Why did this motorcyclist shout at me?

[notagainnellie]

I was coming up the steep hill that leads to my road. It has cars parked partially on the pavements on both sides and there is only one room for one vehicle down the middle. Luckily, there is usually a space at the top, at the bottom and sometimes halfway up. It goes onto a T-junction at the top, so when coming down you have to turn down slowly as you can't see until you get on it whether it's clear.

I was halfway (at least) up when a motorbike turned onto it from the top. I had nowhere to pull in unless I had gone right back to the bottom. There was a space at the top right next to where he was. He seemed to not have been looking ahead so didn't see me immediately, but then did and stopped in the space. However, he didn't pull in - just stopped there. Obviously, being a bike he was narrow anyway but I could see there was going to be barely enough room for me to get by as he had not really pulled in and there was a car parked on the other side. He seemed to not really be watching me but was looking over me down the hill iyswim. As I got very close, I could see it was going to be very tight going past him, but doable and safe, so I preceded to do so very slowly. He seemed to then realise how close to him I was and moved into the space more slightly while shouting at me aggressively.

So what could I have done differently? If he had pulled in from the start there would have been no issue - it possible for two cars to manage to pass there, never mind a car and a bike.

[fiorentina]

Nothing from how you tell the tale. You should give way to traffic coming up the hill. Maybe he was in a rush and was annoyed by you going slowly but not your problem.

[user1471517900]

Yeah I presume it was the slowness, perhaps someone has started their ascent when you crawled past him and so he was annoyed at waiting longer.

This is one of those threads where you wonder why someone would start it tbh. You can't possibly think you're in the wrong if it happened as you said.

[MaddyHatter]

it really doesn't matter what else went on.

If you were already half way up the hill when he tried to come down, it was your right of way and he should have made room.

[PJBanana]

One thing I have learnt in my 7 years of driving is that some motorists are knobs. For no reason.

I've had people shout, gesture and stick their fingers up at me before for absolutely no reason. Some people just become absolutely mad behind the wheel, or in your case behind the handlebars.

It sounds like you did nothing wrong.

[kilmuir]

He was being a knob. Stop being so sensitive. Finger gesture to him and carry on

[Jaynesworld]

He shouted at you because he is a dick

[NoBetterName]

Obviously it is difficult for anyone to say who was not actually there. There may have been many perfectly valid reasons for the bike not to pull into the space that a car driver wouldn't need to even consider. If the road had a strange camber to one side, it could be dangerous for the bike to pull over, for example. Any debris on the road might also make it dangerous for the biker to pull over, likewise diesel spills on the road that car drivers tend to be completely oblivious to can be fatal for bikers. He might have been a learner, or inexperienced and was spooked by you getting so close. He may have felt you could have gone closer to the parked car to give him more space (many drivers give a much larger distance to parked cars than they give to bikes). Maybe you ran over his foot as you came past? (it happens).

There could be many, many reasons, including that he may just be a knob.

We'll never know.

HTH