen to bike to work is beyond me. You are aware it would mean the prices of just about everything would go up..do you think the goods and services that you use aren't reliant upon deliveries that use fuel?

zippypablo

it's funny but the more I cycle the more I hate driving rather than drivers.

petemadoc

OK so maybe I didn't think the higher petrol price thing through properly, what would be nice is just less cars on the road and more bikes.

Someone told me today that in Holland bikes have right of way everywhere and motorists just stop for you . . Brilliant.

What scares me most isn't the rude or aggressive motorists, at least they've seen you, it's the dopey ones who never see you or the ones who think it's ok to pass you within half a foot.

petemadoc

Actually . . . I take it back about higher petrol prices. That would definitely be a good thing.

So what if stuff goes up in price, maybe they'll start looking at a another way of getting it around the country instead of burning oil. And we don't need have the stuff we buy anyway.

Buy local, stop driving to the corner shop, stop buying cr*p that ends up in landfill within a year.

Anonymous

PeteMadoc wrote:

Actually . . . I take it back about higher petrol prices. That would definitely be a good thing.

So what if stuff goes up in price, maybe they'll start looking at a another way of getting it around the country instead of burning oil. And we don't need have the stuff we buy anyway.

Buy local, stop driving to the corner shop, stop buying cr*p that ends up in landfill within a year.

I'm sure your wish is going to come true, fuel prices will rise, and we will all have to start thinking about what you just said.

rick_chasey

Off topic, but...


If fuel prices rise, so will inflation, which right now, given there's a little stagflation occuring, the UK could do without.

Pross

PeteMadoc wrote:

Actually . . . I take it back about higher petrol prices. That would definitely be a good thing.

So what if stuff goes up in price, maybe they'll start looking at a another way of getting it around the country instead of burning oil. And we don't need have the stuff we buy anyway.

Buy local, stop driving to the corner shop, stop buying cr*p that ends up in landfill within a year.

So does your local shop have it's own rail link or a canal running through it? Or will the shop owner be popping on his bike down to the cash and carry (which has said rail link / canal) and riding back with his week's stock? Or maybe we can start using horse and cart again? It's one thing to have major distribution centres on rail or canal routes to limit road usage but how you expect to cope with no road distribution network escapes me. Also I assume these alternative forms of transport will be running on thin air?

de_sisti

PeteMadoc wrote:

It got me so mad, I made him wind his window down and explain his reason for beeping.
!

Tell. :P What did he say?

kettrinboy

Some of these elderly drivers, ie the ones over 80 or even 90 scare the crap out of me on my bike and even more so when i,m on my motorbike,i,m sure some of them cant see.And you cant really blow your top at one of these drivers like you would at a younger driver or you,d probably give them a heart attack.

Anonymous

kettrinboy wrote:

Some of these elderly drivers, ie the ones over 80 or even 90 scare the crap out of me on my bike and even more so when i,m on my motorbike,i,m sure some of them cant see.And you cant really blow your top at one of these drivers like you would at a younger driver or you,d probably give them a heart attack.

I know what you mean, I was knocked of my motorbike a few years ago by a old lady who pulled straight out in front of me at a set of lights.

I couldn't shout at her because I was flat on my back 10m down the road with a dislocated hip.

shouldbeinbed

zippypablo wrote:

it's funny but the more I cycle the more I hate driving rather than drivers.

amen brother.

deptfordmarmoset

shouldbeinbed wrote:

zippypablo wrote:

it's funny but the more I cycle the more I hate driving rather than drivers.

amen brother.

I have to add several +1s to that. Ok, some drivers have a bullying streak and will scapegoat a cyclist who momentarily appears to be in their way but at root it's just a symptom of the driver's frustration at other cars which have been plugging up the road in front of him. If we had a no cycling day and every cyclist took their cars into work for a change, we'd bring London and many other cities to a complete standstill. They wouldn't be able to pick on cyclists then.

andy162

Two of my club mates were knocked off on Thursday. The driver admitted to arguing with his wife just before he hit them. One is now at home with a broken hip the other is in a coma with just about every bone broken. Both great blokes at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The driver crossed the white line & hit them practically head on. What a f***ing w*nker!!
No doubt the full weight of the law will descend upon him. A 12month ban & a couple of hundred quid fine probably.

petemadoc

Sh*t Andy, that's terrible!

This kind of thing scares me, especially since I've got a family and a business to look after. I keep telling my wife the roads are safe to cycle on but with so many cr*p drivers around I struggle to convince myself.

Airmiles

mroli wrote:

Generally in London, motorists tend to be courteous and considerate with a few dickheads that ruin it for others. Same could be said for motorcyclists/scooterists, Pedestrians and other cyclists.

.

True - though that's been a massive change over the past 10-15 years as cycling's become more common. I think this both makes people more aware, and damps down subconscious reactions against the "other" when people see it's not "just" a minority. It's the same in other cities where cycling is seen as normal - Cambridge, Oxford.

The problem I guess is in more car-centric places - people are reluctant to cycle, so motorists aren't used to cyclists, so people are reluctant to cycle....the challenge is how to get that critical mass. Exeter sounds like they've achieved a lot - how are the "Cycling City" concepts faring in places like Leicester?