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Haino
skidlidsid
I set of this morning in the glorious sunshine, my heavy upright utility bike and big cream wooly jumper making me look more like a Nordic fisherman on his way from his cottage to the harbour than a City drone going from his Zone 3 houseshare to Cannon Street.
Was feeling pretty zen, and was actually prepared to forgive the close-pass by a van on Patmos Road (which of course gained him all of about 10 metres).
My"Please don't pass me that close" as I filtered by, however, unleashed such a torrent of anger and abuse as to make me feel genuinely unsafe. He used his van to aggressively block my filtering, all the while yelling about some motorbike rider that had 'forced' him to pass me that close. He had his bumper on the curb by this point, so I hopped off the bike onto the pavement and rolled my bike to the ASL, shaking my head (which he loudly took great objection too).
Did a quick risk assessment as I pulled away, and concluded that I was unsafe on the road in front of him - so pulled over (realising at this point that I was quite shaken), and walked the bike until he had passed.
Of course, he wasn't finished. He pulled over to draw me into an argument, and no amount of 'I don't want to argue with you, mate, please drive on' was going to stop him trying. Lots of comments about how quiet I'd gone, a recommendation to get a helmet and high-viz (funny how concerned he was about my safety...), you all know the sort of thing. Finally he did get going, which was a huge relief.
Shout out to the ped lady who took a moment to make sure I was OK after he had gone. You were right, he certainly did have anger issues...
I have never had an encounter on the road so disproportionate to the initial trigger (a very polite request not to pass so close).
It was such a nice day, too...