Altercation with a bus

[Mick F]

Yesterday, I was riding into Tavistock and came down West Street hill towards the one-way system.
You have to turn right into Russel Street, and the traffic coming up towards you has to give way.
West Street has many cars parked on the right, so traffic coming into West Street have to wait for the traffic coming down.

I was here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.54928 ... 312!8i6656

This is the give way:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.54957 ... 312!8i6656

In a car, this isn't an issue as the oncoming vehicles usually wait. Some try to push their way through, but there's usually a gap in the parked cars for them to pull in.

Yesterday, on the bike, a bus pulled out over the give way lines and headed up towards me.
I kept going.
The bus kept going.
We stopped face-to-face.
I couldn't get past, and neither could the bus.
Nowhere for either of us to go!
I got off the bike, and squeezed past and said to the driver through his window ........... "I have priority here, you saw me and should have waited."
He shrugged his shoulders ............. and we carried on our way.

I will NOT be intimidated.

[tykeboy2003]

I hope you have reported him.

[Mick F]

No I didn't.
I should have done.

[[XAP]Bob]

Should have waited for him to reverse (or at least start to).

I like pointing out that I don't have a reverse gear on the trike...

[sbcoombs]

Thankfully it wasn’t at speed Mick, so glad you were not hurt. Mistakes happen but if he didn’t have the good grace to apologise, I would report him to his company.


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[Tizme]

Well done Mick!
I have had several games of Russian roulette with drivers at traffic calming points in a local village, they were all either confused or angry that I would not stop and let them through unimpeded, even though I had ROW.

I know I am a grumpy old git, but I think cyclists and pedestrians must, where safe, do everything we can to uphold our right to travel safely. Just as an aside, how many times have you, as a pedestrian, stopped on a pavement in the cold and wet to allow the driver of a vehicle to turn into/out of a junction, when they could easily have waited for you? It has never entered into the thought process of the driver to yield priority to the lower life form.

[chris_suffolk]

Report him, the company will grab the on board CCTV to see what's what.

[Username]

You're lucky, bus driver could have killed you!

[Wanlock Dod]

It's issues like this that tend to make me feel that SMIDSY is just the socially acceptable form of

Well I honestly though he'd get out of my way, he would have been killed if I hadn't stopped

[tykeboy2003]

ROW

Doesn't exist any more, it's now called "Priority". I think this is more than just semantics as it now implies that nobody has rights over any other road user at any time. Just a pity a lot of motor vehicle drivers don't understand this concept and think they own the road.

[thirdcrank]

... Just a pity a lot of motor vehicle drivers don't understand this concept and think they own the road.

I've just had such an incident walking home from Dad's Chauffeuring Service.

The streetview doesn't really show clearly how wide the mouth of the juniction is. But it is extraordinarily wide

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.75613 ... 312!8i6656

This aerial view gives a better idea. All subject to 20mph limit BTW.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.75654 ... a=!3m1!1e3

I was walking along that side of the road, intending to cross the mouth of the junction right to left in the picture, heading towards the corner where the white Kia (?) is parked. (Red car in some shots if you change position in streetview)

There's not a good view up the side road but I heard something roaring towards the junction and waited for it to pass. Check back up the road behind me and nothing coming so orff we jolly well go. Almost across when there was a screech of brakes + prolonged blast of horn and a car turning right into the junction almost ended up crashed in to the several cars actually parked where the white or red one is in streetview.

The driver leapt out in a frenzy shouting "What was all that about?" I really didn't know what he was talking about but he managed to spit out among the rage that I should not have been crossing the junction in front of him. In full diplomatic mode, I pointed out that he hadn't even turned into the top of the road when I began to cross. With a lot of gesturing at the white lines in the road centre, he made clear his view that I should have checked over my shoulder before crossing the centre line and as he was approaching and signalling to turn right I should have waited in the middle of the junction until he had turned.

In even more diplomatic mode, I decided not to mention the relevant bit if Rule 206 of the HC and came home grateful that he hadn't knocked me down either with his car or subsequently with his fist.

Rule 206
Drive carefully and slowly when
....
turning at road junctions; give way to pedestrians who are already crossing the road into which you are turning
....

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway ... 204-to-225

I come by there quite often going to/ returning home from my son's house. Probably time to change the habits of living here since 1975 and use the opposite pavement

[Mick F]

You're lucky, bus driver could have killed you!

No chance of that.
Speed too slow, and I was in charge.
I stopped him.

He was in the wrong, and he knew it.
Had I been in a car, he would have stopped at the give-way line.
Because I was riding a bike, he disregarded me, and expected me to bunny hop onto the pavement.

No way would I do that!
I'm "driving" a vehicle. and vehicles should be on the road, not on the footway.

[tykeboy2003]

Rule 206
Drive carefully and slowly when
....
turning at road junctions; give way to pedestrians who are already crossing the road into which you are turning
....

I think the majority of drivers don't know this rule. I have always understood that I must give way (priority) to ANY ROAD USERS already on a road that I am about to enter, my driving instructor told me that back in 1980.

[thirdcrank]

My problem is probably that I'm aware of the rules and perhaps too confident that others will comply. I wouldn't have deliberately exercised any sort of priority on this occasion. Although I had only just crossed the central white marking when I found myself "in his road," I was four fifths of the way across and the driver would have had plenty of room to pass behing me had he been that bothered. He was certainly convinced that he was in the right. It wouldn't have taken much for him to have punched me. He really was outraged.

[Cyril Haearn]

My problem is probably that I'm aware of the rules and perhaps too confident that others will comply. I wouldn't have deliberately exercised any sort of priority on this occasion. Although I had only just crossed the central white marking when I found myself "in his road," I was four fifths of the way across and the driver would have had plenty of room to pass behing me had he been that bothered. He was certainly convinced that he was in the right. It wouldn't have taken much for him to have punched me. He really was outraged.

Many rules are almost universally ignored, STOP signs for example
You could have mentioned that you are a retired police officer
Do you ever do that, do you have any powers?
I would try never to talk to them, just ignore them