Cyclist gesticulating wildly at me

1.5 metres??? That's less than my height... I'd have been absolutely terrified if a car travelling at 25mph was that close when they "nipped in".

I really dont understand why so many people think that anyone on a bike is a lesser human being than someone in a car or on foot.

I would never have chosen to overtake a cyclist on a road like that - op describes it as tight and winding and busy. To give 1.5m she would have had to go right out into the opposite side of the road, just as you would to overtake a car. A bike isn't significantly slower - especially if it's your typical mamil in all the gear, they could well be doing 20mph.

Madness, clearly.

You know what assuming does - don't you?

25 miles on country road to our nearest SEN school. Primary & Secidary also in same country road.

even if you lived within 2 miles, you'd need a death wish to walk it.

He could also be going to work, so "choosing" to cycle instead of the Bentley 😂

No what I am saying is they choose to put themselves in danger when it suits them.

But the taking over isn’t something to adjust to, in a scenario where the other oncoming car didn’t appear, the cyclist wouldn’t have needed to adapt anything, OP would have taken over and that’s that. When you’re taking over another car, you don’t expect them to change their speed, only to maintain it. Neither OP and cyclist saw the other car coming (especially the cyclist since OPs car would have probably blocked it from his view) therefore this argument that this cyclist should’ve ridden any differently is silly.

There is a big difference between a cyclist filtering past a bus/lorry in a slow moving/ stationery queue of traffic and a bus/ lorry passing a cyclist at 30-50mph with less than 1.5m. I can’t see how the cyclist is putting the bus driver in any danger.

I live in a town well known for having a large cycling continental including 4 members of my own family. For this reason I knkw there are some real dickead cyclists and some real dickhead motorists. The default does not always need to be that it is the motorist that is in the wrong. And that a cyclist gesticulating doesn't automatically make him the one in the right.

DH uploads footage of 4-6 dangerous drivers (around cyclists) a week. Around half would be on narrow lanes. He gets feedback on each one - I’d say 50% are no action, 40% are “had a word” and 10% are progressed to prosecution.

And who is to say he isn't just a knob jockey twat who doesn't like a car had the audacity to pass him like SOME cyclists are.

@Spirallingdownwards of course one would avoid a collision if one could, but the car in a collision would be in the wrong. DP had a very hefty insurance payout from a driver who thought that she could pull out in front of a cyclist, suspect her morning was somewhat wrecked while the police and an ambulance came. Cyclists are soft. Cars are hard.

And the more of us cycle, the more room overall!

I wondered that. Nipping back in combined with rapid braking would certainly illicit such a response

Why would he have had to ‘slam in his brakes’?

Or maybe he’s just trying to get to work like everyone else?

Who’s to say he didn’t do this? He could have been braking hard in order for the OP to be able to nip back in. It’s unlikely he’d have carried on happily pedalling while being freaked out enough to gesticulate afterwards.

Op, you said that "The lane is wide enough for two cars but it’s tight." So if it was tight, did you also slow down immediately after the overtake so that you could carefully squeeze past the oncoming car? Or were you able to keep going at a faster speed than the cyclist? If the former then it is fair enough for the cyclist to be angry.

Report her for what? Not hitting an oncoming car? She pulled in. He was not travelling as fast as her. That 1.5m gap will have only increased.

Okay then. A car pulls out of a side road for example. The cyclists don't have to adjust their cycling they can of course plough straight into the obstruction. Don't be so daft. Every road user has to adjust their behaviour to the conditions of the road and the other users around them.

Most of the ciclysts are entitled twats.
Someone had to say it.

Quite the opposite. MN hates cyclists and assumes all of us are dangerous, erratic, red light jumpers. When the stats all show that most cyclists are safe and law abiding, but much like bad drivers like OP, drivers notice the bad cyclists.

A car nipping back in barely ahead of you is frightening. You have to brake to get the distance back, lose momentum, which is much harder to regain on a bike. 1.5m in front of you is too close when you are moving at speed, you cannot see the road surface to spot metal work or potholes. All it takes is the driver to touch a brake as they often do when pulling back in, and you are in the rear window.

The cyclist was cycling along a road. The car coming in the other direction was in the other carriageway. They didn’t need to adapt their cycling for anything (apart from the appalling driver who cut them up and forced them to slam on their brakes).

How much time will that overtake have saved you, in the long run ? 60 .. maybe 90 seconds ?

I have a cyclist friend who was killed in similar circumstances, just bide your time.

God I hate it when cars cut you up like that at close range, it's terrifying.

He wasn't gesticulating and shouting just for lolz - he must have been freaked out, and I can't blame him

Cyclists like motorists should adapt their cycling to the road conditions. They too can slow down especially in a situation where they too would have seen the oncoming car and know a car was passing them. Unfortunately they often don't. We see too often the same cyclists who scream 1.5 metres squeezing between cars, alongside buses and lorries because apparently it doesn't apply in reverse when it suits them.

No. She overtook with a passing distance of 1.5m which is fine. But then pulled in front of him by her own admission only 1.5m in front of him. Which isn’t fine. Not when he’s travelling in her direction. She would have struggled to estimate his speed and I’m guessing he felt in danger of going into the back of her. Bikes have a stopping distance of more than 1.5m.

Sounds like she did a dangerous overtake You shouldn’t overtake where you can’t see far enough in front of you to put yourself in the position of having to nip back in quickly to avoid an oncoming car.