How guilty should I feel about the karma?

smokeybiker

Cycling home today I was coming up the hill towards my house. There was a pedestrian island in the road ahead and a car came past me, cutting in just by the island - the usual way that seems aimed to kill cyclists. Anyway, I thought that was it but a couple of seconds later as I was closing on the island I could hear another car coming up behind at speed. I assumed that it would brake (not being able to fit between me and the island without wiping me out) but no - the next thing I know the car comes flying past with quite a loud series of bangs that was quite shocking. As I was trying to figure out what happened and how it fit through the gap (and recover control of my bike) the car slowed ahead to a crawl and it was then that I noticed that both driver side tyres (front and back) were now completely flat, presumably from hitting a 5 inch curb head on at 30mph.

I have to say I felt quite happy about this and cycled past the car, wagging my finger at the driver as they limped into the side of the road.

Later I was wondering should I have been a bit more magnanimous and stopped to see if they were ok? Or should I relax in the knowledge that they are probably highly unlikely to try that on another cyclist?

curium

Feel free to gloat mate. He's taken one for the team.

Not a day goes by without a cage driver racing me to a width restriction of some form.

danlikesbikes

But if you had not done anything other stop (with no finger wagging) the driver could have appreciated you stopping or turned out to be a nut job and taken it out on you.

No way to know really.

awavey

smokeybiker wrote:

Cycling home today I was coming up the hill towards my house. There was a pedestrian island in the road ahead and a car came past me, cutting in just by the island - the usual way that seems aimed to kill cyclists. Anyway, I thought that was it but a couple of seconds later as I was closing on the island I could hear another car coming up behind at speed. I assumed that it would brake (not being able to fit between me and the island without wiping me out) but no - the next thing I know the car comes flying past with quite a loud series of bangs that was quite shocking. As I was trying to figure out what happened and how it fit through the gap (and recover control of my bike) the car slowed ahead to a crawl and it was then that I noticed that both driver side tyres (front and back) were now completely flat, presumably from hitting a 5 inch curb head on at 30mph.

I have to say I felt quite happy about this and cycled past the car, wagging my finger at the driver as they limped into the side of the road.

Later I was wondering should I have been a bit more magnanimous and stopped to see if they were ok? Or should I relax in the knowledge that they are probably highly unlikely to try that on another cyclist?

on my commute theres a whole sequence of traffic islands I pass, and I always feel slightly guilty for wanting just once one of those close encounter of the vehicle kinds to end up just like that so that to me is karma it does happen, makes up for all the crazy impatient so and so's who scare me half to death.

smokeybiker

In the past I would have probably gone past yelling a whole load of abuse. Recently I have made a concerted effort to take a different approach (lots of thumbs up or cheering on some of my trips), So I guess it could have been worse.

seajays

I always take primary when going through them. They just have to wait.

secretsam

You should have pulled a Peter Sagan-style wheelie as you went past, waving one arm in the air like a cowboy.

Much Karma there, you may have gone into debit - be careful for a few days

BobMcbob

I had a stone fly up once from my rear wheel and go straight through the passenger window of a white van who was passing dangerously close... needless to say i just kept riding (the guy could have been a nutter) and put it down to karma

The Rookie

I think I would have given the thumbs up.

You may want to read up on road positioning, when approaching a width restriction you should be taking the primary to actively discourage drivers from making an ass of themselves, that is true karma when you save a driver from themselves.

arthur_scrimshaw

Obviously very poor driving but at least he decided to take out the traffic island rather than hitting you?

tangled_metal

Oops! That could be expensive for the driver. I did it once when tired and shouldn't have been driving. Well i was about 5 minutes from home and I did have a tendency to drive bit too far right when tired. Luckily I got one flat and two dented steel hubs. Not alloys so no big expense, i just got two new hubs from a scrap yard with top range pirellis on them for a fiver each. Plenty of tread in them as nearly new and the hubs were in a better state than the damaged ones. Needless to say a tuned and modded car with probably wide and expensive tyres on it, lowered suspension, etc. = potential for a lot of damage when kerbing it. I knew a guy who wrote off his factory spec hot hatch by kerbing at 30mph.

The thumbs up probably means a bit of bad Karma coming your way but I'd find that worth it, even if it means you have a puncture on a really wet ride for Karma payback.

+1 on positioning. I also need to read up on current advice on that as I tend to make myself as inobtrusive for passing cars and vehicles when I should be putting myself in the way a bit more to prevent dodgy passing.

mpatts

The Rookie wrote:

I think I would have given the thumbs up.

You may want to read up on road positioning, when approaching a width restriction you should be taking the primary to actively discourage drivers from making an ass of themselves, that is true karma when you save a driver from themselves.

What he said. I ride in the middle of the road approaching traffic islands for this very reason.

mpatts

The Rookie wrote:

I think I would have given the thumbs up.

You may want to read up on road positioning, when approaching a width restriction you should be taking the primary to actively discourage drivers from making an ass of themselves, that is true karma when you save a driver from themselves.

What he said. I ride in the middle of the road approaching traffic islands for this very reason.

seajays

There's even a pretty diagram here:

[url=http://jerseysaferoads.com/cycling/traffic-islands-level-3/]JerseySafeRoads.com[/url] wrote:

Traffic Islands

Traffic islands help pedestrians to cross the road by splitting it into two parts. They are also sometimes used to help slow traffic down by making the gap they have to drive through quite small. The main danger for you as a cyclist as you ride up to a traffic island with a small gap, is if traffic tries to overtake you at the island. To keep yourself safe, follow this plan.

1. Well before the traffic island, check back and move into the primary position so as to block your lane.
2. As you approach the traffic island, take care as pedestrians may step off the pavement without looking. They probably won’t hear you coming, so make sure you have covered your brake levers to stop quickly or slow down if you have to. Also be ready to ring your bell to warn them.
3. Once you have ridden through the island and you feel it is safe, move back to the secondary riding position.

smokeybiker

I do normally take pirmary in places like this. In this instance however I assumed (wrongly) that given the narrowness of the lane and my standard poistion about a meter from the kerb that no one would be stupid enough to try and squeeze through. Obviously wrong.

damocles10

Sounds like the gods dishing out a bit of justice, don't even give it a second thought. If he had of held back he wouldn't have trashed his tyres. Simple as that!

Initialised

Nice one, hopefully the driver wrecked his wheels (and they were expensive aftermarket alloys) as well as flatting his tyres.

jimmypippa

Something similar happened to me except the traffic island was about 50-yds ahead of me and the car (Saxo with lowered suspension, so no stereotypes there) had passed me really wide but well over the 40mph limit and presumably didn't pull in until too late. I didn't see what happened after the overtake, just looked at the car when I heard the bang, and when I saw the buckled wheel.

The Rookie

Tangled Metal wrote:

Luckily I got one flat and two dented steel hubs.

Most people call them wheels, the hub is what the wheel bolts to....

peat

Yeah, be thankful they decided to hit the island and not you.

What really razzes me off is the calming chicanes with the side-shoot cycle path. If you and a car in the same direction negotiate them at the same time, the cyclist is delivered straight into the side of the car. They are a perfectly designed cyclist killing mechanism.