Moron Motorists #3

[trailgumby]

Yep, I probably did go slightly OTT. The fact he did exactly the same thing 200m later to the guy who'd just passed me demonstrated it was a practiced habit. That got me a little ... erm ... upset.

OTOH, he was in no way under threat from me at any time.

[find_bruce]

While I was admiring the fitment of twin gun barrels to your helmet*. Gold is a bit gaudy for me, but the sentiment is right

What response did you get from the bus depot ?


* yes I do recognise them as ay-up lights, but where is the fun in that

[jules21]

Yep, I probably did go slightly OTT.

i always say the same thing, but then when you play it cool they just shrug and drive off. there's no happy medium

[Crawf]

I don't think he inflamed the situation at all, seemed pretty calm to me.
You have to raise these issues/drivers with the bus companies, if you don't - you're effectively condoning the behavior to continue, which will no doubt occur in a serious incident further down the track to another cyclist. Better to nip it in the bud now and force the driver to be 'checked'.

[il padrone]

probably should not have continued to inflame the situation in a road rage fashion.

+1

Just throw the video of the driver's actions at the bus company and/or the police. And wave and blow kisses to the driver. Trying to have conversations (arguments) with any driver about an incident just inflames the situation, along with weakening your own case as you ride on footpaths, slam people's cars/buses, get into shouting matches, wrestle on the nature strip etc.

[trailgumby]

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to upload to youtube until Friday night. Logged complaint with link to vid the following day, so I expect I'll get a response via email some time this week.

I've offered to burn a DVD and mail it to them if they are unable to see the vid.

Normally they're pretty good with acting on complaints without vids, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

My demand to board and obtain licence details came out far louder and more intense than I intended, so it's possible he might have misinterpreted my intent. So while I've complained about him compounding the offense by trying to stop me getting his licence number, I'm not going to push that aspect of the incident if I get some push-back.

I managed to get the information by looking in through the window at the end anyway.

[il padrone]

Surely the important bit is the rego number on the back of the bus. That combined with the route number and time of day should be all you'd need to ID the driver.

[sb944]

I'll preface this by saying I have a lot of respect for drivers I've encountered so far, and they've earned the respect too. Very few cars ever try anything stupid around me, and many look out for you and give you special right of way in awkward spots.

But, there is always that 0.1% that drive you mad, pretty sure this is one of them.

I'm avoiding a 6 lane road, taking the always quiet back streets, which go from residential to light industrial. The road comes to a T junction, but I actually still have right of way, not that the truck cares at all, and rolls through his stop sign cutting me off. This doesn't phase me, I get behind him. The road turns to the right, and you have a narrow pot holed street ahead with parked cars on the left, a pretty steep downhill, followed by a smaller uphill. I always ride close to the middle of the road, where it's smoother, and will be doing well over 40km/h (50 speed limit) going down the hill, then pull to the left once the parked cars stop and the road is a lot wider, probably never falling before 40 until the road widens. The truck is going slower than I usually would, and I'm on the right hand side as usual, to avoid the pot holes somewhere further on, I'm pretty close behind the truck. I hear a loud car/truck come right up behind me now, and start yelling to get out of the way. My first reaction was to move over as much as I could, then I rethink it. I can't see the pot holes up ahead, because of the truck, plus he's not going anywhere, as it is too tight to overtake a truck on this road. And if he does want to overtake the truck, he could easily overtake me too, I'm not lagging behind. I feel it's safer for me to stay where I am, and put up with his abuse, whether that is the right decision or not. Next I see a huge white american "pick up truck" driving on my right and starts nudging very close to me to get over, still yelling "you little xxx." I still hold my position, because now I'm sure the pot holes are blindly coming up and we are doing 40km/h. He goes past, and starts overtaking the truck, which I see now has it's right indicator on to pull into a driveway. He pauses, and now the truck slows to a stop and so is he, and there is a huge gap on the left, so I go past them both on the left, and see there was a car coming the other way, with nowhwere to go because he has a huge ute in his way. I don't smile yet, because I know it's only a matter of time until he negotiates that, and I really don't know how crazy he is. I get past the parked cars, so when I hear him, I give him plenty of room to pass, he slows a bit and tries to do a little burn out, but he doesn't succeed, and drives off towards the next light. I have about 30 seconds before I catch him, stuck at the next light, which is always a long red crossing over the 6 lane road. He is sitting there giving me the stare when I pull up next to him. I stand up, with my 6'5" bike fit body and give a stare back for a second, he says what I expect he would say now it's two people, not a massive ute and bike. Nothing. The light turns green, he more calmly drives away, and I get a new PB on strava the very next section of road, perhaps with a little adrenalin flowing now.

[trailgumby]

Surely the important bit is the rego number on the back of the bus. That combined with the route number and time of day should be all you'd need to ID the driver.

You'd think so. But there's a field for the operator number in the complaint form, so I figured I'd make the attempt with a view to remove any doubt.

Agree, probably best to let it ride next time.

I have to admit this type of blatant intimidation particularly presses my buttons, as it was the exact same manouvre the driver used to take me out in December 2009, if you remember. Looks like I still have a little work to do on my anger management.

[cp123]

i would be pretty gropable if a bus did that to me....

[InTheWoods]

i would be pretty gropable if a bus did that to me....

I'm not sure if the bus driver would be up for that, but you could always try your luck I guess.

[trailgumby]

I've had a response. Will post full email later tonight.

In a nutshell, the driver self-reported the incident and the driver education instructors pulled and reviewed the CCTV footage. He was apparently left in "no doubt as to what is expected of him in future".

No apology, probably on account of my "assertive" reponse, but probably as much as can be expected in the circumstances.

[jules21]

nice one TG - important thing is you straightened him out. you made the world a little bit safer for us all

[cp123]

well if you're about to get squooshed by 30 tonnes of bus, i'd be bloody screaming at the driver too....

[Boognoss]

Moron cab yesterday. See how many seconds I held him up by as he was gesticulating for me to keep further left.



New strategy. Use the word "buddy" when I am thinking of a vastly different word .

Handy having head mounted cam and 1080p res now with the new camera.

Wow, a very public reply from SIlver Service in the comments of the video today.

Hello Boognoss,
Our apologies. We do not condone driving that puts other road users at risk; and we take matters like this very seriously.
In response to this, we have taken necessary steps to bring this matter into review.
Regards, Silver Service Taxis

I'm reasonably impressed, and hope it makes a little difference.

Edit: Just noticed that they set up their Youtube user "today". Glad I've dragged them into the age of the interwebs (and surprised they didn't have one before given the amount of footage that is surely out there).

[il padrone]

Hopefully they'll notice their driver right across double lines in the process of the aggro passing.

[trailgumby]

Here's the response received from STA's Willoughby Depot:

Dear Mr TG.

I write to you in response to feedback which you have recently provided concerning an incident which occurred on Miller Street at 18:41 on Wednesday 30 January 2013 involving the Bus Operator of MO3282.

The Bus Operator involved in the situation provided a report on the day of occurance, and CCTV was retrieved and reviewed by Transport for NSW accredited driving instructors. Driving skills feedback was provided to the Bus Operator, specifically concerning merging into a lane already occupied by another vehicle, in this case, you and your bicycle.

Safe Driving is the most important part of every Bus Operator's responsibilities, with this in mind, I assure you that the Bus Operator has been left in no doubt concerning what is expected of him in future.

Friction between Bus Operators and Bicycle riders sometimes occurs, due to ignorance from one or both parties. Where this is observed, Sydney Buses takes thorough measures to educate and prevent such issues from occuring again.

I appreciate you taking the time to bring the matter to our attention, as it is often through feedback from the travelling public and other road users that we are able to improve our services.


Yours Sincerely


Name Suppressed
Staff Supervisor
Willoughby Bus Depot

[InTheWoods]

TrailGumby I reckon that's a good response. If only every company could have that kind of attitude.

[find_bruce]

1 day, 2 good responses, sleep well after a job well done

[coffeeandwine]

Nice work trailgumby and Boognoss!!

[rangersac]

For those Tassie riders on the forum, watch out for a late '90s model Ford Courier ute with a fully enclosed white tray canopy, or equivalent Mazda clone from that era in the Blackmans Bay/ Kingston area, driven by a young male tradie driver, rego FD 1420 or 4120. Had this hero deliberately swap lanes and accelerate at me from the Algona Rd entrance at the Huntingfield roundabout.

[ldrcycles]

occupied by another vehicle, in this case, you and your bicycle.

Yes yes yes. This is something that should be repeatedly hammered home IMO, bicycles are VEHICLES.

Good result tg, and i don't think you have any anger management issues at all there, i think that was a remarkably restrained response for someone whose life was just put in jeopardy.

[hannos]

Got one for my commute to work this morning.

"Entitled" Lexus driver just had to get past me, al the while I was doing 45 in a 50 zone.

Overtakes me over double white lines on a corner.
Come to another corner and he doesn't seem to know how to drive as he held ME up (gasp shock horror a bicycle going faster than a car) then not 500m later he's...




...stuck at a red light!


So really, how much time did he *save* by recklessly overtaking?

[jasonc]

So really, how much time did he *save* by recklessly overtaking?

that's where I do the "squeeze your bike in front of their car and take off slowly" maneuver

[jules21]

So really, how much time did he *save* by recklessly overtaking?

it's not about saving time, it's about getting in front of people. when i started driving, i was like that. then one day i decided "who cares" and gave up trying to "cleverly" squeeze ahead of everyone and everything. some people never get over it though.