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I come back home from my rides along a very busy stretch of dual carriageway. I enter into the left lane, keep left & take a left off the carriageway into the village (where there's a subway under the busy road). I gave up, years ago, trying to take the shorter route of changing into the right hand lane, keeping right & later taking a right turn as fairly impossible on a bicycle (they get upset when you move across & then start beeping at you as you're holding them up).
Anyway, yesterday I found my usual entry into the village closed off, all the traffic was in the right hand lane (the correct lane for going across the big roundabout). I spotted a gap in the traffic and nipped across into the right hand lane. The result was a long & protracted blare on a horn from a car on my back wheel & the driver coming around me (whilst calling me a w@nker) shooting off down the inside lane, undercutting the line off traffic & taking the roundabout from the wrong lane.
I realise that I hadn't indicated & that this was very much my error. I obviously made an error of judgement and usually consider myself a careful cyclist, although the I felt that the reaction was rather OTT; it rather shock me up.
I don't actually know whether I pulled a stupid move (it felt reasonable at the time bar the forgetting to indicate) or if the the driver was simply unhappy to find a slow cyclist in front of him and having to slow down to accommodate my move. However I've convinced myself that I was an idiot and it's rather frightened me. I'll try and put it down as one of those things and learn from it (I'll also get of the bike and walk along the closed section of road rather than trying to negotiate the traffic.
Perhaps I should have stayed in the inside lane & crossed the roundabout that way but there would have been another area of potential conflict as I would have found myself moving into the fast moving lane of traffic crossing the roundabout as I exited.
Anyway, do I just accept that I probably screwed up, learn from it and carry on or, as I seem to be doing, try and avoid heavy traffic areas as much as I can?
Anyway, do I just accept that I probably screwed up, learn from it and carry on or, as I seem to be doing, try and avoid heavy traffic areas as much as I can?
That's what I do. Keep on keeping on 🙂
The result was a long & protracted blare on a horn from a car on my back wheel & the driver coming around me (whilst calling me a w@nker) shooting off down the inside lane, undercutting the line off traffic & taking the roundabout from the wrong lane
TBH it sounds like the driver was a bit of an idiot, there's a lot of 'em about.
On a bike we're vulnerable, shame many motorists don't give us some latitude instead of attitude on the roads.
Meh, you only ever have control of one element of that interaction; you.
You made a mistake, lapse in judgement, whatever you want to call it.
You've recognised it, acknowledge it and just accept that shit happens.
Nobody died or was hurt, at most a driver with the EQ of a brick got a pit panicked and vented at you.
No need to break from your routine on account of that.
Your one lapse in judgement put you at risk from shouty driver, pretty much every ride I do on the roads I am put at risk by the drivers lack of judgement so I am think I am allowed the odd one.
Would you indicating have made any difference to the horn-blaring motorist? I doubt it.
Let it go and move on. 👍
You need to stop taking these incidents to heart. You essentially just filtered past some queueing traffic (as cyclists and motorcyclists do all the time) but then some knob shouted at you. He's just a knob. Stop taking it personally.
Yeah... Possibly a minor error on your part and a predictable reaction from a ****. He was probably pleased that you didn't indicate as it gave him his excuse to kick off.
Let it go. It wasn't personal. There would have been no "incident" if it had been a considerate driver.
Agree with all the above.
Would you indicating have made any difference to the horn-blaring motorist? I doubt it.
Let it go and move on. 👍
Agree - that fact that you didn't indicate just gave the driver an excuse... they probably already have a psychotic hatred for cyclists!
There's no need for it.
Plus, a horn is to alert someone of your presence (to avoid a potential accident)... not to announce your fragile emotional state to the general public LOL.
I'm like you OP, I dwell on this sort of stuff for far too long, even when I haven't done anything wrong. I can't tell you how often I've apologised when someone else puts me in danger/done something wrong. I think it's just my coping mechanisms.
I don't know what to suggest to get over it, other than get back on the bike.
Thanks all, yes I do dwell on things too much and am a worrier.
As above, normally I'd avoid that stretch of road like the plague, moving between lanes of bumper to bumper traffic on a slow bicycle when no one is going to let you in, is a nightmare.
I will carry on as before 👍
As far as I'm aware, indicating is optional on bicycles in the highway code, as it's not always possible to do so.
Any driver who chooses to do anything other than a quick tap of the horn to let a cyclist know they are there is a pr*ck.
Blaring on the horn is an anger response and there is no situation where that is even slightly appropriate where a cyclist is concerned. So you made a mistake, sure, but they the driver got angry and made a number of stupid decisions.
It's a shame we have to share the road with people like that really (as drivers and cyclists).
Rang me bell on a path yesterday and got glared at.Dont ring my bell and people shout at me for not having one.
Yup, I get shouted at near daily for not ringing my bell on the cycle or towpath... some people take a polite "excuse me please" as an invitation for a ruddy faced rant about bells. You can only feel sorry for them. And, like you, occasionally ringing the bell invites a similar rant about "going too fast", because the bell makes them jump and assume you're going fast and are telling them to move out the way quickly or they'll get hit (the reason I go for the more chilled polite few words instead normally).
Just remember that you have as much right to your space on the road as drivers, you checked, saw a space and moved into it. It was the driver’s responsibility to allow you that space and the business with the horn was totally his problem.
In my experience, the last year or so has seen an increasing number of motorists who see cyclists as second rate road users which again is their problem. I find that the best way to deal with them is to smile and wave, it helps me deal with the situation much better than getting upset, angry or worked up.
I had a similar learning experience.
i turned right onto a bridleway from a bit of local b road. My memory is that i indicated and checked over my shoulder. But the driver behind went for the over take and had to brake to avoid hitting me.
I’m sure the law was in my side. He has better visibility than me and as over taking vehicle has a responsibility. But i put upset him (not a big deal) but i also put myself at risk.
So i now never turn right into that bridlway. Car drivers are simply unable to understand my actions. I’m not going to enjoy explaining from my wheel chair to a driver why they were in the wrong. So i pull left onto a track then cross to the bridleway when it’s clear.
I think the key thing is that you aren’t going to do this again. Lesson learnt, move on
From the OP, pretty hard to know without having seen it happen (and the reaction sounds a bit melodramatic) but is it possible that you nipped into what he felt was his safe distance to the car in front of him - or more likely that he noticed the gap just before you did and he'd begun to accelerate into it ?
Regardless, a lack of squealing tyres etc means it was his ego that took the major hit
"reflective practice"
What happened? What could I have done differently? How could this have been avoided? How can I ensure this does not happen again?
No blame on anyone, but learn from the experience. It will make you a better rider.
Every near miss I have I go through this process even if legally I am not at fault.
Thanks for the primary school cycling proficiency lesson there. 🙄
I make mistakes.
I reckon the car driver panicked and the reaction was swearing and sounding the horn?
Is it possible that you switched lanes without realising a car was already making their move?
A Google/bing maps view of the area will help me understand the area better.
I have a similar busy dual carriageway with a right turn in my town that I hate and just avoid as I cannot seem to get it right (holding up traffic/pulling across lanes etc). Don’t dwell on it and move on.
is it possible that you nipped into what he felt was his safe distance to the car in front of him
Is it possible that you switched lanes without realising a car was already making their move?
It's perfectly possible, and perfectly possible that I did something stupid. I should have signalled and, with hindsight, probably should have looked fully back over my shoulder (rather than glanced) to make it clear I was moving. However it 'felt' a reasonable move at the time. When he was blaring his horn he was right on my back wheel but whether he had suddenly realised that I was there or I tried to move into too small a gap I don't know. Because of the reaction I automatically assumed that I'd screwed up (whilst realising that I hadn't signalled).
Too much re-thinking and ruminating leads to mis-remembering so probably best just to mark it down as a learning experience.
probably should have looked fully back over my shoulder
Recently fitted one of these to my commuter's drops. I actually can't believe I went so many years without one. It's so bloody useful, especially on all the backroads I ride home. It may look shit, but is definitely worth it!
I've got a mirror similar to that on my gravel bike but the Swift's flat bar with bar ends. I have wondered about a fork mounted mirror.
Anyway, having not quite moved on, I did manage to recover & repair some footage from the formatted SD card in the GoPro. It's a bit broken up & jerky (and I'm not sure the audio 100% ties in with the video) but I'm now much more inclined to the view that actually he was just angered by the fact that I was simply there, impeding his stately progress.
On of the reasons I stopped riding the dual carriageway in the first place was someone objecting to me being in the "fast lane" (the right hand lane) when I actually needed to be there to turn off (also beeped at for holding up cars who couldn't get past).
I got honked at again yesterday, simply for existing. There was a bin lorry stopped in the opposite lane causing a long tail back. This meant that nothing behind me could get past until I'd cleared it a minute or two further on.
The first car past was fine, went nice and wide so no problem, but the second felt the need for a long blast on his horn as he shot by.