This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Start of that route was weird.
Jump a kerb down an alleyway
Then there's the square thing
Then you go up a one way street.

I mean fair enough if that's his cheeky shortcut but if that's the official route you're forced into some less than kosher riding really.

someone on a rad wide bar dolan passed me this morning over Westminster bridge. In the bus lane because f being in that cycle lane.

Anyway, you were pinned, I like it

On my bike returning from school drop, I indicated to man in car doing ~50mph towards another school to slow down. He braked, reversed towards oncoming traffic and me, then told me he would cave my fucking teeth in. He then proceeded to drop his children off at school.

His poor children, having that piece of shit for a father

The children's welfare was a point I made to the school as felt I should report it. I don't currently have a registration plate and while the school offered to look through CCTV I haven't requested that so far. Shouldn't be too difficult, the school is less than 1km away from my home.

And whatever that dick Aunt Lucy says, a hard stare does not make anyone wilt.

Just had one of the scariest experiences of my life. I was taking it pretty easy on my commute, first time riding a new build into work. Some jacked guy in a black Merc, decided to overtake me as we were going past an island in the road so he was right on my handlebars. I made the fair assumption that he hadn’t seen me and thought he was a second away from closing me out into the curb. I slapped his wing mirror to let him know I was there. A near instantaneous reaction from him as if he was like he was waiting for it , he accelerated and swerved straight in front of me. I had time to hop up the curb outside greenwhich station. He had done an emergency stop and proceeded to get out of his car and start sprinting for his life straight at me, shouting ‘why the F*** did you touch my car’. This is where I spotted that he had what looked to be a 6 year old child in the passenger seat. I hadn’t stopped at this point and carried on cycling off toward Greenwich after briefly attempting to say that I thought he was about to drive into me. He was shouting ‘you lucky cunt ‘ as he ran back to his car got in it and chased after me. He overtook several cars and myself and started swerving side to side driving in the middle of the road, to stop me getting past, At which point I crossed to the other side hopped the curb. He was then driving on the wrong side of the road with on coming traffic, narrowly missing a head on collision. I was cycling along the pavement with him racing down the road parallel to me ‘ shouting I’m going to f***king kill you’ at which point I escaped into Greenwich park. I normally try and be relaxed about cars cutting me up as it happens so often that it makes my cycle so stressful. I got purposely hit by a car about 3 years ago with a similar situation so I’m pretty keen to avoid the confrontation. But this was worrying , psychopathic and very sad to know he did this with his child in the car. Feeling very shit to know this is the route I cycle every working day of the year, and have done so for the last 5 years. 😞

That’s appalling, hope you’re ok. Those kind of people do exist, I had a similar situation a year ago. Cameras are the only thing that can help in that scenario.

Just make sure it doesn’t put you off riding :)

Report the incident
Hopefully the cnut will be caught on cctv somewhere
Glad you’re physically ok

Had similar but that does sound like a bad one. Take a different route if you can for a couple of days, remember that most people are good and reasonable (challenging right now, I concede!) and don't let it change or stop your riding.

Some people are just irredeemably awful and are a total waste of oxygen. He sounds like one.

Fingers crossed he wraps it round a bollard (without his child in the car).

Yeah, you would think that people like that, that live on a hair trigger would frequently risk getting caught out. At some point they’ll run out of luck and have their privilege checked

hair trigger

This is the thing that scares me about these stories, the feeling that human interaction is based on a wafer-thin veneer of civility that can be whisked away by any slight provocation.

At least we don't live in a country where he might have had a gun in the glovebox...

I wonder if these insanely aggressive drivers are only like that when driving, or if they are a tiny incident away from going mental at all times. Must be so exhausting to be them, and so terrible to have to be around them (especially partners/kids).

Grim, glad you're ok. Hope he gets caught at some point soon and stripped of his license. A car is a lethal weapon.

Sounds really scary, glad you got away.

I think the hot weather is only going to make people like that (who are on a hair trigger) more of a risk.

My neck of the woods and sounds terrifying. I'll echo what others have said, please report it; wouldn't expect you to have caught number plate in the middle of that nightmare but there's loads of CCTV around so hopefully someone caught something.

If you fancy company for a chill ride one day give me a shout :)

Sounds terrifying and awful, I hope you're not too shaken.

However..

Some jacked guy in a black Merc...

near instantaneous reaction from him as if he was like he was waiting for it...

Colour me totally unsuprised at this sterotypical example of toxic / fragile masculinity.

sounds fucking horrible.
I generally do a shoulder check just before I go through any of those pinch points / ped islands especially if I hear a car approaching. most times it's enough to make them slow up and wait until after the narrow bit before overtaking.
still had a few close passes, but never had anyone chase me down.
must have been terrifying.

Thanks everyone for the kind support, it has genuinely helped. I definitely share the sentiments expressed. Situations like that make me feel misanthropic. It’s hard to empathise with people who react like that at the flick of a switch. I think some people feel invulnerable in their metal box and forget the vulnerability of someone on a bike. Sometimes they are just completely toxic. Sad to think that that attitude must make there life full of anger and pain.

I have reported it but no license plate recorded during the escape and evade…I forgot to mention he called me a coward 🙃 might have some luck with cctv but not holding my breath.

Stay safe out there.

They are like this all the time. I was out traipsing along with the dog a couple of months ago as I had flu and a bit of a fever. Narrow pavement and a fella with wife, kid (about 7) and dog. They make no allowance for me and I squish up next to the wall with my dog. The wife who has the lead of their dog allows it to come around behind my dog and up its bum, surprising my dog and illicitly a solitary bark. Woman is somehow offended. I explain that she gave me no space and was about to say my dog doesn't like being surprised by other dogs up his arse, when the husband comes over shouts "viscious c*nt" at my dog (ironic) and gestures to kick him. I pull the dog behind me, saying "woah,woah", at which point he comes nose to nose with me and threatens to "nut me". I take a step back and trip on the dog, wherein he lamps me twice in the right eye. His wife screams at him and his daughter looked upset and they went off. I went to minor injuries unit where I was turned to a&e for a facial x-ray as they wanted to check my orbital wasn't fractured (wasn't) and got 2 stitches in my eyebrow. Spoke to police and they won't do anything because there's no cctv or witnesses, even after I found out the name and address of the guy through neighbours, as he lives a 3 minute walk from my house.
Police said that cps were so busy that they would only take full proof cases. No cctv, so nothing to do. If I had video evidence then he'd be done for ABH and have a bit of time inside. Also, if I understood correctly, you hit someone once it's charged as assault without abh/gbh and can be argued much easier to get off the charge as self defence or whatever.
What I took away from the whole thing was to preemptively hoof people in the balls if they are threatening to attack you, run away, or get your phone out.

And then put a brick through their window when you find their address from a neighbour

Sorry to read about that but sadly all too familiar. The world is full of cunts.

See my previous response

It was hot.

From my experience, defensive and argumentative people are more prone to road rage but the ones that are cool as cucumbers until driving are as common.

It's pretty obvious what causes most RR.
Fear.
You ask angry drivers about driving and most will day 'I just hate it' . What they mean is 'I'm terrified' because they don't trust the people around them, don't trust themselves, rely on satnav, never leave enough time (you put off what you what you dont want to do) etc etc.

It's quite telling really.