I was passed by a car this morning, it squeezed past me despite cars passing in the opposite direction, too close in my opinion but nothing really outrageous.
It's street with setts which are in very bad repair so I'm maybe a bit more wary about how much space I have there, and the result of the manoeuvre was that the car joined the traffic queue 50m ahead a few seconds quicker than it would have done if it had waited behind me.
Anyway, the car window was down so I took the opportunity to tell the driver that I thought they passed too close and that it had made no difference to their journey.
The driver was indignant and then played the "I've done cycle training" and "I cycle to work twice a week" cards. I got annoyed with this and the discussion degenerated into argument and then onto little more than abuse hurling. This descent was mostly my fault.
So now I feel really bad, my opinion of the driver as a selfish, deluded, moron is unchanged but I really wish I hadn't lost my rag. I should not have been so abusive.
So, who loses their rag in situations like this, and who doesn't? How do you avoid it? When I'm cycling my heart rate is up and I'm sure there's a wee bit of adrenaline kicking around, so are yo more likely to be confrontational when on a bike?