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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

With this cyclist

98 replies

HopsNim · 18/11/2015 13:15

Genuine thread, not cyclist bashing.

New driver here

Pulled up at zebra crossing, once person had finished crossing, I pulled off again. Cyclist appeared on my left (seemingly out of nowhere but I should have seen him) and overtook me as I pulled off. Bashed on my window and yelled aggressively "hey get over"

So am thinking I somehow veered at little into his path as I pulled off (but don't recall doing). If all happened very quickly. there wasn't a cycle lane

Can someone more experienced please talk me through what I did wrong, how serious was it and how I can make sure I don't do it again

Thank you

OP posts:

Mintyy · 18/11/2015 13:54

Have you?

amarmai · 18/11/2015 13:59

best advice think of the bike as a vehicle/car. if you wd not do that --- to a car , do not do it to a bike. I get the most scarey moments on my bike as i am coming up to a right turn [canada] and a car speeds up to reach the intersection before me , cutting me off and coming too close. if i were in a car the car wd not have done that. lack of respect for cyclists causes deaths.

bearleftmonkeyright · 18/11/2015 14:00

I am very pro cycling but I do not ever get on the inside of a car at a junction. I think its an accident waiting to happen. Really, you need to shake it off as things like this happen to everyone.

catfordbetty · 18/11/2015 14:03

Lesson one of driving. Most some cyclists are completle (sic) morons with a massive chip of their shoulders

Ah, there we go.

zoemaguire · 18/11/2015 14:05

If you're a new driver, and he banged on your window like that, I'm afraid it does seem quite likely that you veered into him. Not that some cyclists aren't twats, and undertaking was perhaps not wise, but if there was room, it's a fair enough thing to do. As a cyclist I'm quite regularly cut up (usually while cycling along, minding my own business) by cars that just don't have cyclists on their radar at all. And I've had taxis aggressively zoom past as close as possible just because they are pissed off that they have been stuck in a traffic jam while cyclists go past in the cycle lane!

But don't beat yourself up, you're a new driver, it's hard to have eyes everywhere when you're still concentrating on the basics. Close calls scary though they are could be seen as a good thing, as they teach good lessons!

zoemaguire · 18/11/2015 14:09

"Most some cyclists are complete morons with a massive chip of their shoulders about drivers"

FFS, the rank stupidity of some people! Where I live 40% of people commute to work by bike. If they all decided to get in their cars instead, I'll bet all existing car drivers would be the first complaining, as it would be total gridlock. Bikes mean fewer cars on the road!!!

But then what do I know, I'm a cyclist so apparently weighed down by the chip on my shoulder about, er, myself (hint: most cyclists are also car drivers, hard though this might be to imagine for the hard of thinking).

MaxPepsi · 18/11/2015 14:09

he was moving quite fast and was downhill so shudder to think what would have happened if he'd gone into me

Or a pedestrian stepping out onto the zebra crossing you were waiting at.

From what you've said here, the cyclist was being an idiot.

Carry on as you are and just remember that cyclists, motorbikes, pedestrians and other cars are all likely to just suddenly appear out of bloody nowhere due to their own stupidity, rather than something you have done!

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 18/11/2015 14:12

Well that puts a different perspective on it. Do you think he should have been going 'quite fast' coming down a hill towards a pedestrian crossing? At what point would he have had a 100% clear view of the crossing, and could the situation on the crossing have changed before he reached it.

For example, you'd stopped for someone to cross - what if she'd been accompanied by a small child who was dawdling a bit. Would the cyclist have seen her? Was he maybe going too fast and not reading the road properly himself?

(Just to be clear, I both drive and cycle but I'm not a confident driver and very prone to take things like this to heart and worry about them. DH has taught me to think things through really logically and realise a lot of the time it's actually not my fault. So I'm just trying to do the same thing with you OP, cos you sound a bit like me.)

Original poster

HopsNim · 18/11/2015 14:14

Thank you
Yes I'm a born worrier!

OP posts:

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 18/11/2015 14:16

Yep, me too - MaxPepsi's advice is good, we should both take it

AbeSaidYes · 18/11/2015 14:17

I don't think you were in the wrong OP, the only thing I would say is that it is OK for cyclists to filter through traffic but they should stop to the rear of the car nearest the lights/junction IMO. Not sure if there is a law covering this though.

BaronessEllaSaturday · 18/11/2015 14:19

So the cyclist was heading fast towards a zebra crossing which cars were stopped at because someone was crossing. His view would have been obscured by your car at least and the car next to you, he could not have known it was safe to go over the crossing at that point. I think it is quite safe to say that you can dismiss him bashing on your car as you doing something wrong he would have bashed whatever. The sort of person who approaches a crossing like that whether they are riding a bike, driving a car or even a van is not worth giving a second thought to.

RhinestoneCowgirl · 18/11/2015 14:20

Undertaking is really dangerous for cyclists (I prefer to describe myself as 'person riding a bike' ).

He probably gave himself a bit of a scare and this can sometimes come out as angry.

dangalf · 18/11/2015 14:22

As a cyclist and inexperienced driver I can understand how you feel. I think the cyclist was acting a bit unnecessarily by banging on your window. However, you really must check both mirrors before starting again as 2 wheeled traffic of both kinds will frequently filter through anywhere they can.

GruntledOne · 18/11/2015 14:24

You shouldn't be feeling bad about it. If you choose to pass someone on the left, particularly someone waiting at a pedestrian crossing, it's your job not to do it until you are sure it is safe; if you decide to undertake, you accept the risk that they won't have seen you.

Gabilan · 18/11/2015 14:32

" A lot of cyclist death and injuries are caused by them trying to filter through traffic on the left hand side, and then the vehicle moving off."

Stats issued by the Department for Transport show that in the majority of collisions involving people on bikes, the driver was at fault not the cyclist. It's convenient to blame it on vulnerable road users, but the facts are that cyclists are not usually to blame (though sometimes they are). It's more often the cyclist being overtaken and left hooked.

OP it's difficult to say without seeing the incident. Had you just overtaken the cyclist? If he was heading downhill towards a zebra crossing and you overtook and then stopped, I can understand him betting a bit pissy. Or it may be that he was just being aggressive - impossible to know without being there, and possibly not even then.

As for going fast towards a zebra crossing - on a bike going downhill he was probably doing 25-35mph. If he was in a 30 zone he might have been over the speed limit (though you can't be done for speeding on a bike, you can be done for other things that boil down to "going too fast for the conditions"). Before everyone uses it as yet another example of a cyclist committing some dreadful sin, bear in mind that "fast" on a bike is "normal" in a car, but with a lot less mass and therefore less kinetic energy.

Sighing · 18/11/2015 14:36

It sounds as though you were stopped then restarting at a crossing and the cyclist chose to undertake you without slowing. In which case you were not at fault (the cyclist should know better as it's called undertaking for a reason). So they got a bad shock and then reacted angrily and aggressively.
You are inexperienced, something i do anticipate when driving is the occasional cyclist (or even motorbike) that will take this risk (I used to use a motorbike and cycle it's not a risk I'd take). Position the car to make squeezing on the left side unattractive (except in the case of a valid lane obviously) and do check side mirrors even where they shouldn't be needed.

Sighing · 18/11/2015 14:37

(By positioning more left othrr road users are hopefully encouraged to overtake which you are more likely to anticipate)

buymeabook · 18/11/2015 14:41

Gabilan. I know that. I think the proportion is that the driver is at fault about 2/3rds of the time. I am normally on these threads sticking up for cyclists (I am one after all). But a lot of cyclists are injured when trying to squeeze past on the left, particularly of vehicles with limited visibility. It's really not a good idea a lot of the time. A lot are also injured by vehicles left hooking them. I've had it myself a number of times when the car that has literally just overtaken me decides to turn left.

And a cyclist should not be going at 30mph towards a zebra crossing when vehicles are stopped at it.

caroldecker · 18/11/2015 14:50

The lesson to learn is not whether you were right or wrong - in an accident, you in a car will be unhurt and the cyclist will hurt/killed. It does not matter whether it was their fault, you will be very upset.
Therefore check both mirrors before pulling off.

AnUtterIdiot · 18/11/2015 14:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

middlings · 18/11/2015 14:57

I think this is a combination of inexperience and someone being a prat (someone bashing your car and shouting makes them a prat - I don't give a stuff what their mode of transport was).

However, I'm not sure if cyclists are allowed to undertake cars in that situation. If they do, surely it's at their own risk!? Although admittedly that wouldn't make you feel any better if you did knock him over!

To be on the safe side, I'd just check your mirrors more OP - all part of "gaining driving experience" experience and in this instance, no harm, no foul.

amarmai · 18/11/2015 15:02

but no one knows what speed the cyclist was going at and why assume that s/he wd not stop at the zebra? -ve assumptions and judgements re cyclists are v offensive. Why does the car get the benefit of the doubt? To me it sounds like the car passed the cyclist and then took the cyclist's lane altho not turning . how wd a car driver react if another car did that to him/her?Also if the bike was going nearly as fast as the driver then the car really cd have caused a collision as the cyclist cd have run into the car -as pp were saying s/he might not have been able to stop for the zebra. equally hard or harder to stop for a car getting into the cyclst's lane.

buymeabook · 18/11/2015 15:07

Except that the OP didn't say that they had overtaken the cyclist. We only have what the OP says to go on.

Original poster

HopsNim · 18/11/2015 15:19

I didn't overtake, I think I just veered the way the road was starting to bend if you see what I mean

OP posts:

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