Cyclist gesticulating wildly at me

CBA

Cyclists are very vulnerable so, yes, they very rightly have a go when someone puts them in danger. If more people cycled during the rush hour, and school pick up and drop off time, our roads would be much better. And don't get me started on the driving behaviour of some parents around schools.

Google the word.

Men are called moronic and much worse on MN. Why get so het up about it now; are you a cyclist?

You called a man you didn’t see or meet moronic. I won’t use that word due to the history of it. I think reacting like that to a story of a cyclists gesticulating shows you are angry and over react. Doesn’t sound like you simply move on.

The guy didn’t do anything wrong. OP put two cars and the cyclist at risk. And won’t even come back to hold her hands up and accept it.

Im not going to keep repeating myself!!

I think you have and you need to address it, you saw the word cyclist, attached angry and moronic? Why, he was angry because OP cut in front of him, because she had to because she overtook on a stretch of rad she couldn’t see far enough in the distance to make sure it was clear. I can’t see how you can justify in anyway why you think he’s moronic, which means foolish or stupid?

Yes many times. My attitude is 'nothing bad happened so move on' sorry if you think I should always be lashing out at people for 'human error'

Jesus, @Spirallingdownwards really really hates cyclists. You really need to get a life, Spiralling....

@ OP, just learn from your experience. A cyclist isn't going to hold you up any longer than 15-20 seconds - no more than a milk float or a learner driver. We're all trying to get somewhere - just be patient. Our paper boy died in my mum's arms many years ago, after being knocked over by a driver who was in a rush. I just care about getting home in one piece.

And for the non-cyclists, just a couple of facts that you might learn from:

• if a cyclist has reacted to something you've done, 9 times out of 10 they have felt their life or safety was in danger. We don't react for the sake of it, just if you're driving irresponsibly or on your mobile - cyclists see this an awful lot.
• Giving 1.5m is more than a lot of people give, but it doesn't mean much if you pull in quickly and cut the rider up. Overexaggerate your manoeuvres - you can never give too much space if you have it and you'll sometimes get a friendly wave or thumbs up if you do.
• Don't underestimate a cyclist's speed - as an indicator, I'm a 53 year old overweight woman and my average speed to work this morning on a normal rode bike (a lumpy 9 miles from suburbs to large city centre), was 18.2mph. And I can go faster if I don't have a fully laden rucksack on my back.
• We don't just have helmet cams - sometimes we have a chest harness, or a camera (or even two - one facing each way) on our bikes.
• A lot of us are insured - British Cycling and Cycling UK together have 200,000 members and 3rd party insurance comes with membership. So if we damage your car and it's our fault then it's covered. If you hurt us and it's your fault we also have legal cover. A friend was "doored" and the corner of the door ripped open his bicep - he had a manual job and was off for months recovering from microsurgery - he was awarded £30k.
• The vast majority of us also drive, and pay VED and tax through our general taxation system.

Of course there are bad cyclists, but cyclists are much more vulnerable so a small mistake by a car driver may have a much larger impact on the cyclists (injury), than the car driver (scratched paintwork, sharp stop).
So more cyclists have taken it upon themselves to bring bad car drivers to account.
It's also much harder to track a cyclist down (from a dashcam) so car drivers are a bit stuck if they want to report or prosecute.

I am a cyclist and a car driver. I am in utter despair at times with the recklessness of some cyclists in Cambridge. No lights, no high viz, veering all over the place.

Have you ever been in the situation were you were a meter or two from death because of someone else’s actions? It is very scary. He wasn’t OTT.

The OP hasn’t come back because OP’s don’t usual return when they realise they’ve been wrong. Why are you still acting like this cyclist was wrong?

Because cyclists don’t tend to be response for killing car drivers. Not saying they’ve never caused accidents, they have, but much less likely to kill someone. People driving like the OP kill or injure cyclists every day.

No. I haven't got anger issues, if you read what I said I dont like overly angry people. I read OPs post and her description of his reaction was OTT and angry. IMO.

So many posts on here about bad car drivers. Some cyclists drive badly as well, you know. Car drivers don't seem to obsess about filming and complaining about cyclists driving badly as much as cyclists do.

At you I presume are a level headed driver……

You’re exactly the type of person who should not be driving, because your clear anger issues say “see cyclist” be aggressive to them,

In all honesty I’ve always left about 5-10m between my car and the cyclist I’ve overtaken. However if you were already overtaking and a car was coming there’s not much you could have done other than pull back behind the cyclist if it was safe to do so.
We have very windy roads here but I’m very cautious not to overtake unless I have a clear view.

Always the drama queens as well. OP made an error of judgement, nobody died. I'm sure he will get off on handing footage into the police. If he does OP, just expect a warning to be more careful.

I just looked at my local police website and last year they had 2400 dashcam and cyclist footage uploaded to their website. Only 638 were no further action. 1095 were prosecuted and over 600 given warnings. It’s for stuff like going through red lights as well as close passes of cyclists.

I agree with you. As well as being scared he has no other way of communicating with the driver apart from gesticulating. I had a similar incident as a cyclist once and I gesticulated. Doesn’t mean I was angry.

The driver actually pulled over, jumped out the car and said sorry, that he’d misjudged it. I was fine with him, not angry, appreciated it was a mistake which he owned.

Nipping back in front of a moving cyclist just 1.5m in front of him is terrifying behaviour. And you’re posting on here like he did something wrong.

I absolutely love cycling when on holiday in Denmark; it’s an amazing experience. But I don’t cycle in the UK, because drivers’ attitudes to cyclists are awful and aggressive, and it feels far too dangerous. I worry every time my DH is out on his bike, not because of his skill on the road, but the behaviours of drivers.

i would't be too sure about him not reporting you - many cyclists have helmet-cams and rear cams and it is very easy to upload the video for the police (have watched a few videos by that Dutch chap in London)

As pp said: overtaking a bike should be treated like overtaking a big van. Leave more space and don't be an idiot.

It’s very easy to issue a fixed penalty type ticket if a cyclist provides camera evidence and a lot of cyclists have cameras now. My local force has a website where you can upload evidence and a civilian workers reviews the evidence and decides whether or not to issue a fine.

Police must love it as its income for minimal work.

But it wasn’t OTT angry. Chucking stones at her windows and following her to the school to bash her car to scream at her would be OTT. What he did was proportionate. He was scared, it is scary when that happens to you. He swore and gesticulated to get her to see what she had done, and to shake off some of his own adrenaline. He wasn’t OTT. The OP was entirely wrong in her driving and a mistake like that can kill more than one person, so she did need to be made aware. Next time, she will think before she overtakes.

We all drive every day so it is so easy to forget how dangerous it can be.

I cycle and drive. Sounds dangerous to be overtaking and cutting back in on a narrow road by a school. Sometimes you just have to wait. It costs you, what, 15 seconds. Usually when you do overtake the bike will catch you up at the next junction anyway.

The cyclist's reaction seems a pretty good indication you didn't give him enough room.

A cyclist makes a mistake with a car and it might be a scratch or a dent on the car. A car makes a mistake with a bike it might be a broken bone or a mother/father/son/daughter never going home again. You really think its unreasonable for a cyclist to get angry?