A close shave tonight

[johnnyb47]

Hi to all.
Wow , today I thought it was all going to end in tears when a car cut me up. I was minding my own business plodding along ,when I came to a narrow stretch of the road with some tight S bends in it. I heard a car behind me getting closer and as she overtook me on the tight bend another car came round the corner the opposite way. As the overtaking car was now on course to hitting the on coming vehicle she cut right in my path to avoid the oncoming car. My elbow actually hit her mirror. In temper I started effing and jeffing at her as I was now sandwiched between her car and an 8 ft stone wall. She drove off leaving me shaken and angry but to her credit she stopped further up the road and was very apologetic about what happened. I just kept my cool and suggested to her to take more care with cyclists. Is it my imagination but do drivers drive more aggressively and more inconsiderate at the end of the week lol. She was clearly shaken by the whole thing so I hope a lesson was learnt on her behalf. After this I really didn't enjoy the rest of my bike ride. I was just to angry to relax.
Grrrrrr

 

[Profpointy]

Hi to all.
Wow , today I thought it was all going to end in tears when a car cut me up. I was minding my own business plodding along ,when I came to a narrow stretch of the road with some tight S bends in it. I heard a car behind me getting closer and as she overtook me on the tight bend another car came round the corner the opposite way. As the overtaking car was now on course to hitting the on coming vehicle she cut right in my path to avoid the oncoming car. My elbow actually hit her mirror. In temper I started effing and jeffing at her as I was now sandwiched between her car and an 8 ft stone wall. She drove off leaving me shaken and angry but to her credit she stopped further up the road and was very apologetic about what happened. I just kept my cool and suggested to her to take more care with cyclists. Is it my imagination but do drivers drive more aggressively and more inconsiderate at the end of the week lol. She was clearly shaken by the whole thing so I hope a lesson was learnt on her behalf. After this I really didn't enjoy the rest of my bike ride. I was just to angry to relax.
Grrrrrr

There's probably a better driver out there now. A (her) bad mistake, yes, but thankfully you got away with it. By contrast so many drivers tend to blame the cyclist for their own stupidity or even drive at cyclists seemingly on purpose - has happened to me and others on here. All in all a good result, though I'd be very shook up as well.

(edited for grandma and spurling)

 

[Accy cyclist]

That split second decision of do i get my precious car mangled or do i mangle that worthless cyclist and his worthless bike. She chose to save her precious car..

 

[macp]

Glad your ok and well done for keeping your cool with her. Almost exactly the same thing happened to me yesterday. A lady driver in a convertible with child in passenger street overtook me on a blind and narrow bend. I caught her up and shouted that she must have some kind of super vision. A blank glance in the rear view mirror and she was off into oblivion.

 

[dianelc]

I am new to cycling and have only cycled on quiet roads and cycle paths so far. I would love to cycle to work but the road has some steep climbs and is quite bendy. I have seen many cars overtake cyclists on a blind corner and have seen a near miss. I always feel for the cyclists when I am driving slowly behind them with no safe place to pass and they are climbing and aware they are holding up traffic. I just feel jealous that I'm stuck in a car and they can get up the hill on a bike.

 

[Tim Hall]

Glad you weren't badly hurt. Next time you ride that stretch consider riding further out, to emphasise to the drivers behind you that there isn't room for them to overtake.

 

[steve50]

At least the lady had the decency to pull over further along the road and apologise to you, she must have felt bad about what happened enough to want to stop and make amends.
As you state in the op she was overtaking you on a bend and probably thought it was safe to do so, we all make mistakes both as cyclists and motorists, after all we are all human

 

[Katherine]

Glad you are ok, even though you must be still feeling shaken by the close call.

 

[WelshJon]

There's definitely something to be said regarding driving habbits towards the end of the week.
I stopped commuting , the ride in was quiet and lovely yet the ride home people behave in such a manner I felt at risk. Everyone's in a rush to get home to do nothing at 5pm

 

[davidphilips]

theres a long wall i cycle past into ballywalter and know how you must have felt the thought of what could happen just because some nit driver has not the brains to hold back until safe to overtake.

strange thing is you walk into town swinging a hammer about every one will consider you should be locked up and the police will lift you asap, but drive close to a cyclist? nothing socially unacceptable about that, about time cycle awareness was included in driver training.

 

[WelshJon]

Not to start a debate but I must admit that in situations like this I would take the lane and prevent her from coming past

 

[PeteXXX]

You say the car hit your elbow and the person carried on driving away.
That is leaving the scene of an accident and can put many points on a driving licence.
The cynic in me says she could have been more concerned with that than with you.
I'm glad you survived to ride another day!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

You say the car hit your elbow and the person carried on driving away.
That is leaving the scene of an accident and can put many points on a driving licence.
The cynic in me says she could have been more concerned with that than with you.
I'm glad you survived to ride another day!

I really do hope that is the cynic & not the real reason, clearly I wasn't there, but did she actually leave the scene or did she just get to a place where everybody was safe. She made a mistake, knew she had made a mistake & was prepared to admit it, but she has to be given some credit for stopping & making sure johnny was okay. It would have very obviously been better not to have happened in the first place, but the human that doesn't make any mistakes doesn't do anything.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Is it my imagination but do drivers drive more aggressively and more inconsiderate at the end of the week lol.

It's not your imagination, my Friday evening drive home is always very, very different to the Monday to Thursday drives. It's like whacky races... extreme levels of aggression, excess speed, taking silly chances. As Welshjon says everyone seems to be in a hurry. I'm the opposite, I don't have to get up on Sayurday so it doesn't matter if I get home a little later as I'll be going to bed later anyway.

 

[johnnyb47]

I think she just wasn't going to drive off into the sunset but she couldn't stop were it had happened because of the way of road layout. In hindsight if I ever take that section of road again I will ride further away from the edge to stop the temptation of motorists thinking there's a large enough gap to overtake. Thank you all for your support and kind messages .
Johnny :-)