Dangerous/stupid driving near cyclists

Lum

Strider590 wrote: »

Lift off oversteer? the most these kids know about oversteer is when they put McDonalds trays under the rear wheels and drive about with the handbrake on............ :rotfl:

That was pretty much my point. They'll be expecting it to carry on understeering like a Saxo, lift off a bit to try to regain some control and *bam* instant field ornament.

Flyboy152

sequence wrote: »

Personally I'm sick of people overtaking me whilst I'm turning right. I mean, how stupid can you get? Thank god for lifesavers, saved me many times.

Trouble is, there are far too many who don't bother with them and just pull right without looking.

Lum

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Trouble is, there are far too many who don't bother with them and just pull right without looking.

And of those, a fair few who don't signal either.

thelawnet

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

It must be remembered that the OP's experiences have been in and around Guildford and there are an awful lot of nutters in Guildford. Far too much money for cars they cannot handle and too little common sense and regard for the wellbeing of others .

Very true. Guildford is the three-car capital of the UK, too much money but no sense.

Had another idiot today, I was riding along a residential road, technically 30mph but a prime candidate for a 20mph zone, I'm doing about 20mph, I allow following van room to pass, it overtakes me, that's ok, but it then stops 3 houses in front and I have to brake/go round. Other common variation on this is the car drivers who overtake you and then immediately turn left/right, again forcing you to take evasive action. Just stupid.

sequence

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Trouble is, there are far too many who don't bother with them and just pull right without looking.

Lum wrote: »

And of those, a fair few who don't signal either.

That doesn't in any way justify or diminish the stupidity of those who are are happy to overtake a cyclist who is about to turn.

thelawnet

Strider590 wrote: »

When it comes to overtaking cyclists, there really is no excuse for impatience. When it's some old fool doing 20 on a NSL A (or Road and you know there are maybe 1 or 2 overtaking spots on an entire 30 miles stretch, impatience can set in very quickly indeed..... It's what you do to fight it, that counts. I tend to think "no, I won't give him the satisfaction of !!!!ing me off".

People really are just impatient. I think they spend too much time in their vehicles. When I was driving home yesterday, roof down in the convertible, music on wife next to me, there were three cars in front, lights change to green, car in front doesn't go, car behind him beeps, eventually they go but by the time they've moved, the lights have gone amber so I stop. After I stop the van driver behind me starts gesticulating at me as if I'd done something terrible, when all I did was instead of accelerating through the amber light from a near-standstill, I just stopped.

I'm sure he's got somewhere to go/got a crappy van/doesn't like his job/whatever but it's not really right to accelerate from a stop through an amber light. I'm not slow, I chose the fastest engine for my car, and I've got good reactions and can leave the adjacent car at the lights a couple of hundred yards behind before they've started moving, BUT, if I don't want to go through an orange light I won't.

Just chill. Man.

anotherbaldrick

thelawnet wrote: »

Very true. Guildford is the three-car capital of the UK, too much money but no sense.

Had another idiot today, I was riding along a residential road, technically 30mph but a prime candidate for a 20mph zone, I'm doing about 20mph, I allow following van room to pass, it overtakes me, that's ok, but it then stops 3 houses in front and I have to brake/go round. Other common variation on this is the car drivers who overtake you and then immediately turn left/right, again forcing you to take evasive action. Just stupid.

Another Guildfodian habit is when you are driving on a road which has a speed limit , say 50, and you have got 53 on the clock knowing your clock reads 5% fast, you will have this knob bust a gut to pass you in the most inappropriate place only to realise he is coming up to the favorite lay-by for the police radar van so he immediately slows and pulls in front of you to do the speed he was doing behind you !
Their are also bandits on the local byways, our Son in Law was driving his works van at 50 along the dual carriageway(50 zone) an East European looking couple overtook on the hatchings at the end ,swerved in front ,then pulled into a lay by on the left. The following day the couple turned up at the works (name on side of van).and started making allegations about being forced to avoid the lorry . As the police station is only next door it took only a few seconds to get them round, they looked at the vans tacho which proved he was set at 50 and immediately told bandits they had been speeding and prosecuted them for it and attempted extortion . True Brits 1 Nasty Foreign criminals 0

thelawnet

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

Another Guildfodian habit is when you are driving on a road which has a speed limit , say 50, and you have got 53 on the clock knowing your clock reads 5% fast, you will have this knob bust a gut to pass you in the most inappropriate place only to realise he is coming up to the favorite lay-by for the police radar van so he immediately slows and pulls in front of you to do the speed he was doing behind you !
Their are also bandits on the local byways, our Son in Law was driving his works van at 50 along the dual carriageway(50 zone) an East European looking couple overtook on the hatchings at the end ,swerved in front ,then pulled into a lay by on the left. The following day the couple turned up at the works (name on side of van).and started making allegations about being forced to avoid the lorry . As the police station is only next door it took only a few seconds to get them round, they looked at the vans tacho which proved he was set at 50 and immediately told bandits they had been speeding and prosecuted them for it and attempted extortion . True Brits 1 Nasty Foreign criminals 0

The other one is people who go insane because you've overtaken them. I was going round a large roundabout with dual carriageways off it in various directions, I was taking something like the third exit and used the right lane, but when I got there it said I should be in the lane to its lef. So when the lights changed, rather than trying to merge into the moving traffic stream I pulled off instantly and was quite a way ahead before I signalled left into the correct lane.

The car that had been next to me at the lights didn't like what he obviously took as an insult to his manhood, so he entered the slip road after me and used the hatched lines to try and overtake me. There wasn't enough room so I had to brake to let him in.

Or then there are the motorway undertakers. I'm driving round the M25, I'm in the right-hand-lane, it's fairly busy and everyone's doing about 75mph, I'll leave a proper 2 second gap to the car in front, but then you get these idiots who think that you are slowing them down, even though there are cars in the lane for the next 30 miles, so they try and undertake you. Doesn't always work of course, sometimes the gap to the car in front shrinks when people do that.

Flyboy152

sequence wrote: »

That doesn't in any way justify or diminish the stupidity of those who are are happy to overtake a cyclist who is about to turn.

How would they know the cyclist intends to turn right, if they don't indicate their intentions?

Bongles

thelawnet wrote: »

I'm sure he's got somewhere to go/got a crappy van/doesn't like his job/whatever but it's not really right to accelerate from a stop through an amber light.

Amber means stop. Accelerating through amber isn't any more right than accelerating through red.

thelawnet wrote: »

Just chill. Man.

Quite.

Not relevant to amber traffic lights, but it's amazing how much more satisfying overtaking is when you don't let impatience cloud your judgement.