Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.

The amount of people I see talking a phones while trying to drive still amazes me especially when they are coming out of roads and turning corners! Is there also anywhere to report dangerous mountain bikers who feel the need to race me everyday.

The amount of people I see talking a phones while trying to drive still amazes me especially when they are coming out of roads and turning corners! Is there also anywhere to report dangerous mountain bikers who feel the need to race me everyday.

Funny you should mention mobile phones. Obviously I see drivers using them everyday but this morning I pointed one out to a PCSO on a bike... naturally he did fuck all.

Yes i find them a massive danger! Im sure its against the law but people still seem to do it. People would not think twice about wearing a seatbelt or drink driving so why do they think talking on the phone is any safer! With people on mountain bikes thats just me having a grumble!

I was riding in the primary position through a narrow 2 lane street and some woman coming towards me swerved towards me. She was reading a piece of paper held on the steering wheel. I had to dive between parked cars to not be hit and only then did she realise.
Reported.

Just had a very close call with a truck between Ickenham and Uxbridge. I was riding primary doing about 23mph (from what i can make from my phone gps) in a 30 zone. I saw the truck coming up behind me and that there was another coming in the other direction followed by a line of traffic. The driver behind me came up close to my rear wheel at which point i looked round and shook my head at him to indicate there was no room for him to overtake me against the oncoming traffic, but he proceeded to start to come around me, pulling back towards the curb once the front of his truck was ahead of me. He kept pulling towards me until i had less than a meter of space. He was still coming towards me and i was in his blind sport so all i could think to do was jump off the bike and get onto the pavement as quick as possible which ended in a very unsteady dismount and me trying to get my left foot out of the toe clip whilst my bike fell by the pavement. By the time I was untangled from the bike the truck was already over the hill and out of site, and all the trafic behind me started moving off before i had a chance to ask if anyone if they had seen the licence plate. Never really had an incident like this before, but i really wish that there was something i could have done about it as it left me really quite shaken.

I had a problem with Roadsafe. They seem to have imposed a ridiculously short message length so you can't explain the situation properly.

Wanker in Swiftflow van, turning onto Southwark Bridge Road this morning. He overtook me as I was coming up to a junction, forced me into the curb, and turned hard left, forcing me to go that way.

I swear when I asked him if he'd seen me I was not being aggressive but he responded as though I'd personally slapped his mother in the face. I have tattoos so I might look a bit more gnarly than the average guy but I'm not an arsehole and I'm pretty good at pitching my words. (I even sang a little song at the last guy who cut me up, and got a smile out of him for my troubles.)

Anyway, this is what I wrote to them:

I was involved in an altercation with one of your drivers this morning on my bicycle. The driver overtook me as I was coming up to a junction turning into Southwark Bridge Road and immediately turned hard left, forcing me into the curb. (I was intending on going straight across.)

*I’m a driver myself, and I know it’s not easy to always have visibility around 360 degrees, so I don’t have a particular problem with that – it’s easy to misjudge, particularly in a van on London’s streets. But when I mentioned it to the driver, he first denied it happened, then told me he had overtaken me but that I’d had plenty of room, and finally became quite aggressive. I don’t go around trying to start fights with people – I wanted him to be aware of what had happened and what could have happened. *

*I don’t expect you to do anything about this – it’s one of your employees vs a stranger on the internet, after all – but I’d have thought that a company which talks about its green credentials would be more likely to be cyclist-friendly, not less. *

For what it’s worth, I think a green contracting company is a great idea – I’d not heard of you guys before today. Were it not for this I’d have been very likely to use your services.

Oh, Friday morning, where would you be without the weekly altercation?

white flatbed bp04 kkj, changed lanes without signalling/looking, almost took out a nodder with the wing mirror and proceeded to squeeze her up against some railings on the OKR. Driving no handed while eating his McDonalds brekkie turned out to be the explanation.
sigh

BleakReference, that's a good letter, doesn't sound aggressive or rude (especially when you mentioned you like the sound of that company may help!).

If you like to avoid such altercation in the near future, it may be worth riding a little further out from the middle of the lane (but not enough to let car through the gap between you and the kerbs) when approaching a junction, this way drivers are forced not to overtake you properly as it mean they'll have to go on the other side of the road to do so and make a huge hard rally-style turn just to make that manoverve.

^I like "manoverve". What is it?

BleakReference, that's a good letter, doesn't sound aggressive or rude (especially when you mentioned you like the sound of that company may help!).

If you like to avoid such altercation in the near future, it may be worth riding a little further out from the middle of the lane (but not enough to let car through the gap between you and the kerbs) when approaching a junction, this way drivers are forced not to overtake you properly as it mean they'll have to go on the other side of the road to do so and make a huge hard rally-style turn just to make that manoverve.

Tbh my general attitude is, if a car's behind you, it's generally better to get out of the way if you can do so safely. I'm a driver and I know that if a cyclist is confident enough to do so, it can make a really positive impression on usually fraught driver/cyclist relationships. This is one of the very rare occasions on which a driver has taken advantage of that courtesy.

^I like "manoverve". What is it?

a man of energy and life?

Well, the manoeuvre i mentioned is only if you're going ahead of a junction and there's car behind you, rather than something you should do all the time.

Looking back before going ahead would help greatly in acknowledging yourself to the drivers as well as checking if any of the car is going to turn left giving you ample time and room to make the idea manoeuvre for that particular junction.

Looking back does make a huge difference, it's a way of saying "I'm here, I'm just going home like you for a nice warm cuppa and tissue for the wank bank", driver will often slow down and wait instead of trying to overtake.

Especially if it's VeeVee.

Agreed on eye contact - makes a huge difference, reminds people that we're all human.

Not sure this would've helped much though - he'd have just swerved around me if I'd been in the centre road. Some drivers are just arseholes.

Least you done the right thing.

keep us posted if there's a reply.

@Ed, post 449
eeeewwwww!

ed

i am confused is veevee for the wankbank, is she wanking, is any of this appropriate?

@Ed, post 449
eeeewwwww!

Was talking about your ability to turn drivers into stone with that stare of your, not the latter.

I wish!

Funny you should mention mobile phones. Obviously I see drivers using them everyday but this morning I pointed one out to a PCSO on a bike... naturally he did fuck all.

They're not allowed to do the car/ mobile phone traffic offenses - just bike related ones. The ones I know do not like this situation. Write to your MP or something. (seriously)

First time I've had to actually report a driver makes for a nice start to a Saturday. Had a cracker yesterday and the closest I've gotten to getting run over (as opposed to actually run over) in 15 years of Auld Reekie-based cycling. Coming down a hill, just after a nasty bend where the road splits into two lanes before a set of lights, a road I use every day so know where to position myself. I do a wee shoulder check before the bend, nothing coming, so I slip into the right hand lane just to the right of the centre line. There's a traffic island right there, opposite another junction, so I always check to see if there's a bellend who thinks he can squeeze through. Doing about 23mph at this point, I hear someone leaning on their horn behind me trying to do just that, so I slow down looking behind me, only to see some prick in a black sporty-type car (I know fuck all about cars, could've been an Audi) gesticulating wildly at me while he is about a foot from my back wheel.

I'm about 75 yards from the lights (on red, two cars waiting in my lane) and fucko is still on about something. He swerves practically onto the other side of the road, then back into my lane and makes a definite beeline for my back wheel, my protestations and a slewing skid to the left making him miss by a baw-hair. He pulls alongside me whilst I am lost for words and shouts "You trying to get yourself fucking killed?" to which I manage, "There's no fucking room to pass me back there, you dick... You just swerved at me!" I realise I should have acted cooler and not sworn, but I got the impression polite questioning of this guy's driving abilities wouldn't have made any difference, and the adrenalin was going.

Audi Scouse man puts his foot in it at this point (oh, how I wish I had one of those wee recording devices) and says, "Yeah, I fucking swerved at you, you cunt."

Then we're both stopped at the lights and I'm desperately trying to keep my cool, so go round to the front to get his rego, which I didn't need to do as he's screaming through the window, "KP55 DSY! That's my fucking rego, fucking report me then you cunt!" As I intend to, I let him know. I filter down to the ASL and just want to get the fuck out of there, as I figured he wasn't the type to stop and discuss matters without him trying to knock me out, or me firing my bike through his windshield.

Silly me for not stopping and getting witnesses as I saw him turn into the Tesco's on my street I raced home to get my camera to get a shot of his car and/or him. Gone by the time I got there. Cops said the same when I was reporting it, but the PC's eyes lit up when I said he had admitted to swerving at me. Audi prick's word against mine, I suppose, but at least he'll get a wee visit from the boys in blue. Lucky I got a bike-friendly cop too, so we'll see what happens. The whole thing was a total shit sandwich, only made better by the bacon one I had once I'd calmed down.

Sorry for the long post, only just getting over the initial "WTF?" followed by the inevitable D-lock dream retaliation.

*Oh, and I was wearing a blue Rapha winter jersey. Could DJ's reputation have followed him up to Edinburgh?

The whole thing was a total shit sandwich, only made better by the bacon one I had once I'd calmed down.

thats no way to talk about the nice rozzer that helped you out. for shame!

Is it me or have car divers spent the last 3 days coming closer and closer to cyclists? Driving me nuts. Fuck off and give me some space you cunts.

Is it me or have car divers spent the last 3 days coming closer and closer to cyclists? Driving me nuts. Fuck off and give me some space you cunts.

Stop cycling underwater and you might get luckier. ;P

Balls

here's the missing 'r'