"I'm entitled to"... [break the law]

Idunnowho

So I was coming down from Lamb Doyles towards Marley Park the other day. There were 2 cars about 70m in front of me and 1 car about 50m behind me. As
(1) I was doing 58-59kph (as verified by my Garmin)
(2) there are 2 broken patches of road half way down and
(3) I have twice had cars pull out of one or other house with the overgrown hedge driveway...
I assumed the safer position towards the middle of my lane (albeit still to the left)... I thought after all I was doing 59kph and approaching the ordinarily red light at the Taylors corner.

As I passed the hardware shop on the left the car that was quite a bit behind, a Peugeot 205, accelerated past me and swung right in in front of me and hit the brakes in order to accommodate the aforementioned red light.

I approached the lovely lady (late 40s) who had the driver window wound down and said (definitely not shouted) in absolute calmness (mostly out of disbelief and the futility and danger of her manoeuvre)...

"Do you know that you had to break the speed limit there to overtake me so dangerously?"

With her defense immediately at the ready and in something of a state of anger, without thought or hesitation she shouted:

"I pay road tax you dont..."

Ok so not the first time we have all heard that one... I replied:

"But you had to break the law to overtake me so dangerously"

I am not sure if I should have emphasized 'break the law' or 'so dangerously' to her... Seems irrelevant though as...

"I am entitled to..."

she replied !!

I was stunned... "Entitled to" what? Overtake a cyclist, break the speed limit, endanger the life of another road user??? So I said that I would report her and took a photo of the reg. She even encouraged me to do so. I have the Garmin file showing my speed at that place and time.

Having read through the other current thread here it is evident that there is a huge gap in understanding and expectations of other road users! It would seem that a lot of drivers carry an innate resentment of cyclists. Be very wary of that. Problem is there is no point being in the right in the back of an ambulance...

531

Have you her reg number? Report her to the Gardai if you have. Use the Garmin data as evidence.

Zyzz

Was the speed limit 60km/h and you were doing 58/59? Not over 60 :pac:

robertxxx

Yeah she had a spare kph or two to spare so what's your point.

Darkstrike

Stories like this keep me wary of going cycling on main roads, or at any real speed. Must have been terrifying.

Zyzz

robertxxx wrote: »

Yeah she had a spare kph or two to spare so what's your point.

Well maybe she overtook you at exactly 60km/h..the OP has no proof she broke the speed limit :cool::pac:

Darkglasses

Haha Zyzz if it was you in the OP's shoes you'd probably be fairly annoyed too!

Zyzz

Darkglasses wrote: »

Haha Zyzz if it was you in the OP's shoes you'd probably be fairly annoyed too!

Preach it!

Tempted to fill a CO2 cartridge with some pepper spray just incase..then cycle away at exactly 60km/h so Im not breaking the law :pac:

Dowee

Apart from the interaction with the driver (mine have gone slightly differently) I have had the exact same thing happen me there on a few occasIons. Once two cars did it, resulting in the second (a male with his family in the car) nearly rear ending the first as they slammed on for the red light. I had a few calm, choice words with him.

It's one of the few stretches where I take "taking the lane" to a higher level!