Incident on my commute home

Unless you already have camera footage, reporting it to the police will just be a depressing massive downer, as you get told that they are not interested and won't do anything.

Just move on and keep the eyes in the back of your head open, as we all must.

You could have stopped and had a fight. if you'd been involved in an incident with a minor I suspect the Police would not be on your side.

I used to get angry driving or riding. But I spend a lot of time driving vans and have gotten used to a lot of stupid actions on top of what I have to put up with when riding. Bike riding time is supposed to fun time, putting out an open hand as if to say "woah you're getting a bit close" is a lot more effective than shaking your head at someone or shouting as that's aggressive and gives someone who has just done something stupid a reason to get angry at you rather than themselves.

Being clothed in lycra with a bike between your legs and silly shoes on is a pretty silly place to be to try and administer some aggro for someone's bad driving.

Why did you apologise? Recognise why you do this.

I really wish I had left a flying elbow out the other day to a beligerant chav pushing her pram down the middle of the road with her chum. Made no effort to get out of the road with their kids and just mouthed off abuse. But I guess we all got home in one piece so Teflon won out.

I'd have considered not quite managing to stop and gone slowly over his bonnet making sure to put dents in it and trying to kick in the windscreen on the way...

After all, he'd pulled out on you...

I think one of the problems that we face, even as Teflon cyclists is that we do sometimes need to make a noise to make other road users aware of our presence. Giving a shout is my preferred method too but some people will perceive that we are being aggresive by shouting (the same goes for other options such as AirZound) and react accordingly. Even the horn our the car has become a weapon of aggresion rather than a method of making others aware of your presence as per it's intended function.

Don't forget to log this on the CTC website http://www.roadjustice.org.uk/ at the very least it will be one more piece of evidence the CTC can use and it benefits all cyclists not just yourself.

I try to be a Teflon cyclist. On the commute its easy when every knob that passes too close I know that 100 yards down the road I'll coast past them and by the time I'm sat having a cuppa they'll still be sat stewing in traffic trying to make sure the car behind them doesn't manage to gain a 2 second advantage over them.

For the OP, nasty experience and there are some grim people out there, the fact you were on a bicycle is probably largely superfluous to the fact that you happened to encounter a wrong' un.
My first advice would be to change your route. Don't ask me why but school run zones are a no go zone around pick up and drop off time - people just lose their heads when it comes to their perception of primacy on the road. Don't go there, flesh always yields to steel in a physical capacity !
As for fronting up, it's not necessarily pleasant discovering a primal violent side and that will become something you have to control or face the consequences. I prefer to think of Botham's line about fighting - why bother, it's a choice between prison or hospital food !
Be the better person !

For the OP, nasty experience and there are some grim people out there, the fact you were on a bicycle is probably largely superfluous to the fact that you happened to encounter a wrong' un.
My first advice would be to change your route. Don't ask me why but school run zones are a no go zone around pick up and drop off time - people just lose their heads when it comes to their perception of primacy on the road. Don't go there, flesh always yields to steel in a physical capacity !
As for fronting up, it's not necessarily pleasant discovering a primal violent side and that will become something you have to control or face the consequences. I prefer to think of Botham's line about fighting - why bother, it's a choice between prison or hospital food !
Be the better person !

For the OP, nasty experience and there are some grim people out there, the fact you were on a bicycle is probably largely superfluous to the fact that you happened to encounter a wrong' un.
My first advice would be to change your route. Don't ask me why but school run zones are a no go zone around pick up and drop off time - people just lose their heads when it comes to their perception of primacy on the road. Don't go there, flesh always yields to steel in a physical capacity !
As for fronting up, it's not necessarily pleasant discovering a primal violent side and that will become something you have to control or face the consequences. I prefer to think of Botham's line about fighting - why bother, it's a choice between prison or hospital food !
Be the better person !

Jump off the bike and give the little shits a good f#¥king pasting. Don't let the little bastards get away with it, simples!

A camera is the last thing you want as that means you've had the nasty experience.

It'd be sods law it would go flat just when you need it.

I'd look for a better route home - this sounds like it could easily happen again and you just don't need the hassle.

Great thread, food for thought here.

OP, I don't think you could do much else. Not sure what the scrote crossing the road was trying to do, perhaps they knew the people in the car? I am assuming the passenger and the road crosser were both young?

Report it to the college definitely, would have thought they would have cctv but it may be pointed at the college rather than out at the surroundings.

And report it to the Law, they may do nothing but if they do there is a chance the perps may behave in a more civilised way in future.

I have been riding on the roads for 37 odd years too, and am pretty aggressive, at least with the incident and its immediate aftermath. I yell at the top of my voice so everyone in the vicinity takes notice, which may or may not be a good thing. I also drop the c word a lot, which I'm not proud of and am trying to stop, but I'm so angered by a careless fool trying to kill me it isn't always easy to contain that rage. I used to punch and slap vehicles, but that will never lessen the conflict.

I don't let anyone "get away" with bad driving around me, whether it's a close passes, turning left across my front, blocking my progress, anything crappy.

What happens next varies. I've had the hard nuts stop and get out, and try and stop me, I've had vehicles alongside me with rabid passengers yelling more expletives, I've not yet had a fight. I suspect I'd come off worst in 90% of fights even without the silly shoes and other cycling paraphernalia. I have had a few keystone cop chases with idiots repeatedly turning round and coming back at me, I've disappeared up alleys before now. Usually the nutter calms down and drives off.

I would love to be more Teflon, but I can't. I also think that attitude lets the guilty party off to do it again, they think it is ok. And it isn't, bad driving is not acceptable. Driving a vehicle in a threatening way should be punishable.

A camera would seem to be the best solution to problems like this.

Since I don't own a camera, I make a mental note of the number plates from the very worst near misses and report them with a 101 call when I get home.
I'm usually assured that the plate will be sent out to local police cars so that they can pull over and speak to the driver if they see the car.

I've got no idea if any of that actually happens, but I usually feel better having reported the incident. If nothing else, at least the report statistics will more accurately reflect the situation on the road.

I second the Contour cameras, video is pretty decent at night too, but remember to shout out reg plates as can be hard to read off the video footage.

Not sure I would have done anything different.

I would report it to the police, purely so they know that the traffic parking is clearly a problem and that consequently drivers are getting themselves into bother with other road users. It sounds like its only a matter of time before there is an accident.

And get a camera, at least then you have something to show to the police if things like this happen again and they would be more likely to act as you will have some hard evidence (plus its always fun to name and shame on YouTube).

sounds like you did exactly the right thing to me.
i perhaps would have added an exaggerated shake of the head and probably would have flipped them the bird over my shoulder as i disappeared off down the road...

You're obviously of a calm disposition. I think I would have ended up in a fight in this situation but that's not a good thing.

I like the teflon cyclist thing. Don't rise to idiot drivers and just carry merrily along your way. In this situation though you've been directly confronted and had to make a fight or flight decision so the teflon thing doesn't apply.

Sounds like you made a decent getaway, but I can understand you feeling shaken up. I think I might have flared up and jumped off the bike, but I DO NOT recommend this, it's just an instinctive thing when the adrenaline jumps.

Unless you have another viable route home, I'd get a camera pronto. You may not be remembered or see them again, but video footage will be a good idea if you do and anything happens. You might also choose to record all your rides on Strava or similar, because video shot at 20mph can look quite quick, so correlating GPS logs that verify your speed are a good idea if anyone tries to shift blame ("the cyclist was going too quick" etc).

I'd recommend a Contour HD Roam. I paid £150 through Amazon for the camera, an SDHC memory card and a helmet mount. Cheaper than a Gopro and doesn't make you look like a tellytubby. HD footage, wide viewing angle, 3.5 hrs battery and you can rotate the lens to ensure the picture is the right way up regardless of where you mount it on the helmet.

Thinking about it, you could also try making a mental note of the principals' name, then namedropping it if confronted, see if that makes any difference.

Don't let it put you off riding though.

Really hard but you just have to forget about it. I just get the axe out at home and split a few logs It's worth testing out some alternative routes (Cyclestreets website is good). Sometimes a route that looks longer, isn't and is a whole lot more pleasant.

I'd report it to the police. The person crossing the road has actually assaulted you, even if you're willing to write it off as minor. The next cyclist(/pedestrian/whatever) who encounters that situation/person might not come off so well.

It is unlikely that anything will come of it - unless there is CCTV cover - but not reporting it hides the fact that these sort of incidents happen (and not just to cyclists) with increasing frequency. At the very least, if there is a marked increase in reports in the area, the police might actually start to look into having a presence there.

The Teflon cyclist just rides on like it never happened, they never get involved in pointless arguments. If there is an incident the Teflon cyclist stays totally frosty and rides on without even looking back, inside the Teflon cyclist is a pool of calm. The Teflon cyclist realised that whilst everyone was trying to kill them, it wasn't personal and dealt with it years ago... even sh1t won't stick to the Teflon cyclist!

Be a Teflon cyclist.