CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Bike wrongly on Road

(39 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by johnnyboy
  • Latest reply from johnnyboy

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  1. johnnyboy
    Member

    crowriver, I agree very much with what you've said, some of them just get so wrapped up that they are oblivious.

    One way to wake them up is always to put a hand in their car though, you'd be amazed at the number of people who'll almost explode with rage when you do that. I must look like the Hulk or something that can cause serious damage, maybe a Transformer or Superman. A couple of times I had to put my hand on a car to edge past cars blocking the bike lane outside the Missonni Hotel and both times the drivers almost had seizures and much horn honking was heard as I cycled away.

    Ah well another week of car dodging fun there again tomorrow....

    Posted 12 years ago #
  2. gembo
    Member

    For some drivers, touching the car is an invasion of their personal space. Odd as from objective view it is a carapace of metal around their personal space? Other drivers easy about this but not poss to tell which is which. If I swish chassis with pannier in a filter manoeuvre I always try to indicate my apologies

    Posted 12 years ago #
  3. crowriver
    Member

    If you think about how much time many people spend in their cars, it's like an extension of their living room (or in some caees, bedroom). So touching their car is like banging on the window of their room while they're watching their favourite telly programme: Road Wars. A similar reaction ensues.

    Also, for many folk, the car is the most expensive possession after the house. A lot of pride, attachment, and status invested in it. When you touch that extension of their fragile ego it's a major transgression. Like some folk who get obsessed with a really fancy pair of shoes. "Don't touch the shoes, man! Don't you step on my SHOES!!!!"

    Posted 12 years ago #
  4. Or other people touching your bike while it's locked up...

    Posted 12 years ago #
  5. crowriver
    Member

    @WC, aye but there's rarely a target to go for as the miscreant has usually scarpered long ago... ;-) A bit like if some scrote starts messing up parked cars: unless one of the owners sees them, then...

    Posted 12 years ago #
  6. neddie
    Member

    It really isn't worth aggravating motorists by:

    1. banging on their cars
    2. setting off slowly in front of them
    3. having a word, etc

    It only serves to give cyclists a bad name. Remember - be an ambassador on the road.

    Having said that, the best one (I've heard of), is to open the rear passenger-side door. That way they have to get out of the driving seat and walk round to shut it again, by which time you are long gone. Of course I would strongly advise against it.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  7. cb
    Member

    No need to get out of the car. Accelerating quickly enough will close the door. So you might not get the head start you were hoping for.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  8. Coxy
    Member

    Unless it's a taxi

    Posted 12 years ago #
  9. johnnyboy
    Member

    My car doors lock automatically when I start driving, so don't try it with a Renault...

    I didn't do it deliberately with either car and in one of the cases, touched the car just to stop me falling into it as kind of lost my balance trying to squeeze through the gap which would have been wider if they weren't sitting in the bike lane....

    An interesting comment from one of my Facebook friends: "If you want to zigzag through stranded cars, you take your chances. She shouldn't have entered the junction if her exit wasn't clear, but once there she had every right to progress in order to clear the junction. If you were not so impatient, she wasn't have had cause to scold you."

    so run that one buy me again, I am progressing through a green light, next to the pavement, in a box junction that I can pass through without stopping when a car that is turning right, blocking the traffic coming the other way, moves towards me....

    yes, she had every right to move but not to the detriment of other traffic and she could not have cleared the junction at that point anyway as the car in front of her hadn't moved so there wasn't space but other than that, it's a motorist's right! ALl the would have done was move forward a few inches, not enough to let the car behind her get out of the way of the other traffic.

    I'm sure my friend was a perfect angel in the days when he rode a motor bike... :-)

    Posted 12 years ago #

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