Near Miss of the Day 99: “You must have rode into me”

Given that Brighton is the only place with a Green Party MP, it might be worthwhile contacting Caroline Lucas if you're getting nowhere with local plod?

caroline.lucas.mp [at] parliament.uk

The frustrating thing here is that the police weren't interested. If that's not a dangerous pass what is? The cyclist showed extreem restraint because it's not for him to impose punishment for a traffic law infringement, but then the police won't do anything about it. The only way twonks like that will ever get the message is if they are prossecuted. It's not a question of vindictiveness, it's a means of education. 

Remarkable restraint, not sure I'd be quite so restrained.

An example of why there needs to be periodic driving retesting, with much increased frequency for pensioners.

Think of the benefits:

1. Increased revenue for the govt.

2. Increased employment for driving examiners.

3. Get bad drivers off the roads.

Fair play mate, dunno how you kept your cool.

http://rate-driver.co.uk/GV57UKL

Number 3 in the worst drivers ranking in February 2018.  Keep up the good work, and let's see if we can get it to No 1.

Just shared it on fb.

The in-laws live in Hove. We ride there from London a lot. Always via Devil’s Dyke and never Ditchling purely to avoid Brighton. Clueless coffin dodgers (and others) everywhere. Admittedly in Hove too, but all town riding avoidable is preferable.

For all its green credentials, Brighton’s not a city set up for riding on its roads.

I've seen this tit driving recently and it's not just cyclists that they don't know how to deal with but pedestrians and junctions too.

"How am I supposed to give you a meter and a half?" Er, move over to the other fucking lane?

Have you met Valbrona, he has both this site and the Daily Mail read to him...

The driver knew it was his fault. If there was the slightest chance of a cyclist having hit him, he'd have been out of the car checking it for scratches. And it really is a lovely car. How I wish I could afford a Nissan Qashqai so I didn't have to cycle to work.

Enviable skills shown in both bike handling and restraint!

If he thinks that's any kind of acceptable standard of driving he ought to consider handing in his license and using taxis in future. Ignorant old twat.

Well handled, very composed. Hitting him would have done no-one any good.  Good comment 'I do own the road as much as you do'.  Exactly.

What really pisses me off is 'You people are so arrogant'. What people who happen to ride bikes? All of them? That idiotic perception is the result of thinking that if you're on a bike you are inferior to someone in a car and should act accordingly. If you just ride and act normally and claim your rights and your bit of the road you are therefore being 'arrogant'. You should be humble and give way and preferably disappear altogether. Who is i t being 'arrogant'?

What a twat. I hope he reads all these comments and goes apoplectic. Or, preferably, sees what an idiot he is.

I was nearly hit twice in Brighton last weekend, each time someone pulling out from a parking spot at speed and obviously without checking behind. Must be the sea air.

So if that bloke had run into a pedestrian would he also have blamed them for walking into the side of his car or something?  To approach someone from behind, hit them, and then make out that it is somehow *their* fault seems laughable.

And yet he probably thinks that he’s a safe driver, a good, upstanding, right thinking, DM reading member of society... Pillock.

I'd have adjusted my position slightly, a d-lock meeting a wing mirror often changes opinions...

I am very confused by how many such drivers claim cyclists go around 'with a smug look on their face'. I find it hard at 20mph to pay any attention to the face of someone on the other side of the road to me, let alone at 30mph.

Incredible restraint. I'd have hit him.

Wanker!

Disappointed that 'road tax' was not mentioned

should report to www.operationcrackdown.org if it is still quite recent.

Arrogant? What irony.

Daft old twat couldn't wait to pass safely but wanted to chat about it for far longer parked in a junction. Cockmuncher.

But I'm sure, from all the fb and twitter comments, that it really is the cyclists who are arrogant.

Seriously, the attitude of the driver, while not universal, is far too prevalent.  The idea that they own the road and that they don't have to consider anyone else or drive safely around them is embedded in quite a few people.  Andy was right not to waste his breath arguing, somebody that opinionated isn't going to listen to reason.

Rather surprised that the police did nothing, so did Andy try following it up?

Never mind, I'm sure the driver's friends will make his errors clear to him http://rate-driver.co.uk/GV57UKL

Well handled. No point wasting your time on an argument with someone like that, however civil it may be.