Was I right to blow my top?

[Terry]

> >Of course there's always the situation where the guy that gets out of the
> >car is a psycho who's built like a tank. In that case you're f*cked :-/
>
> It's this mistake that can land you deep in the sh*t
>

Tempting though it is to want give someone a slap, you can
end up in the sh*t both ways, because it's likely he will
not simply stand there to recieve his due.Then either you
get the bear or the bear gets you.If you win then I presume
you have beaten him into submission, which if he is a fit
bloke means at least actual bodily harm.If he is bigger than
you it might have to be the fingerineye or worse.Now explain
that to the police, who may be told by bystanders (such as
they are) that you chased him down and beat him up. I am
afraid that unless you don't mind criminal proceedings you
must walk away and consider reporting it instead. Even if he
challenged you to a fight you may still be charged.If you
are supremely confident in your ability you must have
experience and training, which again will stand against you.
I know a man who got three years for beating a burglar into
submission in his own house in the middle of the night.He
thought he was making an arrest.

TerryJ

 

[Peter B]

"Gearóid Ó Laoi/Garry Lee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The police in my experience (here in Ireland) are VERY
> interested in such misses.

Nice to hear but over here they seem generally uninterested
based on the one time I made a complaint and supplied
registration details etc. The appropriate forms were filled
in but I felt it was lip service. The incident happened near
the police station which prompted me to report it but I
don't see much point in going out of my way to hang around a
police station with the feeling it's a pointless waste of
time, unless the incident is very serious of course.
Likewise when I reported a bus driver to the depot for
running me against the kerb, I got the feeling ranks were
closed but in fairness it was only my word against the
driver with no independant witnesses so the management were
hardly able to go further with it although they may have had
a quiet word wth the driver for all know.
--
Regards, Pete

 

[Mark Thompson]

> I know a man who got three years for beating a burglar
> into submission in his own house in the middle of the
> night.He thought he was making an arrest.

Ah the fool. The secret is to get your story right. Just
claim he attacked you first and was trying to kill you.
Stick a knife in his unconscious hands and hey presto - a
pat on the back instead of a prison sentence!

---
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[Just Zis Guy]

On 07 Mar 2004 09:57:29 GMT, [email protected]
(dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers) wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>That's easy to say, Guy, but when the bully is in a large
>chunk of metal which is about to render you into road
>pizza, sometimes survival means the bully wins

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.

Like you, almost every time I ride the bike I ride on narrow
country roads where this kind of thing is commonplace. I am
less inclined with each passing year to defer to those to
refuse to acknowledge my right to use the road. Maybe one
day one of them will turn out to be a Carl Baxter - that's
the risk I take. Most of them are spineless pussies whose
courage evaproates as soon as the cloak of anonymity
afforded by their penis extension is removed.

--
Guy
===
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[Just Zis Guy]

On Sun, 07 Mar 2004 00:56:38 GMT, Graeme
<[email protected]> wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>Of course there's always the situation where the guy that
>gets out of the car is a psycho who's built like a tank. In
>that case you're f*cked :-/

But you can ride quicker than Mr No-Neck can run ;-)

--
Guy
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[Just Zis Guy]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 09:44:37 +0000 (UTC), "Peter B"
<[email protected]> wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>We used to use the term "big hairy arsed lorry drivers"
>at work but in reality most of them seem to be small pot-
>bellied old blokes with glasses when they climb down
>from the cab.

An HGV driver rides with our club. He is considered a
diamond geezer, very calm and endlessly helpful. He rides an
immaculate and well-maintained bike of some vintage, and is
always the first to volunteer to wait with a straggler.

--
Guy
===
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[Graeme]

[email protected] (Terry) wrote in news:a01ac447.0403070256.648b4c47
@posting.google.com:

> Tempting though it is to want give someone a slap, you can
> end up in the sh*t both ways, because it's likely he will
> not simply stand there to recieve his due.

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.

Graeme

 

[Arthur Clune]

AndyMorris <[email protected]> wrote:

: Does anyone else get that feeling of having
: extraordinarily intimidating physical presence over
: driver's when they get out of their cars or are immobile.

One of our more amuzing group rides: Tuesday night chain
gang. 12 very fit blokes doing mucho-mph on straight flat
road. All safely on our side of the road, two abreast.

**** in Range Rover comes hurtling past, shouting abuse then
stops in the way. Chaos ensues as we all make it round the
Range Rover somehow. Guy then gets out of the guy going
"I'll have the lot of you" or something similar. Then
realises that there's 12 very annoyed blokes in front of
him. One of whom is an ex-para, looks like it and is very,
very annoyed...

Driver got back in the car and buggered off sharpish

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

 

[Arthur Clune]

Wavering <None> wrote:
: In the cool light of the following day I don't feel so
: bad. Maybe I

It is very hard to know what to do. I've lost it once at a
driver and didn't feel good about it afterwards since I'm
normally a very placid person indeed.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

 

[David Kenning]

Just zis Guy wrote:
> 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.

I heartily concur. There's stretch of road I regularly
cycle on that has recently had its speed limit cut from 40
to 30 and has had traffic islands installed - not that
this acts as a deterrent on a lot of drivers - I get
enough people sniffing my bumper when I'm in my car doing
30mph on this stretch so you can imagine what it's like
when I'm on my bike.

Confident, assertive riding is the only answer - 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.

Likewise, when I'm coasting at 30mph+ down the hill back
into my home town, I tend to ride quite close to the centre
line - mainly to keep as far as possible from the parked
cars, but also it's the only way to ensure they won't try to
overtake me. Since it's a 30 limit I have no qualms about
preventing them driving any faster.

d.

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On 7 Mar 2004 15:56:00 GMT, "Arthur Clune" <[email protected]> wrote in
message <[email protected]>:

>**** in Range Rover comes hurtling past

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

--
Guy
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[Just Zis Guy]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 17:05:59 +0000 (UTC), "david kenning"
<[email protected]> wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>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
===
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[Terry]

> 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

 

[Colin McKenzie]

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

> But you can ride quicker than Mr No-Neck can run ;-)

Especially with the head start afforded by the time it takes
him to get out of his cage.

My take on this is that it's always worth telling a driver
what he/she has done that's dangerous - but it's generally
more effective if you can choke down the adrenalin and do
so politely.

Colin McKenzie

 

[Vincent Wilcox]

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.

 

[Dave Kahn]

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

> 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...

 

[Fat Lad]

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.

 

[Peter B]

"Vincent Wilcox" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> 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

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On 8 Mar 2004 07:58:49 -0800, [email protected] (Dave Kahn) wrote
in message <[email protected]>:

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

 

[Colin Blackburn]

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
--