I've only hit cars when they are stopped at lights. And only do it if they have badly cut me up or gone too close.

These days i try to have a chat instead tho. Often start with the line "I've been a driver for 10 years…"

This isn't about whether or not a car driver has the "right" to be that close to you, it's about how you react to that;

a) take a hand off the bars, thereby reducing the amount of control you have over your bike in a potentially dangerous situation, and then escalate the situation into a confrontation (with you or the next poor unfortunate cyclist to come along).

b) accept the fact that some folk are just bad drivers and there's nothing you're going to do in the next few seconds to change that.

I did once manage to fall off my bike slapping a car too close to me. Lesson learn't. safety first

I open the boot at the next set of lights after a short discussion – if they really p1ss me off. And make sure I am not about to be passed again !

I'd say that if a vehicle is close enough for you to touch then they are in breach of the highway code, from a straight insurance point of view they would be at fault if, say, your bar end hit their mirror. with that in mind, they shuldn't be there, so whatever you do they would have to admit liability in order to persue any damages against you? kind of like if someone pulls out of a junction into the path of a speeding car, the car may have been speeding, but the other car shouldn't have been there. I'm sure there is something in the highway code about always passing at least a doors width from parked cars, how often do we see that?

I'm with druidh on this. All this willy waving about what you do etc, can't be arsed with it. Like I said before there are bad drivers and just as many bad cyclists on the roads/pavements.

I was cut up at a set of lights t'other day (bottom of Ardmillan into Dalry Rd for the locals). Guy came into the ASL alongside me, then pulled away sharpish and cut into the cycle lane right in front of me, forcing me almost onto the kerb.

He was riding a Specialized Tricross.

Bastid! 😡 Did you hit his helmet? Use some of TJ's 'humour' on him? Phone the police? 'Rant' online about it?

I had a wee rantette to Gheynks when I got to work….

He won't be doing that again!