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Idiot taxi driver up camden road from holloway, behind me in the bus lane as i climbed in primary (stream running down the gutter, windy as fuck could barely keep my front wheel straight)
sat behind me honking for a good 20 seconds then squeenzed past forcing the driver in the middle lane to brake and me to swerve left.
As he passed he gave me the 'your a fucking moron kid what are you doing in the way of my almighty car' look, jokes on you bud cos ive emailed your firm.
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I got undertaken by a fuel tanker on the A40
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Martin Porter QC, the cycling silk described Roadsafe London scheme as 'Utterly Spineless" to CI Ian Vincent the Officer in charge at the 'Get Britain Cycling" Inquiry yesterday. This is because the lack of any convictions given to drivers reported to the scheme.
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A friend of mine reported an aggressive driver to his boss:-
I'd like to report one of your drivers for bad and aggressive driving today, 1st Feb in your van BF10 VRV near the Oracle at approx 14.05. I was cycling in a narrow piece of road and 1st of all your driver sat behind me revving his engine, then at the first opportunity overtook very close to me and immediately swerved into the kerb forcing me to brake hard.
I'm always amazed when people drive in such an aggressive way in a sign written van. Do they not realise the impact this is having on your business? As a local home owner I would never consider your business if this is the kind of person you employ.
And got this reply:-
From Berkshire Carpets and Blinds
berkshirecarpets@btconnect.comThanks for all the trouble you went to to make the above - I must say that personally if I were to bother to complain about every bit of contentious everyday driving that I come across I would have little time left to carry out my normal day. There are two sides to every story, though not saying in this case you did anything wrong, but I also find many, many cyclists think they 'own' the road and attempt to ride with some kind of inbuilt immunity to harm and therefore my sympathy is somewhat tempered by this.
However, I will pass your comments onto the fitter concerned, whose side of the incident I have not yet had the opportunity to hear and would just add that, fortunately, my business does not rely on people making similar status judgements to yourself.
Regards,
Geoff Cox
Berkshire Carpets and Blinds -
Amazing levels of empathy. Still, Cox by name...
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Ahh the Oracle, been a while.
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Collective guilt again, he's seen other cyclists "think they own the road"- whatever that means, so someone using half a ton of metal as a weapon is understandable.
Porter's right on Roadsafe, there's no real will among the cops to enforce road traffic law, trafpol numbers have been cut so, for instance, at any one time there are a grand total of 8 trafpol covering the whole of Norfolk and Suffolk. Chilling.
Write back and say you saw a carpet fitter punch a rabbi in the cock so his employee must be guilty.
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^ I think that spin would be drifting away from the truth.
Roadsafe is essentially an information/intelligence-gathering exercise. It seems to me to be a fairly typical officer-level response to the lack of political support for traffic policing. I'm not trying to excuse it, but I think police officers are not quite the right target here. I know quite a few who can completely see the argument for more traffic policing but just aren't allowed to do it.
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I bow to your experience Oliver but I've heard too many stories of the police automatically siding with the driver, making a dog's breakfast of the investigation following a cyclist fatality (Eilidh Cairns, for instance) and incidents involving reckless driving getting completely ignored.
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I bow to your experience Oliver but I've heard too many stories of the police automatically siding with the driver, making a dog's breakfast of the investigation following a cyclist fatality (Eilidh Cairns, for instance) and incidents involving reckless driving getting completely ignored.
Oh, there's no question that incidents of police instinctively siding with drivers occur and are often reported. I was mainly talking about Roadsafe as a mechanism. I'm sure an involved police person could give you a better-informed inside story, as could RoadPeace etc. The police I know tend to be involved on the cycling side of things, which skews the sample.
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A friend of mine reported an aggressive driver to his boss:-
I'd like to report one of your drivers for bad and aggressive driving today, 1st Feb in your van BF10 VRV near the Oracle at approx 14.05. I was cycling in a narrow piece of road and 1st of all your driver sat behind me revving his engine, then at the first opportunity overtook very close to me and immediately swerved into the kerb forcing me to brake hard.
I'm always amazed when people drive in such an aggressive way in a sign written van. Do they not realise the impact this is having on your business? As a local home owner I would never consider your business if this is the kind of person you employ.
And got this reply:-
From Berkshire Carpets and Blinds
berkshirecarpets@btconnect.comThanks for all the trouble you went to to make the above - I must say that personally if I were to bother to complain about every bit of contentious everyday driving that I come across I would have little time left to carry out my normal day. There are two sides to every story, though not saying in this case you did anything wrong, but I also find many, many cyclists think they 'own' the road and attempt to ride with some kind of inbuilt immunity to harm and therefore my sympathy is somewhat tempered by this.
However, I will pass your comments onto the fitter concerned, whose side of the incident I have not yet had the opportunity to hear and would just add that, fortunately, my business does not rely on people making similar status judgements to yourself.
Regards,
Geoff Cox
Berkshire Carpets and BlindsWOW, this is just unbelievable. I guess that Geoff Cox is thinking that he has not really lost any business - you might not haf been looking for someone to completely recarpet a property and fit new blinds. I often wonder if it might be a good tactic to ask a company like this to supply a quote (ie. you might pretend to be a landlord with multiple properties to refurbish), then once the quote is received let them know that their drivers are dangerous and that, based on their attitude on the road, you could not trust them to work in your properties. They might realise that events like this dangerous driving can have a negative impact on their revenue...
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How about a bit of blanket porno bombing to Geoff??
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I went to Malta last year and was amazed at the attitude of the road users. There must be some rule of the road but if there are then no one abides by them. However, it all works well. There is a kind of benign anarchy to road use. Everyone does what they want but no one gets wound up by it. It's all relaxed and easy going.
So someone has blocked the road? Ok, they will move in a minute. So someone pulls out on front of you? Ok they are going somewhere, just like you.
It was very strange indeed, but incredibly pleasant to ride/drive without all the hate fuelled rage so evident in the UK.
Must be the climate. -
A friend of mine reported an aggressive driver to his boss:-
I'd like to report one of your drivers for bad and aggressive driving today, 1st Feb in your van BF10 VRV near the Oracle at approx 14.05. I was cycling in a narrow piece of road and 1st of all your driver sat behind me revving his engine, then at the first opportunity overtook very close to me and immediately swerved into the kerb forcing me to brake hard.
I'm always amazed when people drive in such an aggressive way in a sign written van. Do they not realise the impact this is having on your business? As a local home owner I would never consider your business if this is the kind of person you employ.
And got this reply:-
From Berkshire Carpets and Blinds
berkshirecarpets@btconnect.comThanks for all the trouble you went to to make the above - I must say that personally if I were to bother to complain about every bit of contentious everyday driving that I come across I would have little time left to carry out my normal day. There are two sides to every story, though not saying in this case you did anything wrong, but I also find many, many cyclists think they 'own' the road and attempt to ride with some kind of inbuilt immunity to harm and therefore my sympathy is somewhat tempered by this.
However, I will pass your comments onto the fitter concerned, whose side of the incident I have not yet had the opportunity to hear and would just add that, fortunately, my business does not rely on people making similar status judgements to yourself.
Regards,
Geoff Cox
Berkshire Carpets and BlindsFWIW I think (in addition to putting this out there on review sites and a bit of google bombing) a disarmingly polite reply is often worthwhile. This kind of wanker is often wrong-footed by people not getting into the fight he so obviously wants. Something along the lines of:
Dear Geoff,
I was quite astonished by your email. Most businesses understand the value of a positive public image and, on this front, your reply has done your company nothing but harm. From the tone of your email I have a fairly clear image of how your meeting with the fitter involved will proceed, and I have no great expectation of a positive outcome. Nevertheless, in closing our correspondence I would like to clarify a few things.
As an experienced and regular cyclist I am only too aware of the harm that can come to cyclists and I'm under no illusion that I am immune to it. Quite apart from the fact that you cannot judge my road behaviour from your overall impression of cyclists, in the vast majority of cases harm comes to cyclist from the incompetent or aggressive driving of motor vehicles ([ref whatever study showed this]), cyclists do not simply hurl themselves under the wheels of larger vehicles.
Unfortunately, what can be brushed off as merely "contentious everyday driving" from the safety of a car is much more dangerous, distressing and infuriating when experienced from a bike (or, indeed from the point of view of a pedestrian). In this particular incident, there is only one side to the story, since there can never be any justification for the aggressive driving displayed by your fitter. I was riding in a manner designed to keep myself safe (contrary to your comments above) exactly as described by all cycling guides and as allowed by the highway code. Cyclists do not own the road any more than drivers, but cyclists have the right to ride in a position and at a speed that maintains their safety. Your fitter's ignorance of this fact and his obvious impatience to get past can be no excuse for his bullying another road user off the road and risking serious injury to them.
Finally, it's not entirely clear what you mean by your business not relying on "people making similar status judgements" to me. Since you know nothing of this incident other than what I've told you, you can't possibly know whether I've judged it reasonably. Nevertheless, with more people using bikes every day, and many of those having homes and business interests, your business may well rely on being postively judged by someone on a bike. The people to whom I've described your email, both cyclists and non-cyclists, have been astounded by your indifference to the safety of someone who was merely trying to get to work [assuming he was]. I hope for the sake of your employees you'll bear this in mind in future.
Hoping you stub your toe on your bed tomorrow etc. etc. etc.
adroit's mate
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I think it would be reasonable to copy the letter into reviews of his shop on yell.com , mytown.com and places like that. Fact is he put it out there, he wants to be seen like that, why not help him out?
After having a quick look around, complaining about thier driving will only dilute the complaints about them!
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rogan
dapthechap
skydancer
adroit
BringMeMyFix
snottyotter
spindrift
Oliver Schick
edscoble
twitch
Pistanator
Andrew
Mr_Sworld
Sparky
markrjohnson
ffm
Khornight2
dst2
Lynchman
scottmac-
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Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.
Posted by
@dancing james
Cut up by a F******s car this evening, in that rain. Decided to overtake me and another cyclist 10 metres before a junction then turn left into said junction, forcing the woman in front of me to slam her brakes on.
Quite what sort of moron does that in a company car, in the rain and dark I'm not sure.
Oh yeah, an estate agent.
Reported them to roadsafe/F******s, felt good.