Just had a stand up row with a driver.

Whilst moving over to the right to turn at a mini roundabout I received the longest car horn sound I’ve ever heard.
A bit further on the motorist is waiting for me, and an argument ensues.

His logic?
I changed lanes without signaling, it’s a single lane?
I pulled out in front of him, I was always in front of him?
I stopped signalling too early, perhaps?
I didn’t signal whilst on the mini roundabout, I need to brake and steer?

I had to meet my mates so left it.
Basically he tried to overtake just before a mini roundabout.
Winds me up.

Edit; not much of an argument really 😐

I tend to assume that sort of row is driver code for “I NEED TO CONVINCE MYSELF THIS WASN’T MY FAULT BY GETTING REALLY ANGRY”.

Signalling across the mini round about, that’s good that is.

Best not to even stop and talk. Just wave, smile and say ‘good morning’. They stay wound up with nothing they can do about it, you stay happy and on yer bike

The more I cycle on the road bike over here in Oz the more I think cyclists and drivers are alike. Both groups have characters that want to get on by at any cost, not associating other cars/cyclists as people until an accident happens and someone gets hurt. I got Knocked off my road bike 7 weeks ago by someone who didn’t see me, the first day I’m back on the bike I got talking to a lady who was knocked off by another cyclist on the cycle path, who didn’t see her,the week before! Aside from this small percentage of r soles everyone else is pretty reasonable.

The correct answer is to wait until they’ve ranted themselves out, and then say “Aw, I think someone needs a hug…”

Oldgit – you did something he didn’t expect. You gave him a fright. Did you actually look before moving out? I regularly find myself in that position but a look with eye contact followed by a hand signal usually ensures they know exactly what I am planning. Assume all drivers are in a day dream (because a lot are) and accept you will sometimes do things which frighten/upset them (even if technically you are in the right) and that natural human response when in the wrong seems to be to try and pass the issue to someone else.

The most annoying thing is that this spot is bloody dangerous. The more they try to calm it i.e speed bumps and narrowing the lanes the worst it gets. Quite simply cars try and pass cyclists before they hit traffic calming.
I always return on the main road.

The correct answer is to wait until they’ve ranted themselves out, and then say “Aw, I think someone needs a hug…”

I like that, I’m taking that with me 8)

I know what you mean Polly.
This bit of road is slow, it has lights, speed bumps and a 20MPH section.
A car really struggles to get past.
We knew of each other.
Cars try to pass, but then have to slow for the speed bumps, a cyclist can avoid them. This probably pee’s them off a tad!
It the rolls downhill before becoming two lanes at the roundabout, I’ve always moved out before approaching the double lanes.
He tried to dive past, you can’t and he spent ages on the horn, which usually means they’ve had plenty of time to react and are just annoyed?

Apart from that he was a well spoken nice young man.

So I’m either a cyclist OR a motorist?

But I do both.

Am I chalky cheese or cheesy chalk?

But I do both.

I can hear the circus calling 🙂

That’s for my height and my circus-wheeled bicycles, nothing to do with cars.

I’m a cyclist and a white van man.
I am the most hated person on the road (apart from bus drivers)

I think we need more details from the OP so can blame him a bit more. 🙂

Fair point, its that point in the thread when it should turn to a backlash.

I think it’s more to do with the personality type rather than the mode of transport.
I must say at this point though, that i don’t own a drivers licence so can’t really speak about that side of the equation.
However, like most i’ve had my fair share of idiot drivers getting angry at what they see as my ‘hogging the road’ etc and i’ve done more than my fair share of shouting at cars that pass too close/pull into the lane i’m in/left hooking me etc etc.
Thing is, i’ve also had a couple of drivers apologise for their actions – one even walked across tesco’s car park to find me and apologise for what was in reality nothing more than a minor miscalculation of time/speed.
I do try to let vehicles pass when its safe, i slow down and wave drivers out of a side road when i can, its all about being respectful of each other.

Andrewh, I’m a cyclist and a taxidriver that trumps you for moat hated.

Surely there must be a bus driver somewhere on STW? 🙂

Surely there must be a bus driver somewhere on STW?

several will be along in a minute – probably stuck behind a look at those lovely clouds cyclist 😆 😆

ride a regular section of road that is similar and it is very obvious to drivers what you are going to do, already in middle of lane – that is unless you are the type of driver who believes that everyone else will always give way to you and that is a pretty big minority and they don’t care a toss about peds, kids, cyclists, buses and will try to pass anyway – when they did their test they ticked the box:

Would you run your own mother over? ? Tick for yes

… and putting on the car drivers “hat” the same drivers will flash you / blast horn / tailgate for not trying to do a dumb arse overtake but wrapped in metal no worries

I don’t have a problem with bus drivers, there are very very few bad ones, I am pro-public transport as you can imagine but I’m not a fan of the bendy buses just because of the lack of manouverability and driver vision…

the majority of drivers are great, the dangerous ones are few and far between – I would bet that most people on here drive and let’s face it we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t make the odd mistake

why do some drivers think it’s ok to pass an oncoming bike on a very narrow country road at seventy+ but slow down to barely 5 mph more than the bike when overtaking ?

Sily old prat in an agila(obviously got no money and got it on motobility) overtakes me and swerves in just on the approach to a traffic island,i shouted CYCLIST at him, his reaction was to swerve to the left almost hitting me,then accelerate like a nutter and turn left, chased after him and he again turned left on a red traffic light, probably just trying to get his quota up of road traffic offences, before the condems re asses himand take his car off him..

Anyone who stops a car[or bike frankly] to remonstrate with a fellow road user is never going to be calm or reasonable so I dont bother engaging in conversation tbh.

I disagree with the title of the thread. Not really that much difference between cyclists and drivers – both can be idiots.

I drive a van everyday for work and I’m relatively new to cycling on public roads, as had not cycled for nearly 20 years and then did most of it on the pavement as a kid.

Up untill now I had never really even considered cyclists. I would just pass them by when i considered it safe giving them plenty of room.

And by and large that’s what happens to me. Every now and then a car will pass uncomfortably close even when there was no traffic coming the other way and they could have given a wide birth. And I am not making this up 9 times out of 10 when this happens they have one of those big private hire stickers on the back.

Another thing I swear some people think that cars have priority over bikes full stop, an. Example being you are riding happily along and notice a car in the opposite lane coming in the opposite direction not far in front of you pull over tight to the white lines to wait for a gap in the traffic in your lane to cross it and exit at a junction coming up just to your left. Then they suddenly attempt this as you are crossing the junction as if they expected you as a cyclist should have seen them waiting and indicating and you as a cyclist should have then stopped as they as a motorist clearly should have the right of way..

When I tell people at work that my bike is a carriage and the law states I must ride it on the carriage way. And as a cyclist I should be treated as an equal on the road. It’s some time before they stop laughing.

oldgit – Member

I changed lanes without signaling, it’s a single lane?
I pulled out in front of him, I was always in front of him?

Try a comma- you didn’t “pull out in front of him” but you did “pull out, in front of him”. He wasn’t expecting your change of position. Not saying that’s your fault, but am saying that fault doesn’t matter in the slightest in car vs bike.

Hmm, OK, could be misinterpreting but…

In the first, did you signal for your road position change? Highway code doesn’t cover 2 wheelers all that well but says signals “use them to advise other road users before changing course or direction, stopping or moving off”. On the motorbike test, it’s a fault to change road position significantly without cycling, which moving from a hard left to hard right road position would be. But not sure if that’s what you did. Anyway, I would always still signal on the pushbike before a significant change of position, diminishes the chance of a bellend trying to squeeze past (and I’d do it well in advance and take an uncontestable primary position, on a normal road)

If you already did this, then fair dos- it’s not clear from the post, I think it’s as likely that I’m misunderstanding as not given I know you’re no noob!

It’s not ‘Cyclists & drivers’ it’s ‘Considerate people & rude people’

Quite often, whilst walking along a pavement wide enough for two people to pass, there will be two people coming the other way and, instead of them ‘going single file’, they’ll just continue straight at me expecting me to somehow make myself narrower (Ok, I’m not the slimmest of people, but you get what I mean).
No cycles or cars involved in this, but a similar situation.

The sooner we stop getting dragged into the cyclists vs drivers misnomer, the sooner we can concentrate on addressing the general poor standards of behaviour from all road/street/public transport users. (Don’t get me started about cyclists in London or ditherers on the Underground)

^^^^True.

Northwind, I hear what you’re saying. It’s just that this is one of those roads! It’s residential, so has parked cars and it’s close to town. Put it this way two cars can’t pass in most places, until it fans out for the mini roundabout.
If he did manage to squeeze past, he’d be overtaking through a box junction and crossing.

Just popped down to the shops and, true to form, three women with shoppings bags stayed side by side forcing me to walk along the last few inches of the pavement.
Maybe I should just consider it good practice for riding skinny North shore 😉

Just had the exact same ‘i’m going to kick the **** out of you you cyclist ****’. He beeped at me, then slammed on and decided to push me onto the otherside of the road, thankfully no on coming traffic. When I told him ‘I’m not going to fight you’ he went mad, jumped out and pushed me. Thankfully I didn’t come off and managed to cyle away. Another driver took his number and called the police, I decided not to stick around and rode home. Had to share this because i’m still shaken up. Think he was a full on psycho.

Report to the police – that is an assault. Did you get the details of the witness?

Unfortunately not however a concered motorist stopped at the lights and told me they had details. I just wanted to get home and in the shower.

Sorry got that wrong. I decided to contact the police. The witness had infact informed the police and an investigation is now underway.

Every adult cyclist I know is also a driver. I think cyclists are better drivers than non cyclists.