Off out on a road ride tonight, on a short stretch of 40mph dual carriageway i get the idiot pull alongside me with his left hand indicator flashing. Sure enough, he pulls slightly ahead then attempts to left hook me. Starts his manoevre then stops askew across the lane.
His window is open and he gets my full opus – two minutes plus of invective at high volume. When i stop for breath he uttered his defence for his cretinous driving…

“You were going too fast”

Uphill, on a 40mph road doing around 18mph but I was the one being dangerous?

I’ve had “i couldn’t tell how fast you were going.” before..
yeah so the best idea is to overtake anyway!
” you shouldn’t be effin driving then” was my witty reposte to the old twonk.

Part of the problem is a lot of drivers just don’t realise how fast some cyclist can go.

I posted this on Sunday

A middle aged woman in a silver 206 at the near side junction was watching the stream of traffic that I was moving with. Despite my high viz top she decided she would look straight through me and just inch forward into the carriageway as I was about 15 feet from the junction causing me to swerve and swear loudly at her. A few hundred yards down the road was a set of lights and she pulls alongside me and accused me of travelling too fast and I should have slowed to allow her to pull out. That was a first. I may have sworn again.

I’ve had some dick over take me downhill in a 30mph limit. I was doing 42mph.

It’s incredible how many drivers cannot compute speed and distance.
Because they can only pedal a bike at around 4mph they can’t grasp the concept of someone moving along at 20mph

Someone ovetook me on Tuesday night, on a 30mph limit, blind lefthand bend with double white lines down the road 🙁

Road cyclists’ speed is often the crux of the problem. Not blaming you here muddy (can I call you muddy? ) and I would have loved to have wintnessed your vitriol. Non and infrequent cyclists don’t expect to need any more than a flick of the wrist to overtake you. I would often prefer drivers to break the speed limit a bit and get the job done with than to leave us both in no man’s land second guessing as to the next move.

I got taken out going round a bend at about 25mph and the driver said she didn’t realise how fast I was going.

This happens to me so often I’ve started to accept it as the norm. Just as annoying are the ones who overtake, suddenly realise you’re catching up, and then stop in the middle of the road just before the left turn and wait for you to undertake them again.

muddydwarf – Member

Because they can only pedal a bike at around 4mph they can’t grasp the concept of someone moving along at 20mph

That’s it exactly. Then realising there’s something wrong with the results, they figure out it’s the speed that’s wrong, and naturally want to blame someone else for it- therefore, you are too fast.

There’s a 40 limit on my way to work that ends in a roundabout, I run out of leg at 33mph-ish, every so often some absolute div decides to pass at the last minute then discovers there’s no room to brake before the end of the road, or tries to pass earlier and discovers the gap they’ve allowed isn’t long enough as I’m not going at walking pace- has been very dicey sometimes. Anyway, any time there’s been any dialogue afterwards, it’s always been my fault for simultaneously holding up traffic, while also being dangerously fast.

I’ve had some dick over take me downhill in a 30mph limit. I was doing 42mph

Good comment. Well done.

Did 38 mph downhill in a 40. Blind bend a Lexus 4×4 thing overtakes me on the other side of the road. She couldn’t see round the corner at all. So not only risking my life, hers and the occupants and possibly the car coming the other way. 200 mtrs later, a roundabout. She had to stop for traffic, so I caught up and then overtook her. 🙄
Too many retards on the road. The one thing they all have in common is the complete lack of patience for anything on the road or surrounding areas, bikes, other cars, motorbikes, pedestrians.

(can I call you muddy? )

😀

The one thing they all have in common is the complete lack of patience

It’s quite comical sometimes. A few weeks back I had a guy busting a gut to overtake me on a busy road only for me to then inevitably go past him when he got stopped by lights or the traffic. This happened 5 times and each time I could see him getting more and more wound up. By the end I was giving him a wave every time I passed him, I don’t think that helped with his mood 😀

Just as annoying are the ones who overtake, suddenly realise you’re catching up, and then stop in the middle of the road just before the left turn and wait for you to undertake them again.

… or intentionally move up against the kerb as they stop in order to prevent you passing. Pissy basts.

(can I call you muddy? )

I’ve trapped!

Road cyclists’ speed is often the crux of the problem

Er, no. I think you’ll find driver’s impatience, poor judgement and general stupidity are the main problems.

😳

<blows kiss at joat>

fadda – Member
I’ve had some dick over take me downhill in a 30mph limit. I was doing 42mph
Good comment. Well done.

Well the only way I knew I was exceeding the limit, while freewheeling, was that dick in question JUST has to get past me. At which point I looked down at the computer to see what speed I was doing 😀

Its like a first date on here all akward and clumsy 😀

Hey Brigante – Call the cops! I can vouch for you… you were unlikely to be going too fast… 😀

Sunday aswell, before I left the group and got knocked off my bike by some blind driver.

There were about 12 of us cycling along a 40mph road and some arse screams up beeping their horn indicating left as we are all starting to cross the junction. yeah like we are going to stop just so you can continue with your bellendery.

To say Sunday was an interesting ride is an understatement with the usual beeps and shouts because there are more than one of you on the road.

Someone ovetook me on Tuesday night, on a 30mph limit, blind lefthand bend with double white lines down the road

I’ve had this twice in the last couple of weeks. Only thing was, I was in the van! Doing an indicated 30, so probably 27-28, both times.
On both occasions it was someone who has to 40 in a 30 zone, but then does 40 on the open A road and holds everyone up there.

Bloody cyclists!

Well perhaps you should pay some attention to your own use of the road to ensure you are not in the wrong 😉 ignorance of your speed and limits is not very good.

MUST. OVERTAKE. CYCLIST. Grrrrr 👿

On both occasions it was someone who has to 40 in a 30 zone, but then does 40 on the open A road and holds everyone up there.

Arg. My route home from pretty much anywhere involves a 40 zone, a 60 zone, (NSL), then a 30 zone. It’s 40, 60, 30, not 40, 40, 40. GRRRRrrrRrr.

But woe betide you, should you decide to overtake these folk in the long, straight, 60 zone ( they’re still doing 40 ). Watch! In amazement! As they suddenly decide they need to be doing 70, even though they can see that your once safe manoeuvre has become a dangerous cock fight, with oncoming traffic…

Sorry, off-topic-rant. I’ve had plenty folk turn left over the front of me on the bike as they complete their overtake – nowt new there.

I’ve never had many problems on my own. As soon as I tag along with another group it always kicks off… The other day cycling round brum I tagged on to the back of a few other riders, didn’t want to go past I thought it was a bit rude so I said hello and sat behind them ( a little bit back so as not to sit on their wheels, which probably didn’t help things). In the mile that followed before I turned off I had no end of beeps from cars behind desperately trying to get past, dodgy overtaking manoeuvres trying to squeeze in between us etc. culminating in a very irate pickup driver who drove past after sitting on the horn filming me and mouthing off.

Now I’m the first person to realise when I’m in the way, but my gps never dropped below 25mph apart from up a hill which was a priority single way anyway and this was at 6pm in the middle of Birmingham! I really don’t get it… Yes fine grumble about it on a longer road when you’ve got a peloton in front of you holding you up but in the middle of a busy city why do drivers insist on getting to the next set of lights first? It’s like seeing multiple cyclists is instant red mist!

And breathe. Rant over! 😆

ignorance of your speed and limits is not very good.

How does it compare to ignorance of whether speed limits apply to bicycles?

Travelling faster than the speed limit isn’t very clever, even if technically it may not apply to you. If (as most speed limits and campaigners tell us) they are there for safety reasons – ie it may not be safe to travel faster then you should respect that. Unless of course your reaction speeds are faster on a bike 😉

I had 2 cars crash over trying to overtake me in a 20 limit on a narrow street. 1st one hit a enormous speed bump at well over 20 cracked his front end on the floor lost the back end and went up the kurb for his efforts. The next one went for it on a 90 degree right and hit another that had seen him coming and stopped 8O.

Similar happened to me this week. I’m in the inside lane on a dual carriageway coming up to a roundabout that has a short 3rd filter lane for turning left. It’s down hill so I’m at a reasonable pace. Car overtakes me, realises she hasn’t enough time to make the pass and get into the filter lane so slams on the anchors for me to pass her on her nearside giving me the opportunity for the ‘WTF?’ gesture

Poor woman was so flustered she almost dropped her phone………….

ive had almost all of the maneuvers described above performed on me, at various times.
but not when im cycling, its when im at work, driving a bus.
some (many?) people just have to get past anything in their way, whether its a bike/bus/tractor or whatever is irrelevant.
we seriously need to have a much stricter driving test in this country imo.
and we need to stop magazines/websites glorifying speed, it has to be socially unacceptable to break the speed limit/play with the iphone/whatever.

we seriously need to have a much stricter driving test in this country imo.

But people don’t drive like that in their test anyway so how would making it stricter help?

Making it longer, more in depth, and with increased emphasis on safe driving* and sharing the roads, and possibly even repetitive (ie: retesting) would be much more useful, but you’ll still be faced with the problem of people driving like saints when being tested and driving like d1cks when not.

*to be fair there is a LOT of emphasis on safe driving when being instructed and tested, the problem is people ignoring it all once they have their license.

The driving test has been made stricter, twice, since I passed mine in ’98

Drivings getting worse.

I have town centre – rural commute including driving thru a couple of large villages/small towns.

at two points I go from 60 – 30 into a village junction then another few hundred yards at 30 before you hit NSL (60) zone again .. you know how the 30 zone usually waits until you’ve passed the last house in the village.

3-4 times a week at both of these points as soon as you turn the junction and I’m holding 30-35 for those few hundred yards there’s often a twasook that’ll pull out and overtake 2-3 cars behind me then me and they must be pulling 50-55 a good couple hundred yards or so before they’ve even hit national speed limit zone again.

I’ll then catch up with them at the next 30/40 zone or sharp S bend, T junction or hump bridge, slow moving lorry.

I have to really work hard at myself to keep my temper and not start accelerating myself a little just to scare ’em when the road is clear.
Really is something about being behind a wheel that turns the majority of us into muppets (myself included)

I’m also thinking now that the worst drivers are in dudes in 5yr old + Audi A3’s or 20 something females in Mini’s! Or even obivously farm workers in beat up old (diesel wink wink) peugeot 106’s/fiestas) 🙂

If (as most speed limits and campaigners tell us) they are there for safety reasons – ie it may not be safe to travel faster then you should respect that.

The safety campaigners are probably concerned about what happens when a pedestrian is hit by a tonne of metal at 40mph (the publicity campaigns would certainly suggest that). Would you rather be hit by a bicycle doing 40mph or a car doing 30? (hint: the KE of somebody on a bicycle doing 40mph is about the same as that of a car doing 12mph).

Not that I’m suggesting you should just ignore speed limits on a bicycle, but introducing the safety argument is at least a little bit spurious, and breaking the speed limit is nowhere near as dangerous as in a car.

There’s a lane near my house that’s fairly wide for a lane, just wide enough for two cars if they go slowly, for most of it. Me and a friend were riding up it single file, doing maybe 15mph, and a woman comes up behind and overtakes nice and wide. Except there were two cars coming the other way! They slammed on obviously, and she sort of braked whilst alongside us in a dithering sort of way and eventually stopped. We carried on and then she pulled back onto her side of the road.

She pulled out purely on instinct, and had no idea that she was actually required to carry out a proper overtaking manoeuvre. Mad.

I had a similar one to that recently. On a narrowish country lane just approaching a pinch point where two cars can’t pass going in opposite directions, a woman in a Rangie decided that would be a good point to overtake me, despite there being something coming the other way (which she should have given way to anyway). Slammed on her brakes when she came alongside and came to a dead halt – I was so relieved she didn’t just pull left. Rode in the middle of my lane the next half mile to the junction – I think she realised what an idiot she’d been as she hung well back and gave me loads of room when overtaking on the main road.