Another Cycle Rage Incident..........but with a twist

[tillson]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but it is worth 3 minutes 58 seconds of your life................

The bike sounds like it might be an electric one.

 

[EddieH]

Sorry but in my opinion the cyclist should have moved over, there was plenty of room for both of them but the cyclist just seemed to want to wind someone up and start an arguement. A little bit of common sense and thinking of others goes a long way.

 

[flecc]

I agree with Eddie, I'm sick of these arrogant "little Hitler" cyclists who think they can obstruct and then verbally attack drivers, they give us all a bad name. If the cyclist was in any way a decent road user, sharing the roads, he'd have moved over a little for the car driver to pass with more room since there was plenty of space at that point and no need for him to dominate.

I repeat what I've posted before a few times, the introduction of road-view video cameras has been a thoroughly bad development, all too often empowering the most arrogant and self-important road users.
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[tillson]

I don't think that either of them came out of the incident well.

I'm not so sure the cyclist was excessively biased towards the middle of the road. Those wide angle lens cameras can distort distance and speed. I tend to give parked cars plenty of room in anticipation of a door suddenly opening. I know someone who was very seriously injured as a result of this happening, so don't blame him for that.

I agree though, it's as if once the camera is fitted, some cyclists go out looking for trouble in order to justify their financial outlay. The camera becomes their armour and they start to behave in a peculiar manner.

Wasn't that swallow dive by the car driver majestic though? Also funny how the cyclist beat s hasty retreat along the pavement when the "camera armour" failed and he realised that he was about to be filled in. I think the only person to escape with any dignaty was the front seat car passenger.

Still laughing.

 

[flecc]

I'm not so sure the cyclist was excessively biased towards the middle of the road.

He wasn't, there was in fact plenty of space for the car to pass. But if that cyclist wanted lots of clearance, he could have biased left on hearing the car coming up behind since there were no cars parked at that point.

That's what I would have done as a matter of courtesy to ease the way for the car driver. But of course as a responsible road user, I have a rear view mirror on my bikes so don't depend only on my hearing. I'm betting that cyclist doesn't have one, probably another way in which he's a less good road user than he imagines.

The whole incident was provoked by the cyclist and it was entirely unnecessary.
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[bigearsbilly]

Life is too short.

 

[Croxden]

The fruity language took me back to when I had to work for a living.

 

[Andy_H]

But if that cyclist wanted lots of clearance, he could have biased left on hearing the car coming up behind since there were no cars parked at that point..

Whilst I think the cyclist was totally wrong and foolish to pursue the car driver, the car driver was wrong for overtaking, I even used to give parked vehicles a wide berth when I was driving my 3.5 ton van, and I have seen an accident (car on car) when some fool opened a car door without looking, so I don't blame anyone whether cyclist of car for wanting to keep clear of parked vehicles.

But as I say the cyclist should not have caused the confrontational situation by going after the car.

 

[EddieH]

Life is too short.

It's the longest thing you will ever do.

 

[lordvincent]

I've seen that vid before, but that dive never gets old, never was a comeuppance so richly deserved.

The cyclist could have pulled over a bit into the space in the parking bay to his left, but the car driver is always in the wrong when passing so close since it leaves no margin for error, regardless of whether the cyclist is riding inconsiderately. Also, there is usually next to no time saved by passing dangerously and not waiting the 30 sec or whatever until the end of the road.

 

[flecc]

The cyclist could have pulled over a bit into the space in the parking bay to his left, but the car driver is always in the wrong when passing so close since it leaves no margin for error, regardless of whether the cyclist is riding inconsiderately.

There will always be different views on these situations, and I don't agree that the driver passed too close. I'm regularly passed at least as close in my London borough and I don't flinch at that our roads being often too narrow to allow yards of space.

In reality how close the pass is often exaggerated, as my situation has often shown. Sometimes a seemingly very close pass can make even me flinch, especially when it's a large truck, but in fact it's not as close as it seems. I have a mirror stuck out from the handlebar end, meaning that what seemed like the car/truck was only an inch or two away was in fact at least six inches away from the handlebars and my arm and possibly more.

Have a look at some videos of today's cycle commuting in London and you'll see many instances of the gaps between bikes and motor traffic very close with the cyclists showing no concern. It's just a part of living in cities and they are used to it.

I think a lot of the trouble is that some cyclists are far too nervous to be cycling in traffic and that causes these panicky reactions and screams of anger of the sort seen in this video. If this cyclist really didn't like fairly close passes, all he had to do was use the more than ample space to allow for that.

The fact is that he wasn't hit, and the driver didn't blast his horn or yell out for him to get out of the way. So there was no excuse for the cyclist to react in any way, other than carrying on cycling.
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[lordvincent]

There will always be different views on these situations, and I don't agree that the driver passed too close. I'm regularly passed at least as close in my London borough and I don't flinch at that our roads being often too narrow to allow yards of space.

In reality how close the pass is often exaggerated, as my situation has often shown. Sometimes a seemingly very close pass can make even me flinch, especially when it's a large truck, but in fact it's not as close as it seems. I have a mirror stuck out from the handlebar end, meaning that what seemed like the car/truck was only an inch or two away was in fact at least six inches away from the handlebars and my arm and possibly more.

Have a look at some videos of today's cycle commuting in London and you'll see many instances of the gaps between bikes and motor traffic very close with the cyclists showing no concern. It's just a part of living in cities and they are used to it.

I think a lot of the trouble is that some cyclists are far too nervous to be cycling in traffic and that causes these panicky reactions and screams of anger of the sort seen in this video. If this cyclist really didn't like fairly close passes, all he had to do was use the more than ample space to allow for that.

The fact is that he wasn't hit, and the driver didn't blast his horn or yell out for him to get out of the way. So there was no excuse for the cyclist to react in any way, other than carrying on cycling.
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It's closer than it looks; the lens effect distorts the distance. The cyclist probably could have touched the car, and from the driver's reaction, he did it deliberately because he felt the cyclist was taking up too much space. Some drivers don't understand that cyclists need to stay out of the 'opening car door' zone and mistakenly believe that they are needlessly riding in the 'middle of the road'.

I ride in London and I find most drivers behave reasonably well, but on the few occasions where there is a close pass, and I catch them at the lights or wherever, I do have a polite word with them and they usually respond positively. Only one guy has been a hardass about it, saying that he knew the width of his vehicle etc, but once I explained that space was required to account for unexpected wobbling or swerving from the cyclist, even he modified his position and said that he would do better.

 

[flecc]

It's closer than it looks; the lens effect distorts the distance. The cyclist probably could have touched the car, and from the driver's reaction, he did it deliberately because he felt the cyclist was taking up too much space. Some drivers don't understand that cyclists need to stay out of the 'opening car door' zone and mistakenly believe that they are needlessly riding in the 'middle of the road'.

I agree the cyclist could easily have touched the car, but I can't see anything wrong with that distance. As a London cyclist I bet you could touch many of the cars passing you or that you pass, I know I can. Since the driver didn't react by shouting or blasting his horn at the time of the pass, I don't see how it can be said that he deliberately passed in a threatening way. His reaction that you quote was provoked by that arrogant cyclist and was merely in his own defence.

I ride in London and I find most drivers behave reasonably well, but on the few occasions where there is a close pass, and I catch them at the lights or wherever, I do have a polite word with them and they usually respond positively.

Indeed they do, and it's your polite word that makes all the difference. It's the shouting and often aggressively bossiness of cyclists like that one in this video that I object to, since it provokes driver ill feeling towards all cyclists.

But overall I don't think cyclists in general should be or need to be verbally correcting drivers, since so many cyclists fall so far short of best behaviour on the roads. As the old saying goes, "Those who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones".
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[EddieH]

Some drivers don't understand that cyclists need to stay out of the 'opening car door' zone and mistakenly believe that they are needlessly riding in the 'middle of the road'.

In this case he was riding in the middle of the road as there were no parked cars to his left so no fear of opening doors. To me it just looked like he was looking for a fight (and then ran away when he found one)

 

[Lancslass]

Maybe it's the difference between riding in London (and other large cities) or not.

I don't like cars passing too close and I like to have both wobble room and a car door opening safety margin. I don't think that is unreasonable on roads that aren't too busy and where cars aren't maybe in such a rush as they are in our cities.

If I feel that there isn't a safe margin for a car to pass me, and it is safe to do so, I will purposely prevent them overtaking by what I call 'taking the road'. In other words I will move out from the side sufficiently so that there is not room to overtake. I will only do this if the traffic is slow enough to be able to respond of course. A good example is in our village where cars are parked sometimes on both sides, leaving only enough room for 2 cars to pass in each direction with care. Another situation is where we have slowing down 'slaloms' where the road narrows to just one cars width by the use of bollards. I don't like a car passing when I am between the bollards and the pavement in that instance, so I 'take the road'.

But I agree that they both acted like prats and I must say I found the whole video to be a little upsetting rather than funny (but that's just me).

 

[flecc]

If I feel that there isn't a safe margin for a car to pass me, and it is safe to do so, I will purposely prevent them overtaking by what I call 'taking the road'.

And that's good cycling practice. On your bike you have exactly the same right to a traffic lane or the equivalent space as any other vehicle, so it's right for you to "own it" when it's necessary through lack of space.

That said, it's also good cycling practice to be considerate towards other faster road users and ease their way whenever possible, and I'm afraid that's where too many cyclists fail, like the one in the above video.
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[RobF]

In this case he was riding in the middle of the road as there were no parked cars to his left so no fear of opening doors. To me it just looked like he was looking for a fight (and then ran away when he found one)

To be fair to the cyclist, the 'no parked cars' stretch was very short.

He could have pulled into it, but probably thought it wasn't long enough for the car to get by.

The car did pass and vanish into the distance.

That would have been that, but for the cyclist's need to chase down the car and offer on road driving tuition to the driver, which is rarely received well.

 

[EddiePJ]

This one still cracks me up.

 

[jonathan75]

This one still cracks me up.

That woman had the patience of Job...

 

[EddieH]

This one still cracks me up.

Once again a cyclist who seemed determined to upset others by taking his time at junctions, I agree wth the driver here there was no reason to sit there at the junction holding everyone else up, yet another cyclist who just wants to be awkward.