Moron Motorists #3

[FuzzyDropbear]

But that school is the most dangerous part of my ride

Am all for governments passing legislation that make schools no standing zones. Make the parents/kids walk 400m.

Funnily enough, I was thinking about that the other day! It'd be a much safer area around these schools. However, generally in Ballarat, it would mean that people would just clog up the quiet residential streets and it could just move the problem as people would just want to park as close as possible. I dunno, it could work, but would need a bit of thought to implement it. Would hopefully increase road safety lessons in the kids though, currently a lot of the kids just run out the front gate, over the road (without looking) into the parents car and off they go.

[twizzle]

Awesome ride to work this morning. On-road cycle lane, on the TT bike but up on the base bar rather than on the extensions because up ahead Mr MORON has missed the "entry" driveway to a hotel and is now trying to do a sharp turn into the "exit" driveway... except there is a 4WD leaving so they are stuck. In a clearway. Four vehicles behind Mr MORON have now stopped, another is almost stopped, I'm just coming up to this line of traffic when "Mr NumbNuts" in the tradie ute SLIDES PAST ME , matching speed with the car ahead with about a 10cm gap between the bumpers and leaving me in a cloud of tyre smoke. A minute later I slowed down in anticipation and was therefore able to avoid being left-hooked by MrNumbNuts who has decided *after* the last second that he really wanted to turn left.

I'm giving up cycling and I'm going to buy a semi-trailer for commuting.

Or a bus. With a bus, from observation, the road rules regarding giving way no longer apply.

[FuzzyDropbear]

...

Or a bus. With a bus, from observation, the road rules regarding giving way no longer apply.

Or a tank, it'd be the same as cyclist vs car debate. Why would you care if you ran over a car if you were in a tank? They were in the way, you squish them like a bug, job done, you walk free with possibly a small fine.

Glad to see you didn't end up in a bingle though.

[jules21]

Or a bus. With a bus, from observation, the road rules regarding giving way no longer apply.

only if you become overweight, wear a short sleeve shirt and adopt a weary attitude to everything as you carve everyone else up on the road with a blank look on your face.

[Summernight]

I vote the tank.

And switch the motor for a set of pedals and a crank and you'll get the same exercise as you did on the bike.

[Adstar]

Driving north on Northbourne Ave this morning through the intersection with Antill St. Through the lights adjacent to the soccer fields and netball courts when old mate in front of us exits the road and onto the shared path and drives on it to the parking at the netball centre. This is several hundred metres on a clearly marked path which usually is filled with walkers and cyclists on a Saturday morning. The exit lane was only 50 metres ahead!

[jasonc]

had an interesting one this morning. going up dutton park on the road from the corso at the pinch point I had a car behind me beep me. I was in the middle of the road. when the median strip disappeared, I moved over. said driver pulled up beside me and asked why I didn't move over. I explained that I didn't feel comfortable with the gap that would be left. so moron? I don't know. but he wasn't impressed at me.

[Marto]

had an interesting one this morning. going up dutton park on the road from the corso at the pinch point I had a car behind me beep me. I was in the middle of the road. when the median strip disappeared, I moved over. said driver pulled up beside me and asked why I didn't move over. I explained that I didn't feel comfortable with the gap that would be left. so moron? I don't know. but he wasn't impressed at me.

Wasn't impressed that you didn't meet his expectations, rather than you. He expected to race up that steep windy road with speed humps I guess, and you to keep outta the way so he can do so. Not like that's a stretch of road to speed through anyway I wonder if he made an unimpressed face/words at other things that slowed him on his drive, or if someone on the bike was just a good vent for his frustrations.

[jasonc]

I was with a mate, who is also on this forum. He said he's happy to let cars pass him there. It's not a clear cut no pass zone. some cyclists are ok with it, I'm obviously one who isn't

[mick243]

And today's mm has to be none other than derro hinch, for actually believing rego money and petrol tax pay for the roads.

[BianchiCam]

He was just ensuring what we already know.
He also goes by the name of Mr Richard Head!

[InTheWoods]

Upper Brookfield road, blind corner, mr moron leaves me plenty of space while overtaking but almost heads on into a BMW coming the other way. BMW had to maneoever and was on the horn, as I would have been...

[DavidS]

JasonC I have a couple of spots on my commute where I judge that there is not enough room for a car and a bike to fit. 2 things: 1) This is a judgement to be made by the cyclist in question and you have a right to a lane so the driver has nothing to complain about, 2) I make sure I don't pass cars there either, for me it's a consistency thing.

Sounds like you made your intention very clear, you went to the middle of the lane, and you returned to a left of road position when you judged that there was space for you to be passed. You were clear in your intent and predictable. The driver should be complimenting you.

DS

[jasonc]

You were clear in your intent and predictable. The driver should be complimenting you.

Thanks David. Unfortunately, I've posted it in this thread as he believes there's enough room. I'm not so trusting of his belief of enough room.

[Bah77]

A ute decides to overtake a cyclist without slowing down, on a blind corner, over double white lines sees me coming and decides to cut back in early.

[jasonc]

down coot-tha by the look of it

[Lukeyboy]

Arrrhhhhh my eyes! Damn Youtube shakey vision detected

[Bah77]

Yeah coot-tha, and yes my mount is pretty crap on bumpy roads :/
Oh i just rewatched, i did click the youtube fix shakiness option... bleh made it worse, removed the youtube fix stabilization.

[briztoon]

I was with a mate, who is also on this forum. He said he's happy to let cars pass him there. It's not a clear cut no pass zone. some cyclists are ok with it, I'm obviously one who isn't

My ride partner and I have this type of relationship as well. There are many spots where I feel comfortable giving vehicles room to overtake me, where she takes the lane and is not comfortable to be over taken.

[Lukeyboy]

Still amazes me how people still think from a side street/driveway that they can out accelerate a bike doing 45-50kph....

[jules21]

Still amazes me how people still think from a side street/driveway that they can out accelerate a bike doing 45-50kph....

it's not just bikes. driving down the Hume Hwy doing 110 (limit) the other night and 2 b-doubles and a car turn right out of centre median strip, now heading in same direction as me. they merge into the left lane - good. then car decides to overtake b-doubles. except it's doing 30 km/h and i'm bearing down on it in the RH lane doing 110. until i braked, of course.

[ldrcycles]

I've had a bad run the last 24 hours with idiot drivers .

Yesterday I had about half a dozen unsafe passes (not shaves, but definitely too close for comfort) followed later on by my first collision with a car when a bloke in a commodore decided to turn over the top of me to go into a left turn lane at an intersection. His wing mirror hit me and I bounced off his B pillar, kept the bike up, hollered some NSFW phrases and sprinted round the other side to bash on his window and scream in his face to "pull over NOW". He did so straight away and when he wound his window down with me swearing like a trooper his first comment was a genuine "jesus i'm so sorry". I settled then and he and the 4 roadworkers who were only a few metres away (did I mention this happened in roadworks?) helped me to the side of the road to regain my composure as once the anger wore off I was shaking like a leaf. I soon felt fine though and a traffic controller got our details to do an incident report. Scary stuff but at least myself and bike are fine and the bloke wasn't deliberately trying to kill me.

Then this afternoon my wife was stationary with her indicator on to turn right into the driveway of my workplace when a bogan lady in a people mover ran into the back of her. The rather obnoxious woman then tried to blame my wife because she "hadn't moved over far enough"!

[trailgumby]

I've had a bad run the last 24 hours with idiot drivers .
...
Then this afternoon my wife was stationary with her indicator on to turn right into the driveway of my workplace when a bogan lady in a people mover ran into the back of her. The rather obnoxious woman then tried to blame my wife because she "hadn't moved over far enough"!

Glad you're OK. At least the driver wasn't an arrogant tool. That doesn't help when you get hurt, but knowing it wasn't callous disregard helps take the heat out of it. Somewhat.

YOur second story reminds me of an incident a few months ago when I was walking down Clarence St. A courier in a station wagon was too impatient to get around a woman queueing to get into a carpark, the entrance to which I was crossing. She moved, he floored it, to go left into the next lane (she was turning right in the curbside lane on a one-way street). She had to prop to wait for a following pedestrian and he clipped her.

He was pretty angry so I thought I'd better stop and be a witness for the woman. This was confirmed after he inspected the damage and said "I'm not paying for this ". He was trying to blame her for hesitating, and wouldn't wear it when I told him it was his responsibility under the road rules to leave enough room to avoid hitting the car in front. He asked me firstly if I was a lawyer to which I responded that working with the law was a part of my profession, and then asked why I was being such an ****hole, to which I said, "She's the innocent party in this and you're acting like a complete Richard."

For some reason it was my last response that shut him up rather than the first.

[Mulger bill]

Got called in at stupid O'clock for an urgent planning meeting, not enough time to to do the velocipede thing so the smokebox got its first peakhour run since Sheldon knows when.

[rant]My Fred, HOW do people put up with it EVERY damn day? Clowns who can't hold a line, tools that WILL play thread the needle with an 8" hawser to gain a half length, Utter Utter Bastards who roar up the emergency lane at silly numbers then chuck out the anchors and reef hard on the wheel or handlebars to barge in at every on ramp. At least five times on that one 50 minute run I copped a foot massage from the ABS
By the time I got in, I was ready to go postal. THEN I realised that many of my colleagues deserve prime spots HERE!
[/rant]

[Summernight]

Speaking of people who play thread the needle in their cars, I had one on Sunday afternoon who thought he could make an extra lane between the parked cars on Swan St (near Richmond station, just before the train bridge that crosses Swan St) by using the pseudo bike lane and the extra bit of the left part of the right lane that I was currently occupying in my car right behind a tram. I had to watch my side and rear mirrors very closely for the whole 50 metres of stop/start behind the tram under the rail bridge because if I deviated left even a centimetre (but still be in my lane) he would have scraped my left rear side. This was all because he was in the left lane and got stuck when the tram stopped to let off passengers as the parked cars line started 30metres ahead of where the tram stopped. He could have easily merged into the right/through lane behind me behind the tram but instead he decided to do something moronic.

Then when there was a smidgeon of a gap at the end of the parked cars he squeezed his car through between them and mine (I moved over even more when I saw him about to do this to make sure he didn't touch my car) and then he got stuck behind another parked car further up and ended up having to wait and slot in behind me like he should have done in the first place.

Absolute idiot. Freaked me out to see a car on my rear left (I was looking for bikes on my left at the time) when there shouldn't have been one fitting in that gap, especially when he kept getting closer and closer to me.