Was I right to blow my top?

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 17:05:59 +0000 (UTC), "david kenning"
wrote in message
:

I always ride along this
stretch far enough away from the kerb to *make sure they realise* there
isn't enough room to pass - there wouldn't be enough room to pass even if I
rode in the gutter, but that being a fact and them understanding it are two
separate matters.

Absolutely. The last time I was Hoeyed was in just such a situation.

--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On 7 Mar 2004 15:56:00 GMT, "Arthur Clune" wrote in
message :

**** in Range Rover comes hurtling past

Fat bloke? No, hang on, that one's banged up for a while yet...

--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

I don't think anyone so far has suggested resorting to violence, just the
possibility of being on the receiving end of it if you start shouting at
someone who may turn out to be violent. If you've been subjected to
*deliberately* aggressive driving then I would think the chances could be
higher that you'd get your lights punched out if you started shouting the
odds.

That's all true , but whatever happened after he attacked you you will
still need witnesses on your side, and they might easily feel sympathy
for the poor driver who stood up for himself in the face of a manic
cyclist who may even have been wearing lycra to boot.

I should have said that I recognise the surge of adrenaline and anger
only too well.Usually I just shout something incoherent and rude.

I heard last week round here a local doctor was hunted on his bike the
day after a very minor altercation with a woman in a car and beaten up
quite significantly by her husband, having been forced to stop by a
swerve.
I would hope a prison sentence would be appropriate for a premeditated
act like that.It was not even road rage.

TerryJ

in message , "Wavering"
None ('') wrote:

My Saturday morning ride ended in a bit of road rage today. Did I do
the right thing?

You get a huge jolt of adrenaline when someone tries to kill you. It
makes you behave in a manner you wouldn't otherwise. Sometimes when
high on adrenaline you do things you would, later, rather not have
done, but frankly that's tough. It's part of being human; we all
suffer from it.

Just thank your lucky stars you weren't killed, and, next time you see
him, do get his number and do write a brief, factual letter for the
police.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
Wannabe a Web designer?
URL:http://userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/97dec/19971206.html

MSeries wrote:
Wavering wrote:

My Saturday morning ride ended in a bit of road rage today. Did I do
the right thing?



Not in my opinion, blowing ones top shows a lack of control.


I saw a cyclist almost doored once, the chap gets out of his car and
hurls abuse at the cyclist. The cyclist calmly turns around and walks
off. The chap shuts his door and goes to the shop he was popping into,
double yellow lines of course but the park anywhere lights were on so
its ok. Moments later the cyclist is back riding past the car giving it
a severe keying.

Is that called not blowing your top?

I do not condone such activity but I did have a wry smile about it.

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message . ..

I hold the line, even when they start hooting. It is scary but
bullies are almost always cowards as well - and the fact is if it were
safe for them to pass, they wouldn't need to sit behind me anyway, so
making it possible for them to pass unsafely is never a good idea in
my view.

When it gets to the point that they're alongside you, still hooting,
and are either going to mow you down or take out the traffic island,
the odds are they're not going to take out the traffic island.

--
Dave...

Hello,

I doubt if your outburst has had any effect either positive or negative.
I suspect you may have felt better by venting you initial rage but that
is a minor gain. The idea of confronting and yelling etc at the car
driver is in my opinion not really worth while. As a motorcyclist I have
been cut up knocked off etc and have taken this out on my assailant. I
found geting up close and either kicking off or thumping their mirror
very satisfying or otherwise just booting the car to let them know they
were too close useful. I was going to suggest either of these as an
option but really, life is too short and on a cycle you don't really
have the flight option and will have to stand your ground. I reckon a
tutting session and a quiet word if the opportunity presents is the best
option and then no one gets hurt.

Maybe I'm getting old.



--

"Vincent Wilcox" wrote in message
...
I saw a cyclist almost doored once, the chap gets out of his car and
hurls abuse at the cyclist. The cyclist calmly turns around and walks
off. The chap shuts his door and goes to the shop he was popping into,
double yellow lines of course but the park anywhere lights were on so
its ok. Moments later the cyclist is back riding past the car giving it
a severe keying.

A car U-turned across me one Sunday as I was nearly home and the driver gave
me the finger when I shouted.
I carried on to home, dropped off the bike, got my car and manged to see him
in the distance.
I then followed him into the local Hombase car-park, where he parked and got
out.

Now what to do? Have a row that will lead to an unsatisfactory conclusion or
seek (cowards?1) revenge that doesn't involve property damage?
The latter definately......now if I could find some dog **** and a stick I
could leave a parting gift under his door handle, unfortunately there was
none around (why is there never any dog-**** when you need it?) so some
grease from my tool kit had to suffice.

As much as I'd like to have hung around to see the reaction lunch was
sending messages to my stomach and one has to prioritise ;-)

1 Remember folks, a coward gets to ride another day.
--
Regards,
Pete

On 8 Mar 2004 07:58:49 -0800, (Dave Kahn) wrote
in message :

When it gets to the point that they're alongside you, still hooting,
and are either going to mow you down or take out the traffic island,
the odds are they're not going to take out the traffic island.

And if you are already in the gutter you have nowhere to go. So you
take the lane, of course.

--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 19:32:08 -0000, Wavering None wrote:

My Saturday morning ride ended in a bit of road rage today. Did I do the
right thing?
[...]
Was I right or I have I so enraged this guy he'll make sure he hits the
next
cyclist.

It's difficult in the heat of the moment to assess the potential imapct of
such a confrontation. If you have a very good temperament you can always
either avoid a confrontation or even offer a cheery wave. I try this on
most occasions but every now and then it seems like people are taking the
**** enough for at least something to be said. Last night was a case in
point for me.

I was appraoching a left turn from a main road onto a bumpy side road in
Newcastle. A lot of pedestrians cross there. I was behind a car which was
turning left and because of the shape of the road (it's not a simple T) it
was clear, I thought, that I was turning left and so I didn't signal
because of the road surface. A pedestrian looked back as soon as the car
had passed and despite my line he decided to cross in front of me. I
wasn't going fast and I anticipated his action so I braked a little,
altered my line and crossed his path without incident. Then he decideds to
eff and blind at me about my lack of signal. I decided to stop, get off
the bike and catch him up on the pavement to explain why I chose not to
signal. Despite seeing me and several calls of, "Excuse me, please", he
walked on ignoring me. When I was actuallly alongside him I apologised for
not signalling and tried to explain about the road surface. He effed and
blinded a bit more. I tried again. He swore at me a bit more and I gave
up. I guess he didn't want to know.

Colin
--