This Bogey’s All Over Me!
What’s the correct thing to do when a driver’s lack of care puts you in their sights? It’s hard to tell if it was out-and-out bullying, or just a crap driver with no appreciation of the fact that bikes do move faster than a walking pace.
This was on my way home from Newcastle this evening. I’d gone to the top of Byker to have a look at the new wheel for Daisy that the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative had ordered in for me (more on that later). The best bit about being at the top of Byker is that you get to take The Fossway down to Wallsend - it’s a long straight road with an easy gradient, and and usually a following wind. There are mini-roundabouts and a few traffic-lighted junctions, but they just add to the fun: keep your eyes open as you go through them, or if it’s not clear, take the opportunity to rest up.
Anyway, before you get onto that, there’s a slightly steeper hill to go down, with a slightly bigger roundabout. You’re going fast, so with The Look over your shoulder, you can pretty much guarantee that any traffic will hang back for a better place to pass.
Not this evening though.
I had a van overtake me through the roundabout:
It’s not really my idea of fun to take this roundabout with another vehicle turning right. To realise half way through (3) that he was going straight on, and that he was coming into my lane (4) to finish the move (5 & 6) was decidedly twitchy. It was a bit like being in some sort of surreal dog-fight, or flying in formation with a complete lunatic. It was the kind of move that feels fine in a go-kart, and looks fantastic in a motor race on TV, but is pretty alarming on two wheels when the other vehicle weighs a ton or so.
Naturally in this ‘race’ that I hadn’t even realised I’d entered, I yielded my position, with a dab on the brakes as the bike came upright between 4 & 5.
And riding Siegfried is obviously having an effect on me - when the van got stopped at the lights a hundred yards further down, I actually didn’t remonstrate with the driver, but just sailed past, catching the green perfectly, and then staying ahead of him for the 2 km.
Was this the right thing to do, or should I have taken the opportunity to enrol him on our Driver Re-Education Programme?
I find that most of the time the so-called Driver Re-Education Programme further cements in drivers’ minds that cyclists are scum. I think you did the best thing by just going on your way and minding your own business (while thinking bad thoughts in your head as you passed!).
An almost daily occurrence here in Swindon, as I think I’ve mentioned before.
I actually had this while DRIVING the other day. I was at a roundabout that had a (wide) single lane approach to it. I was indicating right. My bike sense picked up a van on the back corner of the car, and my intuition honed through many such incidents while on two wheels, told me that he was going to overtake on the roundabout.
So, as I do when cycling, I looked back and made eye contact to say “Oi, I’m here, I’m quite allowed to be here, and you’d better give me room to safely do what I’m about to do”.
My intuition was right though, and as the lane split on the roundabout he honked his horn at me a few times andzoomed past me. Turns out he was going straight on! (I was going right, remember).
I rarely get road rage, but when I saw the van again again later I was tempted to do something nasty.
Some people are just looney’s and you don’t need to be on a bike to find that out.
I reiterate to ALL vehicle drivers - DON’T EVER OVERTAKE AT JUNCTIONS!!!
I’d sooner have an impatient driver ahead of me than behind Karl, I reckon you did the right thing, fwiw.
Gah - punctuation :/
Try this;
’d sooner have an impatient driver ahead of me than behind me, Karl, I reckon you did the right thing, fwiw.
Comment in haste, repent at leisure, &c
What to do? I always take out my mobile, telephone the police with the offender’s license number and request that charges be laid. The inconvenience of testifying in court is well worth getting these drivers off the road.
Sometimes, as an extra bonus, the driver is also wanted by police for something else. Criminals rarely make model drivers.
I have to say that it’s wonderful to have left all this behind. I used to experience any amount of unpleasantness when cycling in the UK. At the very least you’d expect people to pull out in front as if you didn’t exist, or overtake too close occasionally. Sometimes you’d have much more frightening incidents where there was intent in the bad behaviour. Like most people who cycle in the UK I just thought it was normal.
And since moving over here ? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. No-one hates me. Everyone looks out for me. I’ve not had a single scary incident in this country.
Cycling is extraordinarily pleasant as a result of this. It could so easily be the same in the UK. I’ve commented on it on my blog.