As a cyclist I have thoughts on some drivers
Most people are ace but you do still find some utter knobs on the road. This post is aimed at them, though luckily they're relatively few and far between. I know I'm opening myself up for a torrent of abuse about badly behaving cyclists and I agree that some fit into the "knob" category referred to above, however this is about my experience of cars and their drivers, so here goes...

You know how when you drive past cyclists and have to check your rearview mirror to make sure you've overtaken safely? That's usually a good indicator that you haven't.

Yelling "get in the cycle lane" is neither big nor clever. Most are badly designed if not downright dangerous leading cyclists into dooring zones, or strewn with potholes and broken glass. They are not compulsory and I'm not going to put myself in danger just so you can get to the next queue of stationary traffic slightly faster. Quoting Chapman, drivers bring almost all the danger to the situation, yet it is the cyclists who should apparently take the long way round on a path with a loose surface littered with broken glass and dog excrement. No thanks.

Yelling "can't afford a car?" is especially hilarious when you do it from a dented 10 year old VW Polo with bald tyres and broken tail lights.

Finally, there's no such thing as "road tax." Sorry, but there really isn't. Council tax pays for most of the cost of building roads whilst VED goes into the general tax pot a bit like tax on fuel, alcohol, cigarettes etc. You may as well call it a "debt tax" because that's what most of it seems to go on. Don't feel too bad, I still get fisted by Brown on everything else believe me, and I still pay VED on the rarely used car sat on my drive anyway.

And relax...
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Sat 24 Apr 2010, 6:13, 8 replies)

Yeah but
I cycle to work some days. 10 hilly miles each way on fast scottish comedy A roads. I'd say im pretty bike aware.
Im in my late thiries, drive 35K a year, (have for 20 yrs) so I'm familiar with the games people play, and never really have much trouble.Some cyclists though deserve a good sound slap.
Like the tosser in York last week, who was wobbling about on what looked suspiciously like a girls bike to me, whatever.
He moves out into the centre of the road to go right around a wee painted off lane thingy, where I'm going too,its too tight for us both,so i slow right down, dont get close at all, he completes, i accelerate, he turns and starts ranting and raving, shouting and bawling, arms waving (prob near 40 yr old male well dressed)
I've never felt more like smashing a curly headed fuck in the chops more in all my natural.However CCTV.meh
Was i supposesd to squeeze past and nudge him off?
I fucking will next time
(shinypurplebit booked his tickets (yay) on, Sat 24 Apr 2010, 7:27, closed)

I know some cyclists do daft things too. You can't account for people. But this QOTW is about cars, and so my post was about the daft things people do/say when they are driving them.

As for your experience...

Maybe he felt differently about the situation to you. Maybe he felt you overtook closely or maybe he was just a loon. But I think it speaks volumes that the reaction you have to an angry cyclist (unjustified though his ranting may be) is to "nudge him off" or give him "a good sound slap."

Ever been "nudged off" a bike by a car? Get your bike and find a mate in a car and try it, but phone the hospital first to let them know you're coming. I cycle to work every day, 10 miles each way five days a week. I see many more car drivers do stupid things than I do cyclists (true, I also see more cars than I see bikes too).
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Sat 24 Apr 2010, 7:54, closed)

I'd never heard of the James Martin incident before
But for me it's further proof of his credentials as a complete cunt.
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Sat 24 Apr 2010, 21:56, closed)

I tried bikes
but decided I was too young to die, so went back to the car. I consider myself very aware when I am on the roads, shame I seem to be in an ever declining majority
( --=| Daz |=-- has been masturbating over a picture of you since, Sat 24 Apr 2010, 8:59, closed)

I have been riding the kilometre or so to work and back since 1990.
Half of it is on cycle / pedestrian paths, the rest on streets passing office blocks and large car parks. With about three exceptions I have been in more danger from sleepy pedestrians than from cars. I have sounded my bike bell to let them know I am coming to have them jump into my path, they step off footpaths into the street without looking, some seem incapable of walking in a straight line, etc etc etc. I'll get screeched at for this but in three cases out of four the sleepy pedestrian is a woman. The near universal female habit of looking at the ground two metres in front of them does not help either.

A recent incident with a couple was typical. The cycle path has a centre line and we keep left in Australia. He was nearer the centre line, she was on his left. I rang the bike bell from behind them. He moved to the left as expected, she decided to cross the path to the right in spite of there being oodles of room for me to pass on their right. They bumped into each other and by the time they had sorted themselves out I was hard on the bike brakes and passed between them with a whisker to spare. Luckily the cycle was nearly new with grippy alloy wheels, unlike the steel wheels on the ancient cycle I had until recently.

I also drive a V8 coupe, so pay a share of tax.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Sat 24 Apr 2010, 12:11, closed)

Try riding a motor bike
And having to put up with mongs in cars and on push bikes...
(Charlie 1%er, Sun 25 Apr 2010, 1:01, closed)

There are mongs in all walks of life
No ones perfect. Some of them ride motorbikes too...
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Sun 25 Apr 2010, 8:24, closed)

As a pedestrian and driver
I find cyclists to be self-righteous, completely disregarding of pedestrians and to have suicidal tendencies when on the road - in many, many cases they seem to be riding with the assumption that no matter how badly they ride or swerve into traffic without signalling, because they are cyclists other road users have to give them all the space they require because if there is a collision the driver will inevitably be blamed.

Oh, and if you're going to quote someone, best not to make it a reactionary racist.
(rampants, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 17:47, closed)

Interesting
Racist? Can't say I've read his entire site, so source?

Or is this something you've just made up?

Oh, and trust me - no cyclist wants to get into a collision with a car. It doesn't matter who gets blamed, the cyclist will always come off worse.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Tue 27 Apr 2010, 7:01, closed)