Do you 'engage' with motorists?

[darkyoung1000]

I'd like to think I'm relatively good at reading the road, looking for possible danger caused by poor driving/observation, and will generally let stuff go (albeit with some choice comments under my breath).
Yesterday however, the guy who hovered behind me for a while, then went for the overtake and turned immediately left thinking he had time (he didn't, I had to brake sharply) got the bird in his departing rearview).
Worse than that was the white van who interacted with me on the narrow county road yesterday. He didn't like the fact that we were both turning right, and when both of us had made the turn, deliberately squeezed me into the verge, brushing my shoulder as he did so. The dick.
I would have happily interacted further if I could have caught the bd!

Cheers,
Tom

[DeuxCentCinq]

Another left hooker this morning got sworn at. I just don't understand it. Why bother overtaking when you're turning left IMMMEDIATELY?

Utter s.

[Usget]

el stovey said:

90% of motorists are crap drivers judging by what I read on here and see on the roads.

Nah. I'd say 99% of drivers in this country are excellent. Spend some time driving abroad and you'll see how bloody good at it we British are. It's just that the actions of the 1% are particularly noticable.

[anonymous-user]

Always amazes me how many people drive like dicks in a sign written van....

[MC Bodge]

el stovey said:

90% of motorists are crap drivers judging by what I read on here and see on the roads.

I think that the typical driver is actually fairly poor, blindly following (some of the) rules, with little knowledge of vehicle dynamics or the potential consequences of their actions to others.

Most people also give their driving the absolute minimum of conscious attention.


I rarely engage with motorists these days, but did last week following a ridiculous and unnecessary high rpm, full throttle "squeezing/buzzing" and "cutting up" incident. I wasn't abusive or violent, but I think the driver was a bit worried when I confronted him to ask him why he had done it with my best "possibly psychopathic" look

He wouldn't look at me and drove off very quickly when the lights changed. I'm hoping that he will think twice about doing it again.

Edited by MC Bodge on Wednesday 25th February 22:25

[il sole]

hora said:

WinstonWolf said:

Use the primary position at pinch points, deny them the opportunity of putting the squeeze on you.

+1,000. I always indicate out if need be and block the opportunity.

I'm with this 100%.

With regards to the op's original question, I never engage with drivers, there's no point. Plus I'm a wimp and don't want to get into something bad, but that's because I'm a lover not a fighter;-)

[M3John]

A couple of months ago Gruffy and myself were out and he'd just turned off to head home so he missed the incident but, i approached a small road works with temporary traffic lights. As i went through they were green for me but while i was in `no mans land` the signals had obviously changed to allow the traffic to merge from my right. As i passed the turning from the right a vehicle cam out and the fella driving it already had the window down. Cue torrent of abuse in my direction on how us cyclists are a law unto ourselves and how i'm going to get myself killed etc etc. I did reply with that the signals were green for me when i entered but it was falling on deaf ears.

There honesty is no point in trying to argue a point with someone in a vehicle unless they actually hit you i think.

MC Bodge said:

I think that the typical driver is actually fairly poor, blindly following (some of the) rules, with little knowledge of vehicle dynamics or the potential consequences of their actions to others.

Most people also give their driving the absolute minimum of conscious attention.

This. Exactly this.

Only last night i turned into the road that leads to my quiet little crescent where i live. The car coming towards me had PLENTY of time to stop / partially pull into a gap on his left to let me by but no. He proceeded towards me and then even closed the gap on me which ended up being just wider than the bars.
Then as i glanced back the cheeky sod even got to the junction and put the car into reverse to `have another word` with me. Which was quite interesting. All i said was "that was a bit close fella" and i got the typical "all you cyclists blah blah blah....."
Pillock.

I think in future i'm simply not going to bother saying anything at all.

[Fugazi]

Just coming home, down a bit of a side road and approaching a parked car in about 30m so was starting to move out when a car overtook me followed immediately by another, tailgating the first who then edged me right into the parked car. Muttered 'dhead' under my breath and then I saw allsorts of commotion between the passenger and driver. Turns out the passenger side window was down and they'd heard me. Considering I'd only muttered it and they'd heard me over the road/engine noise shows how close they were to me in my opinion. Anyway I just raised my arm and said give me a bit more room next time mate. Went passed them at the end of the road while they were queued and nothing more was said, they then overtook me again giving me loads of room this time and holding their horn down while they passed.
I overtook them further down the road and again nothing was said but I'm pretty sure they'd changed direction just to give me the horn. Oh the joys of commuting.

Edited by Fugazi on Tuesday 10th March 18:17

[Alicat]

So out for a run this morning. There was a junction on the RHS and a vehicle waiting to turn right. As I approached the vehicle a refuse wagon passed me (rather too close for comfort), then immediately braked because of the vehicle waiting to turn right and at the same time pulled back towards the kerb forcing me to brake and go for the gap between the refuse vehicle and kerb. I had the opportunity to speak to the driver as his passenger side window was down.

An utter moron, said I don't need much room and thought it was funny.

Spoke to the local authority concerned - even bigger bunch of morons!

[Kermit power]

DeuxCentCinq said:

Another left hooker this morning got sworn at. I just don't understand it. Why bother overtaking when you're turning left IMMMEDIATELY?

Utter s.

Many of them quite seriously think they have right of way! I once had a woman wind her window down and ask me if I'd got footage (no dear, that's a light on my helmet, not a camera) of the other cyclists refusing to allow her her right of way to turn left. She seemed genuinely flummoxed to be told that she didn't have right of way!

For those who know it she was turning left off Newington Butts onto Dante Road just before the Elephant & Castle in rush hour, so was trying to turn through a group of about 20 cyclists who'd just pulled away from the lights on CS7.

[MC Bodge]

I think most drivers are just conditioned to overtake things when they eventually see them, as they almost run into them. The overtaking is separate and completely unrelated to their next task, which may be turning left, or posting on Pistonheads/Facebook/Twitter depending broadly upon gender/sexuality.

[Kermit power]

I had someone try to overtake me approaching a pinch point a few months back. I have to assume the blithering fool hadn't seen it at all, as he wasn't just pushing it tight, he was completely on the opposite side of the road.

Unsurprisingly, when he did eventually see it, he came to a halt, all of a couple of yards before it. As I looked back, I could see him getting increasingly apoplectic as the next three cars in the traffic queue sailed through the pinch point whilst he was stuck on the wrong side of the road.

Given that there were also cars in front of me that I was keeping pace with (all of 15mph), I'm not quite sure where he thought he was going to go in the first place. Sadly, he never caught up with me for me to ask him.