Wrong even when we try to do right.

Tonymufc
Tonymufc Posts: 1,016
edited January 2009 in Campaign
I have just read a post concerning aggressive cyclist, being abusive and giving other road/pavement users cr&p. This is what happened to me the other day. I was cycling along a busy main road (in a cycle lane) in Manchester. We were shifting a bit 21/22mph, when a bus pulled in infront of me at a bus stop. At this point there was another bus coming up behind me but still a good enough distance away to allow me to pull out and overtake the one in front. After overtaking the one in front I promptly moved over to allow the other bus to overtake me. As I did this I raised my right hand to signal a thankyou to(as I always do) the approaching bus driver. As he went past me he gave me the middle finger. Why? I rode like a man possesed to catch this p***k. I caught him at the next set of lights, and asked why he gave me the finger. "You cyclist never look you cause too many accidents you're all the same". not even a gestured thanyou was good enough for this guy. Any way I'm sad to say at this point I lost what ever cool I had and unleashed foul mouthed tirade on him. With drivers like that is it any wonder we SOMETIMES lose our cool.

Comments

  • bellys
    bellys Posts: 456
    this never happends to me :twisted:
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    A lot (but not all) of the Bus drivers in Manchester seem like right c*nts.

    However you should be able to understand their frustation towards towards "cyclists", as most of the people who ride bikes in Manchester are a hazard both to themselves and others, as a "cyclist" I'd consider most of the idiots riding bikes in Manchester to be "non-cyclists". Unfortunately the layman does not distinguish between the idiots (without lights/riding with their knees by their ears/RLJing/footpath riding) and (generally law abiding) cyclists (whatever the cyclist may ride).
    I like bikes...

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  • marmitecp
    marmitecp Posts: 203
    I was waiting outside Edin bike shop on Oxford Road before Christmas and had the oppurtunity to observe the standard of student cycling.

    Thoroughly unscientific, but women and Chinese women in particular, seem to have no concern for their own safety. I can see where some bus drivers get their attitudes from.

    The cycle lane further up nr Dickenson Lane is ridiculous too, weaves all over the place.
  • bellys
    bellys Posts: 456
    bellys wrote:
    this never happends to me :twisted:
    i was with tony the day this happend and tony was in the right he had loads of time to pass the parked bus the driver tony spat his dummy :roll: out with give me no room he was right over next to the cycle lane. i spoke to a mate who is a bus driver later that night and he said most of the time bus drivers dont see people on bikes as the to busy looking for there next stop or people stepping off the kerb.
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    redddraggon wrote:
    A lot (but not all) of the Bus drivers in Manchester seem like right c*nts.
    Ah, now we have the reason why the good inhabitants of Manchester voted down their chance to have another driving tax imposed on them.
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • 1892
    1892 Posts: 1,690
    It's not just bus drivers in manchester they are all cra p. I think only taxi drivers are worse & bmw drivers
    Justice for the 96
  • marusches
    marusches Posts: 129
    i always seem to come across such people i nearly come to blows with a farmer near staindrop last week after i give him abuse for pulling out of a side road making basically do an emergency stop

    yes i know i should not retaliate but believe me , you would have done the same he stopped and looked then pulled out i was done on purpose
  • xpc316e
    xpc316e Posts: 43
    Well actually the farmer may not have done it on purpose - when his head was turned in your direction, his brain asked his eyes whether they saw any cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc. (we hope), but he forgot to add cyclists to the list. The eyes sent back a message that none of those things were in his field of vision, so he pulled out. The eyes only look for what they asked to look for - if those things aren't there, they see nothing.

    The farmer is only human. Seventy five per cent of crashes happen at, or near, junctions - with that in mind, you really ought to expect everybody to pull out in front of you. When they occasionally fail to do so, it will come as a pleasant surprise.
    Riding a Dahon Jetstream P9 folder, a Decathlon Fitness 3 flat-barred road bike, a Claud Butler Cape Wrath MTB, a TW 'Bents recumbent trike, a Moulton-based tandem, and a Scott CR1 Comp road bike.
  • bluecow
    bluecow Posts: 306
    redddraggon wrote:
    A lot (but not all) of the Bus drivers in Manchester seem like right c*nts.

    However you should be able to understand their frustation towards towards "cyclists", as most of the people who ride bikes in Manchester are a hazard both to themselves and others, as a "cyclist" I'd consider most of the idiots riding bikes in Manchester to be "non-cyclists". Unfortunately the layman does not distinguish between the idiots (without lights/riding with their knees by their ears/RLJing/footpath riding) and (generally law abiding) cyclists (whatever the cyclist may ride).

    I agree with everything you just said. Especially the first thing :)
  • lfcquin
    lfcquin Posts: 470
    Same thing happened to me on Oxford Road about a month back. I was stopped at some lights with a bus behind, I got away the fastest and was moving fairly rapidly approaching a bus at a bus stop. I could see a clear exit route for me down the outside of the bus - loads of room for a bike, but none for a car or bus. I could hear the bus behind me accelerating like a nutter, even though there was no way he could pass the bus at the bus stop, the only logical reason I could think was that he wanted to stop me getting past the bus and block my route past. I was quicker though and got through with loads of room to spare. When he came past me a few minutes later he was giving me various hand gestures even though I had done nothing wrong!

    I agree that there are a lot of idiots heading down Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road, all the more reason why I make sure I stick to the rules of the road!

    Doesn't stop the bus drivers being nutters though!

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