Rule 63:

“Cycle Lanes. These are marked by a white line (which may be broken) along the carriageway (see Rule 140). When using a cycle lane, keep within the lane when practicable. When leaving a cycle lane check before pulling out that it is safe to do so and signal your intention clearly to other road users. Use of cycle lanes is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills, but they can make your journey safer“

I knew I was right. I admit I went out to ride yesterday after a frustrating day at work and was carrying some negative energy with me, but the behaviour of some people defies belief.

So first, I crest a steep hill (Kings Hill and the subsequent right into Chingford high st for those in the know), over a set of lights and onto another set of lights with a right turn. This section of carriageway has a narrow – 1m – dashed cycle lane although more often than not car’s turning right are over that line. As I creep past the line of traffic, a woman decides to turn in – light still red – to block the lane and prevent me coming past. I peer through her window and asking in a polite but firm voice “why did you do that? whats the purpose of this unnecessary action”? – Stony faced staring straight ahead hands locked on steering wheel of course.

10 minutes late I’m cycling up the A104 Epping road. Now this is a wide single lane carriage way with a 1m dashed cycle lane. Thing is, its not swept, mostly contains debris plus a few drain covers and indentations. Personally I never use it for fear of hitting something and wobbling or punctures. So, Bearded Fat Man in Clio draws alongside and starts waving his fist at me. “What?” I mouth, shrug. He motions the **** gesture and then stabs his finger to the left, a gesture I took to mean “use the **** bike lane” I just shrug, although I’m venting inside. He pulls in front, shouts that I don’t pat “car tax”, starts to slow and is waving his fist. I wave the “go forward” sign at which point he zooms off at max revs.

I cycle about for another hour, then turn to head back. Stopped at a queue of traffic I again creep up the left and sit in the Cycle box by the lights. A Chinese lady then on my right and behind glides off the front of the queue over the cycle box, over the white line for the lights and parks stops dead in front of me in a clear prevention strategy!

WTF is wrong with people that they have such a chip on their shoulder about cyclists / people being “ahead” of them on the road? These rules and a general duty of care for Cyclists should be enforced in the driving test IMO.

FFS!

Thanks, I needed to get that off my chest.

I was ‘making progress’ on my road bike a month or so ago and this tiny car drives by and the girl in the passenger seat shouted to ‘get in the cycle lane!’, which is basically the path at the side of the road with a cyclist painted on it.

Unfortunetely clueless rubbish drivers (and passengers) attitudes are never going to change! 🙁

and was carrying some negative energy with me

I’m pretty sure you can cure that with a bracelet. 😆

Throw some activated almonds at them

I’m pretty sure you can cure that with a bracelet £1000 set of stickers

ftfy

Stickers not bracelet

One day you will meet your true nemesis.

A fat, Chinese Bearded Lady in a Clio

I’m pretty sure you can cure that with a bracelet £1000 set of stickers

ftfy

A Chinese lady

Apologies for derailing the main subject, but I’m always interested when this sort of thing appears, so I’ll see your rant and raise you a largely disconneected one. I have a couple of questions.

How do you know she was Chinese? According to your story, you had no conversation with her. Did she pull out a wok and start stir frying something while waiting for the lights to change? Did she crack down on your human rights and censor your internet? Perhaps start arguing for expanded territorial waters?

Did she perhaps look a bit “oriental” and you picked a country from that part of the world pretty much at random?

Regardless of how you arrived at the conclusion that she was Chinese, why is her nationality / ethnicity pertinent to your story? Why do we find out about her when we have no idea of the nationality, ethnicity or skin pigmentation of the

Bearded Fat Man

or the first

woman

you encountered?

A lot of car drivers should not have been given a driving licence.

I think it’s pretty shocking that our useless government has simply not bothered to update the driving test to ensure drivers are aware of their responsibilities, given the importance of getting people out of their polluting inefficient road-space hogging cars.

Hmmm.

Poor rant.

No CAPz.
Tons of punctuation.
Legible.
Paragraphs evenly spaced.

And you cycle in North London and expect drivers to adhere to the Highway Code…. there’s your fail.

How do you know she was Chinese?

I do apologise, i dont know that she was Chinese, so I’d like to change my descriptor to “Asian” which has no bearing on the story, any more that the man being fat. They are visual desciptors, no more and as you can see not written for the purpose of abuse or offense.

I’d like not to make the world so bland Edlong that we cannot describe things as we see them, For that would be a very sad thing indeed.

And you cycle in North London

“A104 Epping Road”. “Chingford”

Google maps is your friend.

“A104 Epping Road”. “Chingford”

Google maps is your friend.

Looks like north London to me 😕

Chingford is a district of the London Borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, situated 10 miles northeast of Charing Cross.Wikipedia
London Assembly:North East
Dialling code:020
Post town:London

First woman who ignored you. You should have opened her boot or rear passenger door. 😆

People are weird and most of there behaviour cannot be reasonably explained. HTH!

Exact locations, for the pedants:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Epping+New+Rd/@51.6497166,0.0330795,1026m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a0536d545b09:0x5de03acfcebf832d!8m2!3d51.6491538!4d0.0369692

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Chingford,+London+E4+7EW/@51.6308017,0.0004046,214m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a082b6649b71:0x49f6328e51b7767!8m2!3d51.6311279!4d0.001313

The point is to highlight this is not your busy North London city traffic.

Sadly OP you’ve had an encounter with an angry idiot.

It happens to all of us at some point, on the roads, in the shops, at work, all over the place. What you need to do is find a way* to continue about your business and do not allow their anger to pollute your mind.

Just remember, whatever happens if they are going about their day that angry at other people and trivial things, they’re probably having a worse day than you, that may not mean much but I always find a small amount of comfort in knowing that.

*easier said than done

The point is to highlight this is not your busy North London city traffic.

London attitudes though.

It’s easier just to accept that the world is largely populated by human beings that are “insert expletive here“s.

A104 Epping Road”. “Chingford

Ey, North Landarn, Lundun, Lundinium it is then.

#maybeEssexbutitsLarndarninnitbrobloodhommiE