I got road raged today, was I in the wrong?

[VivaLeBeaver]

I'm waiting to come out the supermarket carpark onto a fairly busy road. In the left hand turn lane and indicating left. A woman on a cycle with a kid on a tag along tried undertaking me. Managed to shove between my car and the pavement but couldn't get any further then level with me due to the nose of my car been a bit further to the left. Now I thought undertaking in this manner as a cyclist is dangerous if to illegal. I think she thought when the car infront of me moved I'd let her in - well I didn't I carried on,in a slow and safe manner. I was in no danger of hitting her at all but I did make her stop. As far as I was concerned she could wait her turn rather than trying to undertake a car which is clearly turning left.

So I'm now on the road, the cyclist and her cyclist husband are following. I come to amino roundabout, fairly big one for a mini roundabout and went right round it so I was double backed on myself. Fairly standard I'd have thought to save trying to turn right out the supermarket. Enough room and I was indicating.

As I went round the roundabout the bloke cyclist swore at me and told me I needed to have a P on me. I assume he means a P plate rather than a golden shower.

I know I could have let them undertake me and push infront but I don't have to. She's lucky to be honest I saw her. I think a lot of cars wouldn't and she and her kid could have been squished. Strangely he seemed more annoyed at me going all the way round the roundabout. That's not wrong is it?

It has worked fine in N.I(U.K) where a 45 mph limit during the learnng period and a full year after passing a driving test is compulsory, "R" plates are also compulsory for a full year, so I fail to se why this same system does not apply to all U.K driving licence holders as it does work.

I think restricting the times of day new drivers can drive would prevent more accidents than curbing their speed. I know far too many young drivers and old drivers for tha matter who have lost their lives late at night on country back roads. When ds is old enough I will encourage him to have one of those black boxes that monitors them driving. Although I think we all might have them by then anyway to keep insurance down!

Well it clearly doesn't work that well, as they're scrapping it at the end of the year: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18249137

There will be a lot of changes in January including a restriction preventing a newly passed driver who is 21 years old or younger carrying passengers under 21 for a full year, The compulsory "R/P" plates will remain.

When I passed my test I worked an hour and 4 motorways/dual carriageways away from where I lived. Forcing me to drive like a twunt for a year would have added x amount of time to my journey and more than likely resulted in someone driving right up my arse and scaring me shitless.

I think the compulsory plates are a great idea and should be law here, but the speed restriction would cause far more accidents. I don't understand how can you be expected to drive on a busy motorway for the first time if you've never driven over 45mph.

But what happens at 21 that makes you not a twunt? Chances are if you are a twunt at 19 you'll still be one and 22!

Motorway driving does bore you to near death driving at 45 mph but thats the way its always been in N.I and I.O.M as well as the overkill MOT system in N.I. I could never fiqure out why the rules are different from one part of the U.K to the next when the driving licences are pretty much the same. First time I went to England on my bike displaying R plates I was pulled over for driving at 45 mph, I thought the rules were the same lol.

Team , I know lol its a crazy rule the DVLANI are trying to push through along with a compulsory full years learning period before being allowed to take a test. Hopefully these stupid rules will not get the go ahead.

How about instead of P plates and restricted driving times/speeds newly passed drivers are encouraged to take both a speed awareness course and a pass plus course

• cyclists should also have to do some form of road safety/awareness course

You are already encouraged to do a pass plus course, only encouraged though, not compulsory. I think my cost near on £100 5 years ago because our nearest motorway was the m8 150 miles away! Maybe a retest after a year, just a mini one.

To those quoting the highway code

It is the job of the person filtering through the stationary traffic to make sure that there is a big enough gap.

SurprisinglyCurvaceousPirate

"I couldn't give a rats arse if I damage your car."

Best of luck with that attitude.

Withoutcaution, thats a very good idea. Perhaps if insurance companies offered a discount on their premiums that would in turn encourage drivers to take an advanced course. I do agree that cyclists should take a course and a basic test much in the same way motorcyclists have to take Compulsory Basic Training and up to 3 different driving tests before being allowed on the road.

I agree with what Northern said on the first page.

I don't drive or cycle so no bias here :)

On the few occasions I've had a near miss on the motorway due to the inattention/recklessness of others, it's invariably because of either a middle-aged man swerving his Beemer/Audi/Merc from lane to lane without indicating or a doddery old pensioner pootling along at a dangerously low speed and causing the traffic to concertina, provoking last-minute evasions. It's never a young driver or anyone displaying a 'P'.

You spend your lessons learning how to pass your test; it's only afterwards you learn to drive and that includes driving to the conditions - one of which is traffic speed.

A better scheme, if it were feasible, would be to make something like PassPlus compulsory within a certain timescale of passing test, but the geography of the British Isles makes it impossible as too many people live an unreasonable distance from a motorway.

Oh and OP, you were a little bit U; technically in the right perhaps but it would have been safer all round if you'd let her out ahead of you.

Why are we talking about new drivers? The OP is not a new driver.

bureni
"Perhaps if insurance companies offered a discount on their premiums that would in turn encourage drivers to take an advanced course."

they do.

I give cyclists as much room as a safely can, if I cannot get safely round or cannot see far enough ahead, I wait. Without knowing the exact layout, how wide, whether there were cars on your right its difficult to comment, but I would have let the cyclist have more room. I would rather wait and piss off the cars behind me than risk an accident and spend the rest of my life thinking, 'if only I'd waited a few more seconds'.

Boney, did you READ my post or just choose to quote it out of context? .

I said if you DELIBERATELY try and get in my way I don't care of I damage your car, not that I would deliberately try and damage your car .

Why the fuck should I be held responsible for damaging someone's car if they've deliberately tried to (often dangerously) obstruct my movement.

I've just cycled home from the gym and while waiting centre left in the right hand lane to turn right at a red light have just had the motorist scream "get out of the way you fucking bitch" at me, so forgive me if I'm not feeling too charitable to motorists right now.

Oh and bureni, they have the rule about restricting passengers for U21s in Oz and apparently it is saving lives. It's to stop the countless deaths of young men piling into cars and wiping the whole carload out on a tree/lamppost etc.

I think it's an excellent idea.

I exited a roundabout today to find a car on the wrong side of the road overtaking a cyclist. A few car lenghts from the junction.

Not only was it very dangerous, it was utterly pointless. There was no way the car was going to get on to the roundabout without waiting a while - it was leaving a country road to go onto a very busy dual carriageway - and the cyclist was simply going to go past it again, to the head of the queue, I would assume. Queue = one other car. The cyclist was almost out at the white line (presumably going right at the roundabout) so i would guess the car was so annoyed that the cyclist was not remaining on its left that he felt the need to get past, the safety of the rest of us be damned.

We have a good series of ads in Ireland atm where they use the same actor to portray both the cyclist/pedestrian and the car driver and show a near miss from both perspectives. So you have the same face turned towards each other in shock/outrage. "Everyone sees the road differently"

SurprisinglyCurvaceousPirate
You have also posted

"I would squeeze past you regardless of your actions"

Meaning (as I take it) that if you consider someone to be in the way you would damage their car.

But as some posters haven't read the op's posts fully it reading posts seems optional.

Celestial, I agree with the strap line that everyone sees the road differently but its the cyclist that takes the hit - literally.

It sounds like the road safety authorities are at least trying to examine the stats and respond to them in an effort to find out how to really cut fatalities further which sounds exactly what they are set up to do.

Of course I wouldn't deliberately damage someone's car, don't be so ridiculous. That's criminal damage and bloody dangerous anyway in that you could pick on the wrong motorist.

I'm perfectly capable of getting down a line of traffic without damaging any cars BUT I have done this and had cars DELIBERATELY swerve to the kerb to stop me. If I hit them that's their fault not mine.

The aggression that I experienced from that motorist this evening is far from unusual, many motorists get so cross with cyclists for holding them up by a couple of seconds they'll make ridiculous manoeuvre to prove a point. Sometimes cyclists will kick back .