Cyclist gesticulating wildly at me

[FrankyGoesToBollywood]

On the school run this morning which involves driving down a narrow winding lane which is always very busy at school run time. The lane is wide enough for two cars but it’s tight. There are three schools on this route and at school drop off and pick ups times it’s busy and congested. It’s 30mph. This morning I was driving along at about 25mph and a man dressed in serious looking cycling gear was cycling. I overtook him with quite a bit of space, definitely more than the 1.5m minimum, and as I was overtaking I could see a car coming towards me so nipped in in front of him- again definitely more than 1.5m from him. My windows were closed but I could then hear him shouting wildly “what the F was that!!” Over and over again and gesticulating. I didn’t indicate. I’m worried he will report me he was going wild, I genuinely thought I was driving quite considerately until I saw his reaction!

I’m now second guessing how close I was to him when I pulled in in front of him, and thinking he will report me and upload footage. If so how likely is it I will hear about it or be prosecuted?

Cyclists can "take their ride" any time they like, same as any other road user. Perhaps you think someone riding a bike to work takes precedence over a tourist going for a drive at the same time?

It sounds like you were just closer to the guy than you thought and cut in front of him a bit too closely.

Getting cut up on a bike is scary, just be a bit more mindful that you are dealing with actual people.

Because the driver has stated that the road is tight for 2 cars. So she’d have slowed down when she was the car coming the other direction (you’d have hoped, but seeing as she freely admits she cut the cyclist up and wasn’t sure she did anything wrong, who knows).

A fit cyclist in a 20mph limit road is doing 20mph. They can do this speed more easily than a car as they don’t have to worry about having to squeeze through if a car comes the other way. The car overtakes in an inappropriate place, has to cut up the cyclist then slow down to squeeze past the car.

FFS, not always practical to walk for various reasons, I would not have walked 'narrow winding lanes' with my kids either for the safty aspect.
OP could have been more aware of space, distance and on coming cars, they aren't exactly small so she must have not had full view, a bend perhaps?
I doubt very much that the police would be bothered with charging anyone in the situation described. It was dangerous but there was no accident and no one was hurt.
OP needs to move on from this hopefully having learnt from it.

Well perhaps if it was a bend, the OP shouldn't have overtook the cyclist!

If you drive and think that's acceptable, do other road users a favour and hand your license back.

If you saw a car coming as you were overtaking and had to 'nip in', you shouldn't have overtaken. You need a clear road in front of you and enough time to safely move back over well ahead of the bike.

I'm a driver and a cyclist. Some cyclists are utter twats and don't help themselves, but it sounds like you were in the wrong here.

I never said over taking on a bend was acceptable, it is obviously not the right thing to do at all. Nor was I defending the OP in anyway. I think you are reading too much into it.
No, I don't drive because there are too many twats driving anyway, as proved by the number of accidents involving cars and other vehicles.
Where I live it is a bit of a joke the number of cars that end up on their roofs, thankfully people aren't ususally hurt but it is still a regular thing.

Totally agree with this.

I have colleagues who cycle to work in all the gear. So he may have been going to work. Either way, when you are on a bike tou are extremely vulnerable and cars need to understand this. It's not like pulling suddenly in front of a car - which you wouldn't have done. If he has a camera he will probably send the footage to the police.

The police do take action. There doesn't need to have been an accident.

Find that hard to believe when they are so stretched under funded and crime seems to be on the increase.

Sounds like you were far too close to him. The law is give a cyclist as much space as you would a car to overtake and at least 1.5m. We saw in Covid how poor people are at estimating 1m when standing near someone so it is more difficult when you are in a car and calculating the car space plus road space. I cycle and honestly people are terrible at estimating. I’ve had it all - “I was nowhere near you” - when I could have reached out and touched their window, let alone a wing mirror. To “I didn’t see you” well yeah if you’re looking at your phone instead of checking your mirrors you wouldn’t. And in general people do seem to hate cyclists. Not saying all cyclists are saints but not all drivers are either and cyclists are more likely to hurt themselves, drivers more likely to hurt other people.

So OP I’d say you were likely in the wrong. Next time pass as you would a car.

There are things that irritate me about cyclists, however if you had to pull in quickly, then you overtook in the wrong place. The chances of you being prosecuted are minimal but that should not be your main concern - how would you have felt if you had knocked him off? Drivers tend to be really impatient with cyclists - I had a driver beep at me trying to pressure me to over take just before a bend on saturday - had i done it, I would have hit a car head on. So just learn from it and be careful about where you overtake - you and only you are responsible for that

Cutting back in front of a moving bike when you have less than 2m to spare sounds like a pretty dangerous manoeuvre to me…I think the cyclist has ever right to be upset!

serious looking cycling gear

These days an integral part of serious cycling gear is a helmet cam.

Many forces / local authorities have online schemes for the public to report anti social driving, and allow the upload of footage. They do prosecute if the standard of driving is bad enoug. The chances of that happening in the OPs case are low I expect, but if the cyclist had a camera then I wouldn’t rule it out completely!

https://unitedkingdom1cpp-portal.digital-policing.co.uk/serip/appeal/operation-crackdown-report-anti-social-driving-road-traffic-offences-2025

I think it's rather telling that the OP is more concerned about being reported, than she is about putting a cyclist in danger

lets hope he had one then! I wondered if OP was alluring to lycra and a helmet (and no doubt would have complained too if he wouldn't have worn one).

Umm, loads of people don’t have any schools within walking distance.
Or roads that are safe for walking on the journey to school.

I was thinking this too!

Hi Op, it sounds like you know you both recklessly overtook and cut the cyclist up when you ‘nipped back in’.
I’m not sure what you can expect to happen if he does report you and I guess it depends also on whether he was filming or not. I’m a cyclist (and occasional driver) and no longer cycle roads like the ones you describe because it’s lethal. Far too many drivers behave exactly as you describe, 1.5 metres is the minimum recommended and absolutely no distance especially when the cyclist themselves could well have been doing twenty. Please take more care in the future.

Lots of people drive to the local town for schools though. We don’t know where OP lives.

Tbh it sounds like you didn’t give enough space. If a car appeared midway through your overtake and you had to nip back in it very much suggests you didn’t have enough visibility to overtake!

Hi OP. You are getting rinsed here. I don't want to join in the pile on, but gently, if someone feels that their life has been put in danger by the recklessness of another, I can forgive them reacting as the 'Chimp' (those who have read the book will know what I mean).

At the end of the day, cyclists don't have the protection of airbags, seat belts, crumple zones and a metal framed protective cage, and as motorists we must err on the side of caution when meeting them on the roads, however slow and frustrating they may be.

I am sure this experience was unpleasant for you. It is never ok to feel threatened as a woman encountering a man. But maybe some introspection on your driving style and priorities might help some good come of this encounter.

I think Asdada means that the cyclist did not need to adjust their behaviour IN THIS SITUATION. It was not up to the cyclist to suddenly have to brake or slow down to allow OP to cut back in because she did not anticipate that a car might be coming the other way before they finished their overtaking manoeuvre.