Altercations with motorists – what's your highest level?

I have yet to get physical with anyone (oh I dream of the day…) and I’ve never even laid a finger on anyone’s motor either.

I’ve had a few where I’ve opened the car door and had a word, or they’ve wound the window down and we’ve exchanged pleasantries. Never any threats of violence though.

Usually the only words I get to shout are “**** off you ****” – a natural reaction I think.

I know this sort of behaviour can be frowned upon, but what’s your highest level?

I keep a broken crank arm taped to my handlebars for such occasions.

Had a full on scrap when I got side swiped on my post round had to be pulled apart police called got a 2 year serious warning from work!! never regretted a minute of it 🙂
Took a few wing mirrors off with my metal cage on the front of the bike those were the days!

I keep a browser window open ready to vent my anger on here.

Had a full on scrap when I got side swiped on my post round had to be pulled apart police called got a 2 year serious warning from work!! never regretted a minute of it

😀 that’s the spirit!

That probably made the Wezzie Gezzie!

Having been threatened with all sorts of nastiness from some proper psychos for complaining loudly about nearly getting flattened / driven into I tend to go with the wave thanks to the considerate ones (there’s few enough my arm doesn’t get tired) and call the others everything under the sun inside my head. I used to be a lot more mouthy but never physical.

I was super polite to the 20 something lady who knocked me off two years ago. I STILL can’t grasp how I managed that and it wasn’t for lecherous reasons either before someone suggests such things.

about 5 years ago in Lichfield! and no headlines in the Mercury I,m afraid!

I was assaulted (facial injuries) and the rear wheel of my bike jumped upon and broken. I had [without real intent] took his wing mirror off as I raised my hand as he drove towards me on ‘my side’ of the road. It doesn’t matter if you are ‘right’.

I cringe now when people joke about taking wing-mirrors off, don’t do it kids! As they say, there is always someone bigger than you.

Highest level resulted in court case and driver getting a year inside. He was released in three months, but battered someone else seriously and was back in within the week…

Second highest was the motorist who chased down the police van that pulled out and didn’t hear me smack into the back doors in Sheffield….

madness; luckily have never had an altercation with anyone remotely resembling a psycho. Yet.

Back handed across the face by big fat red faced angry builder after he cut me up on the approach to a mini-roundabout with parked cars on the LHS.

I had tapped on the side of his van to make him aware of my presence…

Hot pursuit back from Dudley castle on the Birmingham New Road to Wolves with a motorway maintenance Escort van shouting come on then big boy while he wielded a lump hammer at me. He honked my trackstand at some lights so told the c@ant to do one, but instead he tried to do me…

Mouthed off at a geezer in a BMW on way to work in Walsall and he got pretty irate and drove off like a loon, pulled over and went to his boot to get something out. I hopped the central reservation and sprinted. Ended up hiding in a an alley on one way system until I saw him pass before ducking into work.

Got driven at and swerved towards by a posh lady in a Range Rover for once saying politely that a little more room wouldn’t hurt. Sill can’t believe some folk can lead normal lives but turn into homicidal maniacs when driving a small tank.

Left the Midlands rat race and road rage commutes and now have a quiet ride into work from Lancaster and have not had any incidents for 8 years now.

Favourite road rage incident is cycling with a mate little Phil who after be cut up and forced into the kerb, sprinted and caught the driver up at the next set of lights and ripped his wing mirror off and chucked it onto the chaps lap and said maybe you’ll remember what these are for next time.

Quality stories Tomaso; especially the last one!

madness; luckily have never had an altercation with anyone remotely resembling a psycho. Yet.

I’m going to conclude you don’t ride through rush hour anywhere in Hampshire.

Mine is listed on here somewhere…
Suffice to say it resulted in a wing mirror being punched off, a screaming blue fit, fist and boot damage to the vehicle and most shaming, a badly scared driver (although not as scared as I was when he nearly hit me from behind at a red light).

I now use a camera to both record any incidents, and to act as a reminder to keep my cool.

I had a woman try and kill me with her car. Heard her come up behind me and 2 friends. We dived onto the pavement. She then reversed and had another go. We dodged behind lamp posts while phoning the police as she kept at it.

She sped off before they arrived but when they went round to her house she pulled a knife on them. Last I heard she was under medical supervision of some sort.

Other than that I’ve probably had 3 people get out of there cars and threaten me. On person brake check me and loads of people shout and scream at me.

Been commuting for 7 years and do nearly 10000 miles a year to put it in perspective.

My favourite is the guy who went off on one when I overtook him doing 30mph+. I was doing sprint intervals and he was dawdling.

I’m going to conclude you don’t ride through rush hour anywhere in Hampshire.

😀

I’m lucky; all of my cycling is pretty rural. Almost all altercations I have are with mums/dads or commuters. No hard looking men or fat builders. Most altercations are on 60mph roads where I’ve not got much chance of ever seeing them again either. I could easily imagine myself getting into bother if I spent my time commuting by bike along slow roads with traffic lights. I guess that’s why you’ve got to take your approach

I’m not proud to say that once, riding along a straight bit of road, a youth approached from a side road. We made eye contact, he pulled out, then stopped. He should have waited as he had approached the t-junxtion. If he had accelerated I could have steered behind him, but, he pulled out just to block my way. So, I skidded to a halt next to the drivers door. Asked him what the **** he was doing to which he just shrugged. So, I punched him through his open window.
I then rode off as fast as I could through a pedestrian precinct.

Ive also had ‘banter’ with a ldv van full of builder types at an m1 junction also.

I wouldn’t say I’m an angry type either. Late last summer as I’d ridden down the middle of a 7 mile traffic jam I heard someone shout ‘you **** can’t. I chuckled for.the next couple of miles.

Loads. 4 years of commuting daily in London will do that.

Once threw my bike under the wheels of a stationary taxi near Hyde Park Corner as I was extremely keen he didn’t drive off before we’d discussed his reasons for attempting to kill me.

Drunkenly hanging onto the door of a taxi (while still riding) after being sideswiped at that horrible 6 into 3 Aldwych junction. On reflection probably as much my fault as his. Didn’t stop me telling his somewhat shocked fares they might want to get in with a safer driver

And my favourite – after a bloke in a Red Porsh tried to run me down as I was WALKING ACROSS the ped crossing on the Bayswater road, I chased after him (his desperation to press on left him stuck in traffic 50 yards away), opened his door, ripped the keys out, rode off and dropped them down a handy drain without really pausing for one second to consider my actions. I was quite angry. Told everyone in the office thinking what a hero I was and they all backed away carefully…

Never got in a fight tho. Good job as even fat cabbies would do me over 😉

Only contact I’ve ever had was when I “hit” (slap only) the wing mirror of a big campervan once – on a really narrow road and I was already right into the gutter on my side. Just held up my hand where my head would’ve been if I hadn’t moved right off the road.

Best one was in Birmingham quite a long time ago – some guy in a sports car with ded long doors opened his up jsut as I was passing. Swerved & missed him but went back to have a rant. He was so reasonable and sorry about it but I really needed to shout for a bit. That was never going to get violent though.

A friend once closed an errant drivers door on his leg as he tried to get out the car repeatedly and with vigour.

Only ever managed to yell the odd “**** OFF YOU **** ****” myself, I feel quite inadequate now. Alex, your Porsche keys story alone would merit an OBE if I were king. I’m sure someone will be along to bollock us for being mean to the poor ole hard-done-by drivers shortly, but this thread is cheering me right up, carry on.

Ta. He wouldn’t open his window when I politely knocked on it, and I was REALLY KEEN to get my point across. My survival strategy in London was assuming 50% of drivers were trying to kill you, while the other 50% were still going to kill you but it wasn’t on purpose.

Level 7

Oh, also had a car undertake me when I was in the third rh lane on the approach to a roundabout.

I held me hands in the air – he shouted out his window before slamming on his brakes. I nearly ended up decorating his boot 😯

I had a gent slam his brakes on just after overtaking me, resulting in me hitting his rear bumper. He then sped off, only to get caught at some lights.
He seemed surprised when I knocked on his window and handed him his rear wiper – honestly, it just fell off in my hand!
The look of pure puzzlement, slow realisation dawning, and then purple rage in his face as I cycled off waving, will cheer me up for the rest of my life.

mintimperial – Member
Only ever managed to yell the odd “**** OFF YOU **** ****” myself, I feel quite inadequate now. Alex, your Porsche keys story alone would merit an OBE if I were king. I’m sure someone will be along to bollock us for being mean to the poor ole hard-done-by drivers shortly, but this thread is cheering me right up, carry on

Aye!

Never got into a full argument – the beauty of being on a bike is that you can get away from idiots faster than they can run 🙂

Recent ones: full on tantrum whilst sitting at the lights from a lady who didn’t like me waving her back whilst she’d tailgated me at 30mph down a steep hill. I just stared at her till she ran out of screaming power and just sulked instead. Quite amusing really…

A guy in a transit tried to run me off the road from behind by Peckham Rye. I had to jump on the pavement to keep him from running over me, and made a comment about his personality as I did so. It seem a perfectly justified comment to me given he came close to killing me. Unfortunately I was right about his character. But he was also stupid so when he stopped to come and give me a beating, he slammed his door shut, which means I heard him and just rode off across Peckham Rye common whilst he carried on shouting abuse. I guess he’s still fat and angry even now..

A guy in a Range Rover hurled abuse at me for stopping at an amber light. I think he was unhappy that he’d come very very close to running me over from behind. I’d rather he’d said sorry tbh. Either way I figured he wasn’t adult enough for that and just rode off down the pavement in case he had another go at running me over when the lights changed.

Happily I’ve moved to a town with full cycle lanes and that kind of idiot will be dim and distant memory

Being a grrrl I usually work the ‘my you really did scare me when you drove so close just now’ when I catch them up at the lights. This is effective about 70% of the time with a further percentage who will stare stonily straight ahead and a small minority will argue that their 3mm of passing space was ample.

I did nearly get dumped by the bf on the one occasion my gentle nature failed me. We were in a weary queue of slow riders riding the last hill of a 200km audax. Some drivers were being super cautious about overtaking. Completely up to them. But four cars back, some tosser in a massive 4×4 was beeping like crazy to absolutely no effect and the greater harassment of drivers in front and cyclists to side.

Cue me revving up my best sprint up the hill passing tired riders and maintaining a very ‘positive’ road position. In my mind, cautious drivers weren’t overtaking anyway and I would at least get to take the registration and perhaps even exchange pleasantries with Mr Beepy when he caught up with me. Things were indeed yelled but after our initial screaming match through his open and passing window, I failed to catch him at the lights to point out some of the errors in his argument and the veil of red mist somehow obscured his licence plate. When bf caught up with me he asked very pointedly how I was representing cycling and making people think more fondly of us. 🙄

Either grabbing the bus driver by the throat who brushed down my arm as he overtook me .Or threatening the little pratt who overtook a group on a bling bend as we followed a tractor forcing oncoming traffic onto the pavement .Apparently he had had a heart op .I was told this as I lifted him off the floor and pinned him against his van

I made a rather impatient and rotund lady cry after I received a torrent of abuse for daring to be in the same lane as her. The offending epithet that sprang unbounded from my lips?

“Button it, fatty!”

Bus driver decided to overtake me whilst something was coming in the opposite direction on a fairly narrow road, needless to say it was a bit tight for a moment. I caught up with him at the next stop just to ask if he realised what he had done. His answer was “didn’t hit you did I”, It was here I pointed out he was a dickhead. For a fat old bloke he moved quite quickly and squared up to me. I said I couldn’t fight him as he looked older than my dad, got on my bike and went on my merry way. I keep seeing him in his bus so all I do now is wave at him.

Been riding to work 25 year, man and boy, and must have got off lightly – not too many confrontations. Couple with other cyclists, like, and got jumped by a crowd of jakeys once in Edinburgh.

Overtook one cyclist not so long ago in Manchester coming off a roundabout in a way that must have startled him, because he lost it. Raging at me for overtaking him, calling me all sorts, think I’m the big strong man going past him do I? We’re riding two abreast on a busy dual carriageway, car horns sounding, arguing about who was the bigger ****. Abar a minute of this and I come to my senses, WTF am I doing arguing with this whopper? so press on. Next set of lights he’s not letting it lie, and delivers the memorable line that I shouldn’t overtake an international cyclist (seriously) 🙂 I couldn’t help laughing and asked him what discipline was that then? BMX. OK Mate, see you around yeah?

Once I was cycling up the road and two teenage lassies were in a car and chucked an empty McDonalds bag at me. Caught them, totally unsuspecting at the lights and spat a massive greener in the driver’s face.

Got tailgated and punishment passed by a young guy in a BMW with his mum. Caught him at the lights, opened his door, kicked him in the face a couple of times, grabbed the keys and chucked them off a bridge.
Not cool, but he nearly **** killed me.

Must be a down south thing all this agression and need to film your commute thing… 😆
I see the same dozon or so folk in cars on my commute and they usually give me a grin on the wildest days weather when i am still out on the commute what ever the wind or winter conditions…
I recently cancelled my CTC membership as tierd of reading commuting camera reviews and the whole agression thing of comutting cycling.
Then the whole youtube films of angry people cycling to work looking for conflict.

The whole thing is like the old saying if you go out in a pub looking for a fight you will find it, and these cyclists find confrotation…

Every weekend and midweek if i am out on Wednesday evenings i see big groups of road cyclists riding 5 abrest on A and B country roads here in East Lothian and huge tail backs of fustrated drivers who then hate and class all cyclists the same,
If i get stuck behind these groups -who i can bet on having ERC jerseys-even though they always deny its them out there!, i pass them with zero clearance and the windscreen wiper washers on full bore..
Sod them as there doing no cyclists any good with their militant atitude… 😆

Oh well. yourguitarheron and coastkid have spoiled it now, never mind. 🙁

Had a guy come up behind me at a junction, got bored waiting for me, so gave my back wheel a little nudge with his Volvo. I was wearing a bell faction helmet. Took the helmet off and smashed it into his bonnet. As he thought about getting out of his car I loudly and articulately told him I was 18 stone and bike 20 miles a day and that I would love to kill him. He apologised.

Joke’s on him, I’m a massive pussy…

That is the only time I’ve gone full wack job.

Cycling someone tried to left hook me so I banged on their roof. They wound down the window a gave me a vicious tirade of abuse. I went round opened the door grabbed the keys and launched them across the road. That annoyed them.

Motorbike me and mate had a full on brawl with two Asian guys who tried to ram us off the road in a bmw. The two Asians were arrested for driving with no licence insurance and having changed the registration plates!

I once pulled up at the lights alongside a new Jag, and then fell on it.

I have been nudged a couple of times at pinch points in the road – shouted at some old bloke once who squeezed me off the road. I have received aggression on a number of occasions, and the anger was fermenting inside just waiting to be let out..

So there I was cycling through Caerleon which to drive through you have to take a very narrow single car width lane around the castle which takes a lot of cars and there’s really not room to pass a cyclist. It’s only about 2-300 yards so hardly a big deal. I held my position to discourage anyone from attempting it and as the road widened and I pulled aside a bloke pulled alongside to give me some abuse. Well that pressed the button on my pent up rage so I stopped, tossed my bike aside and squared up. I think he was about to get out of his car but the chap behind him who had the air of someone who knew how to deal with trouble just laid on his horn, so he hurriedly drove off.

Good thing too as I was very much up for it.