How do you deal with an angry car driver?

[Cyril Haearn]

Back to topic if the angry driver is a nutter then smiling and treating them with kindness will often confuse and destabilise them. They can get very confused which is a joy to be behold. Much less stress for the cyclist in a no win situation.

destabilise them, +1!

[Lance Dopestrong]

I just ignore them. I don't make eye contact, I don't shout rude words, I don't shake my head, I just ignore them completely. Too many people are killed or seriously injured during road rage to make me want to play.

[bigjim]

I've recently had a nice 9 day break in France. Riding every day. The roads and drivers were wonderful. Roads so quiet and drivers so friendly and accommodating. Two days after arriving back I was deliberately sideswiped by a white van man. I managed to stay upright as he drove off. I have lost count of the dangerous close passes since. It is such a shock riding back in the UK after my French experience. One of the guys in the club I ride with is a bus driver. He says " Just ignore them. They are looking for a reaction, don't give it to them." Trouble is I do suffer from the red mist thing. It is now so bad around here that I have a potential "incident" at least once every ride and I'm very tempted to give up cycling altogether.

[millimole]

." Trouble is I do suffer from the red mist thing. It is now so bad around here that I have a potential "incident" at least once every ride and I'm very tempted to give up cycling altogether.

This is the state I was in a few years ago.
This is a very personal reflection- you can chose to ignore the following as it is not meant personally to you ('cos I don't know you!)
There is a subtle 'effect & cause' mechanism that is NOT your fault, but only you can deal with it. You will find - at least I did - that dealing with the red mist will lead to less 'incidents' on your rides and you will once again enjoy riding.
How to do this? You need to find your own path: as I said above I developed a malicious sense of karma coupled with nasty sense of humour: 'close pass me - you will drop a cup of coffee in your lap at work', 'left hook me - your girlfriend will dump you'. I also slowed down - I did some sketching instead of just riding (very bad they are too - photography my be better!). You may chose to do something different to help you ride differently, not necessarily more - different times of day, different routes, social riding, different types of ride, a new bike, a cycling challenge (all the tea shops within your county?) - only you can find out how your head works, but once you have dealt with your 'red mist' you will find everything else falls into place.
Here endeth etc


You can easlily remove the Tapatalk spam using settings on YOUR phone

[meic]

I've recently had a nice 9 day break in France. Riding every day. The roads and drivers were wonderful. Roads so quiet and drivers so friendly and accommodating. Two days after arriving back I was deliberately sideswiped by a white van man. I managed to stay upright as he drove off. I have lost count of the dangerous close passes since. It is such a shock riding back in the UK after my French experience. One of the guys in the club I ride with is a bus driver. He says " Just ignore them. They are looking for a reaction, don't give it to them." Trouble is I do suffer from the red mist thing. It is now so bad around here that I have a potential "incident" at least once every ride and I'm very tempted to give up cycling altogether.

I am aware of this phenomenon and prepare myself for it on my returns from France!
Whilst you are over there you get spoilt and actually learn to expect to be treated reasonably, then within hours of return you get somebody squeezing past with inches to spare so you hit the side of the vehicle and spend an hour or so getting chased around some English town by a nutter while riding a fully loaded tourer.
Now I know to restrain myself and get used to being "home" without reacting to the encroachments, just as I used to a couple of weeks before. Get back to accepting your third class status.

[Airsporter1st]

surely backing down is the best perogotive to putting oneself in line for a punch

Not always - sometimes backing down is seen as weakness and encourages the protagonist to go further.

I liken it to watching an injured/sick fish in an aquarium; it puts out vibes which cause other fish to attack it.

Not only in cycling, but in my travels all over the world, I try (and mostly succeed) to project a calm confidence, whereby the potential protagonist has to make a decision of whether it would be in his best interests to mess with me. Truth be told, I'm as soft as ****, but the important thing is that they don't know that.

[fretsaw]

hiya,i think youre right wth hindsite.im in a position now though,that baking down seems to have my preferred reaction.keep safe,mike

[Flinders]

I've had a landrover driver driving in the opposite direction on a narrow country lane going fast fail to slow down- I had to not only stop, but climb up the verge and drag me and my bike into some nettles to let him past. I gave him the finger after he had passed, I presume he saw it ( not the sort of driver who normally uses his mirror I suspect - probably was just looking to enjoy the scare he'd just given me) because he then stopped and reversed back at high speed directly towards me on the lane.

As I was a lone small female miles away from anywhere (probably why the bully tried to scare me in the first place, I would assume that like all bullies he was a coward who wouldn't have taken on anyone as protected or powerful as himself), that was pretty scary. I think the passengers in the LR must have persuaded him not to run me down, he stopped suddenly and then went off at speed. Had he been alone, I suspect he would have run me over and then driven off. He was very close to doing it as it was.

I was left hoping that his next dangerous encounter in his vehicle would involve him, no other party, and a big concrete wall.

There are just some very dangerous drivers out there- and I mean by that, deliberately dangerous, not careless. Anyone with such little self control that they would twice deliberately aim their vehicle at a harmless cyclist, once for fun, and second from a sense of lese majeste because the person objected, ought not to be allowed to have a licence.

[Flinders]

I've recently had a nice 9 day break in France. Riding every day. The roads and drivers were wonderful. Roads so quiet and drivers so friendly and accommodating. Two days after arriving back I was deliberately sideswiped by a white van man. I managed to stay upright as he drove off. I have lost count of the dangerous close passes since. It is such a shock riding back in the UK after my French experience. One of the guys in the club I ride with is a bus driver. He says " Just ignore them. They are looking for a reaction, don't give it to them." Trouble is I do suffer from the red mist thing. It is now so bad around here that I have a potential "incident" at least once every ride and I'm very tempted to give up cycling altogether.

I'm afraid that's the UK in a nutshell these days. Once the British had a name for politeness and reserve, I don't know whether it was ever true, but these days, though many people are kind and polite, there is a growing hardcore of verbal and physical thuggery and dishonesty in both public and private life, and it seems that the public in general have just given up and accept it now.

[landsurfer]

Don't do what i did.
I looked back and moved across the lane without signalling. I was turning right.
A car came up my left side, driver window down, effing and blinding at me for not signalling .... he may have had a point...
I replied in finest Anglo Saxon.
He reached down and produced a large screwdriver, waved it at me and showed he could also speak Anglo Saxon.
He opened the car door....

What i did next was wrong, and led to me being lectured, at length, by 2 nice police officers, for 90 minutes at Maltby Police Station.

I kicked the door closed as he was getting out, hard.
It hurt him.

I was not charged with assault or cautioned as a young man videoed the threat the driver made to me on his phone and stayed until the nice police officers arrived to show them.
The driver pressed no charges, I made no complaint, and i learnt a very important lesson about using hand signals when riding my bicycle ........

[bigjim]

Which proves in a way that reacting does you no good. I'm, even at my age, very capable of defending myself. However, can you imagine having to spend time in a police station or hospital when you just wanted to go for a quiet ride on your bike? I'm amazed how many motorists are prepared to have a go at me. I'm 6'2",14.5 stone, ugly and bad tempered. But still they have a go! Though to be fair only one has ever stopped and got out of his van. That time I threw the bike down and ran over to him, but he jumped back in his van and drove off. I also think a lot of drivers think cyclists, more so on road bikes, are skinny nerds that are built like TDF riders and easy meat. Until you get off the bike. I just shake my head these days.
Must admit, in normal clothes on my MTB I never have any problems or close passes.

[Cyril Haearn]

Which proves in a way that reacting does you no good. I'm, even at my age, very capable of defending myself. However, can you imagine having to spend time in a police station or hospital when you just wanted to go for a quiet ride on your bike? I'm amazed how many motorists are prepared to have a go at me. I'm 6'2",14.5 stone, ugly and bad tempered. But still they have a go! Though to be fair only one has ever stopped and got out of his van. That time I threw the bike down and ran over to him, but he jumped back in his van and drove off. I also think a lot of drivers think cyclists, more so on road bikes, are skinny nerds that are built like TDF riders and easy meat. Until you get off the bike. I just shake my head these days.
Must admit, in normal clothes on my MTB I never have any problems or close passes.

One should avoid fighting, threats, confrontation at all costs, even with smaller opponents (one does not know if they can do martial *arts*). Even just defending oneself, maybe restraining, one might kill someone

Ignore the terrorists!

[landsurfer]

One should avoid fighting, threats, confrontation at all costs, even with smaller opponents (one does not know if they can do martial *arts*). Even just defending oneself, maybe restraining, one might kill someone

+1
At my wifes best friends birthday some years ago the birthday girls cousin was very drunk and started shouting and threatening his wife, this went on for a few minutes and i was asked to intervene, to chat with him.
I walked up behind him, put my arms around him and restrained him, a bear hug i believe, while i talked to him in a calm and measured way ....hoping to calm him down and resolve the situation.....

He had a heart attack in my arms !!!!!

He was fine, and we laugh about it now ...... well i do

Well ... it was Blackpool !!!

[Heltor Chasca]

One should avoid fighting, threats, confrontation at all costs, even with smaller opponents (one does not know if they can do martial *arts*). Even just defending oneself, maybe restraining, one might kill someone

+1
At my wifes best friends birthday some years ago the birthday girls cousin was very drunk and started shouting and threatening his wife, this went on for a few minutes and i was asked to intervene, to chat with him.
I walked up behind him, put my arms around him and restrained him, a bear hug i believe, while i talked to him in a calm and measured way ....hoping to calm him down and resolve the situation.....

He had a heart attack in my arms !!!!!

He was fine, and we laugh about it now ...... well i do

Well ... it was Blackpool !!!

Blimey: You are a human defibrillator. You could earn fortune hanging up, outside garden centres on a Wednesday. [emoji6]

Well played you and thank goodness he didn't end up kaput. Sounds like he had lots of health issues on every level.