Just one of those days

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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ArMoRothair
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Joined: 20 Jun 2013, 10:55am
Location: Londinium

Just one of those days

Post by ArMoRothair »

School run yesterday with my daughter and our neighbour and his daughter.

Firstly, school run Volvo mum comes up behind us in a narrow Victorian street, cars parked both sides, no where for us to pull over into even if we wanted to, and blares the horn at us. Recently I've started dealing with these incidents by stopping, turning to them and acting innocent. She kept gesticulating for me to move on and blowing the horn. We carried on our way.

Secondly, nearer the school we were approaching a filtered permeability barrier - the one piece of dedicated cycle infrastructure on our commute - and a motorbike whizzes through it forcing his way past us.

Children delivered safely.

Thirdly, on return journey a typical White Van Man manoeuvre: I could hear him revving past a group of us and, despite me signalling vigorously that we were turning right, overtook us and then pulled across us to turn left. Close enough that I walloped its side as he passed.

Fourthly, woman in a posh looking current C-class Merc beached it on a traffic island. Didn't see the great lump of concrete in the middle of the road and there it was stuck like a fish out of water.

Fifthly, turned into a one-way near home and a woman in a Micra nearly knocks us down as she steams up the wrong way - having completed half a mile, the wrong way, to get there.

One of those days.

(No incidents this morning, almost an anticlimax).
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Guy951
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Location: Mid Beds

Re: Just one of those days

Post by Guy951 »

ArMoRothair wrote:Fourthly, woman in a posh looking current C-class Merc beached it on a traffic island. Didn't see the great lump of concrete in the middle of the road and there it was stuck like a fish out of water.

I hope you laughed :lol:
What manner of creature's this, being but half a fish and half a monster
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ArMoRothair
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Joined: 20 Jun 2013, 10:55am
Location: Londinium

Re: Just one of those days

Post by ArMoRothair »

Guy951 wrote:
ArMoRothair wrote:Fourthly, woman in a posh looking current C-class Merc beached it on a traffic island. Didn't see the great lump of concrete in the middle of the road and there it was stuck like a fish out of water.

I hope you laughed :lol:


She was a lady of a certain age, obviously very upset as she was reporting it on the phone. I'm no youngster myself and I thought it a bit rude to laugh at someone else' misfortune - but after the other incidents, I couldn't help laughing out loud. The thought of the car balancing on its belly still brings a wry smile to my lips.

I wonder how the recovery truck got it off, dragging it off would only do more damage but very few recovery services would have hoists like the municipal clampers do.
Elizabethsdad
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Joined: 15 Jan 2011, 7:09pm

Re: Just one of those days

Post by Elizabethsdad »

I had two MGIF numpties yesterday morning - one as I am taking my daughter to school, I have moved over to see if it is safe to get past the bus at the bus stop, I slow up as there is a car coming the other way, the car behind me then tries to overtake, sees the on coming car and then tries to pull in behind the bus on top of me. Managed to avoid being squashed, got in front and then pedalled slowly and deliberately in front of them, giving them the finger, till we were past the bus. If that seems silly I did at least restrain from shouting abuse or hitting the car - both tempting but as I had my daughter with me...
No2 cut in front just as I was catching up with the car at the back of a stationary queue at the lights. Again manouvered into dominating position, got a puzzled look from the passenger when they got past a few seconds later as I moved into the left hand filter lane.
Just two out of many examples of inattentive/inconsiderate driving that are so depressingly typical on our roads and which I feel are a statement about our society as a whole these days.
roubaixtuesday
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Joined: 18 Aug 2015, 7:05pm

Re: Just one of those days

Post by roubaixtuesday »

Elizabethsdad,

your statement about how "society as a whole these days" could be put into context against how that society was in earlier times.

Cartoon from CTC gazette, 1932:

https://html2-f.scribdassets.com/8p4lts ... f1150d.jpg

Extracted from

A Denial of Our Boasted Civilisation”: Cyclists’ Views on Conflicts over Road Use in Britain, 1926–1935

http://www.academia.edu/1976440/_A_Deni ... _1926_1935

In summary, it's far from clear that "society as a whole" has regressed from an earlier golden age!

In conflict situations with motorists I try and avoid hitting cars or giving the finger. I find blowing a kiss much more effective.
iviehoff
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Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Just one of those days

Post by iviehoff »

ArMoRothair wrote:Fourthly, woman in a posh looking current C-class Merc beached it on a traffic island. Didn't see the great lump of concrete in the middle of the road and there it was stuck like a fish out of water.

Something similar once happened when someone tried to overtake my wife on her bike at a location where there was a traffic island. Much crunching of metal.

There's a cycle lane segregated by an island I use everyday, that occasionally has vehicles beaching themselves on it. Including a post office van once.
Flinders
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Joined: 10 Mar 2009, 6:47pm

Re: Just one of those days

Post by Flinders »

iviehoff wrote:
ArMoRothair wrote:Fourthly, woman in a posh looking current C-class Merc beached it on a traffic island. Didn't see the great lump of concrete in the middle of the road and there it was stuck like a fish out of water.

Something similar once happened when someone tried to overtake my wife on her bike at a location where there was a traffic island. Much crunching of metal.

There's a cycle lane segregated by an island I use everyday, that occasionally has vehicles beaching themselves on it. Including a post office van once.



One road here regularly had speeding and overtaking until they put islands in, now it is a lot safer ( as well as easier for people to cross).
One road I travel occasionally just as you come into Worksop had them put in - the first time I went that way afterwards a small van had just had an argument with one; someone was ruefully standing looking at it.
The road had just had its speed limit reduced (and not before time, it was the only road I know where I regarded the speed limit as so totally and completely bonkers that I always went at least 10mph less than the actual limit). I may be wrong, of course, but my guess would be the van had got impatient with someone doing the new limit (possibly not having noticed the change or the new island) and overtook- and bang!
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