“I have no idea what he thought I had done,” said Jane Barrett. “I just went past him and then stopped at a red light. All I can think is because I was turning left, I was close to the kerb, so he couldn't get past. They like to weave around traffic, don't they?”
Barrett told the Examiner that after her manoeuvre on Huddersfield Road in Barnsley three weeks ago, the cyclist she had passed pulled alongside and started banging on the car roof.
She said he also hit the passenger window where her 15 year old daughter was sitting.
Barrett pulled into a layby and as she got out of the car, she claims the cyclist launched his bike towards her from around six feet away, denting the metal and scratching the paint.
"If I had not been holding the door, he would have trapped my leg,” she said. “He was in a proper rage, foaming. My daughter was terrified. She said she thought he was going to hit me."
At this point it seems the cyclist left and Barrett started following him.
At Old Mill Lane, he left the road to follow the route of the former canal.
Barrett said he then “popped out” at Cundy Cross, a couple of miles away, and she again followed him, losing him a little while later at Ardsley.
She reported the initial confrontation to police, and believes she has since identified the man on Strava.
She also said several people had contacted her on Facebook, complaining of similar attacks, after she posted photos taken during her pursuit.
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47 comments
could also be:
cyclist cut-up, doored and chased across town by road-rage motorist
another good reason to have cameras if that was the case. often an incompetent motorist will describe perfectly legal cycling such as filtering and primary position as 'weaving all over the road'.
You are right !
Also, the chase was inexcusable and provocative by the driver👎
Clearly, driver's intention was to harras and intimidate the vulnerable cyclist, probably used their car as a 1.5 ton battering ram and force cyclist off the road - a know fact of occurance.
I'd be annoyed if a driver overtook me to get to a red light whilst swinging in close to the curb to prevent me from filtering.
However, I'd usually go for a passive aggressive overtake, position my bike right in front of the car and then when the lights turn green, slowly pull away and maybe experience difficulty clipping in.
or hop-off and walk over to press the pedestrian crossing button, hoping that the ped crossing sequence starts before their green light, allowing you to nonchalantly stroll across the junction then carry on your way
Green man before a green light? LOL. You don't use many pedestrian crossings do you?
Not in Barnsley, no. I suspect they're not quite as good as these...
https://youtu.be/knbVWXzL4-4?t=313
On a standalone pelican/toucan crossing of course not, but there are some multi light junctions I have used that will show a red light to road traffic and will not show a green man until the "beg button" is used.
Basically you'd further piss someone off who alread tried to kill you once. Robocop got away with it and so did Jack Sparrow, but you're neither of those.
You're assuming that they're trying to kill me (and doing a poor job of it) rather than simple driving incompetence.
It hasn't backfired on me yet, but if it does then at least I should get some interesting cam footage and there'll inevitably be other witnesses too.
Dozy bint extreme close passes cyclist, pushing him over the edge. He angrily thumps her car, causing no damage, and gives her an earful. So she accelerates ahead, pulls into a layby, puts her most powerful Karen face on and has a go. Cyclist, pissed off with yet another clown who doesn't know how to drive safely, loses his rag, chucks his bike at the car, tells her to get in the sea, and rides off. Karen gives chase. She loses him, but showing deep concern for her "terrified" daughter, finds him again and gives chase, raising the possibility of another "terrifying" confrontation and increased Facebook points.
Local newspaper writes clickbait bullshit article from Karen's point of view. Cyclist remains at home, wondering what the hell it will take to get people to drive responsibily.
Could be, but if there have been a number of credible reports of similar incidents involving the same man, then could just as easily be someone angry, with a short fuse and who needs to be brought in before something more serious happens.
As others have said, cyclists just don't randomly attack drivers without severe provocation, and her description of the incident is from her entirely oblivious windscreen perspective.
A possible scenario is that the lights were red, but she overtook the cyclist anyway and forced him to do an emergency stop to avoid being pushed off by the side of her car. That would certainly get me wound up enough to do something like that.
I don't have any idea what she might have done to him to push him over the edge, but it was probably something. Maybe even putting his health and/or life in danger. A lot of motorist are completely oblivious to the danger and risk they are causing us, cocooned as they are in the big metal box.
It's the "They like to weave around traffic, don't they?" comment that gets me, surely the act of "properly" overtaking (giving enough room of course) and then pulling in right up to the kerb (seems strange...) involves a amount of weaving about itself, doesn't it?
And of course the pointlessness of overtaking ("properly") when approaching a red light....
See, I don't condone any attack on anybody who had done nothing to deserve it but I wished we had footage of the start as she apparently went past him to stop at the traffic lights to turn left. The junction road is very narrow for two cars side by side so how much room did she give when she went past initially?
It would have to be a really psychotic cyclist (and there are probably some) who would have been upset at the small amount of space if that is the only issue here.
I also don't like her comment "They like to weave around traffic don't they". No they like to filter when there is space and lots of traffic ahead that is stationary.
of course if all drivers would take the same line when in stationary traffic there would be no need for weaving, but some like to keept their car out towards the white lines, (and then complain about undetaking cyclists) while otherwise will pull right over to the kerb to prevent filtering, as this driver describes having done. Of course after overtaking in order to stop at a red light when she knew she was about to turn left. Enough for a complaint.
I have certainly had plety of drivers who start an overtake and then move in to the kerb before they are fully past, especially when they are slowing down due to traffic/red lights. to do this when about to turn left is the extreme entitlement of the MGIF driver.
Throwing the bike at the car seems so odd though, I can't imagine treating any of my bikes in such a way. Not to mention the time taken to stop, unclip, dismount and pick the bike up, all before she could get out of the door when she apparently was in the layby waiting for him.
She misjudged his speed...
Somehow I don't believe we're being given the full picture by this person.
I've never heard of a cyclist randomly attacking a car in this way but a person might be enraged enough to do so, rightly or wrongly, having felt their life threatened by bad or dangerous driving.
She admits driving close to the kerb to prevent him filtering but then accuses them(?) of weaving. A case of someone putting their Myway Code ahead of the Highway Code? Could have allowing space to filter, as per the Highway Code, have prevented this?
She claims he threw his bike from 6' away then rode away. They're some pretty tough wheels that you'd risk doing that to and who does that with a decent bike anyway (apart from the pros)?
Then as she follows him (far too close but she may be following her Myway Code on safe distancing) who's taking photos of him? Maybe mobile phone use whilst driving is where this all started.
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