Cyclist gesticulating wildly at me

Making mistakes is forgetting a pint of milk from the shop.

What the OP did was not a mistake, it was reckless and dangerous!

He is on a bike. You are in a big metal box that weighs about 1-2t. If you hit him there is a good chance of life changing injuries or death for him.

Regardless of if you 'think' you left 1.5m it sounds like a narrow road where there isnt really much space for overtaking unless you go into the opposite carrieage. You already stated you had to nip in because a car was coming in the opposite direction so there is a high likelyhood you nearly took him out.

Its near a school, its a busy narrow road. If someone is cross at you because you were stupid, learn from it and dont be in such a bloody hurry. What did you save in time.......5/10/15 seconds? Was it worth it.

Ok, maybe she did make a mistake. I just get annoyed with people getting OTT angry as EVERYONE makes mistakes on the road its called being a human, frantically swearing and raging is no good for anyone.

Because she thought that 1.5 meters was a safe distance to leave when pulling back in front of someone, that’s why she thinks she as driving safely. But it isn’t, and she wasn’t. She was wrong. Which is why she posted; to ask how she was wrong. And she’s been told.

What she did was not Ok or safe. The cyclist was put at risk, and his reaction was to
show that. And it has worked, because OP has now learned something.

She said she genuinely thought she was being careful until she saw his reaction. He sounds very angry and OTT in my opinion.

What exactly made this cyclist entitled or moronic? Simply being a man?

The OP overtook when she did not have a clear view of the road ahead of the area and distance she would need to compete that overtake. She did that with her children in the car and with a very vulnerable cyclist on the road. She was then faced with an oncoming car, and had no room to complete her manoeuvre safely, so pulled back in front of the cyclist with only 1.5 meters between them. It’s a tight road, so she most likely did hit the brakes once back in to straighten up and pass the car, which makes it even more dangerous with how close she pulled in front of the cyclist. He can’t brake that hard without going over the handlebars so that was a close call. Even if she didn’t brake, having a car at speed pulling in so close to that cyclist would still cause them to need to brake and also cause them to get a big scare. OP put herself, her children, the cyclist and the people in the oncoming car in danger. That’s a fact.
The cyclist is not entitled or moronic.

The 1.5m is for overtaking. You need to leave much more than that when pulling back in front of him. That said, I wouldn't give it much more thought. Very unlikely anything further will happen. Take the learning and move forth 😅

Yeah.....morons wanting to be safe on the roads.
The only way OP could have overtaken the cyclist safely was if she drove into the oncoming car. Obviously she didn't want to do that, so she took a BIG risk and nipped in just ahead of the cyclist who quite rightly was angry.

If you can't overtake safely you have to wait.

This response is absolutely crazy. Have you read the op properly? She herself is so concerned about her own driving she ends with asking if she could be prosecuted!

She overtook at 25 mph on a busy, winding road that is only just wide enough for 2 cars. She admits she had to 'nip in' only 1.5 metres in front of the bike. If you would have done the same then god help any cyclists in your locality. People on bikes ARE entitled to be there, even if it slows you down. They are entitled - like all other road users - to go about their business safely.

The op badly misjudged this one. It isn't moronic or entitled for him to be angry and shaken up.

It was not damn obvious to the cyclist that OP was going to go back to her lane a mere 1.5m in front of him! An indication she was going to make that dangerous move may have given the cyclist just that little bit more notice to take evasive action.

Comparing a motorway to a quiet country lane??!😂

Entitled cyclists are soooo annoying, he sounds like a very angry man OP with moronic issues dont let it get to you.

The OP doesn't need to indicate. You don't need to indicate when on a dual carriage or motorway when returning to lane 1, as it's the default lane.

indicating to go back in a lane that you've just come out of, when it's very damn obvious that the OP isn't going to hang around in the opposite lane is silly. I don't indicate going back over to the original lane. The law doesn't require it. I do indicate when going to overtake.

Why not work locally and walk?

He may well take it further. Operation Snap means anyone can upload a report and camera footage. The police can, and do, take action.

It does sound like you cut him up and it came close to him going into the back of you because of your driving.

Many cyclists (me included) now have front and back cameras because of too many close shaves like this.

I'm a driver too and very careful in the narrow country lanes around us.

I definitely see more angry drivers than angry cyclists! And there's a lot of cyclists around where I live. The most common situation is drivers annoying each other from what I can see.

Presuming this person was cycling 20 kmh (12.5mph) and has an average reaction speed of 1.375 seconds, he needs about 9.5m to come to a stop.

Your estimate of bicycle stopping distance is wrong. Or you confused distance to the side with distance in front. See graphs. Source: https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/15572/what-is-the-braking-stopping-distance-for-bicycles

You are driving a machine that can seriously injure or kill someone. You have a responsibility to be careful.

There's definitely an old breed of driver on the road these days. I label them the climate-change denial driver. They are angrier than the 'normal' driver because they are determined to prove everyone wrong, especially cyclists and horse riders minding their own business, and continue polluting the planet with impunity. They set out from home angry and arrive home even angrier by the look of things.

If you say so.

Are you also saying that this cyclist was wrong to be scared by this drivers lethal actions?

There's definitely a new breed of cyclist on the road these days. I label them the climate change cyclist. They are angrier than the 'normal' cyclist because they are 'saving the planet' from horrible pollutants like cars and vans. They set out from home angry and arrive home even angrier by the look of things.

I think if you have to ‘nip in’ so suddenly after overtaking a cyclist then it was an unsafe manoeuvre as you obviously couldn’t see far enough ahead to be overtaking in the first place.

It’s worrying how many people have such little patience on the road, choosing to do risky and unsafe overtakes instead of waiting an extra 30 seconds or whatever for a clear road. Just take a deep breath and relax 🧘‍♀️

well no, the rule hasn’t gone out the window. I don’t know where you’re getting that. He didn’t plough into anyone, he respected that despite them not being on the “right” place. The pedestrian is always top of the hierarchy regardless where they are. and plenty of dozy pedestrians wandering about without looking. He at no point suggested they were in the wrong or blamed them but walking two abreast blocking a cycle lane meant he had to evade them. It was an underpass so he was going downhill. Hard to stop quickly and he oversteered. A bike would have been going faster so wouldn’t have been an issue. Plenty of time to adjust speed and not need to swerve.

Obviously he was going to avoid them as well aware he could hurt them and probably himself too.

i came off my bike also by avoiding a pedestrian, years ago, I don’t want to hurt anyone, so I swerved and braked hard - I didn’t have much time he jumped off a bus that was indicating and pulling away from a bus stop so I didn’t expect him to get off. Drivers don’t usually open doors on moving buses or perhaps the teen hit the door open button that was on older buses. Driver of bus could have opened door who knows who’s at fault but one of those things. Either way as a cyclist you know if you’re coming off your bike it’s gong to hurt. Went straight over the bars of course, I broke my helmet, blacked out, had concussion, tore all my clothes and had impressive bruises for weeks. And I wasn’t actually going that fast given I was near a bus stop.

im just saying I know how it feels to get a fright and think of how easily you can get seriously hurt.

This particular cyclist was just going about their day and was put in danger by a poor choice by a driver.

What's the point in bringing up how some other cyclists cycle? Just looks like whataboutary

Cyclists seem to love getting outraged at cars, almost as much as they love putting pedestrians in danger by cycling on the pavement and through red lights.