Your Dad is a terrible driver!

[Massy]

I was out on my bike this morning, and met a driver who did a 3 point turn in front of me. He did not notice me until I rang my bell, right next to his window. I pointed out that as a cyclist, my life was in his hands and he wasn’t looking.

Anyway my parting gambit ‘your Dad is a terrible driver, was addressed to his 2 children in the car, aged about 10 & 12. It made me feel better. He said it was wrong to talk to children like that. Your thoughts?

This screams reverse to me too. How tedious.

Were you cycling past when he started the 3 point turn or did you arrive after he started the manoeuvre?

Cyclist like yourself drive me insane
I bet you're one of those that vere all over the road so us car drivers can't overtake you superior bicycle riders 😤

Were you visible when he started the manoeuvre?

Did it make you feel hard picking on the children?

As others have said, it's quite frankly a horrible dick move to involve innocent children by slagging off their dad (who they love) to them and it probably will play on their minds because they love their parent and in their eyes, you are just some rude, horrible stranger.
Another good question a PP asked is whether he was already performing the 3 point turn. You obviously didn't think it was that dangerous otherwise why would you have ridden up to his window and passive aggressively rung your bell?

You're incredibly lucky that it wasn't a road raging lunatic, you decided to be smart with.

Yes it was wrong to bring the kids into it. You said your piece to the driver, you should have left it at that. Don't beat yourself up over it but in the heat of the moment, you made a mistake.

Given that he must have been in front of you, then you should have stopped to let him complete his manouver. That would be the correct and legal thing to do.

But you didn't do that OP, did you. You tried to squeeze past him while he was mid-three point turn, and then shouted at him and scared his kids.

Numpty.

Your reaction is why cyclists get a bad reputation

You understand that as a cyclist you also need to be aware of avoiding incident or impact with a vehicle (like waiting when someone is manoeuvring) just as much as they need to be aware of you, it's not entitlement. Noone on the road cyclist or vehicle should assume anyone is perfect and won't make mistakes as that's just asking for trouble. Op hasn't come back to confirm what actually happened other than they harassed his children but from what we did get it looks like they weren't taking due care either.

I'm trying to visualise this scenario but can't really, maybe you could clarify where you were when he started the manoeuvre.

If I was cycling along and saw a car reversing back and forward I would stay clear.

But even if the driver was careless you are a bit of a dick and very childish. They're kids ffs, they probably thought you were batshit

You had no argument with the children, your argument was with him.

Why would you not just stop. if someone's doing a 2 point turn in the road ahead of you, the same way that you would if driving a car?

I'm a cyclist and poor driving and the aggression some drivers demonstrate towards cycllists is a problem, but you created this situation and were ridiculously childish too.

I wouldn't give someone shit with their kids in the car

Could you do a diagram ?

People doing manoeuvres are meant to stop when traffic comes, people telling OP that she was wrong in that respect, are wrong.

I would probably wait, because it's polite, but it's not required

You were wrong because you
A) should have stopped and
B) shouldn't have dragged his children into it.

Good job you had chance to ring your bell next to his car window.
How did that even happen?

Legally I suppose the driver was in the wrong for manoeuvring and not seeing you. But, you rang your bell and it did the job it was intended to do and caught his attention to the situation. Bikes can be hard to see and mistakes can be made - that is where this story should’ve ended.

But your follow-up abuse using his children is the kind of behaviour that gives cyclists the reputation they have and was uncalled for. But that is just my opinion.

Pathetic.
You are a cyclist who things the Highway Code does not apply to you.
If you were driving a car and you saw another driver doing a 3-point turn, would you
(a) slow down, stop and wait for the driver to finish their manoeuvre
(b) pull up next to the driver and insult him to his two young children?

Even if I have misunderstood how it happened, you should not bring the children into it - it’s weak to direct insults to children rather than speaking to the adult.

My DN, who is a similar age, would have been very upset to have heard abuse about their father from another adult.

This. Does your bicycle not have brakes?

If you saw him doing a three point turn, it would make sense to slow right down, or stop completely, as I would have, Cyclists are vulnerable, so you do need to be responsible for yourself. Belittling The Father to his children was a very low blow, and pointless.

Yes I understand that.

I also understand that, when manoeuvring - or indeed just driving - a driver should be paying attention to their surroundings. They shouldn't not notice a cyclist or pedestrian in the vicinity, they should be aware that there is a person there. Not blithely carry on and assume that person will stop or move. The onus is not solely on the responsibility of the cyclist or pedestrian to avoid the car.

The driver wasn't paying attention. The OP was allowed to be on the road, and it's ok to get upset when other road users are being negligent.

Do you think your life is a sitcom?

But a driver wouldn't sit and beep and shout if a car continued their manoeuvre, they would wait for them to finish as it's less dangerous even if the driver should technically stop and wait for indication to continue. Maybe the driver did see them but they were really far away at that point or was already in the process of manoeuvring and thought it was common sense the cyclist would stop. Cyclist could have been flying along assuming they would stop and maybe the driver should have taken more care both are negligent here. There's too many variables, I'm not saying the driver isn't at fault but I'm saying the cyclist is for how they reacted and put themselves in a dangerous situation. They weren't upset they were an asshole, shouting in a car at kids is ok?