Someone tried to knock me off my bike......

[jusali]

..... this morning in their car! I turned round to see two baseball cap wearing geezers laughing as they were trying to push me down old market, then a BT van thought it woud be funny to carve me up during that process. Anyone see it down at old market Bristol this morning at about 7:30. I was so red misted I forgot to get the rego's!

I have a wife and 2 kids and this kinda thing is seriously making me reconsider cycling, it's getting too dangerous out there. Time to buy a big car and add to the problem at least I'll be safer Seriously, though I'm fucking outraged and still shaking

 

[pogofish]

This sort of twattishness, as well as twice being hit by inattentive drivers is exactly the sort of thing that scunnered me with using a pushbike on the road for much more than very local things.

 

[Crispy]

That is absolutely shocking.

 

[jusali]

If there wasn't 2 of them I would be up on an assault charge by now
Still fuming

 

[detective-boy]

If it was clearly deliberate, report it to the police as an assault. Insist that they record it as something and investigate it. Is there CCTV in the area? Suggest they may wish to obtain the footage to get the vehicle details if they are caught. Apply as a Data Subject yourself to the CCTV system operators (there should be contact details on signs in the area). It may cost you £10. They may or may not decide to give you unobscured footage of registration marks. If they won't, formally request (in writing) that they retain the footage pending a criminal or civil law proceeding. If you do not, it will be routinely destroyed after 30 days. Consider getting a solicitor to act for you and sue the drivers if there is sufficient evidence. (The solicitors should be able to obtain the footage).

 

[Herbsman.]

should have given them some U-Lock Justice

 

[Pieface]

It's happened to me in London too - they go in front of you and put the brakes on. Nice.

 

[Madusa]

Wish we could get more cycle lanes in London. Every other city in Europe, it seems are getting wise to this.

 

[Pieface]

I'd of settled for a gun that day actually...

 

[editor]

It's happened to me in London too - they go in front of you and put the brakes on. Nice.

I've heard that some cyclists have been known to catch up their life-endangering tossers at the lights and deliver a nice dent in the side of their cars with their U-locks before speedily disappearing down narrow alleyways.

 

[Herbsman.]

That's what's known as U lock justice innit

There have been occasions when I would have done it if I wasn't the only messenger in town, but I'm not exactly hard to spot/recognise and would get re-revenge taken out upon me for taking revenge out opon them... either that or get nicked

 

[Pieface]

It was a car full of S London rude boys - I'd given them the finger for shouting abuse at me because I was trying to get into a filter lane going onto the south circular. S London rude boys don't take lip off girls on really old brown bikes, they've got like, reputations to uphold or something.

 

[editor]

Years ago I was cycling along an A road on the way to the Isle of Wight. There was construction work going on, so there was only one narrow lane of traffic progressing fairly slowly.

I was keeping up with the traffic flow (around 15mph) and a safe distance behind the car in front when this fucking business-suited cunt in a big car starts beeping his horn.

I look behind and he's gesturing that I should get off my bike and off the road completely and scramble into the mud bank on the side just so he could occupy the space I was in.

I was so fucking livid I stopped in the middle of the road and stared him out.

I'm not a violent chappie but this twat wound me right up.

In the end I got back on my bike and cycled nice'n'slow for the next mile to give him chance to cool down.

 

[jusali]

If it was clearly deliberate, report it to the police as an assault. Insist that they record it as something and investigate it. Is there CCTV in the area? Suggest they may wish to obtain the footage to get the vehicle details if they are caught. Apply as a Data Subject yourself to the CCTV system operators (there should be contact details on signs in the area). It may cost you £10. They may or may not decide to give you unobscured footage of registration marks. If they won't, formally request (in writing) that they retain the footage pending a criminal or civil law proceeding. If you do not, it will be routinely destroyed after 30 days. Consider getting a solicitor to act for you and sue the drivers if there is sufficient evidence. (The solicitors should be able to obtain the footage).

No CCTV yet! It boots up when the new showcase bus route is opened! Which is late by 6mths I'll just have to hope the idiot is on his own tomorrow and I'll have a quiet word with him at the next available red lights. Then nick his keys and drop them down a drain see who shunts him then?

 

[catrina]

I think there needs to be an ad campaign to get drivers to realise that, despite how annoying they may feel the cyclist in front of them is, they have no right to kill them.

I mean, I don't understand why this idea is so complex to begin with, but it seems that if a cyclist somehow slows down a motorist by a millisecond, the motorist thinks he has a right to kill or attempt to kill the cyclist.

 

[pogofish]

Catrina - I doubt that the sort of cunt who finds it fun to harrass cyclists would pay any attention to an ad campaign.

DB - my experience of lodging complaints about malicious drivers is that your former colleagues are not in the least bit interested.

Indeed a friend who did similar recently ended-up being treated like shit by them & only last week heard that her complaint had been upheld with a wrist-slap. No action of any sort against the driver tho.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm currently feeling bad because after two drivers cut me up one morning I made a rude gesture to a third - a nice elderly couple who hadn't done anything particularly dangerous and he'd actually stopped in plenty of time and had acknowledged his mistake.

 

[Geri]

No CCTV yet! It boots up when the new showcase bus route is opened! Which is late by 6mths

I thought it opened last weekend?

 

[Poot]

People who do this kind of thing from the safety of their cars really wind me up. I imagine they probably do it to pedestrians and also other motorists too, although I'm sure that to that kind of buffoon a cyclist is the easiest target of all. If you CAN get them, please do. You'll be doing an awful lot of people a great service.

Foolishness is just about forgiveable (as long as no one gets hurt) but bullying like this deserves some serious justice.

 

[Herbsman.]

.... bullying like this deserves some serious justice.

Yes - U-lock justice!

 

[soulman]

Sorry to hear that jusali. Unfortunately you get idiots on the road as well as off. Hitting other road users or their vehicle sounds like a recipe for disaster imo. One more motorist bearing a grudge against cyclists.

Cycling confidently and with a working knowledge of the highway code, one that other road users can recognise has to be a better way forward..

 

[detective-boy]

DB - my experience of lodging complaints about malicious drivers is that your former colleagues are not in the least bit interested.

That has always been the case with traffic offences / bad driving - they have rarely been investigated retrospectively for the simple reason that the time / cost of doing so is way, way disproportionate to any likely outcome.

If it had just been bad driving, I would not have suggested reporting it as it would not usually have achieved anything ... but when danger of injury is actually caused then it should be reported and the poolice should be pressed into investigating and complained about if they do not (there was another thread about bad driving at a school crossing patrol some time ago and I suggested the same then). Here it sounded like it amounted to an assault (or at least an attempted assault) and it should have been reported as such so the officer psychologically was thinking "crime" not "traffic" from the outset.

As with any public service it is for the public to demand standards and to complain if they are not met. Relatively few complaints about quality of service are made or pursued because people can't be bothered As a result, to a certain extent, we get the service (or lack of it) we collectively deserve.

(Likewise the trains - I constantly complain to SWT about the shite ticket office arrangements at Richmond. They have taken to replying with sarky "We note from our records that you have drawn this matter to our attention before" comments at the start of their letters ... so I now start my complaints with "I know your rinky-dinky little computer tells you I've complained about this before - but you've done nothing about it, the service is still inadequate and I will continue to complain until it improves or you provide an reasonable explanation of why it cannot".)