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?

Well don't you think it was likely he was going to work? Is he not allowed to cycle to work in case a car on the school run decides to try to crush him?

All the people talking about roads that aren’t safe for walking. What makes them unsafe then? People driving cars. Funny that. Needs to be far more penalties for poor driving. we can’t keep normalising that people don’t belong on roads and it’s just for motor vehicles. Apart from motorways obviously

Also it’s irrelevant what the cyclist was wearing - serious cycling gear or not, let’s be considerate around other people when driving however they are choosing to get around.

OP also didn’t indicate so would have been a huge shock. Thinking about what could easily have happened cyclist thrown from the bike, perhaps on OPs car, perhaps over the car and onto the road either in front of OP or oncoming car. Either way it was probably terrifying. Yeah, I’d have been yelling too.

I’m feeling sensitive about this today as a colleague came off his bike at the weekend, no cars involved but pedestrians on the bike path and he oversteered to avoid them, clipping a wall with his handlebar, coming off the bike in the process. He’s broken both elbows, a toe, several ribs and lots of bruising. No head injury thankfully. But he’s very shaken up and that was a minor accident.

Gotta love the mouth frothing cyclists still twittering on hours later.

1.5 m is an insane distance to leave in front of a cyclist. OP, do you really not see the difference between leaving 1.5 m to the side when overtaking a cyclist Vs pulling in in front of them with only 1.5 m between you? Really? Imagine you're on a motorway, and a car (safely) drives past you to the side with 1.5m between you. Then darts straight in front of you leaving 1.5m between you. Can you see the difference now? absolutely irresponsible and dangerous driving - you shouldn't be on the road.

Bike path or shared path but also doesn't matter either way.

Interesting to note that the rule of the most vulnerable user (in this case pedestrians) goes out of the window when the other party is a cyclist.

I think contributing to a thread only 2 hours after the OP is perfectly fine. I also think my post was perfectly reasonable, not "twittering"

And yes, I do "froth" if I get cut up by a car.

"It's OK to drive on the pavement, because sometime pedestrians put themselves in danger by jaywalking when it suits them"

See how ridiculous that argument is?

Yeah absolutely, the highway code guidance isn't to pull in with only 1.5m between you and the car in front, is it? That's the distance between the saddle and the front wheel. It's nuts to do it to a car and nuts to do it to a bike.

And I'm sorry, if someone pulls out of a side road in front of you and gives you no time to avoid their idiocy then it is, absolutely, their fault both in spirit and in law.

OP knows this, which is why she asked.

As a cyclist I will always take primary position on the road if there isn't space to safely overtake to stop cars pulling this nonsense. In London most of the roads are 20mph anyway so I'm usually moving as fast as them and they've thought it's OK to risk killing me to get to the lights 30s earlier. As a car driver I won't overtake either and I don't care if someone wants to lean on their horn. Just wait. More haste less speed etc.

The irony that the person who has posted most on the thread is accusing others of 'mouth frothing'.

A motorist did exactly this to my brother many years ago. Overtook and pulled straight back in front of him and then had to do an emergency stop because of a car coming the other way on little more wide than a single track road. Brother went straight into the back of him, through the back windscreen and ended up in hospital for three months with a broken femur and other broken bones and concussion.

Even if it was 1.5 metres, it's not enough time for a cyclist to stop.

The OP is insanely dangerous and shouldn't be on the roads if she genuinely thinks what she did wasn't dangerous!

Pulling straight in in front of a cyclist? I’m not surprised. As a user of the road with horses i can confidently say that most motorists are clueless.

You cut him up, should have hung back, and what do his clothes have to do with anything?

I suspect you frightened him terribly and he thought he might die or be badly injured.

And sometimes even the closest school needs driving to, ours is two miles away down national speed limit lanes and a main road, none of which have paths or verges. Try walking that with a toddler and reception age child!

Cyclists seem to love getting outraged at cars, almost as much as they love putting pedestrians in danger by cycling on the pavement and through red lights.

This particular cyclist was just going about their day and was put in danger by a poor choice by a driver.

What's the point in bringing up how some other cyclists cycle? Just looks like whataboutary

well no, the rule hasn’t gone out the window. I don’t know where you’re getting that. He didn’t plough into anyone, he respected that despite them not being on the “right” place. The pedestrian is always top of the hierarchy regardless where they are. and plenty of dozy pedestrians wandering about without looking. He at no point suggested they were in the wrong or blamed them but walking two abreast blocking a cycle lane meant he had to evade them. It was an underpass so he was going downhill. Hard to stop quickly and he oversteered. A bike would have been going faster so wouldn’t have been an issue. Plenty of time to adjust speed and not need to swerve.

Obviously he was going to avoid them as well aware he could hurt them and probably himself too.

i came off my bike also by avoiding a pedestrian, years ago, I don’t want to hurt anyone, so I swerved and braked hard - I didn’t have much time he jumped off a bus that was indicating and pulling away from a bus stop so I didn’t expect him to get off. Drivers don’t usually open doors on moving buses or perhaps the teen hit the door open button that was on older buses. Driver of bus could have opened door who knows who’s at fault but one of those things. Either way as a cyclist you know if you’re coming off your bike it’s gong to hurt. Went straight over the bars of course, I broke my helmet, blacked out, had concussion, tore all my clothes and had impressive bruises for weeks. And I wasn’t actually going that fast given I was near a bus stop.

im just saying I know how it feels to get a fright and think of how easily you can get seriously hurt.

I think if you have to ‘nip in’ so suddenly after overtaking a cyclist then it was an unsafe manoeuvre as you obviously couldn’t see far enough ahead to be overtaking in the first place.

It’s worrying how many people have such little patience on the road, choosing to do risky and unsafe overtakes instead of waiting an extra 30 seconds or whatever for a clear road. Just take a deep breath and relax 🧘‍♀️

There's definitely a new breed of cyclist on the road these days. I label them the climate change cyclist. They are angrier than the 'normal' cyclist because they are 'saving the planet' from horrible pollutants like cars and vans. They set out from home angry and arrive home even angrier by the look of things.

If you say so.

Are you also saying that this cyclist was wrong to be scared by this drivers lethal actions?

There's definitely an old breed of driver on the road these days. I label them the climate-change denial driver. They are angrier than the 'normal' driver because they are determined to prove everyone wrong, especially cyclists and horse riders minding their own business, and continue polluting the planet with impunity. They set out from home angry and arrive home even angrier by the look of things.

You are driving a machine that can seriously injure or kill someone. You have a responsibility to be careful.

Presuming this person was cycling 20 kmh (12.5mph) and has an average reaction speed of 1.375 seconds, he needs about 9.5m to come to a stop.

Your estimate of bicycle stopping distance is wrong. Or you confused distance to the side with distance in front. See graphs. Source: https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/15572/what-is-the-braking-stopping-distance-for-bicycles

I definitely see more angry drivers than angry cyclists! And there's a lot of cyclists around where I live. The most common situation is drivers annoying each other from what I can see.

He may well take it further. Operation Snap means anyone can upload a report and camera footage. The police can, and do, take action.

It does sound like you cut him up and it came close to him going into the back of you because of your driving.

Many cyclists (me included) now have front and back cameras because of too many close shaves like this.

I'm a driver too and very careful in the narrow country lanes around us.