Moron Motorists #3

[FuzzyDropbear]

My moron motorist tale from yesterday on mcarrs creek rd up at pittwater....riding along at appx 35kmh somthing flies across my face and hits my shoulder hard.

Some bogan travelling in a car going opposite direction had tossed a (fortunately empty) beer can at me. Guess combined speed it hit me was 70+kmh...it hurt. If it had hit me in the face.....

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

Good to hear you're alright mate. People don't realise how these stupid little actions can seriously injure someone. This is one of the reasons I always have my camera on me so you can hopefully nab these morons.

[bychosis]

First commute home in over 6 weeks, during which time I had talked to colleagues about how my commute is nice and safe. Muppet Motorist turned left off a roundabout into the same space where I was turning right. Needed to back off a little and adjust my direction to not collide. Yelled out and the blankly looked at me though the drivers window. It really is the most dangerous section of my ride (relatively) and I often skip over and use the footpath to bypass but the traffic lights were with/against me so I claimed my lane and paid the penalty. Oh well, back to reality

[trailgumby]

My moron motorist tale from yesterday on mcarrs creek rd up at pittwater....riding along at appx 35kmh somthing flies across my face and hits my shoulder hard.

Some bogan travelling in a car going opposite direction had tossed a (fortunately empty) beer can at me. Guess combined speed it hit me was 70+kmh...it hurt. If it had hit me in the face.....

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

Unfortunately, there are a few of them around that way. Going "driving" in their overpowered stereos with the loud exhaust and underpowered engine, lest somebody accuse them of being too quiet on a Sunday morning.

Glad it missed your more sensitive bits.

[Coolabah]

The driver made a choice to drive dangerously close to a vulnerable road user. He doesn't get to choose the consequences. Nor does the company.

Vulnerable road users. Where did this term come from? You are a road user, or you are not.

mate its not rocket science any search eangine comes up with more hits than Donald Bradman...
http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/U ... _users.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Summary
A group of road users can be defined as ‘vulnerable’ in a number of ways , such as by the amount of protection in traffic (e.g. pedestrians and cyclists) or by
the amount of task capability (e.g. the young and the elderly). Vulnerable road users do not usually have a protective 'shell', and also the difference in mass
between the colliding opponents is often an important factor . Vulnerable road users can be spared by limiting the driving speed of motorized
vehicles and separating unequal road user types as much as possible.,,,,, (etc)
HTH

[Ross]

Not bicycle related but certainly in the category of Moron Motorist - SA police pulled over this motorist driving no-prizes-for-guessing-what-model-car (not BMW) that had two flat tyres on front, was unregistered/uninsured and had a set of vice grips instead of a steering wheel. Oh, and the 38yo driver was off his face methyl amphetamine and cannabis.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nationa ... 2qgn4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jasonc]

VR/VS commondore with 260k on the clock.

[find_bruce]

Oh, and the 38yo driver was off his face methyl amphetamine and cannabis.

It's not like you would drive it like that sober

[darkelf921]

I'm kinda bewildered at this one. The video has been already posted here, it is not the video I am referring to but rather the comments posted by a user telling all cyclists to get off the roads. It makes you wonder how education can stop MM like this causing harm to cyclists on the road.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SSy_OZiOwC4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[arkle]

Not bicycle related but certainly in the category of Moron Motorist - SA police pulled over this motorist driving no-prizes-for-guessing-what-model-car (not BMW) that had two flat tyres on front, was unregistered/uninsured and had a set of vice grips instead of a steering wheel. Oh, and the 38yo driver was off his face methyl amphetamine and cannabis.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nationa ... 2qgn4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not sure what the problem is here. Those vice grips are super strong and always pinch the skin on my finger when I try to undo them.

And at least he remembered to indicate right when he was pulled over.

arkle

[ColinOldnCranky]

Not bicycle related but certainly in the category of Moron Motorist - SA police pulled over this motorist driving no-prizes-for-guessing-what-model-car (not BMW) that had two flat tyres on front, was unregistered/uninsured and had a set of vice grips instead of a steering wheel. Oh, and the 38yo driver was off his face methyl amphetamine and cannabis.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nationa ... 2qgn4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not sure what the problem is here. Those vice grips are super strong and always pinch the skin on my finger when I try to undo them.

And at least he remembered to indicate right when he was pulled over.

arkle

I figured he should have indicated LEFT. Perhaps that's why the cop took such a dim view of him.

[Crawf]

Had a pleasant incident last week.

[jasonc]

Had a pleasant incident last week.

unfortunately it's the only way they'll charge someone. hope you're ok crawf.

[zero]

Had a pleasant incident last week.

I presume it will be a whole year before a judge can order the wet lettuce leaf in to give this guy a sound thrashing. At least it sounds like the investigating officer did a good job and didn't run with the it must be the cyclists fault bias for once.

[jules21]

Had a pleasant incident last week.

hope you got a few jabs in before he was cuffed

[FuzzyDropbear]

Sorry to hear Crawf, hope you came out alright.

I firmly believe that many driver's can't comprehend how close they are to a cyclist in order for the rider to stay balanced on a bike and pat the back of their car without losing control of the bike.

[jules21]

i've almost come to blows a few times, in similar circumstances. most recently, a driver basically pushed past me when i was taking off from the lights. it wasn't high speed, but he basically ran his car alongside me to squeeze past. when i caught him, i gave his window a bit of a whack (mistake) and he got out, threatening to punch me out. i knew i'd provoked him, so i didn't respond in-kind, but stood my ground and half-expected him to have a go. luckily, he didn't.

it's just funny that they are happy to use their car as a battering ram, punch your light out, but are outraged when you touch their car. they don't seem to see the ridiculousness of that.

[Lukeyboy]

Damn Shane. Sucks to hear about that. You still doing the ITT this saturday? (I can't recall if I asked you at Somerset or if that was about the crits).

[Lukeyboy]

Heading north along Sandgate road around 3.30 and all was good travelling along the bike lane. Just passed the Pritchard Road intersection and alongside the front passenger door of a Honda when it started merging into the bike lane. Gave the door a nice wack with my hand and he slammed on the brakes. I gestured to him and kept going/he turned into the parking lot. Inbetween Pritchard Road and Robinson road before the lane to turn off onto Robinsons Road forms almost another carbon copy of what happened seconds before. About ~2m behind some young girl in her Hyundai closing the gap quickly (maybe 25-30kph difference in speed) and she enters the bike lane, blinker now goes on and then brakes/turns back into her lane (obviously started to merge without looking or indicating, then put on her blinkers before finally looking in the side mirror). Once again no harm done as I just swerved into the brakedown lane. Then the mother of all things happened once again just a few metres down the road. Traffic is slowing and there is no room for traffic from Robinsons Road to merge onto the road. The traffic that wants to merge couldn't go anywhere and was well back so I maintained speed. Midway through the intersection and I see mr Toyota van driver start to slowly drive forward and he waves (thanking the driver that was still going slowly through the intersection/i'm only 30m away at the most doing around 50kph). Because the traffic is stopped his was now 90 degrees across and blocking the bikelane with the front bumper not even in the lane of traffic. I slam on my brakes, drift into the lane he was merging into just missing the car he tried to get infront of along with just making the gap of where he was still driving into, by now he is halfway into the lane and I'm heading towards the stopped cars in the right lane. As I pass him I drop the f and c bomb. Flick it back to the left and now heading towards the traffic that's slowly moving in the left lane and pop out into the bike lane/break down lane. By the time I finally look back I see him flipping me off. I was already seeing red but then I seriously thought I should just go and belt the absolute bollocks out of him but I argued with myself that I shouldn't and just unloaded f and c bombs. He buzzed me going up the crest just after Zillmere road and I highly considered smashing his side mirror when he stopped next as traffic was already backing up but I once again argued with myself not too. Just before beams road he was about to pass me so I flipped him off. He finally got stuck in traffic.... again so I flipped him off... again and that was that. He went on the gateway and I continued along Sandgate road. Later on I notice the rear losing traction/slightly spungy feeling and I notice that a large section of tread is missing. Not suprising considering I locked the wheel a few times at 50kph as I did a scandinavian flick around this useless tool. Urgh. Still seeing red!

[zero]

The van driver sounds like a tool, but by the same token, if the traffic is stopped and your are on the outside of it, bombing into an intersection at 50 is eventually going to get you right crossed. ie you do have to ride to the conditions, and heavy traffic is not always suitable for doing 50 in.

[Tim]

...if the traffic is stopped and your are on the outside of it, bombing into an intersection at 50 is eventually going to get you right crossed.

Is eventually going to get you killed or seriously injured.
Sounds downright reckless to me.

[jasonc]

...if the traffic is stopped and your are on the outside of it, bombing into an intersection at 50 is eventually going to get you right crossed.

Is eventually going to get you killed or seriously injured.
Sounds downright reckless to me.

+1

time and place luke. yes, you were in the right, but it's no fun being right and dead.

[Rhubarb]

Wow - serious incident there. I am pleased it was reported as an assault on you though. I hope you are ok physically and mentally. To think that mature aged people would act like that is something that would take me a while to get my head around I think.

[Rhubarb]

That was in reference to Crawf's post on the previous page.

First time tapatalk user sorry.

[Lukeyboy]

Then I might not ride a bike at all in that case if everything is going to be wrapped in cotton wool for safety I double checked the GPS and I entered the intersection at 49kph, got to 48kph half way across before it quickly drops down to 23kph. With this section of road its perfectly okay to ride 35-50kph. 3 lanes of traffic, 1 bike lane and 1 breakdown lane that's so wide it can be used for another lane of traffic. Traffic in the right hand lane was stopped/slowly crawling (I'm assuming because there were a couple big moving trucks up ahead). Traffic with big gaps was still moving at about 30-40kph in the middle lane and traffic was at about 20-15kph/5kph in stages due to people turning off into the servo, turning off into a side street or merging right - so basically brake checking and bunching up. The car I had just fully passed before entering the intersection would have been doing 35-40kph and the car ahead would have been doing around 30kph. I still reckon the car that the guy waved to for letting him merge wasn't expecting the van to pull out aswell going by the closing distances.

Red was the rough path of the van, green is the bike lane. I just plain can't recall seeing a car there but talking to some family about it; it wouldn't suprise me if the van driver got frustrated with a car waiting to merge that he decided to overtake and merge straight on. Its really the only way that someone would merge directly across in that location rather than futher up.

[yellagonga]

Cyclist gets squeezed and has a few words with the driver http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b18_1374717335" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;