Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)
  • Encounter with a "professional" driver
  • mdavids
    Free Member

    To many of you, the following tale is a case of when 2 arseholes collide. I probably agree.

    First of all I’m very much not the militant roadie type, I hate holding drivers up and ride routes which I know wont be busy. If someone gets stuck behind me for more than 30 seconds or so I pull over to let them past – the last thing I want is an irate driver pulling a stupid overtake. I generally have very few issues and ride mtb more than road anyway.

    I’m riding about 18 inches off the kerb, quiet road, popular cycling route (hadrians way from Newcastle to Hexham), not expecting anyone to overtake as it’s a blind bend and that would be ****ing stupid right?, I then hear a screech of tyres as a coach slams his brakes on – he’s tried to overtake and had to lock his wheels to avoid a head on collision with an oncoming car.

    I turn to look at him, give him a shake of the head and hold my hand up as if to say WTF. Nothing, no hand up to say sorry mate that was bad driving, just a blank stare, the blank stare of a fat man in his 40s driving a bus (badly) for a living wondering where his life went wrong. I’m turning off in 200 yards so I ride further out to prevent another stupid overtake but he turns off the same way, bugger! We now have a mile of very narrow country lane coming up where I know it’s impossible for him to get past me unless I pull over or he runs me over. However I’ve now caught up to another bus in front and I’m managing to keep up with him. After a few hundred yards of this the bus in front pulls slightly away from me, cue the chimp behind me trying another stupid overtake, this time accompanied by an aggressive blast on his horn.

    I could stop and let him past, I probably should, ordinarily I just pull over on this section if I have a car behind, but he’s a complete bell-end and I know it’s pointless letting him past as I’m gaining on the bus in front again and there’s only 1/4 mile till the end of the road anyway.

    I spend the remaining 1/4 mile in the middle of the road with a coach right up my arse furiously beeping his horn.

    I catch the bus in front with about 50 yards to go to the junction, victory!!! My fastest ever time on strava and a top ten to boot, I didn’t get run over and some moron who actually didn’t get held up by a cyclist goes home even more pissed off than normal.

    Bregante
    Full Member

    Did you get the coach company details and a reg no? I’d at least be giving them a call to speak with the boss based on that.

    Similar happened to me on a road ride last summer. I followed the offending driver for six miles right into the depot. When he stopped I climbed aboard his bus and challenged him about his driving. When he denied it an elderly passenger piped up to back my version of events 🙂

    AnyExcuseToRide
    Free Member

    Please tell me this was a Snaiths Coaches bus! My parents (live North Tyne Valley way) have had several run ins with them (in cars, not cycling) and absolutely despise them.

    One of which was a Snaiths bus driver managing to write of 5 parked cars at once in Otterburn, one of which was my dads, as he somehow managed to plow his bus through 5 cars that were parks at the side of the road perpendicular to it.

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    Drac
    Full Member

    My money is on Snaiths.

    Oh and bus drivers aren’t professional drivers.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    Report as it’s a pcv and there is therefore both your and the passengers safety to consider. I assume you need an operators licence for a coach. So a threat along those lines maybe.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    Aren’t every single one of snaiths drivers and Allison snaith herself due in court soon for falsifying tacho records?

    Merak
    Full Member

    That’s libel.

    hebdencyclist
    Free Member

    No – definitely not a case of when 2 arseholes collide. You didn’t hold him up. At all.

    I probably would have pulled over at some point anyway and let him through. Life’s worth more than a futile macho contest with a mouth-breather.

    Your “victory” (if you cared) would then have been when you drafted him then overtook him again at the junction and blew him a little kiss.

    jaaaaaaaaaam
    Free Member

    you’re my hero 🙂

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    What for stating a publiclly available fact? They are due in court, vosa are bringing the case. Never said they were guilty.

    Edit: drivers let off but Alison pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

    mdavids
    Free Member

    I got the reg but not the company, It wasn’t written on the front and I didn’t look back once we went our separate ways. I’ve spoken to a mate who’s a sergeant in the police who reckons I should just chalk it up to experience as nothing much would come of it.

    However judging by the time of day, he may well have been picking school kids up and this is a route he probably travels regularly. It’s very popular with road and leisure cyclists and can be used as part of the C2C.

    I’m tempted to report but aware it would probably be a waste of time.

    mdavids
    Free Member

    you’re my hero

    Who me. Yay 😳 I’m blushing.

    belugabob
    Free Member

    I’m tempted to report but aware it would probably be a waste of time

    If he does it on a regular basis, and nobody reports him, then he’s never going to be taken to task. If enough people report him, them action is more likely to be taken.

    project
    Free Member

    ALL BUSES AND COACHES ,must display the owners details on the passenger side valance just behind the front door. What colour was bus /coach in, amy disguishjng marks etc

    spooky_b329
    Full Member

    I’ve had very similar, holiday coach attempted to overtake on a blind bend, had to abort and swerve back in, then he started closing up for another go so I moved out into the middle of the lane. Que constant horn blasting, once the road straightened out (about 10 seconds) I moved back to the left, he came past and then pulled in as soon as the front of the coach passed and left me scrubbing my tyres along the kerb and trying to lean the bars away from coach.

    Reported time and place but no reg, never even got a reply. Very scary, a slight wobble and he’d have had me off the bike…I suspect he intended to scare me but he got closer than he intended.

    nealglover
    Free Member

    He was driving like an arsehole by the sound of it, and you should report it to the police for sure

    And doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong at all.

    t man in his 40s driving a bus (badly) for a living wondering where his life went wrong

    That does make you sound a bit like the second arsehole though 😐

    Edric64
    Free Member

    Coach driving like taxi driving, prostitution and window cleaning are jobs for those who cant find any other work.

    mdavids
    Free Member

    That does make you sound a bit like the second arsehole though

    You’re probably right, however I’ve had maybe half a dozen of what I’d consider bad “punishment” passes over the last 5 years / several thousand miles of commuting and road riding.

    4 of those were buses, 1 taxi and 1 HGV driver.
    I try not to generalise and pigeonhole but sometimes the stereotypes are there for a reason.

    Driving is a menial task, it’s not that hard to be good at it, especially if you make a living from it. “Professional” driver is very much an oxymoron in my experience.

    spooky_b329
    Full Member

    Driving is a menial task, it’s not that hard to be good at it, especially if you make a living from it. “Professional” driver is very much an oxymoron in my experience

    Rubbish. Like red jumping cyclists, there are poor examples of all road users. Have you ever tried driving an HGV?

    svalgis
    Free Member

    Coach driving like taxi driving, prostitution and window cleaning are jobs for those who cant find any other work.

    Much like riding a bike is exercie for those too fat and broken to run.

    timba
    Free Member

    I try not to generalise and pigeonhole but sometimes the stereotypes are there for a reason.

    That’s a mis-directed stereotype. There are bad riders and drivers in/on every type of vehicle, but the ones that you mention tend to stand out either by livery or size in a self-fulfilling prophecy. What about the 10s, 100s, 1000s of buses, lorries and taxis that passed you in five years and several thousand miles and did it to an acceptable level, rather than six that didn’t?

    Driving is a menial task, it’s not that hard to be good at it

    It’s surprisingly difficult to be a good driver. The mechanical(?) aspects of driving e.g. clutch, gears, etc are not that hard, the difficult bit is the constant thinking and planning (rather than reacting), particularly in a big vehicle

    /rant

    crapjumper
    Free Member

    I’m an artic driver and have been since 1994 . I do this out of choice and I’m very good at it . I’ve also got other skills and qualifications I could use to earn a living with but I enjoy my job . I don’t do it because I can’t find other work which has been mentioned here and neither am I fat or have killed anyone lately . In fact I’ve only had one minor bump in 1998 which involved a French dude in a Renault clio . We’re not all fat and lazy ( although I do know a few ). Just saying .

    matlockmeat
    Free Member

    I hate it when drivers try and over take even though they aren’t going any faster than you or your not holding them up.

    Why do they feel the need to pass? I get it all the time when going down hill at the speed limit, you can feel them desperate to get past and they have to break the speed limit to do so.

    I ride a section of road that is flat and narrow with not much room to pass. It’s a 30mph road and I can do 25 along it. Once I reach the end it’s downhill in to a busy town so i just get caught up in the traffic.

    Drivers are still obsessed with getting past me even though there are barely going faster and know full well at the end of the road I will be going back past them when they are stationary.
    Don’t think I’ll ever understand it other than some drivers simply have a problem with a cyclist being in front of them even if they aren’t being held up!

    mdavids
    Free Member

    That’s a mis-directed stereotype. There are bad riders and drivers in/on every type of vehicle, but the ones that you mention tend to stand out either by livery or size in a self-fulfilling prophecy. What about the 10s, 100s, 1000s of buses, lorries and taxis that passed you in five years and several thousand miles and did it to an acceptable level, rather than six that didn’t?

    Of course, and as a lycra clad, red light jumping, lentil eating, green party voting militant cyclist* I’m well aware of the hypocrisy of generalising other road users (* I’m none of those things, well apart from the cyclist part obviously)

    But 100% of the punishment passes I’ve been subjected to have been from professional drivers, and 66% of those have been from bus drivers. Yes it’s a tiny amount of data and purely anecdotal but it’s very hard not to see some sort of pattern, especially after yesterdays incident.

    I’m sure the majority aren’t dangerous morons who shouldn’t be left in charge of a spoon never mind a large vehicle, I’m also sure they aren’t closet geniuses doing it for the love of the job.

    teasel
    Free Member

    nealglover » That does make you sound a bit like the second arsehole though

    You’re probably right[/quote]

    …is where you probably should have stopped typing. I reckon you know nothing about the driver whatsoever and have made up the whole life failure bit.

    mdavids
    Free Member

    is where you probably should have stopped typing. I reckon you know nothing about the driver whatsoever and have made up the whole life failure bit.

    Well of course I know nothing about him, apart from he’s fat, in his forties, drives a bus for a living and isn’t very good at it. I can only assume from the overtake and inability to plan more than 10 seconds ahead that he isn’t very intelligent and the look on hs face suggested he wasn’t enjoying his job.

    Life failure? Personal opinion. But I enjoy my job and I dont go about my day so pissed off with the world that I want to skittle cyclists off the road.

    kerley
    Free Member

    Definitely sounding liking the 2nd arsehole now.

    If I can be the 3rd arsehole for a minute. 95% of people driving don’t have the mental capacity to actually drive (maintain focus, anticipate other vehicles, think more than 10 seconds ahead) yet they do drive and always will.
    Because of this you just have to expect most drivers to be useless when driving and compensate for that.

    teasel
    Free Member

    I can only assume

    Indeed

    Euro
    Free Member

    mdavids, sorry to hear a lesser human being almost nearly didn’t kill you. You seem to be really smart and all, much cleverer than the guy who was driving the big broom broom. What do you do for a living? I bet it’s to do with inventing stuff for the betterment of all mankind, or an android app for comparing the price of tomatoes in various shops.

    Also keen to hear what Edric 64 does for his day job when he’s not curing death and aids.

    mdavids
    Free Member

    Definitely sounding liking the 2nd arsehole now.

    I’m actually holding back 🙂

    Because of this you just have to expect most drivers to be useless when driving and compensate for that.

    Fair point, but apart from not being on the road there was nothing I could have done different before the first attempted overtake. I wasn’t even aware he was there until the screech of tyres, I’d checked behind a few seconds earlier so he’d came fast from a long way back, doubt he even waited before going for it. I could have rode further out in the first place I suppose but that brings its own set of problems.

    Would you attempt an overtake here?

    google street view

    mdavids
    Free Member

    mdavids, sorry to hear a lesser human being almost nearly didn’t kill you.

    Well as part of the ubermensch it’s a problem you just have to learn to deal with

    You seem to be really smart and all, much cleverer than the guy who was driving the big broom broom.

    Just about clever enough to be able to overtake cyclists safely, it’s actually not that hard, so if you’re paid to do it 8 hours a day and still can’t manage I can’t help but think that you’re a bit of a moron.

    kerley
    Free Member

    The other thing to consider is that most drivers don’t actually care.

    They don’t think they will actually kill you or even knock you off – not until it actually happens.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    OP clutches defeat from the jaws of victory.

    🙄

    mdavids
    Free Member

    OP clutches defeat from the jaws of victory.

    You can’t win em all. I am now in 8th place on Ringos Run though so definately a victory of sorts.

    So if you want to improve your strava rankings I can highly recommend reverse drafting an angry coach driver.

    mattsccm
    Free Member

    Stereotypes exist because they are right. Exceptions to all of course.”professional ” drivers are as a type the worst. The attitude is that as its their living they are better through experience if nothing elase and there is mostly the attitude that as they are doing it for a living they should get priority etc. Sorry but that goes to the smallest and slowest. If a HGV or psv can’ t manuouvre without crossing the white line for example they should wait or go another way. I care not a s#### for the answer that its the company’s fault not the driver. I counted one day last week. 52 HGV,s who didn’ indicate in 12 miles. One did. To be “fair” I also noted the same number of random cars. 7 didn’t. No doubt exceptions exist but I rarely see one.

    teethgrinder
    Full Member

    Thing is, the coach driver being an arsehole could quite easily have killed the OP. The OP being an “arsehole” wouldn’t.

    And I agree with the assessment of the driver, and the Wife would also agree with the sentiments about Snaiths.

    FOG
    Full Member

    Not a coach driver but presumably a “professional” driver. Me and a mate were cycling up a very narrow lane to a turn off on to a trail when a huge tractor comes whacking round the bend at warp10! There is nowhere for us to go so we scramble up the banking as the tractor ( pulling a large trailer ) slaloms inches away as he locks up the brakes.
    To add insult to near injury he then shouts ‘ Eff off!” and disappears in a cloud of powdered cow shit.
    Ah farmers , the guardians of the countryside.

    thered
    Full Member

    I don’t get why people are getting at the OP. Surely he’s allowed to be annoyed and a bit demeaning about somebody who’s driven that badly/aggressively?

    nealglover
    Free Member

    Driving is a menial task, it’s not that hard to be good at it

    If you genuinely believe that, you’re probably not a very good driver.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)

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