Do The Right Thing?

blu3cat

Situation is this:

Crossing London Bridge yesterday evening, traffic is at a standstill due to the lane closures approaching Borough High Street, I filter past a Cab at little more than walking pace (registered London cab even though it was a Merc people carrier), and the excess strap on my Timbuk2 courier stye bag catches a rear open quarterlight window. I feel a jolt to the right and smash, the window shatters into a thousand pieces.

The cabbie and passenger are not exactly impressed.

Question is what do you do?

cyclingprop

But by the fact you asked, does this mean you went for option 1?

gabriel959

Pay up - liability insurance would come in handy in this circumstance

veronese68

Be thankful I've got British Cycling membership for the 3rd party insurance.
I'm surprised the window shattered that easily. You'd have to stop and do the right thing.

pangolin

You have to pay.

Imagine if a driver did this to your bike. Passing too close... Hit and run.... things that really pi$$ cyclists off, and rightly so. Don't do the same thing when the situation is reversed!

gbsahne001

clearly the latter option

bigmat

Not really any debate heres is there, unless you're scum?

mudcow007

smash the other side so he has a matching pair then d-lock him for good measure





you did stop though didnt you?

pangolin

Please tell us you did the right thing...

rjsterry

Veronese68 wrote:

Be thankful I've got British Cycling membership for the 3rd party insurance.
I'm surprised the window shattered that easily. You'd have to stop and do the right thing.

Toughened glass: hit it near the edge with something pointed (those little hammers you see on trains) and it shatters pretty easily.

Obviously option 2

Oh, and that reminds me: must tuck my bag strap in.

anton1r

I'm guessing you bolted and you're looking for us to justify it? (MASSIVE, apologies if that's not the case!)

Agree with pangolin.

Time to MTFU and pay up.

blu3cat

The question is not what I did, but what would you have done.

I am comfortable with my decision and I will tell later.

vermin

Of course you stop; even vermin stops.

I put a small scratch on a parked car not so long ago (was nudged into it by another car and caught the left shifter on its front wing). Had nothing at all on me with which to leave my details for the owner. Waves of guilt every time I think about it. I guess a small scratch only costs a few quid to patch, but its all about the give and take of respect, innit.

graeme_s-2

A big part of the reason I joined the CTC was so I'd have 3rd party liability insurance in a situation like this. So I'd stop, apologise and give him my details.

nich

I am comfortable with my decision and I will tell later.

That means you bolted!!!

I would have stopped 'n paid up

blu3cat

would no one honestly have just left the scene? Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

vermin

blu3cat wrote:

Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

On this forum? Probably. Few things beat cycle commuting for giving one a sense of social responsibility.

pangolin

I knocked a wing mirror out of place once, filtering badly. Driver looked furious! I backed up, apologised and put mirror back where it should be (no damage). She looked instantly mollified and said it was fine.

Don't give drivers reasons to hate us. He'll think of that incident whenever he sees a bike a bit close.

jeepie

I guess the adrenaline kicked in and you had a rush of blood to the head. Now you feel a bit bad about it....Am I wrong? I've been in a similar situation filtering in stationary traffic where I smacked a guy's wing mirror hard. There is a flight reflex that kicks in... In this case I stopped though, but I nearly made a rush for it. Had I made a rush for it though I would have felt very very low about it... but I could understand the flight reflex. So is this what happened?

vermin

Jeepie wrote:

I guess the adrenaline kicked in and you had a rush of blood to the head. Now you feel a bit bad about it....Am I wrong? I've been in a similar situation filtering in stationary traffic where I smacked a guy's wing mirror hard. There is a flight reflex that kicks in... In this case I stopped though, but I nearly made a rush for it. Had I made a rush for it though I would have felt very very low about it... but I could understand the flight reflex. So is this what happened?

OP, please don't answer. Sanbiki no saru.

cyclingprop

blu3cat wrote:

would no one honestly have just left the scene? Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

Time to realise that the rest of the world doesn't run to the beat of your drum, but uses its own to measure how out of step you are.

jonomc4

once my front brake went in the wet - I went into the back of a car - I pulled over to the side with the driver to check the car out - no damage fortunately but I was prepared to get it fixed.

Another day a driver overtook me real close and hit me with their wing mirror - I caught up with them (they deliberately sped off) gave the said wing mirror a good thwack a told the person to look at the damage they had just done hitting me (obviously it was me hitting it) - I didn't offer to pay.

Basically as can be seen above - it depends on the situation.

jedster

I voted that I would stop and pay up. I think I would. I hope I would.

That said, we've had our cars bashed a number of times in parking incidents and never has anyone left their number under the windscreen wipers. So it seems that most (a lot of?) people are only "honourable" if they think they might get caught.

Like I say, I hope I'd do the right thing but the poll so far suggests 100% honourable behaviour which doesn't seem to match well with the world around me. Perhaps we are a particularly honourable bunch. Or kidding ourselves?

bails87

I'd stop and pay up, or rather, give him my BC insurance details so they can pay.

blu3cat

cyclingprop wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

would no one honestly have just left the scene? Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

Time to realise that the rest of the world doesn't run to the beat of your drum, but uses its own to measure how out of step you are.

I haven't yet said what i did, yet it appears that some have already made an assumption.

pangolin

blu3cat wrote:

cyclingprop wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

would no one honestly have just left the scene? Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

Time to realise that the rest of the world doesn't run to the beat of your drum, but uses its own to measure how out of step you are.

I haven't yet said what i did, yet it appears that some have already made an assumption.

Well you seem pretty surprised we would all stop, and reluctant to tell us what you did. You can see why assumptions are being made Go on then, what did you do?

clarkey cat

I wouldn't have stopped - I would have howled with manic laughter before running a red light and bunny-hopping on to the pavement.

veronese68

I'd say the fact that the OP stated the driver and passenger were less than impressed would indicate he stopped. What happened next is anybody's guess. But, to come on here and brag about giving false details and doing a runner would be extremely odd.

Dellsinho

In this situation, if it was my fault I'd stop and offer details.

A few weeks ago I got left hooked by a cab (turning left into a side-road/me), managed to stay upright but pushed his wing mirror beyond the spring-back with my elbow, breaking it. We exchanged a few heated words (none of which were my details) and I cycled off.

His fault, my satisfaction.

cyclingprop

blu3cat wrote:

cyclingprop wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

would no one honestly have just left the scene? Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

Time to realise that the rest of the world doesn't run to the beat of your drum, but uses its own to measure how out of step you are.

I haven't yet said what i did, yet it appears that some have already made an assumption.

Waiting for you to suggest otherwise.

extrusion

blu3cat wrote:

cyclingprop wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

would no one honestly have just left the scene? Are you all that honest, honourable etc?

Time to realise that the rest of the world doesn't run to the beat of your drum, but uses its own to measure how out of step you are.

I haven't yet said what i did, yet it appears that some have already made an assumption.

Did you offer to pay for the damage whilst knocking one out on his bonnet, thereby confusing him into driving away??