Cause and effect?

[yellowjack]

There surely must be a link, however long and convoluted, between these two incidents:

1. I'm waiting to cross the road outside the new Sainsbury's store in Farnborough on Sunday, when I witness an act of the most breathtaking stupidity. Approaching a traffic light controlled right turn, the rider of a supermarket BSO, replete with carrier bags on handlebars and mobile phone clamped to his ear decides that waiting for the lights to change would be too much trouble. He turns right across the junction, by moving to the right of the traffic light island, and entering the service road on the right hand side of the road. Continuing down the WRONG side of the carriageway, and weaving about like a loon, he meets a taxi. Taxi driver gives him a toot, and moves right to avoid eejit on BSO. Eejit promptly matches the taxi's move, going head to head. By this time, eejit has his 'phone hand back on the bars and the cabby is understandably both standing on his brakes and leaning on his horn. As BSO eejit rounds the cab he lets loose with a stream of expletives along the lines of "you wanna watch where your fing going, you " He then promptly hops onto the opposite footway, 'phone clamped back to his ear, and disappears up a footpath clearly labelled 'No Cycling'. I was left speechless, taxi driver (and passengers) understandably fuming.

Now it's not directly related, different vehicles/drivers/location, but:

2. It's now Monday, and I've had to fit a new wheel on the wife's Raleigh Pioneer, as she's worn the alloy rim so badly that it's folded up on her and won't pass between the brakes. Job is simple and has gone well, but different wheel means different spacing, so I re-index the gears and decide to cycle to LBS to a) test the indexing and tighten the thread-on cassette, and b) purchase one of those wee small nut/bolt jobbies that secure the mudguards. On the way back, I'm riding up Fernhill Road, along the broken line that marks the (extremely narrow) cycle lane. It's much closer to the kerb than I would ever consider riding my own bike, but I'm feeling pressured to move over by weight of traffic and the fact that I've not got my usual assertive head on, perhaps being psychologically 'neutered' by the fact that I'm on a girl's bike. A Toyota pickup, 2 wheel drive type, revs hard, floors it past me, cuts in hard, slows right down and through the rear window of the cab the driver is furiously gesturing that he feels I'm not far enough over to the left.

Question is this:
Is Mr Pickup (and I know where he lives. Bizarre behaviour, abusing someone then immediately turning into a cul-de-sac and parking outside his own house?) just an angry man generally, who believes that we who cycle are the scum of the earth (get off MY road, etc. etc.) regardless of our attitude and behaviour, or is it likely that he has, at some stage, witnessed similar behaviour from a cyclist as described in incident 1, and effectively tarred us all with the same brush. Unfair, but understandable, that a non-cyclist might lump us all together, based on the anti-social and downright dangerous behaviour displayed by a small, but worrying, number of bicycle riders?

FWIW I would like to have seen BOTH of these divvies 'spoken to' by plod, but I'm a realist. Fact remains that they are both part of the problem, and it's law abiding drivers AND cyclists (and I'm both, generally speaking) who are ending up on the receiving end of this attitude, and it doesn't help in any way to make the world a nicer place. Opinions, anyone?

[HughG]

I'm sure cyclists as with many other groups have their reputation tarnished by the action of the minority. That doesnt excuse the Hilux driver's actions though.

I'm not sure it's as simple as always being causality, I think there is a lack of consideration for why another road user is going slowly, did something, didn't do something or whatever it is. In a minority it's a bloody-mindedness and an attitude that other people have to get out of their way (in the case of your cyclist).

I think alot of the abuse and guesturing is a result of people's dislike of being held up, and being in a metal box brings out the worst in them. To an extent I understand this, whether I'm in the car or on the bike I get irritated if I'm being held up unnecessarily but not to the extent of thowing abuse and driving aggressively. I think alot of people dont consider whether there is a good reason for whatever the action is that is annoying them.

At the weekend I was driving on a windy B-road in the pouring rain with lots of standing water, following a road bike that was doing 25mph ish in a 40 limit, given the conditions the guy wasn't hanging around. Anyway a 3series came bowling up behind me and sat too close, there was one gap which if it had been dry I would have passed the cyclist, but didnt fancy trying to boot it in those conditions, and by the next opportunity I was within a few hundred yards of my (left) turn so I waited, to the annoyance of the BMW driver who was flashing his lights and guesturing. I indicated earlier than I would usually so he knew why I was still behind the cyclist, and the BMW promptly shot past both of us. As it happens the cyclist turned left as well (without indicating) so I could have gone past, but giving the guy the benefit of the doubt I probably wouldn't have wanted to take a hand off in those conditions.

[anonymous-user]

i got laughed at for suggesting this months ago. i ride quite safely and dont jump lights, i said by doing so i hoped others might follow the example and that drivers might notice that not all cyclists are morons.

if a cyclists is already stopped at red lights, its very rare another cyclist will come past and go through them, i think its just the sheep mentality, if there is a bike there stopped, the others stop, if there is no one else there, they go straight through.

in simple terms, I do not want to be the next cyclist Mr Angry (eg BMW driver in the second incident) comes across fresh from witnessing the moron on a bike as per the first incident.

[Ironballs]

I'm with you Pablo, thankfully, most of my riding is offroad these days but I still have to link up bits with road. Whenever I have to dip back into bike commuting on the very occasional day I find it a deeply unpleasant experience and I'm always on edge and checking over my shoulders.

Like you I ride within the law and hope that I don't come across an angry man in a car who was cut up (or similar) in the past by a tt on a bike

[will_]

The problem is, most drivers are ignorant when it comes to understanding why cyclists do what they do (I mean, look at all the stupid rant threads on here). Therefore it doesn't take a red-light-jumping BSO rider to make a driver lump all cyclists together - it could just be a cyclist riding defensively. In that context, is there really much we, as a group, can do? I don't jump red lights and hate being tarred with the same brush as those that do, but I've also been bullied and abused for riding defensively.

If every driver had to spend some time riding on the road, there would be (a) a lot better drivers out there and (b) a lot more space and respect given to cyclists.

[G0ldfysh]

Up Fernhill they have made it worse with the pointless marking. I won't take my road bike along in that cycle path as all it does is join the edge of the drain covers. The road is plenty wide enough for an easy pass even with the cyclist outside of the lane.

Related, no just proof there are way too many angry people without thought for anyone else in the world.

[oyster]

I don't think this is anger, it's attitude. I like to call it the urban attitude of 'I'm more important than you'.

An example this morning on my bycycle commute into the City where a 20-something woman crossed the road on a red-man signal right in front of me. I politely rang the bell and shouted 'watch-out' whilst hitting the brakes hard and swerving round. Her response..... "fk off".

Last week I politely told a fellow cyclist that it would help if he looked over his shoulder before doing a rapid lane change to the right and someone less alert than myself might have collided with him. His response, "fk off".

I've previous had situations where people have pulled out of side roads without seeing me riding along the main road and when I gesticulate to my eyes, they respond with "fk off".

Drivers, pedestrains, fellow cyclists all do it.