Dangerous car types

[alfa pint]

Started looking at the makes / models / types of cars who regularly come close to knocking me off the bike on the daily commute, purely out of interest.

Fiesta / micra / polo - often come within 2 feet.
Audi A4 - squeezes the curbs at junctions so I can't come down the inside.
Pious - st driver that just doesn't give me any room
Local bus service in overlarge minibus - never gives me more than 2 feet and has nearly wiped out my missus too, on her cycle to the train station.
The tt in the rover 620ti fitted with a dump valve - deliberately changing up as he goes past me at full throttle to get the sound. Shat myself the first time. Getting used to him now. Still barely gives me 3 feet grace though.

The good guys - most of the 4x4s, HGVs, most performance and larger cars (mainly driven by blokes, hmmmm)

Any regular eejits or types of cars out there that nearly kill you daily? Seems to be the mums on school run / young drivers and the fecking local bus driver that get me.

[neilski]

alfa pint said:

mums on school run

^This

And why do they feel the need to drive less than a mile in their 4x4 / people carrier then overtake a row of parked cars on their side of the road leaving barely 3 inches as they pass you?

[BliarOut]

neilski said:

alfa pint said:

mums on school run

^This

And why do they feel the need to drive less than a mile in their 4x4 / people carrier then overtake a row of parked cars on their side of the road leaving barely 3 inches as they pass you?

Women. <That's a full stop

[Mr Will]

neilski said:

And why do they feel the need to drive less than a mile in their 4x4 / people carrier then overtake a row of parked cars on their side of the road leaving barely 3 inches as they pass you?

Because they are running late and need to get to work is the normal reason. Not that that excuses it.

GET YOURSELF AND YOUR KIDS UP TEN MINUTES EARLIER. You will be a lot less stressed and won't have to kill me on a daily basis...

[BliarOut]

Mr Will said:

neilski said:

And why do they feel the need to drive less than a mile in their 4x4 / people carrier then overtake a row of parked cars on their side of the road leaving barely 3 inches as they pass you?

Because they are running late and need to get to work is the normal reason. Not that that excuses it.

GET YOURSELF AND YOUR KIDS UP TEN MINUTES EARLIER. You will be a lot less stressed and won't have to kill me on a daily basis...

This can easily be avoided by not pressing dismiss on your alarm...

[Mr Will]

BliarOut said:

This can easily be avoided by not pressing dismiss on your alarm...

New personal best on the way to work today though

[BliarOut]

[Pothole]

why do you need two feet? (apart from pedalling)

[NitroNick]

Micras!
Although sometimes they can be fun.
Last saturday I was out training, when an old woman in a micra passed me only doing a few miles per hour more than me, so I changed up a gear, closed the gap up to her rear bumper and sat there for a good few minutes, we were doing ~ 50k for most of it.

[anonymous-user]

my top five to avoid are:

Xsara Picasso - stressed mothers who spend more time looking at children in the back seat than outside their cars

Rover 100 - old people who have no peripheral vision, bought the car new in their sixties and are now too old to drive safely but wont give up their license....

Audi A4/BMW 3 series - middle management types who are inevitably late for a meeting and not looking for cyclists at junctions, a bit of a sterotype but its just true....

Freelander - maybe just I'm a prime target but they seem to have shocking rear/side visibility

Peugeot 206cc/Vauxhall Tigra - erratic driving from mid-twenties women who I always spot on their phones.

oh, one more Nissan 200Sx - maybe its a game they play where they see how close to me they can get whilst overtaking?, maybe its a fear of crossing the white lines on the roads? maybe an particular aversion to potential oncoming traffic? maybe their stbox badly modified Datsun has some magnetic quality involving bicycle frames? or maybe they are just c****s?....

[oyster]

In London it seems Prius drivers think the bicycle 'safety' zone at the traffic lights is for them.

Audi A3/BMW 1 series: For seemingly always leaving less than a handlebar's width between their left hand mirror and parked cars. Of course their mirror bends a lot more than my handlebar does - as they often find out

Anything with Addison Lee written on it.

[Pulse]

Yesterday I had a van that just REFUSED to move over, even though he was stuck in traffic. I ended up just walking up on the mud to get past. I actually find most drivers are pretty oblivious to a bike coming up the inside of them.

[neilski]

Pulse said:

Yesterday I had a van that just REFUSED to move over, even though he was stuck in traffic. I ended up just walking up on the mud to get past. I actually find most drivers are pretty oblivious to a bike coming up the inside of them.

You should never pass on the left unless you've got a deathwish. You're at risk from passenger doors being flung open or having someone turn left or letting someone from the opposite direction turn right across your path.

It might seem a bit counter intuitive at first but if you're going to pass stationary traffic, always ride down the middle of the road.

[ewenm]

No pattern of cars, just a familiar pattern of drivers - inconsiderate, inattentive, distracted.

[a11y_m]

neilski said:

You should never pass on the left unless you've got a deathwish. You're at risk from passenger doors being flung open or having someone turn left or letting someone from the opposite direction turn right across your path.

Yep, I always swing out between queuing cars and go down the centre line, i.e. passing stationary traffic on it's right. Going slower also means you can pull in if traffic comes the other way but often find queuing traffic mostly pulls over a bit to let me past if slow-rolling.

Going by this morning: do you have to be a complete f**ktard to drive a Micra? Cutting through my usual quiet residential streets, parked cars on other side of road. I'm on my side and a Micra plays chicken with me, coming head on towards me on my side of the road and not giving me an inch. I just hopped onto the kerb, no point being in the right but dead, but next time his (it was a he) wing mirror will be coming off...

[Accelebrate]

I removed the door mirror of a Picasso a few months ago, the driver paused, made eye contact and then pulled out from behind a parked car onto my side of the road when I was doing 30mph+ down a hill.

I don't enjoy damaging someone else's property, but any guilt I briefly felt was soon diminished when the driver told me she believed that 'cars have priority over bikes' in such situations. I asked her if she was mentally deficient, which didn't go down too well.

[KrazyIvan]

alfa pint said:

Audi A4 - squeezes the curbs at junctions so I can't come down the inside.

I do this, not to stop cyclist from getting by, but to give motorbikers enough room to filter, not saying that the A4 driver is doing the same, but you never know.

[walm]

neilski said:

You should never pass on the left unless you've got a deathwish. You're at risk from passenger doors being flung open or having someone turn left or letting someone from the opposite direction turn right across your path.

It might seem a bit counter intuitive at first but if you're going to pass stationary traffic, always ride down the middle of the road.

O/T but I heartily disagree and the cycle training I had just the other day also disagrees.
I will mostly try to go around the right hand side but in some cases you can make just as safe progress on the left.

For example:
Stationary traffic at lights (with plenty of time before the lights change).
Cars with no passengers.
A well observed cycle lane.
Far too many to mention...

Passing on the right is often equally risky: unexpected right turns by drivers ahead, or U-turns, or letting someone out from the left right across your path.

To the OP:
Anything marked by the blue ring of death
Micras
A3s
Piouses

in that order.

[Mr Will]

walm said:

O/T but I heartily disagree and the cycle training I had just the other day also disagrees.
I will mostly try to go around the right hand side but in some cases you can make just as safe progress on the left.

For example:
Stationary traffic at lights (with plenty of time before the lights change).
Cars with no passengers.
A well observed cycle lane.
Far too many to mention...

Passing on the right is often equally risky: unexpected right turns by drivers ahead, or U-turns, or letting someone out from the left right across your path.

There are times when the left is better, but my personal experience is that passing on the right is normally safer. People are more observant (and have smaller blind spots) to the right, plus if someone does do something stupid you normally have a whole lane to play with, rather than the few feet between car and curb.

You wouldn't filter to the left on a moped, why do it on a bike?

[alfa pint]

I overtake the queue of traffic on the right hand side, fingers on brake levers ready to jump into the first gap if there's a car coming the other way not giving me enough room.

I then cut it at a suitable spot near the junction to go on the left hand side of the few remaining cars - this means we can both turn right, but I can go straight to the curb side without interfering with the flow.

Seems to work well.

fking bus (same private contractor) scared me again this morning. Seems to have an absolute aversion to crossing the white line, even when there's nothing coming the other way.