Round here it’s definitely BMW and Audi drivers (I keep a tally). But it’s all ages of those cars – the old knackered ones as well as the new sparkly ones.

It’s so noticeable that my son, on his first ever road ride, commented on the fact that about 3 BMW drivers had passed either aggressively or too close (it was an unusually aggressive outing from my PoV)

As pointed out, we shouldn’t be surprised – the type of person that values a more expensive car over cheaper alternatives is likely to have more ‘alpha’ tendencies. It’s exactly what marketing departments strive to achieve.

Audi drivers – I’ve recently moved from Yorkshire to Scotland (which is, I’m told, the logical conclusion of Yorkshire) from one biggish city to another. Audi drivers in my old city were awful and pretty much every day on my commute some fricking Audi driver would do something that made me fear for my life. Weirdly, in Scotland, the Audi drivers don’t appear to be any worse than anyone else. Notably, the road are much wider here which probably serves to reduce the number of sketchy/inappropriate/dangerous overtakes. This makes me think that a) there was definitely something about Audi drivers in my old city, and it wasn’t just confirmation bias and b) the awfulness of drivers of certain car brands is not a consistent relationship, but varies depending on place, quality of roads, probably time of day, etc.

Taxi drivers and white van **** are awful everywhere, obviously.

That said, I’ve been hit by cars three times. None of those occasions was an Audi, BMW etc or a taxi. One occasion a flat bed (I was in a car for that one) and the other two were right hooks to my bike by middle aged women in mid range saloons. Not sure what conclusion I draw from that really.

Another bike commuting zafira driver here

We are saints on the road!

I’m cycling through London shortly

I shall make a mental note of any transgressions by vehicle type/brand
(not my own tho obvs)

Ime private hire taxis are the worst

Tractor drivers on the phone HAS to be the highest percentage of phone using drivers..

I noticed this when I was in Wales and Cumbria recently and find it baffling.

How do they get reception in these places?

On average I’d say BMW 1 series are definitely the most aggressively driven cars.
And I’ve been hit by more new Minis than any other car. (Both female drivers).

Apart from those, can’t say I’ve seen a pattern.

Scaffold lorries are by far the worst, driven by idiots.

Ime private hire taxis are the worst

Helpfully, in London they have to have that TFL sticker in the back window, so you can spot the next car trying to kill you as you filter past them.

questioned why he was texting behind the wheel. “What the f’s it got to do with you?

Because if you don’t see me by being distracted by your phone I might end up under your wheels. Oh, you didn’t want a sensible answer.

So I’ve cycled 2 in to the train station.
But it was all on segregated cycle paths, coz I live in the city of the future (MK has 300km of segregated redways)

There was an Audi doing off in the station car park at a jaunty angle, but it was hardly life threatening.

Well report further after I’ve reached the smoke

In the last 10 years of commuting I’ve only been taken out once, these were the culprits

It’s been a lovely quiet, and relatively close pass free summer, but now the kids are back, the idiots are back on the commute.
Three blind corner overtakes this morning. One mpv and two city type cars. How they didn’t clean me, the drivers coming the other way and themselves up I can only put down to sheer luck.
No particular brand or type of vehicle bias as far as I’m concerned, just individual pillocks who should know better/have a better appreciation of others safety.

I can’t believe the Nissan Juke hasn’t been mentioned… I’ve no idea who’s buying these ugly things, but they appear to drive about as well as they look like they should – not sure it’s the drivers fault really.

On average I’d say BMW 1 series are definitely the most aggressively driven cars.

So you’ve encountered my daughter then!

On my ride on the outskirts of London last night there weren’t too many close passes for once. Closest was a classic Ford Capri in fact – but even that wasn’t too close.

Normally there are loads of Audi & VW drivers giving it big bootfulls when passing closeish – but didn’t seem to be many of those out last night.

round where I live audi bmw and merc are the car of choice for the young men and yes there’s a fair amount of twattery goes on, speeding (20mph rds near us but pretty sure they’re doing >30 anyway), rlj, double parking right outside the shop when there’s a parking space 1 car length away, sometimes just just stopping in the road to chat to their mates who are driving the other way so completely blocking the road (and getting all arsey if anyone beeps at the for this). But while they’ve caused me to tut and swear under my breath a lot I’m not sure any of them have actually caused an incident for me (I’d class near miss as an incident)

As for the general population I think the audi bmw thing is just confirmation bias, possibly more aggressive due to target audience but IME feckless idiots are, by and large, a bigger issue than aggressive driving and feckless idiots drive all sorts of motors.

BMW driving commuter, that’s almost an oxymoron. Maybe I can aggressively overtake myself.

FWIW, it’s not specific brands of cars – in my experience. it’s generally school run mums who are the biggest liability.

So, so much bad driving.

Last few near misses i’ve had (since the schools went back) were all women drivers, mainly in people carriers, but the BMW 1 series features quite highly too, the culprit of the closest shave was also wearing a headscarf just to throw another stereotype into the mix 😉 #banthebalaclava

So my 3km ride from euston to clerkenwell

A guy on a brompton shouted at me for riding too far out 😯
A black cab keen to get away at the lights buzzed an old guy on a brompton
2 cyclists went through red lights
1 White van man pulled close while I was filtering up the cycle lane
1 massive nissan 4×4 with a guy on the phone was drifting inwards a bit (knew he was on the phone even before i saw it)
1 guy in a range rover on the phone stopped in box junction

the biggest arse was private hire Prius doing a U-turn nearly swiped me, but cam really close to the guy behind me, ended with lots of shouting and swearing from both parties, but taxi driver was well in the wrong

so confirms my belief that private taxi hire drivers are the worst (but I do see a lot of those, often in Prius)

(didnt see any audis, merc or bmws driving badly)

Audi A3 on the way home yesterday. Pulled out of a side road in front of me. He knew I was there, I raised my arm in protest, he used a gesticulation not in the highway code back as he pulled out in front of me.

Arsehole

Team Sky bus drivers are the worst… 😀

Approx 113 of us are going to be killed this year (2014 data).

ROSPA quotes The most common vehicle involved in collisions with cyclists is a car or taxi, with the rider usually being hit by the front of the vehicle. In a quarter of fatal cyclist accidents, the front of the vehicle hit the rear of the bicycle.

28 deaths from what transpires when a close pass isn’t a pass

I can’t seen ANYTHING being done to stop this attrition. Talking about it in this vaguely jocular way seems almost to condone it.

In a quarter of fatal cyclist accidents, the front of the vehicle hit the rear of the bicycle.

so basically not looking where they are driving and mowing someone down. Scary.

Talking about it in this vaguely jocular way seems almost to condone it.

you cant rant and rave about it (and I often do) but constantly foaming at the mouth about it can’t be good for your blood pressure. I’m certainly not condoning it.
Case in point. white van man who just pulled over into the space I was occupying this morning, I shouted as I saw the manoeuvre coming, he still made it, I took evasive action, had a good swear at him and then tried to forget about it. Pretty sure it was basic lack of observation (and entering a bus lane before it had ended), I got my point across that I was there and wasn’t happy, not much else I can do to get that guy to drive better.
Staying angry isn’t going to help my day.

I am a BMW driver – a big shiny showy off one at that. When I first got it I stated I was not going to be ‘one of those BMW drivers’

One of the first proper journeys in it I was going down a 3 lane bi directional road (2 in my way direction and one in the opposite). I was in the middle lane. Its a narrow road for 3 lanes so it feels a bit squeezed in the middle with traffic either side and its not a fast road so I was basically waiting for a gap in the oncoming traffic to pull past the traffic I was over taking (not speeding just slow traffic in the inside). I realised the middle lane was coming to an end and filtered my way into the inside lane. Didn’t feel too aggressive or ‘BMW W@nkery’, that is until I realised I was now between the hearse and the lead car in the funeral procession.

I think that provided suitable ‘confirmation bias’ to any observers.

I do however give cyclists plenty of space.

For me its the school run mum / dad is the absolute worst. followed by tourists ( living in Edinburgh they take over)

Buses in Edinburgh are no issue at all. Some of the best drivers towqrds cyclists – but then they are trained to be careful around cyclists and it works

Interestingly on several tours on my bike on single track roads the only cars who have refused to drop a wheel off the road to let us by have all been big shiny black 4x4s. Locals no problem at all – they just drop two wheels onto the grass and we get by but these 4x4s will not do it. Confirmation bias you might say but its happened to me 4 times and every time a black 4×4

Not a particular make of car, but the older drivers round here (yes I know I’m also getting old) are especially dangerous. They don’t drive fast, but seem to have no appreciation for what they need to do to pass a cyclist. No variation in speed or direction = a very close pass.

Shouted at one the other day – fixed stare forwards. His female passenger looked suitably embarrassed.

They don’t drive fast, but seem to have no appreciation for what they need to do to pass a cyclist. No variation in speed or direction = a very close pass.

It’s the ones that religeously obey every speed limit – the people who drive at 28mph in every 30 zone – when they reach the 40 start they floor it up to 38 then slam the brakes on and see-saw back and forth for a bit until they’ve settled down then they reach the next 30 zone and stand the car on it’s nose to bring it back to 28.

They’re so busy doing that and so convinced that driving at the speed limit = safe that they don’t swerve or pull out for anything. Worst one is when the cyclist is doing mid 20s mph, they’re doing 28 so they crawl past you, determined never to exceed the speed limit.

Just pull out and bloody floor it! I’d rather be overtaken with a 20mph speed differential with 5ft of space than a 3mph differential at 2ft of space.

Ok the winner is BMW drivers
some rotund old giffer, in a shiny new bemeer just tried to turn into me , I’m not sure why as I was passing a no entry road or maybe was swerving to avoid something on the other side, not sure what exactly and he drove off sharpish so no reg.

Fortunately it was low speed so I was stayed upright, bike ok too but DMR V8s leave quite a gouge down the front wing 🙂