Near Miss of the Day 197: "Just a normal 40-minute commute"

Just back from popping to the post office, one in the town centre was closed due to rain ingress (really!)I so it's 3 miiles each way. I had more courtesy (being allowed into the flow of traffic from a siide road) and lawful passes than I had bad incidents, I even had one mid size van actually indicate he was overtaking on the 40mph through road (to the A1), I think that's the first time ever in 30 years! There's enough space for a good 2metres if they go up to the lane divider the road is that wide but few ever get anywhere near that and through the pedestrian refuge is always stressy as they accelerate off the bend.

That is all undone when you have someone tailgating you up to a pedestrian refuge or pinch point and literally alongside and you think they're going to ram you from behind or side swipe you. It's all undone when as above you have a criminal driving almost 40 tons of mass within inches of your person.

So no matter how much lawful or courteous driving you are on the end of it's the stuff that threatens you harm that sticks, it's basically PTSD but on a lower level, but when you get it day after day after day, it can and does build up, it builds up enough that many have simply jacked in cycling, it's enough to say to people we aren't ever going to cycle.

It can also build up enough that you want to physically hurt somene back and hurt them badly, at the extreme you completely lose control and batter someone senseless, there was a case a few years ago of a cyclist who had a door flung into him and he punched the guy who then fell backwards and died from banging his head (not the punch itself) or like last year a cyclist simply launched his bike into the wiindscreen of a car at the hospital car park IIRC.

But until we address the issue of not just dangerous driving but careless driving these problems will not go away and as we know will not encourage more people to cycle, waiting for decent level segregated infra across the whole country is pie in the sky and will never happen.

I got beeped at by some jackass the other day because I moved out to avoid a pothole at the same time as he wanted to overtake me just ahead of a 90 degree blind bend with a transit van coming the other way. All in the game, yo. Like you say, it’s all just business as usual these days and we just have to put up with it.

To be fair, I think that was his point.

What would really be different would be a 40 minute ride without a single close pass, left hook, cutting up, abuse or any other idiotic manouvre by a driver.  If only.  Sigh.

And that isn't a joke.  We are now so totally inured to the appalling behaviour of drivers that it really would be remarkable to take a journey where there wasn't at least one incident of concern, even if it wasn't life threatening.

Longer clip needed. I couldn't even tell if the car was moving in 2 and whether there was a queue in 3.