The motorists logic

Butterd2

Riding through Greenwich Park this morning I come up to the roundabout at the top of the hill and coming in from a side road as usual a driver pulls onto the roundabout without looking right and I have to brake and swerve to avoid her. Fortunately this is a regular occurance so I'm expecting it, however I still slow down in front of her and give it my best Paddington Bear stare.
She then pulls aside me on the way down the hill, winds down her window and quickly says "before you say anything, see that cyclist over there" pointing to a woman on a shopping bike, "she pulled out on me earlier". And that was it, how can you argue with logic like that?

She was very polite so swearing seemed inappropriate and she clearly had the more astute mind so I just mumbled something about 2 wrongs and a right and rode off defeated

Kieran_Burns

I suppose by that logic you could punch her 'cos your Mum slapped you when you were a kid.

davis

"I'd love to try enlightening you as to the error of your ways, but, as my father always says: you can't educate pork"

?

walkingbootweather

Bizarre comments from drivers seem quite common. Following a similar incident a driver once shouted at me "Anyway, I know what time it is!" I have absolutely no idea what they meant. Time for some road awareness training perhaps :? ?

bails87

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I suppose by that logic you could punch her 'cos your Mum slapped you when you were a kid.

"you see that bird over there" *point to a pigeon* "well it sh@t on my car once......" *start to pull down lycra*

Butterd2

bails87 wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I suppose by that logic you could punch her 'cos your Mum slapped you when you were a kid.

"you see that bird over there" *point to a pigeon* "well it sh@t on my car once......" *start to pull down lycra*

See I'm just not quick enough with these. :oops:

CyclingBantam

I had a guy do the usual 'must overtake cyclist' stunt before slaming on behind a long queue of traffic. I asked him why he did it and he looked a little blankly and said "Well why not?".

"Ok so do I just punch you through the window because hey, why not?"

Some people just dispense with their brain when in certain situations.

mybreakfastconsisted

Early evening in Victoria, I'm stationary, car driver going the other way and yells "You lot don't stop at traffic lights!" as I waited, at a traffic light.

Kieran_Burns

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

Early evening in Victoria, I'm stationary, car driver going the other way and yells "You lot don't stop at traffic lights!" as I waited, at a traffic light.

For complete irony - the light was green 8)

Justatheory

A motorist was beeping at me in a traffic jam recently. I had taken the lane as my turn was approaching and she had literally nowhere to go. I knocked on the window and calmly asked her where she intended to go, to which she replied "Get a job, you shouldn't even be on the road".

I told her to enjoy the traffic jam and continued on my way.

hatbeard

Justatheory wrote:

A motorist was beeping at me in a traffic jam recently. I had taken the lane as my turn was approaching and she had literally nowhere to go. I knocked on the window and calmly asked her where she intended to go, to which she replied "Get a job, you shouldn't even be on the road".

I told her to enjoy the traffic jam and continued on my way.

hahaha "get a job" that one's tickled me.

jomoj

I have a theory that attempts to explain why people will do the 'desperate overtake in order to be next at the lights manoeuvre' - it is this:

Fundamentally our brains are wired for travel at the speed that our bodies can propel us at un-aided - i.e. running, walking - and our perception of the significance of a given time and distance between us a target is attuned to these speeds. We now have the ability to travel at higher speeds but our brains are still stuck in walking mode when it comes to judging distance and time. For example, we might be driving at speed 200m behind another car and the time between us could be only a few seconds but our walking brain sees 200m of walking time to the target which seems much more significant so our perception of the real distance is distorted.

The other theory is that some people are just impatient idiots.

I'm not a scientist by the way, you might have guessed.

CyclingBantam

To be honest I think your theory might actually be spot on. Never thought about it in that much detail before.

I think your first theory about walking speed etc is bunkum though!

northstar

"Motorists" & "Logic"

W1

jomoj wrote:

I have a theory that attempts to explain why people will do the 'desperate overtake in order to be next at the lights manoeuvre' - it is this:

Fundamentally our brains are wired for travel at the speed that our bodies can propel us at un-aided - i.e. running, walking - and our perception of the significance of a given time and distance between us a target is attuned to these speeds. We now have the ability to travel at higher speeds but our brains are still stuck in walking mode when it comes to judging distance and time. For example, we might be driving at speed 200m behind another car and the time between us could be only a few seconds but our walking brain sees 200m of walking time to the target which seems much more significant so our perception of the real distance is distorted.

The other theory is that some people are just impatient idiots.

I'm not a scientist by the way, you might have guessed.

I think you're right. I had a chap in a Toerag overtake me last night on Dolan Death bridge, past a junction, over a speedbump and into oncoming traffic, just so he could join a queue which was about 20m away. I promptly repassed him. I cannot imagine a single logical reasomn for the overtake.

Lancslad

W1 wrote:

jomoj wrote:

I have a theory that attempts to explain why people will do the 'desperate overtake in order to be next at the lights manoeuvre' - it is this:

Fundamentally our brains are wired for travel at the speed that our bodies can propel us at un-aided - i.e. running, walking - and our perception of the significance of a given time and distance between us a target is attuned to these speeds. We now have the ability to travel at higher speeds but our brains are still stuck in walking mode when it comes to judging distance and time. For example, we might be driving at speed 200m behind another car and the time between us could be only a few seconds but our walking brain sees 200m of walking time to the target which seems much more significant so our perception of the real distance is distorted.

The other theory is that some people are just impatient idiots.

I'm not a scientist by the way, you might have guessed.

I think you're right. I had a chap in a Toerag overtake me last night on Dolan Death bridge, past a junction, over a speedbump and into oncoming traffic, just so he could join a queue which was about 20m away. I promptly repassed him. I cannot imagine a single logical reasomn for the overtake.

Because drivers see cyclists as 'slow' therefore the impulse is to overtake.