Near miss this morning (was I in the wrong)

Velcro_Hotdog

I had a very near miss this morning and now sitting at workI can’t help wonder if I was at fault.

Here’s what happened

Driving down a long main road, three or four cars in frontand the same again behind. The line oftraffic I was in was travelling along at around 35 (40mph limit) when I had tomove over slightly due to parked cars on the side of the road (wide road sodidn’t need to cross over to the other lane just moved right by a couple offeet) as I moved over to go round the cars a motorbike tried to overtake me buthad to suddenly brake and tuck in behind me to avoid being hit by oncomingtraffic. This resulted in the car behindme nearly driving into the back of the bike. Later down the road at a set of lights the rider went ballistic at mescreaming about moving out on him. I toldhim that if I didn’t move out I would have had to stop behind the parked carswhen he past. He said yeah exactly thenrode off.


I’m now beginning to question myself...was I in the wrong?

molerat

Usual motorcyclist riding like a !!!!!!!! and not reading the road ahead. He was in the wrong as you were driving around stationary traffic not overtaking (unless of course it was a dual carriageway).

Velcro_Hotdog

No it wasn't a dual carriageway

neilmcl

You overtook a stationary vehicle without check your mirrors, so yes you were (at least partly) to blame. The rider should share the blame for not reading the road conditions at the time and attempting an overtake in a dangerous position.

Horizon81

Typical self righteous biker. His response of 'yeah exactly' shows he was a muppet. Since when do you stop behind a row of parked cars to let bikers behind you fly past. I hope you wished the officer good day.

RichardD1970

Agree with Molerat, he should have been aware that you were going to have to move over to go around the parked cars, he was just trying to jump the line of traffic.

motorguy

neilmcl wrote: »

You overtook a stationary vehicle without check your mirrors, so yes you were (at least partly) to blame. The rider should share the blame for not reading the road conditions and the time at attempting an overtake in a dangerous position.

Not aimed at you, but is there one rule for bikes and another for cars?

It seems ok for bikes to hare down the wrong side of the road at say a junction backed up with traffic and nudge their way back in, but it would be extremely wrong for a car to do so?

RichardD1970

neilmcl wrote: »

You overtook a stationary vehicle without check your mirrors, so yes you were (at least partly) to blame. The rider should share the blame for not reading the road conditions and the time at attempting an overtake in a dangerous position.

How do you know he didn't check his mirrors? He said he had 3 or 4 cars behind him so it sounds like the bike was zooming down the side of them all, so might not have been visible until too late.

System

did you use your indicators? would have made your intentions clear that you were moving out, and did you not see the bike in your mirror or have a quick glance over your shoulder before moving over?

Stooby2

I suppose it's a bit of both really. You ought to check your mirrors before pulling out, but at the same time a switched on rider should have anticipated that was going to happen, especially when there was oncoming traffic - presumably the cars in front had moved out in the same way?

I do see a lot of motorcyclists put themselves on offer through impatient or just plain bad riding. Conversely I see a lot of car drivers endanger motorcyclists through poor driving.

It seems ok for bikes to hare down the wrong side of the road at say a junction backed up with traffic and nudge their way back in, but it would be extremely wrong for a car to do so?

Ok by me. And not something that's ever going to change as it's the way things are here. In the US it doesn't happen, which seems odd to me.

artbaron

It's always helpful to check your mirrors but in this case there was no requirement, if as you say you didn't cross the white line. And it sounds like you were correct not to indicate. Indicating signifies you're changing course from the default - if you were just making room for a parked car it would have been the wrong thing to do. Stopping behind the parked car would have been bad driving given that you had space to go around it. The biker was 100% in the wrong and a !!!!!! to boot.