You are reading a single comment by @justMouse and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@justMouse
Just had a bendy bus driver intentionally drive me off the road at new oxford st. I chased him down and tried to punch through the window to get at him (Aidan, I didn't even look to see whether he was bigger than me or not).
Situation was thus: I was riding down the middle of the bus lane (not the middle of the road) and he came up behind me, about 50m off the lights and tooted me to get out of his way. I looked round and gave him a stare, so he decided to swing out, overtake and then cut in on me just for kicks.
Now I've been following this thread and had my own opinions of what I'd have done in the guy's place. But the fact that this bus driver decided to maliciously hurt me and there was nothing that I could do about it made me lose it. I was not in the wrong, this guy was just being a bully.
Had I not had a couple of drinks, I would have stayed there and waited for the police to come and try and sort it out through them (ever the optimist). But I was probably over the limit if brethalised and the pink mist evaporated once I knew I wasn't going to get a reaction off the driver or be able to punch my way in and get at him.
People reading this will say "You were pissed, probably all over the road and over reacted". But I wasn't. He was sober (I hope!), trying to squeeze an 18m bus past me where there was no space and maliciously tried to hurt me when I wasn't intimidated by his bullying. The lack of control I had over the situation made me lose it.
Will I buy a T-Shirt? No. I don't want to give people like Mr Busdriver anything that will confirm their prejudices of cyclists. Do I sympathise? Absolutely - tell me where to send money.
But I learnt one thing - I didn't know buses had a driver panic alarm...