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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

to ask you what do I DO? Cyclists, one way streets.

95 replies

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 18:39

There's a street near where I live which is one-way. It has cars parked on both sides, just space for one car through the middle, and a blind turn off to one side, so you can understand why it is one way. I have before driven down it (at 20, which is the limit, or less - often more like 5 or 10) and found a cyclist coming the other way at speed, often turning in at the end. It is really scary. You do not have much time to see them and slam on the brakes. I do honk when they do this (if I have the time to react), because plainly they haven't seen me (and don't know it's one-way).

Today, three cyclists came riding triple-file down the middle, the wrong way. I slammed on my brakes and honked, and because I'd come to a complete stop and my window was open, I called 'it's one-way!' to them.

One of them laughed, and said:

'Don't be stupid - I live here! It's only you who honks!

I said it's one way and it's illegal what you're dong.

'I don't think it's illegal! It's not illegal. No-one cares! Do you know what speed limit it is?'

I said 20, and I hadn't been doing 20.

'Oh, I think so, I think you were.' (I wasn't. I wouldn't have been able to stop for them if I'd been much over 20, which is why I wasn't. I'd been doing mayb 5, because another bike going the right way had been in front of me. He seemed to find all of this very funny).

At this point one of the others slammed his hand on the back of my car. They were all laughing and shouting.

Ok, I know probably it was pointless to stop, or to argue. I am still shaking.

What can I actually do about it? They obviously either don't know, or don't care what the law is. One day they are going to get themselves killed, or me, or some other driver, killed.

I don't have the first idea what to do but I want to do something.

OP posts:
ThePan · 03/08/2012 21:48

Thank you, Olympia. Canvassing for violence is never pretty and not Mumsnetty, is it?

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 21:48
Confused

Olympia?

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TheQueenOfDiamonds · 03/08/2012 21:48

Thepan Yup.
TBH i wouldn't stop if i were the OP. I've done that before on my horse. Fuckers wouldn't get off our bridlepath. They had their OWN path. RIGHT NEXT TO IT!

I've never seen a group of teenagers scatter so quickly!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 21:48

I wasn't canvassing for violence, pan. That is a really unfair accusation following on you accusing me of making a platform for 'fuckwittery'.

Please take your grudges out on people you disagree with instead of attacking me.

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ThePan · 03/08/2012 21:57

LRD - I didn't say you were canvassing violence at all. And it isn't 'grudge' - it's a matter of trying to stay safe most days, and pointing out when really obnoxious comments are given free reign.

It seems okay to 'problem solve' by trying to maim someone - where else on MN would that be tolerated?

OlympiaMumsnet · 03/08/2012 21:59

I was clearing my throat because there is a LOT of vitriol on this thread which is making me sad on an otherwise happy Friday.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 22:01

pan, why did you say I was 'giving these fuckwits a platform', then? My fault, is it?

If you really want to know, I feel shaky, and scared, and actually quite shit. It is horrible braking to avoid someone like that, and horrible to have people standing around your car laughing in your face and trying to intimidate you, or hitting your car.

If you see a comment you find offensive, MN rules are to report it. Not to attack, and not to go after the OP of the thread blaming her for giving these comments a forum. Ok with you?

I'm not MNHQ, I have no control over what people post on a thread I start, so take your complaints to them instead of attacking me.

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 22:03

olympia, I'm sorry I started it but I honestly don't think my OP was particularly vitriolic, and I got some useful advice for which I was grateful, and I have said at least twice that I'm not judging all cyclists by these ones.

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ThePan · 03/08/2012 22:07

LRD - the experience round her is that as soon as cycling gets mentioned, or particularly when some poorly behaving cyclist gets highlighted then the knuckle-dragging bike-haters line up to add their 'grudges' against cyclists in general. No, those riders were totally out of order and they should be reported in some way - tricky given the circs. though.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 22:09

Look, I'm terribly sorry you don't like other people's comments but please don't accuse me of being responsible for them.

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TheQueenOfDiamonds · 03/08/2012 22:16

TBH i think cyclists get a bit touchy and over sensitive. I ride horses on the roads, If you've never done that regularly, Try it if you want to see what REAL abuse is Thepan. I only wish i could say the worst i've encountered were a few tongue in cheek comments on an internet forum.

ThePan · 03/08/2012 22:17

LRD - I'm terribly sorry stuff like that appears on MN, and no-one seems to mind at all. We are a 'minority' on lots of levels, highly vulnerable and in the main law-abiding. But two of us are killed per week, on av. So I will raise it as an issue for MN, if I see it and could be bothered to. Whether it's you providing the platform, unintentionally, or not.

ThePan · 03/08/2012 22:22

touchy and oversensitive? The more I read that stuff the more it drills home the 'bingo card' game! So far we have 'no humour' and 'over sensitive'.

yep you're right, Queenie.

suzikettles · 03/08/2012 22:22

If LRD kills a cyclist, even if it's in no way her fault, I don't think it will be an exaggeration to say that her life will never be the same again. It will haunt her to the end of her days. She's perfectly entitled to try to work out how to minimise such an awful thing happening.

If a cyclist dies because he or she was cycling without due care down a one way street then I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that their family and friend's lives will never be the same again and they will grieve and miss that person until the end of their days.

In that single instant it won't matter who was wrong and who was right. Someone will be dead. Surely better to try to prevent that rather than bicker about who's in the wrong and who's in the right.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 22:22

pan, report it, don't gripe at me about it.

It's not my fault.

Nor is it my fault three cyclists broke the law and scared the fuck out of me.

D'you think you could give me a break just for a moment?

If a cyclist gets killed going the wrong way down a one way street, he or she is quite likely to do the driver damage too. He or she might, next time, hit another cyclist acting legally, or a pedestrian crossing the road who's looked in the wrong place. It would be terribly sad if a cyclist got killed breaking the law, because they are 'highly vulnerable' compared to a car. But it would still be illegal and basically shit for everyone concerned.

OP posts:
LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 22:23

suzi, I am trying to prevent it, that is why I started this thread, asking what to do. I am going to ring the police as suggested.

OP posts:
TheQueenOfDiamonds · 03/08/2012 22:24

pan So you think everyone who's made a, perhaps in poor taste, joke about cyclists here is actually going to go out and maim or kill one?

If not, Then what are you upset about?

suzikettles · 03/08/2012 22:25

Exactly, sorry - I wasn't getting at you.

I just don't see the point of bringing up the rights and wrongs of cyclists v motorists in other situations. It's not tit for tat. I can't see it would make anyone feel any better if a tragedy happened to thing "Oh well, motorists are usually in the wrong".

suzikettles · 03/08/2012 22:26

thing think

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/08/2012 22:27

Thanks suzi, sorry, didn't mean to snap.

I would feel awful if I hit someone. Anyone would. It's not really funny and IMO shouldn't be a platform for grandstanding about cyclists' rights either.

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