Being run off the road in the name of Safety!
bockers
Posts: 146
Strangest incident yesterday whilst out on our club ride. Wide single carriageway, quiet Sunday morning and hardly any traffic about. The pavement along this road doubles up as a cycling path but is littered with lamp posts and driveways as is de rigueur with these things, it also later leads you off to the River rather than following the main road.
We overtook a couple of MTBers on the road, no issues no cars behind etc. Anway a few yards further down the road a VW golf goes past with the lady driver shouting madly at us to get on the cycle path. My riding colleague exchanged a few old Anglo Saxon expletives with her to the effect that we are fully entitled to ride on the road and what business is it of hers. To which she sped past then braked and stopped making sure I could not pass the on the inside, my colleague just managed to swerve round her on the outside and luckily there was no following traffic. She then continued her shouting, leaning over the seat and out of the passenger window, saying I should be on the cycle path. To which I replied politely at first, but she continued to shout at me saying it was for my safety, to which I called her a silly bloody cow and how dare she talk about safety when she had pulled a dangerous manoeuvre that could have caused a life threatening injury.
Then she declared that she was a pro cyclist, WTF!!! .And she had her kit in the car as she had just been training. She kept bleating on about how we should be on the path and she was only trying to protect us as she was a fellow cyclist and knew how dangerous it was.
I left her ranting and explaining that I had the right to use the road and it was a perfectly safe road as opposed to the hybrid cycle path which I had to share with pedestrian, dogs and cyclist coming at me with little space for us both.
Later down the road we met a few other that she had shouted at too.
I have had motorists do a lot of things and say a lot of things in the 30 odd years I have been cycling. I have encountered my fair share of road rage etc. But I have never been run off the road in an attempt to make me safe!
If she really was a pro cyclist then presumably she knows how inadequate and quite frankly dangerous, most UK cycle paths are. Certainly not a place you would train on.
So anyone else encounter the person on the roads around Windsor and Maidenhead?
I have her reg number as I took a picture of her in case things got sillier, still tempted to report her to the police.
We overtook a couple of MTBers on the road, no issues no cars behind etc. Anway a few yards further down the road a VW golf goes past with the lady driver shouting madly at us to get on the cycle path. My riding colleague exchanged a few old Anglo Saxon expletives with her to the effect that we are fully entitled to ride on the road and what business is it of hers. To which she sped past then braked and stopped making sure I could not pass the on the inside, my colleague just managed to swerve round her on the outside and luckily there was no following traffic. She then continued her shouting, leaning over the seat and out of the passenger window, saying I should be on the cycle path. To which I replied politely at first, but she continued to shout at me saying it was for my safety, to which I called her a silly bloody cow and how dare she talk about safety when she had pulled a dangerous manoeuvre that could have caused a life threatening injury.
Then she declared that she was a pro cyclist, WTF!!! .And she had her kit in the car as she had just been training. She kept bleating on about how we should be on the path and she was only trying to protect us as she was a fellow cyclist and knew how dangerous it was.
I left her ranting and explaining that I had the right to use the road and it was a perfectly safe road as opposed to the hybrid cycle path which I had to share with pedestrian, dogs and cyclist coming at me with little space for us both.
Later down the road we met a few other that she had shouted at too.
I have had motorists do a lot of things and say a lot of things in the 30 odd years I have been cycling. I have encountered my fair share of road rage etc. But I have never been run off the road in an attempt to make me safe!
If she really was a pro cyclist then presumably she knows how inadequate and quite frankly dangerous, most UK cycle paths are. Certainly not a place you would train on.
So anyone else encounter the person on the roads around Windsor and Maidenhead?
I have her reg number as I took a picture of her in case things got sillier, still tempted to report her to the police.
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Comments
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Women drivers eh.
Maybe she did behave out of the best intentions but it does seem an odd way to do it.
Post her pic, see if is she is known, you may have got a mention on twitter or somewhere.The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
wasn't in Norwich, was it?0
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if you or anyone else too her number plate you need to call the police and report her, if for nothign else then the dangerous driving.enigma esprit
cannondale caad8 tiagra 20120 -
how old was she, what she look like? if she was some fat old bloater i guess shw probably was talking BS.0
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What bike did she ride? I'm guessing a Cervelo.I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles0
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Is a paperboy a pro cyclist? He's paid to ride his bike and deliver papers ... that makes him pro ... no?!
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Strangely the only road rage incident I have had for a long while:
Out with Mrs MM, climbing a usually very quite short steep single carriageway urban road with cars parked down one side. Driver (male) insisted on revving and burning his clutch behind us, while we held primary. He then revved past (delayed for all of 10 seconds), only to pull into filling station 100yds down road. Mrs MM had a surprisingly calm word with him, at which point he told us we were a danger to ourselves by not keeping next to the parked cars and he used to be a pro so knew what he was talking about.
Managed to avoid telling him he was a professional Nob.
Edit: naughty word filter changed my last word in an amusing fashion.0 -
eughh, i bet that wasn't fun !
i've been told the opposite... "get on the road" whilst riding on the cycle lane
i think cyclists should just learn to fly or something. at least then they wouldn't get moaned at for existing !0 -
Pro cyclist, right...
Me thinks she should be pro-hibited from driving! :P0 -
If she was a pro cyclist she wouldnt be driving her car from training!! Even the Cat 1 riders i was with on Sunday completed a 90 mile Bike RACE!! and still rode 25 miles home to cool down.. now thats hardcore!
pro my ass!!
:roll: :roll: 0 -
Cycle paths have a speed limit of 18mph. Inform her you never drop below 20.
Pro cyclist my ass, prob an old shirt she had in her car. No one who rides a bike ever cuts up another cyclist as I'd like to think everyone knows how dangerous it is0 -
Exactly, a pro cyclist would be cycling, not driving Even Wiggo cycles on UK roads occasionally! 0
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Sounds like "I'm a Pro" is their new excuse ... because road tax is a non-argument ... so if they can claim superiority then you should do as they say ... so you just need a response to their (probably) ridiculous claim that they're pro ...
Something along the lines of ...
"I'm Dave Brailsford, which team do you ride for?" ...
or
"then get out of your car and ride you plonker."
etc etc 0 -
hasnt there been 2 stories on the forum here lately about supposed pros or ex pros doing this?
the obvious question to ask them is wow, who do you/did you ride for and in what events.0 -
Even if these drivers were pro cyclists, pros are selected based on ability to perform better than other cyclists. They're not necessarily road safety experts (though I guess those who are *really* reckless may be weeded out by injuries etc!) or skilled risk analysts.0
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markhewitt1978 wrote:Exactly, a pro cyclist would be cycling, not driving Even Wiggo cycles on UK roads occasionally!
Yeer and look what happened to him! - He got mowed down by a woman driver!0 -
And then ask them for their autographthe playing mantis wrote:hasnt there been 2 stories on the forum here lately about supposed pros or ex pros doing this?
the obvious question to ask them is wow, who do you/did you ride for and in what events. Ecrasez l’infame0 -
She had a shirt in the back, what no shorts?. What was her bike like you con't seem to have mentioned it. Unless she left it at her training centre screwed to the floor.0
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I came across a woman on TT bike ranting and raving the other day. I wonder if it was her?
I think the solution is for cyclists to be one dimensional, then we wouldn't take up any road space, but could easily squeeze through all traffic jams.0 -
Pross wrote:houston26 wrote:Cycle paths have a speed limit of 18mph.
No they don't
Could swear I read they are. (Goes looking)
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/do-cyc ... ts.104159/
Look like an advisory if your doin more than 18 then use the road.0 -
TomOdell wrote:i think cyclists should just learn to fly or something. at least then they wouldn't get moaned at for existing !
I have. And it hasn't stopped the moaning...
PP0 -
houston26 wrote:Pross wrote:houston26 wrote:Cycle paths have a speed limit of 18mph.
No they don't
Could swear I read they are. (Goes looking)
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/do-cyc ... ts.104159/
Look like an advisory if your doin more than 18 then use the road.
Who is the advisory from? Just checked the link & looks like someone on a forum & as @Pross states they do not apply to cycles other that cases where you can be convicted for cycling furiously/pedalling etcPain hurts much less if its topped off with beating your mates to top of a climb.0 -
Danlikesbikes wrote:houston26 wrote:Pross wrote:houston26 wrote:Cycle paths have a speed limit of 18mph.
No they don't
Could swear I read they are. (Goes looking)
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/do-cyc ... ts.104159/
Look like an advisory if your doin more than 18 then use the road.
Who is the advisory from? Just checked the link & looks like someone on a forum & as @Pross states they do not apply to cycles other that cases where you can be convicted for cycling furiously/pedalling etc
IIRC it came from a DFT consultation some time back, though I dont think it ever went any further than that
but in some respects its just common sense, anything over 7mph is counted as running speed, so not even joggers are going that fast, and if your talking about cycling at more than double the speed of people running, let alone just walking their dogs, its just not a good shared experience for either group.
if you can sustain 15+mph its better to be on the road, though its personal choice and no one can force you to do either 0 -
As will All road safety considerations - Speed in mph should never be part of the equation. You look at the conditions and you develop a riding/driving plan that keeps you furthest away from hazards according to the priority that you have assigned and you continue to adapt that plan as you progress or the circumstances change (google IPSGA for more info).
You cannot say for certain that the road or the cycle path is the safer place without considering the factors. There are some great cycle paths near me, but in the winter there is no way I will ride my skinny tyred road bike on them, because they are full of debris and water. Great in the summer when the sweeper has been down.
There are no speed limits on cycle paths. However, it wouldn't be clever to cycle a TT on a path that is shared with pedestrians.0
