mjr wrote:Sum wrote:+1Airsporter1st wrote:I can't help thinking that some of the antipathy towards cyclists comes from incidents such as you describe, where another road user is trying to be courteous and is either ignored or admonished for his pains.
Come on then, please, would you rather we killed ourselves to avoid upsetting another road user who invites us into danger (possibly with good intentions) or something else? Two examples - what would you have done?
This week, I had some quite vociferous abuse from another road user who told me to jump a red light. They got really quite offensive, calling me a dick and so on, but it was a real red light, I know it detects bikes (but it's slow to change) and I'm not keen on making a right turn onto a 30mph dual carriageway against the lights. But do you think that was wrong? Should I have gone to avoid upsetting another road user who was trying to be helpful?
A few months ago, a white van stopped in the nearside lane of a fairly busy 2-lane road and waved me across from a side road. I was a bit late already, so I pulled out, but I treated the corner of his van as a blind corner and peered round it - just in time to snatch my front wheel back in away from a hot hatch close-passing him at speed. Was that wrong? Should I have gone ahead so as not to offend the van driver by implying he hadn't checked his side mirror properly before waving me out?
I think it's really better to ignore such misguided courtesy, or make some "no thanks" signal in reply.
+1
Only a policeperson in uniform may direct traffic