"Out Of Order" ?? - You Decide...

Pufftmw

Came down Bayswater Road to Lancaster Gate. I positioned myself clearly in the middle of left hand lane and was slowing down to stop at the lights. Woman in a Golf type car undertakes on my left and forces me into the next lane :shock: :shock:

Pull up beside her and bang on her window and shout that that was dangerous driving. She opens the window, so I tell her again. She denies it and then I see her iPad on her lap with her emails showing, so it had obviously recently been looked at. Whilst driving, I don't know but still against the law & coupled with her forcing me into another lane, I flipped a bit, accused her of not paying attention, grabbed the iPad and pushed it into the passenger footwell, then took her keys out the ignition and lobbed them over to the side of the road & said she shouldn't be driving.

Rode off & stopped at the still red lights. She runs up and grabs me and starts having a shout at me! Another cyclist has seen what has happened, so he's trying to calm her down. She wants to call the police and for me to apologise for shouting at her & pick her keys up - like NFW. Eventually some distraught passerby hands her the keys and I apologise for throwing her keys away & she lets go of me.

Other cyclist says that she was dangerous but I was "Out of Order". Was I? Thanks for stopping by the way.

(B1tch scratched me too - stings like hell!)

greg66_tri_v2.0

TBH, I'd say that sounds like you overreacted a bit. And let's face it, you wouldn't have done what you did had the driver been male, >6' and >15 stone.

vermin

I think you deserve a commendation for strict adherence to SCR rules (stopping at the red) despite the inevitable consequences (getting slapped).

Yes, you over-reacted.

markhewitt1978

Yes you were out of order, but on the other hand; well done!

PerformingMonkey

Pathetic! Greg66 hit the nail on the head.

rubertoe

I voted over reacted.

I never seem to have incidents like this, must be lucky I guess..

fat_tail

+1 for overreaction. Often it is best to take a deep breath and just carry on with a good shake of the head.

ddraver

How would you have reacted if someone had done that to you?

If she was on the ipad though I'm kinda impressed, would have been pretty funny. Trouble is, as you found out, she's just not going to have learned a single thing from the incident, she's just going to be another anti cyclist idiot.

A smack on the side of the car as she undertook would have been good (though still controversial), although I appreciate that may not have been possible.

veronese68

I can understand why you would be furious. But I do think that was a bit over the top. I've nearly had a full on fist fight with a bloke that did something similar, after the event I was as annoyed with myself for losing it as much as anything.
I would be especially careful doing something like that to a woman. Yes, a woman driving a car is just as capable of killing you as a man in a car. But as soon as it gets physical you as the man will be seen as the aggressor and if the police had been called you probably would have been in a lot more trouble, although we know your actions were less dangerous.
Even if you'd done that to a bloke I reckon you'd be in more trouble because as we all know a bit of dangerous driving is nowhere near as bad as stopping someone from driving. :evil:
.

meanredspider

Yes - over-reaction. But I also understand. If you're at the wheel of a car, you should be giving the world around you your full attention and not gambling with the health of the people sharing the road with you.

FWIW, I'd have been more likely to react that way if it was a 6' 15st bloke than a woman.

mpatts

Definite over reaction - but I can understand why you over reacted.

slowbike

perhaps you should've just said "you're obviously more interested in your emails than driving" then ridden off with her keys ... oh - and once she started coming after you - don't wait at the red light ...

but it's very easy to say these things - far harder to act sensibly once the adrenaline hits ...

veronese68

meanredspider wrote:

FWIW, I'd have been more likely to react that way if it was a 6' 15st bloke than a woman.

Same here. I've ridden off rather than have a go at a woman in case I really lost my rag. Does that make us sexist?

tgotb

What the others said. Grabbing someone's keys (and throwing them into the bushes, riding off with them etc) is great for entertaining cake stop stories, urban legends, "I wish I had" scenarios etc, but probably best avoided in reality.

I'm no lawyer, but do you really want to do something which could be construed as assault, however remote the possibility?

bigmat

What Greg said I'm afraid. If you're going to be aggressive and intimidate drivers you have to be consistent. Saying that, it may just be a coincidence that you flipped with a woman and you may have done the same had it been a big bloke?

Also, you should have just taken the iPad. She could have driven away, you'd have an iPad - everyone's a winner!

rjsterry

Two wrongs an' all that, but can certainly see why you'd be furious.

menthel

Agreed with everyone else, silly move. Tell her what she has done wrong and leave it there.

notsoblue

I know that bit of road quite well and have had my least edifying confrontation with a van driver there in similar circumstances. I can understand how you'd get that angry, but I think you went a bit far! Yelling at her probably would have been enough...

bunter

I would also add that it might not such a great idea to post the details of the event online, given recent tweets that got a couple of drivers into trouble...

junglist_matty

If I was the other cyclist I'd have thrown you off your bike then make you apologise!

coopster_the_1st

Difficult to tell what we each would do in the heat of the moment!

I have no idea why you apologised though and why you did not allow the police to be called or why you did not call them yourself. You were certainly not in the wrong with the original incident!

She should not have been driving and reading e-mails at the same time!!!

vermin

junglist_matty wrote:

If I was the other cyclist I'd have thrown you off your bike then make you apologise!

You wouldn't have stopped at the red though, hey ...

Colinthecop

Was she a looker...?

You got any phone/helmet cam pics...?

I'm on the fence until I know this. :shock:

junglist_matty

vermin wrote:

junglist_matty wrote:

If I was the other cyclist I'd have thrown you off your bike then make you apologise!

You wouldn't have stopped at the red though, hey ...

Oh yeah, I forgot he mentioned he was slowing for a red light..... I'd have just sped up and swerved through the traffic

gabriel959

junglist_matty wrote:

vermin wrote:

junglist_matty wrote:

If I was the other cyclist I'd have thrown you off your bike then make you apologise!

You wouldn't have stopped at the red though, hey ...

Oh yeah, I forgot he mentioned he was slowing for a red light..... I'd have just sped up and swerved through the traffic

and mowed down a few peds :twisted:

katiebob

OTT but you should have thrown the iPad... ;-)

DonDaddyD

If I was the driver I would have kicked the OPs ass.

If it was Ms DDD and I was in the car, I'd have kicked the OPs ass.

However, I've been the OP and shouted at a driver for doing this; upon seeing the driver turn round and reveal that she was a beautiful amazon, complete with Liz Hurley accent telling me "I am sorry but I do not believe I did cut you up", I got an erection so happily rode off with my bike leaning unnaturally to the left...

That's how the story should have went.

redvee

Over reaction by throwing the keys but in the heat of the moment dropping the keys into the footwell would have been better and lost as she would have concentrated on your arm throwing them.

indyp

Voted over-reaction, but also can see why you did it. I would have just tutted and carried on my way. I've found it's really not worth get angry over bad driver's, there's just too many of them.

il_principe

Shoulda taken a pic of her with iPad on lap and sent it to the Police. But I understand the red mist to an extent.

iPete

You need to download some zen.