A little bad-driver rant

dave.obrien

So there I was on Bank Holiday Monday, making the most of the weather going for a bike ride with the girlfriend and her mate when we were heading up Howth hill. I had tt'd up there (around 11mins...) myself and come back down to help her up it (she's fairly new, and this 60km spin was her longest yet, fair play to her!). About 700m from the top, the two of us side by side, up comes a car and beeps at us. We move in a bit, but stay 2 abreast, as the other lane was totally empty, but the driver beeps more, and for longer. I turn around to give the driver a smile and a"you can go around us, we won't wobble out under your wheels" when she clips past me, and pulls in so close her rear bumper hits my front wheel. I was pretty appalled; I know a lot of drivers have it in for the 2 abreast thing, and many more are totally unaware of it's legal standing, but to drive so close as to make contact? How obnoxious!

No harm done to me, or the bike, I stayed upright, and even sprinted off away from herself to try to get a full reg, but all I can say is that it was an 03-D-????? green mercedes, driven by a middle aged brunette female of the large sunglasses wearing variety. If that's you, you put a dampner on what was otherwise a very nice cycle. And stop being an obnoxious b1tch with a distorted sense of self entitlement.

Hail 2 Da Thief

Ah that's childsplay! I had a banger thrown at me by someone in a car last week.

dave.obrien

Someone lit a banger inside a car?! There's a Darwin Award waiting for them somewhere...

Raam

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

Ah that's childsplay! I had a banger thrown at me by someone in a car last week.

Pfft, sure I've been shot at by Al Qaeda whilst I was out doing sprints on Bull Island Causeway.

dave.obrien

Raam wrote: »

Pfft, sure I've been shot at by Al Qaeda whilst I was out doing sprints on Bull Island Causeway.

That's nothing, try doing Galibier at threshold with Spanish Al after a Molotov Cocktail to the face. Road rash has nothing on 3rd degree burns...

aquanaut

I was actually cycling up a road behind (not even along side) another cyclist, the road completely empty, then the dunmore east - waterford bus came up behind me, beeps at me and points to the hard shoulder. I smiled and kept cycling so he over took and half the bus length past me he slows to my speed and starts moving over forcing me into the hard shoulder! Thinking now I should phone the bus company except for the fact I know they will do nothing!

Lemag

aquanaut wrote: »

I was actually cycling up a road behind (not even along side) another cyclist, the road completely empty, then the dunmore east - waterford bus came up behind me, beeps at me and points to the hard shoulder. I smiled and kept cycling so he over took and have the bus length past me he slows to my speed and starts moving over forcing me into the hard shoulder! Thinking now I should phone the bus company except for the fact I know they will do nothing!

Do it anyway and inform them that you've informed the Guards. Inform the Guards also, btw. A "professional" bus driver behaving in that way is a much more serious matter than an ignorant motorist doing so.

kennyb3

Lemag wrote: »

Do it anyway and inform them that you've informed the Guards. Inform the Guards also, btw. A "professional" bus driver behaving in that way is a much more serious matter than an ignorant motorist doing so.

I agree, in the car i've been cut across by guys in vans with company numbers on them - straight on the phone and ask for the owner and give them the story. Even got a call back one day to say the matter was dealt with and sorry etc. I'd never put up with idiots

dave.obrien

Lemag wrote: »

Do it anyway and inform them that you've informed the Guards. Inform the Guards also, btw. A "professional" bus driver behaving in that way is a much more serious matter than an ignorant motorist doing so.

I 100% agree; my original post is nothing more than a bit of an early week whine, your complaint is far more serious...

DirkVoodoo

Is the friend hot?

Icyseanfitz

dave.obrien wrote: »

Someone lit a banger inside a car?! There's a Darwin Award waiting for them somewhere...

haha i laughed as for bad drivers what you going to do, there will always be idiots and numbers alone say that some of those idiots will own a vehicle of some sort, although id love to get some of these drivers on a bike around some roads for a couple of weeks just to see how dangerous a fool in a metal box can be

dave.obrien

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Is the friend hot?

Come for the spin next time.

BTH

dave.obrien wrote: »

Come for the spin next time.

This will end up being the biggest boards spin ever!!

Jawgap

dave.obrien wrote: »

Come for the spin next time.

that's a "no" then

or

my girlfriend reads this board!

dave.obrien

Jawgap wrote: »

that's a "no" then

or

my girlfriend reads this board!

It's neither. I'm just a massive fan of the the Voodoo that Dirk does do so well.

Moflojo

aquanaut wrote: »

I was actually cycling up a road behind (not even along side) another cyclist, the road completely empty, then the dunmore east - waterford bus came up behind me, beeps at me and points to the hard shoulder. I smiled and kept cycling so he over took and half the bus length past me he slows to my speed and starts moving over forcing me into the hard shoulder! Thinking now I should phone the bus company except for the fact I know they will do nothing!

What's the general viewpoint here on using the hard shoulder?

As a fairly experienced cyclist I would generally avoid cycling in a traffic lane where a relatively clean & safe hard shoulder exists, but I noticed a number of cyclists over the weekend (all solo) that persisted in cycling about half a metre inside the hard shoulder line, in the traffic lane in other words. All of these were on busy bank holiday national primary roads, not dual-carriageways or motorways, meaning there was no room for traffic to safely overtake them without crossing the centre line.

Would this be considered best practice here on Boards? As a fairly experienced cyclist and driver I thought it looked pretty dumb and more than a little arrogant. Most hard shoulders are fairly clean near to the yellow line, so why not just stay there where you're safe and out of the path of fast-moving traffic? Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I'd like to know what the internet thinks about it...

P.s. I am mainly talking about rural cycling here, I understand that things are slightly different in and around d'big cities.

Beasty

If the hard shoulder is in decent nick, and clear of debris, I'll always use it in preference to the main road where available

I do find quite a bit on my commute is potholed, and there is lots of gravel in places (often from winter gritting, flicked up by passing cars onto the hard shoulder) - I'll try and avoid sections like this and go on the road where appropriate

Moflojo

Beasty wrote: »

If the hard shoulder is in decent nick, and clear of debris, I'll always use it in preference to the main road where available

Agreed.

What I witnessed over the weekend though was cyclists avoiding perfectly intact and clean hard shoulders for no apparent (to me) reason. Thought maybe it was down to a "Right to the Road" issue or something like that. The other main point I was making was that these guys were soloists, something which I would think makes them even more vulnerable.

on_the_nickel

Moflojo wrote: »

Agreed.

What I witnessed over the weekend though was cyclists avoiding perfectly intact and clean hard shoulders for no apparent (to me) reason. Thought maybe it was down to a "Right to the Road" issue or something like that. The other main point I was making was that these guys were soloists, something which I would think makes them even more vulnerable.

I use hard shoulders if they're any way decent. I think the concern is where the hard shoulder ends and you need to re-join the road, there's always a chance cars wont give you room. I tend to signal and re-join early.

blorg

Hard shoulders can be good to ride in or they can be a disaster. Sometimes they look fine to the casual observer but actually have a different surfacing that is painful to ride on- the N72 from Dungarvan to Lismore is a good example of this. You wouldn't see there was anything wrong with it unless you tried to cycle on it. I would always ride in the shoulder if the surface is OK.

BostonB

Best derail ever.. lol.