Last night's douchebag taxi driver encounter

BoardinBob
BoardinBob Posts: 697
edited September 2009 in Commuting chat
So last night on the way home from work I'm sitting at the junction in the link below waiting for the lights.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?source=ig ... 8,,0,13.68

I'm in the middle lane as I'm going straight on. A taxi appears in the lane to my left and in that lane he should be turning left only.

So the lights go to green and I set off leaving space for the taxi to turn left...except he doesn't turn left, he decides to go straight on and in doing so he decides he's going to undertake me to do it!!!

The street I was heading to is a one way and as I approach I'm moving over towards the left hand side when I suddenly realise the bellend of a taxi driver is trying to get past me on the left which forces me into swerving right to avoid him. Luckily no one had been following me in my lane or they would have hit me.

He sped off down the street after I shouted a string of abuse at him. I caught up with him at the lights and drew level with him and shouted at him but he stared straight ahead and refused to look at me. I looked at his passenger in the back and she indicated that she was shocked at what he did.

With hindsight I should have got his number but I was just glad to be alive!

Rant over.

Comments

  • maybe you should've thrown gravel at him :wink:
    Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
    2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
    2011 Trek Madone 4.5
    2012 Felt F65X
    Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter
  • As a fellow Weedgie cyclist, not so good.

    Incidentally is that you in the Street view wearing red, going along Argyle St, be very impressed if it is....

    I had a divvie at bottom of Garscube Road night before last, he was in inside lane, I help primary in outside. Lights changed, we both pulled away, but he hard queuing card in his lane, and decided I did not need mine, and barged into mine tooting his horn. I didn't give way, almost inviting him to knock me down (was low speed) but he didn't, I turned and gave some suitable phrases that would make Jerry Sadowicz blush, and he just sat there grinning inanely.
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • kurako
    kurako Posts: 1,098
    Cabbie sounds like a right bawbag!!

    Pretty stupid road layout though.
  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    Kurako wrote:
    Pretty stupid road layout though.

    that is the dictionary definition of glasgow.
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

    H.G. Wells.
  • Incidentally is that you in the Street view wearing red, going along Argyle St, be very impressed if it is...
    Nah, this is clearly him, traumatised after the incident. Here. :P
  • White Line wrote:
    Incidentally is that you in the Street view wearing red, going along Argyle St, be very impressed if it is...
    Nah, this is clearly him, traumatised after the incident. Here. :P

    My, she is lovely!!
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • will3
    will3 Posts: 2,173
    did you ask him if he'd read cyclcraft?

    I hear that's what you do in Glasgow
  • will3 wrote:
    did you ask him if he'd read cyclcraft?

    I hear that's what you do in Glasgow
    Nope. That's just the male nurses that do that. :o
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    maybe you should've thrown gravel at him :wink:

    As mentioned in this piece from todays times?

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 846227.ece

    To go out with a weapon in your pocket is pre-meditated?
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • redvee wrote:
    maybe you should've thrown gravel at him :wink:

    As mentioned in this piece from todays times?

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 846227.ece

    To go out with a weapon in your pocket is pre-meditated?


    joke <
    > you


    :P :wink:
    Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
    2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
    2011 Trek Madone 4.5
    2012 Felt F65X
    Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter
  • BoardinBob wrote:
    ..when I suddenly realise the bellend of a taxi driver is trying to get past me on the left which forces me into swerving right...

    Is bellend a normal Scottish colloquialism? I thought it was a London thing?
  • suzyb
    suzyb Posts: 3,449
    BoardinBob wrote:
    ..when I suddenly realise the bellend of a taxi driver is trying to get past me on the left which forces me into swerving right...

    Is bellend a normal Scottish colloquialism? I thought it was a London thing?
    Must be a city thing, I've never heard it.
  • carrock
    carrock Posts: 1,103
    Well I'm not sure whether the taxi driver wuz a bellend or a bawbag

    Or wuz he a scrotey wee shitebag

    Or an erse

    Can we have a poll??
  • -null- wrote:
    BoardinBob wrote:
    ..when I suddenly realise the bellend of a taxi driver is trying to get past me on the left which forces me into swerving right...

    Is bellend a normal Scottish colloquialism? I thought it was a London thing?
    Must be a city thing, I've never heard it.

    I know it well, its a countrywide expression and he was probably being kind so the southern readership could understand. normally call the taxi driver a wee sleekit, slimy bawbag of a haggises scrotum.
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • snooks
    snooks Posts: 1,521
    BoardinBob wrote:

    The street I was heading to is a one way and as I approach I'm moving over towards the left hand side when I suddenly realise the bellend of a taxi driver is trying to get past me on the left which forces me into swerving right to avoid him. Luckily no one had been following me in my lane or they would have hit me.

    Had someone nicked your brakes then? ;)

    Sorry to point out the obvious but you saw he was a taxi....how much more warning do you need that the guy was going to do summut silly? :D

    Sorry you were cut up, but it's the way of the roads, unless you pay "road tax" of course
    FCN:5, 8 & 9
    If I'm not riding I'm shooting http://grahamsnook.com
    THE Game
    Watch out for HGVs
  • I think I'm going to start calling people bawbag from now on - it's a little more exotic than bellend...
  • I think I'm going to start calling people bawbag from now on - it's a little more exotic than bellend...

    Its a better term of abuse up here than bellend. "Hey yoo Ya wee bawbag, get the fedge oot o ma way, im on a bike, and i ken go wer i waany too!"
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • jedster
    jedster Posts: 1,717
    what a pillock.

    some fooker once did a variant on that to me while driving a big white transit. Wide lane into a junction with a left turn. I keep middle/right of lane as I am going straight on and don't want to get left hooked. When I was through the junction, I wanted to move back to secondary to let traffic past. Fortunately shoulder checked because the transit was charging through inside me!!! I gave a colourful expression of surprise and alarm and got a torrent of abuse through wvm's open window. GRRRRRRR......

    Incidently, I reckon this is an absolutely classic example of a driver's inability to put himself in a cyclists shoes. I bet if you could quietly explain over a pint why it makes sense for a cyclist to use that road positioning and that you would get out of the way as soon as it was safe to do so then even the WVM/cabbie gorilla species would see your point. In fact if they bothered to stop for a minute and try to think why we do it then everything would be cool. But they don't even bother. GRRRRRR....
  • kurako
    kurako Posts: 1,098
    On the subject of douche-bag it made me think about how one thing could be insulting to one person but not to another. My brother-not-quite-in-law is from New York and told me it's probably the worst thing you can do over there to call someone that. Who'da thought?

    A bit like the time I really offended a Glasgow girl by calling her a 'silly cow'. Something which is practically a compliment in Dundee where I grew up :D