Sent wrong way

ian henden said:

"Ian Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I wonder how kindly you'd take a passenger near the front of your bus
letting off an air-horn when you're negotiating a tricky bit of
traffic.

They would not be on my bus very long!!

QED. No-one must do it to Henden, but he thinks it's a good wheeze to
do it to others. Says it all really.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Aha. So this is a definition of "following" that includes being in
front of the vehicle in question. That is, in Henden-world a cyclist
is following a car which is behind him, and must consequently leave
enough space in front to avoid the car behind, whatever it might do.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Aha. "Following" also includes being alongside. Presumably, in
your bus, whenever anything commences an overtaking manouver, you
immediately do an emergency stop, coming completely to a halt, so
that at the instant the vehicle gets ahead and there is no distance,
you have a safe speed (the only safe speed for zero clearance being
zero speed, obviously).

You are talking rubbish.

Absolutely. Examining the implications of your statement leads
directly to statements which are self evidently rubbish. Thus, we can
conclude that the original hypothesis - that you were talking sense -
is wrong. It's a routine approach - consider hypothesis, consider
what this implies - if the implications are false, the hypothesis must
have been false.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

No, we don't. However, at some stage, with an accumulation of
evidence, it becomes apparent that some people either are stupid, or
have very little idea what they are talking about, or take some sort
of pleasure from saying stupid things. You are quite clearly in this
category, and as such, while I wouldn't generally adopt the language
myself, I agree entirely with the sentiment, and recognise the
language in question as neatly summarising the character you present.

In your opinion. Which is not necessarily correct.

Absolutely. It's possible there's an alternative explanation - you
may, for example, be an AI, or possibly you're running a psychology
experiment examining how people respond to stupid statements (although
in these cases it remains true to say that is the character you
present). I'm perfectly willing to believe there are alternative
explanations for your outpourings, I merely highlighted the three most
likely causes.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Simon Brooke said:

(Sorry for butting in; Henden is killfiled here, for obvious reasons)

Quoted message said:

ian henden wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Surely a motorist considerate
enough to give a warning beep will also have waited behind the cyclist
on a stretch of road where it is dodgier to overtake, and has selected
his overtake for a safe bit of road to do it on?

Such beeping is, in my experience and opinion, aggression and bullying, and
is most likely to come from the least considerate drivers

That would be the type that drive buses around Southampton, then.

Logically consistent so far.

ian henden said:

"Ian Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Actually I was commenting on what I quoted - which is the observation
that it is dangerous, arrogant and aggressive drivers that sound horns
at cyclists, and that practically no cyclist appreciates having an
air-horn fired off immediately behind them when they are trying to
ride in traffic.

We are not talking about air horns (or, were not. but apparently are doing
so now). I was referring to a very short, normal car horn, beep - not a
blast!

Which are often much louder to people outside the car than within. I am
one of those who would not appreciate being beeped at.

Quoted message said:

- serving as a "OK, I.ve seen you, I am intending to pass you now"
type of thing. Which MOST cyclists acknowledge with a *friendly* wave....

But apart from wave at you what do you expect the cyclist to do? If you
are that desperate for people to wave at you then I am sure we can come
up with some more appropriate scheme.

Also presumably you carefully check the time in the monring as you MUST NOT
use your horn in this way before 7am. Why does passing a cyclist a 7:01
require a beep and at 6:59 it doesn't?

--
Andy Leighton => [email hidden]
"The Lord is my shepherd, but we still lost the sheep dog trials"
- Robert Rankin, _They Came And Ate Us_

In article <[email hidden]>
Ian Smith <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

Absolutely. It's possible there's an alternative explanation - you
may, for example, be an AI

That thought had crossed my mind, except I think the term AU would be
more appropriate.

In article <[email hidden]>

ian henden said:

I was referring to a very short, normal car horn, beep - not a
blast! - serving as a "OK, I.ve seen you, I am intending to pass you now"
type of thing. Which MOST cyclists acknowledge with a *friendly* wave....

It seems my middle digit is friendlier than the others.

In article <[email hidden]>
ian henden <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

maybe, and it is probably pleasing when it all comes together. But what
happens when things come unstuck?? when you stop and confront yoof, who then
produces a very sharp knife, for example???

I hit him in the head with a bicycle?

ian henden said:

"Rob Morley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>
Alex <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

He stopped just after I shouted "You F***ing T**t" and he wound down
the window.

"If you do that again you are going to kill someone. You absolute
****." said I, struggling to control the fists of death.

No response from him, the point had been made, so I carried on. The
adrenaline was pumping and I forgot to note the reg or company name on
the van. However with recent comments in this group I doubt the Police
would have given a [censored] about a cyclists complaint about a motorist.

The next day, not 1/2 mile from that very spot a local yoof took it
upon himself to discard his half eaten apple by launching it at me as I
passed[1]. It missed my front wheel by inches. I don't think he was
expecting me to stop and come back to confront him. To be fair though,
he did catch what I threw at him quite squarely.

Ah, the joys of assertive riding :-)

maybe, and it is probably pleasing when it all comes together. But what
happens when things come unstuck?? when you stop and confront yoof, who then
produces a very sharp knife, for example???

I'm a good judge of character.

-Alex

ian henden said:

I would wholeheartedly agree with you, you were somewhat slighted by others,
totally unnecessary. But not ALL car/van/lorry/bus drivers are "knobs"....
neither are MOST cyclists!!!

I know. The man in the van was a knob because of what he did, not
because he was in a van.

-Alex

Simon Bennett said:

Are they the same motorists who are constantly beeping at me as they
approach from behind when I ride around this county? I've never known it
happen so frequently anywhere else; the pointless warning beep.

Yes the pointless beep. Had that today. Going uphill towards a blind
bend. Narrow two way road . Beep....... Beep
Beep,,...............BEEP BEEP..........BEEEEEEEEEP.
It was a bus as it happened. What he expected me to do I've no
idea. Other than my stopping and lifting my bike onto the grass verge
there was no safe way for him to pass me until he could see round the
corner. To give him his due he did wait until he could see and didn,t
take the blind faith approach many motorists adopt to overtake
cyclists on the approach to blind corners. I am convinced that sooner
or later I will see a head on collision caused by a motorist being
unwilling to wait 15 seconds to pass a cyclist safely

Iain

Quoted message said:

Simon Bennett wrote:
I am convinced that sooner
or later I will see a head on collision caused by a motorist being
unwilling to wait 15 seconds to pass a cyclist safely

You won't. What will happen (and probably already has happend many times)
is the overtaking driver will cut back in to avoid hitting the other car and
the cyclist will be left lying in the road. We are the soft option.

Tom

Tom said:

Quoted message said:

Simon Bennett wrote:
I am convinced that sooner
or later I will see a head on collision caused by a motorist being
unwilling to wait 15 seconds to pass a cyclist safely

15 seconds is a long time. If they've slowed down and waited 1
second (also subjectively a long time), they've passed the crucial test.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You won't. What will happen (and probably already has happend many times)
is the overtaking driver will cut back in to avoid hitting the other car and
the cyclist will be left lying in the road. We are the soft option.

Statistically that's rare. Most drivers will avoid it.

What is not so rare is for some idiot to pass, and for an oncoming
car to take evasive action, including braking hard and hugging the
hedge. I'll sometimes exchange a smile and a shake of the head
with such a driver - we've both been cut up by the same idiot.

The very low but nonzero risk is that an oncoming car is
playing sillybuggers at the same time as the overtaking one.

--
not me guv

The Luggage said:

ian henden said:

"The Luggage" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
[...]>>

Quoted message said:

> Are they the same motorists who are constantly beeping at me as they
> approach from behind when I ride around this county? I've never known it
> happen so frequently anywhere else; the pointless warning beep.

[..]
Pointless?? IME, most cyclists appreciate a friendly warning beep from a
motorist as he is about to overtake. Surely a motorist considerate enough
to give a warning beep will also have waited behind the cyclist on a stretch
of road where it is dodgier to overtake, and has selected his overtake for a
safe bit of road to do it on?

Ian, I note that you included "[...]", but you snipped the important
author information. If you're not going to quote a single word of what
I wrote, I'd be grateful if you'd either reply to the original message
or at least get the attributions right.

And an apology, or at least an acknowledgement might have been helpful
too.

TL

Response to The Luggage:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Ian, I note that you included "[...]", but you snipped the important
author information. If you're not going to quote a single word of what
I wrote, I'd be grateful if you'd either reply to the original message
or at least get the attributions right.

And an apology, or at least an acknowledgement might have been helpful
too.

Ah, but according to the Henden World View, you should have anticipated
that he would make a misattribution, so it'll turn out to be your fault.
(You *are* a cyclist, right?)

--
Mark, UK
"Look behind you, a Three-Headed Monkey!"