Third time almost lucky...

gplama said:

What a day.. I was involved in three near misses today, all involving drivers who failed to obey simple road rules... run of the mill stuff I guess for city commuters, but my day is never this mad...

1) 8:20am - Approaching a single lane round-a-bout in a back street. 20m from entering it I hear a car speed up behind me. A 40something woman cuts right in front of me leaving me nowhere to go... fortunately I read this well and knew exactly what was going to happen. I very impolitely informed her of her mistake at judging my speed.

2) 2pm - (Non cycling) Walking across a ped-crossing that goes across a slip lane. Took one step out and saw, again, a 40something woman almost take me out while looking the other way. She stops at the give way sign 20m or so up the road.. "Oh, I'm sorry, you believe you had right of way?" or something to that effect (or not).. best part of this was the huge audience who all saw this take place. I ended it with a smile and still had the two coffees in my hand..

3) 6:45pm The ride home... Entering a T intersection (from the south part of the T) following a car turning right. I was also turning right but held my line in the middle of the lane. Next thing I know something large and white is a few cm's from my left calf.. I turn to see some 40something guy in his car gesturing with hand movements for me to get out of the way. Ok, enough.. *snap* Went to town on this guy explaining the road rules... which by the way now includes a few "you fat [censored] mother f(cuking c*u7"s..

No rewards for doing the right thing and no punishment for those who don't.. I really hope these people learn from their mistakes today, because next time they'll encounter someone who isn't as alert and they'll have more to deal with than some roadie swearing at them..

f'kn grrr.. then to top this off, had some squeaking bike wheel sukka tail me for 5kms+ while I was on my SS... impossible to drop someone on a slight downhill in 39/15!.. kept popping him off on the hills tho 😉

GPL

I had a day identical like this yesterday.... about 3 near misses.... my fault for going so late in the morning *sigh* was a real bad day.... the rest of day, I spent thinking what have I done, who did I do it to.... mine also ended with me... pleading with a courier in a van, to get out of his f**king van, so I can explain the road rules to him personally.... all that aggravation just got to me..... I snapped as well.

gplama said:

What a day.. I was involved in three near misses today, all involving
drivers who failed to obey simple road rules...

sounds like most of my days.
So far my very favourite near miss (of last year) was the guy who
overtook me in the wet. and as I desperatly locked both wheels up turned
left in front of me.. When I followed him up his drive the [censored] said
"well you shouldn;t have been going so fast"

Quoted message said:

f'kn grrr.. then to top this off, had some squeaking bike wheel sukka
tail me for 5kms+ while I was on my SS... impossible to drop someone on
a slight downhill in 39/15!.. kept popping him off on the hills tho 😉

You mean he kept grabbing back on?

Dave

MikeyOz said:

I had a day identical like this yesterday.... about 3 near misses.... my fault for going so late in the morning *sigh* was a real bad day.... the rest of day, I spent thinking what have I done, who did I do it to.... mine also ended with me... pleading with a courier in a van, to get out of his f**king van, so I can explain the road rules to him personally.... all that aggravation just got to me..... I snapped as well.

Seems like it was a day of zero commonsense, zero goodwill and far too many pointless snarks. People returning from hols to the office pod and still vagued out?

On 17/01/06 at 20:34:08 cfsmtb somehow managed to type:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Seems like it was a day of zero commonsense, zero goodwill and far too
many pointless snarks. People returning from hols to the office pod
and still vagued out?

All aggravated by a recent full moon...

--
Humbug
BE A LOOF! (There has been a recent population explosion of lerts.)

cfsmtb said:

Seems like it was a day of zero commonsense, zero goodwill and far too many pointless snarks. People returning from hols to the office pod and still vagued out?

Yeah. What's with that???

Wot's it like innerstate?
in Melb it's like 'Shaun of the Dead'.
'Peak hour' is like School Holidays but trafiic is half of even that!!!!!
People are even walking slower. In sympathy current form has me riding slower... 🙄

flyingdutch said:

Wot's it like innerstate?
in Melb it's like 'Shaun of the Dead'.
'Peak hour' is like School Holidays but trafiic is half of even that!!!!!
People are even walking slower. In sympathy current form has me riding slower... 🙄

Too right! How about *this* added alongside to the spike on the steering wheel?
http://www.nmsu.edu/~safety/images/signs/sign_careful-no-brain1-lg.gif

"What a day.. I was involved in three near misses today"
<snip>

But surely if they nearly missed - then they hit??

Abby (who wishes he remembered the actual skit, because it was actually
funny...)

PS - glad they were all near-misses dude!!!!!!!!!!

Humbug said:

All aggravated by a recent full moon...

Yes, too much light sets them off. Full on blue nextdoor on Sunday. Think it travelled. :o

flyingdutch said:

Wot's it like innerstate?

I had two incidents while driving out to a customer site:

1) I'm in the LH lane of two turning right on to the M2. Guy beside me
floors it, but the 4wd van he's driving doesn't seem to accelerate well.
He was beside me as he understeered halfway into my lane, and I was lucky
to have been half-expecting something like that. Hard brake/swerve to
avoid.

2) In LH lane doing a bit under 60 coming up to a Y junction - my lane
goes left, the others go right through a set of (red) lights. Car in next
lane *reverses* back at me, jumps in to my lane, gets through corner, then
brakes hard to a standstill for no apparent reason. Needed to brake
fairly firmly to avoid them twice in 5 seconds! A second later they're
moving again (nothing on the road, or beside it), and pull off at the next
intersection. I can only assume they were lost.

I guess that's what I get for driving instead of riding...

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
I have an asteroid named after me. Isaac Asimov's got one too. It's
smaller and more eccentric. - Arthur C. Clarke

flyingdutch said:

Wot's it like innerstate?

It's been a lot quieter on my commute for the last couple of weeks. I could be riding at just before nine and there would be hardly any traffic. A bit busier today, but at the moment, I only really have a couple of problem areas where I have to go right across the road to a turning lane while going uphill and a roundabout just before I turn in to work, where some people will insist on trying to overtake you. Much easier than when I was working in the CBD where my route regularly intersected with some psycho woman whose behaviour made me change my route/timing.

flyingdutch said:

Yeah. What's with that???

Wot's it like innerstate?
in Melb it's like 'Shaun of the Dead'.
'Peak hour' is like School Holidays but trafiic is half of even that!!!!!
People are even walking slower. In sympathy current form has me riding slower... 🙄

Sydney is getting back to normal, traffic levels increasing but still below full peak conditions. I had a close one yesterday with a van swerving into the bike lane to get past a right turning vehicle... in the wet there was no way to stop so I shouted f*** and swerved as well. Fortunately the van had the window open and the driver got a shock and slowed sufficiently for me to get past. I advised him, impolitely, that he should use his mirrors and indicators.

This was rather unusual for me - most of the time I get along well with the peak hour traffic.

Ritch