Hey everyone, if you don't mind me posting this essay here I'd appreciate whether you think I should follow it up further, or any feedback e.g. as to whether I'm in any right to report this driver etc.
I reported it to roadsafe although they said I should take this up with my local police station instead as I received threats.
so here it is, as thorough as I could be arsed to be last friday
At approximately 15:05 on 14/09/2012, I was cycling in the cycle lane on Great Eastern road (A11) between where the Great Eastern road junctions with angel lane (A112) and The Grove (A11), heading in the direction of The Grove (it's a one-way street).
From the cycle lane, I have to cross 2 lanes of traffic to position myself in lane 3 in order to take a right turn at the end of the road. After looking over my shoulder and assessing that the traffic in the next lanes were moving at a constant pace, I signalled with my right arm and began to cross over the lanes. After crossing the first lane, the driver in question, in the second lane, sped up in such a way that if I crossed into his lane I would have been knocked off. Previous to this the driver had been driving constantly at a slower speed, so I interpreted this as the driver speeding up "so that he wouldn't get stuck behind a cyclist" or something to that effect, which frustrated me.
I remained at the right edge of the 1st lane as the car drove past, and as he was doing so gave the driver a thumbs up gesture intended sarcastically, which he seemed to understand, and which he gestured in
reply the same sarcastic "thumbs up".
After the car passed me, as I was crossing in the 3rd lane I gestured my middle finger in an offensive manner at the driver I had just had the previous exchange with. At this point he stopped his car and rolled down the window, he still in the 2nd lane, me in the 3rd.
I stopped next to him when I caught up, and initiated the conversation by saying something like "Cheers mate, thanks for speeding up just as I was crossing over."
The driver informed me that if I stuck up my finger at him again he "would get out and punch me", and "would I like that".
I replied by saying affectively that I would not like to be punched, although if he did I would inform the police on the spot.
He then told me that if he sees me again here he was going to punch me.
I take this route everyday, and can't help but thinking if this driver
sees me again, what's going to happen?
And I was constantly watching my back the whole way home and preparing to leave the road just in case the driver was behind me.
Just before the driver drove away, turning left onto grove road, rather than right like me, I told him that I would be taking his license plate number down.
There was another woman present in the passenger seat of his car,
although I'm not sure if there was any passengers in the rear, and I did not speak to any other drivers/witnesses at the time.
Hey everyone, if you don't mind me posting this essay here I'd appreciate whether you think I should follow it up further, or any feedback e.g. as to whether I'm in any right to report this driver etc.
I reported it to roadsafe although they said I should take this up with my local police station instead as I received threats.
so here it is, as thorough as I could be arsed to be last friday