I wasn't exactly there when this happened but here's how it was told to me…
When: Mid-morning on a Sunday.
Where: A quiet and foggy country back road. We're talking really quiet—one car every 20–30 minutes. And we're talking pretty foggy—those cars are travelling carefully and at a moderate speed.
Who: Four blokes out for a long-ish ride. So they're not belting along, just enjoying ride as best they can with lights on against the fog.
What: A small car approaches quickly from behind, horn blaring, comes up close to the riders then zooms past. Another 300m down the road, car stops right in the middle of the road. Cyclists pull up beside to ask if the driver is OK. She responds with a stream of abuse: they are selfish bastards, "taking up the whole road", they "forced" her to overtake on the wrong side of the road at the top of a hill in the fog, blah, blah, blah. Cyclists naturally defend their right to be on the road but driver speeds up before braking heavily in front of them in an obvious attempt to cause them to crash. Driver then takes off and for good measure blasts horn angrily while zooming past another cyclist about a kilometre further down the road.
Why? This was a curious encounter on a number of points:
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A following driver is not "forced" to do anything by a vehicle or vehicles in front except to slow down and travel at a safe distance. This driver most certainly was not "forced" to overtake unsafely—she should have waited until it was safe. That's a simple to understand road rule there—rule no. 140 to be precise: "A driver must not overtake a vehicle unless the driver has a clear view of any approaching traffic; and the driver can safely overtake the vehicle".
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If was she was in such an urgent rush—maybe she was bleeding to death and needed to get to hospital—why did she have time to stop and remonstrate? Oh, turns out she wasn't bleeding to death then. So she had time to slow down and overtake safely.
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Selfish bastardry: cyclists riding two abreast safely and legally (road rule 151); or driver hard-braking in an attempt to dislodge same cyclists? You decide.
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Venting anger at some other random stranger on a bike who wasn't even there…?
The whole situation could have ended badly in a number of ways but was so easily avoided. As one of the four cyclists said to me, that driver was one very sad person with anger-management issues. I've noted before that in an encounter like this, the cyclist is not the aggressive driver's real or only problem.
But that doesn't make them any less of a danger on the road.
It has happend to us all even if you are riding with your kids. No exception they will stop to abuse you for slowing them down. Even my son riding to school gets abused when he is by himself and is within 1-2kms of the school.
My favorite is when they speed past you on the wrong side of the road, over double white lines and then almost loose it around the sharp bend or hit the curb.
Report it Hamish.
Still - luckily most drivers are very polite. Lets not make it us and them.
I was worried that I might have unintentionally embellished the story so I'm glad I got the details correct.
You could make this sort of thing up but there's no need to because it really happens—not all the time but far too often. For instance, it's bad to hear that Surly Dave was rocked by something similar—I don't know anything about the particulars but I do know that he's no nervous newbie, so it must have been something nasty. (And presumably it led to the development of this aptly-named route on Bikely.)
Just getting back on the road after a week too afraid to ride after a similar incident.
Please, Hamish, for the sake of everyone, report this woman before she kills someone.
I was in exactly the same situation the other week, so I'm guessing we're talking about the same incident, during the Audax Wandong Winter Wander. I was one of the four and it happened exactly as you've related it here. The driver took off once we made it clear we knew her registration number.
Thanks for stopping by my place!
It's been a while since Pedalled over here for a look see, so it's good to see you are as interesting as ever. ;-D
Wow! This gal was dangerous.
Motorist Road Rage against cyclists has long been a troubling trend, even here in the States.
Years ago, also at night, a passenger in a passing car, reached out the window, and gave me a shove that, if i had not been going just 5mph, would have knocked me to the ground.
The next day I wrote an essay called Cyclist to car owners... Can't we all get along, that ended up being published by my local paper, and causing quite a ruckus. ;-D
AAfter that, when I later began my Bike Blog, in Jan. 2003, I posted the piece as one of my 1st entries. ;-D
More recently, here in the states there is a an ongoing effort to get 3 Feet Laws passed in every state in the union, and it's a story I've blogged about (Follow the link in my name).
I even have pictures of me wearing a nifty T-Shirt, and an even niftier Jersey that advise the motorist behind me to give me 3 FEET PLEASE. ;-D
Comments
Absolutely, it's not an us-vs-them thing. I've found most drivers (especially out in the country) are patient and polite. It's these ugly and scary incidents that are the exception but being so notable they really stand out in the memory.
That said, it's telling that every cyclist has a story about a close call with a motoring nutjob. And sadly I know what Tri Boy is saying about kids being treated just as badly—I have a story like that too.