Cyclist gesticulating wildly at me

Yeah I agree with the posters that perhaps you should have overtaken when your view of the road ahead was clear. Sounds like you were going up a hill or a bendy road or one with loads of trees of sorts and your visibility would have been impacted. Also you need to acknowledge that cars can cause wind to blow in the direction of the cyclist and wobble him as well as startle them if they’re going fast and feel they wouldn’t be able to break in time as you didn’t leave enough distance between him and your car when you moved back to your side of the road. I can see how the fear of that would have affected him emotionally.

You do know that some people cycle to work, right?

You basically cut him up. He probably narrowly avoided ploughing into the back of you or you forced him to slam his brakes on- bikes can be travelling pretty fast and stopping from 20mph or so takes a second or two, especially if you want to stay on the bike. You're not protected by a ton of metal, a seat belt and airbags. You scared him. It's very hard to be sanguine when someone almost injured or killed you. I'm the calmest person imaginable but even I will let my feelings known in this situation. Have a think about if you would have failed your driving test for that. You would have.

I mean I use my bike both to get to work and do the school run (and oh my god, am a woman!). I also have a car. You know what's really going to delay your morning and all future mornings? A dead cyclist.

No bitbit could be that the schools are in the one larger town and that people are travelling in from rural areas. Not enough info provided. It could be that OP has to get one kid to nursery after one time, one kid to school after one time and still get to work before one time - the reality of which means she needs to use her car. It always mystified me when people genuinely believe we should all have the exact same life as them! Usually those who have the leisure of being able to walk or cycle their kids to school who can't fathom not everyone can!

She gave enough width from him, but cutting back in front of him with just 1 or 2 meters is too close. And she has to because she overtook when she couldn’t see the road ahead. This is just bad driving. I live in an area with a lot of cyclists and have my share of stories of really shitty cyclist doing stupid things; this isn’t one of those. OP was entirely wrong to have overtaken when she did and in the way she did.

I’m worried he will report me he was going wild, I genuinely thought I was driving quite considerately until I saw his reaction!

sounds like you were driving wild rather than him. It's dangerous what you did cutting back in right in front of him esp without indicating. Doesn't sound it's like a good place to overtake if you cannot do it safely. You need to have a think how you are driving instead of complaining about a cyclist whose only crime appears to be to have been wearing 'serious looking cycling gear'. WTF is that even?? I hope he reports you.

Was it Jeremy Vine?

Since when was leaving 1.5m in front of a cyclist when ‘nipping in’ enough space? That’s a split second that you’ve given a cyclist to slam on their brakes. That’s why they were cross.

This. Wtf OP!

If there are three schools on one road I assume this isn’t a rural area.

You overtook took the cyclist where there wasnt a clear view and had to pull in suddently in front of him..That's why he was waving at you. You need to be more careful.

If you read the original post you will see she says she still gave requisite space for the cyclists on this occasion so it isn't the scenario you are describing. It is ridiculous that some people can't accept that some cyclists can be dickheads in the same way some drovers can be.

Yes it is possible that he had a camera and might report you. I do cycle with cameras and have sent in footage to the police where someone has come dangerously close to me. Without good footage however they can’t do anything. They do take it seriously and do take action if they agree with you. It does sound like you came to close as you moved back in, many people misjudge the speed of a cyclist and think they are leaving more space than they do. The wild gesticulation will be fueled by adrenaline as it’s very scary when someone does misjudge it, as he was the more vulnerable road user you have a duty to take greater care than if he was in a car. Please leave more space next time and check for oncoming cars/ enough visibility to complete your move.

Husband was knocked off his bike by a driver. He is a MAMIL and triathlete. It was a Sunday. It’s pretty scary and he got loads of compensation. Driver got a police caution. She was outraged and refused to cooperate as she needed the car for the kids. I’m sure her premiums shot up as a results. Husbands bike was fixable and his clothing was shredded he broke his fingers, thumb bruising and grazing and cuts all over his body. Had a week of work and 12 hours in A and E.

Drivers don’t realise how fast cyclists are going.

if you needs to “nip in” it means that there wasn’t enough space to overtake in the first place.

he could have been doing 20kmh easily on the flat. And if you are nipping and potentially braking to slow down it is a recipe for disaster.

you need to ensure you have all 4 wheels over the white line and can see far enough in the distance to ensure there are no oncoming vehicles. this is what you problem is

In your defence - Going out in the school rush is pretty stupidly for the cyclist.

You overtook when you couldn’t see the road ahead to see if it was clear (cars don’t come out of no where; it was always coming towards you but you couldn’t see it because of bends in the road, yet you still overtook). And then you pulled back in front of the cyclist with a 1.5 meter gap? That is ridiculously close. You don’t pull back in front of someone you have overtaken with only a gap of 1 or 2 meters. Far too close, dangerous driving. Stop it.

So glad you are able to get all kids in your area into local schools. You do realise this is not the reality for many people. Also you do realise in many areas of the country 10 miles is the loc school.

You cut him up even if you didn’t realise - acknowledge, learn and move on

But the OP did do wrong!

They 'nipped in' because a car was oncoming. They obviously overtook at the wrong place!

Are people not allowed to cycle to work themselves then? Or do they have to wait for all the superior car drivers to drop their kids off and go to work before they can venture out themselves?

I'm sorry, but have you ever cycled? When you're on a bike you have much better awareness of what cars are doing, you hear them coming up behind you and, like all road users with eyes, you see them going past, unless he thought the OP was suddenly going to identify as American and spend the rest of her journey on the wrong side of the road, he MUST have had some sort of inkling that after the car had overtaken him it was going to pull back in again.

Yeah I love it when a ton of metal cuts in front of me at speed when I'm not expecting it, like I'm the dickhead in this situation 🙄

I think they are being tongue on cheek because this is the type of crap that cyclists come out with saying people shouldn't use their cars for normal daily use such as nursery drop offs, school runs before driving onto work!

Maybe he was going to work. Regardless, he has as much right to use the road as anyone else.

Why not go to the local school? You do realise some local schools don't have space? My son goes to a school 10 miles away as we moved house (not our fault, section 21 eviction from money grabbing twat landlord) and the school in our new village won't take my son