Should I carry pencil and paper?

[jazzkat]

My wife and I went for a ride today. Just a gentle bimble along a few lanes here in south Cumbria.
We are travelling down a single lane road that is actually signposted as a sustrans route (20), it's just wide enough for a car and one bike side by side.

We are riding side by side and as a car approached us (going the other way) I maintained primary (wife secondary) to try to get the car to slow down a bit, it didn't slow too much, but we passed without incident. As I returned to primary a 4x4 (it's always posh 4x4's up here!) started beeping his horn behind me. He was cracking on a bit and had he not beeped I would probably have returned to secondary without an issue. However being a bit pig headed (and really wanting him to slow down a bit) I stay in primary.
He sits two inches of my tyre beeping his horn, he then starts shouting out of his window that if I got off my bike we could have "a chat about it". I shouted "yeah, whatever" (I can look after myself and have no fear from a bit of a punch up) and moved out of his way, at this point another car was coming from the front and 4x4 man had to wait until this car had passed.

As he passed me I shouted for him to "have a nice day" and I noticed it was a rather old chap, well in his 60's (wouldn't have been much of a scrap ).

Now all this happenend very quickly and apart from the initial resistance (from me) to move over the incident happened very quickly and I really wasn't been as awkward as it perhaps sounds.

My question is should I carry a pencil and pad and take the number of the car to report to plod? I have read a few peoples experiences on here and wonder if its really worth the effort.

[sirmy]

Froma lot of other posts it seems to be not worth the time as the plod rarely follow it up

[Flinders]

But if we don't, then they'll say 'we get no complaints'. I think we probably should report things when possible to identify the vehicle- after all, if this 'person' was then involved in an accident later as a result of similarly aggressive behavior, having had a previous complaint the police might be more inclined to believe the next (possibly fellow cyclist's) story and do something about it.

[jazzkat]

But if we don't, then they'll say 'we get no complaints'. I think we probably should report things when possible to identify the vehicle- after all, if this 'person' was then involved in an accident later as a result of similarly aggressive behavior, having had a previous complaint the police might be more inclined to believe the next (possibly fellow cyclist's) story and do something about it.

I think this may be the best approach. Our "town bobby" seems to be a decent bloke (not that I've had much to do with him) and seems to do a lot more in the community than a lot of police do in the towns/city.

There's also a big fuss about people not being allowed to cycle on the prom, so cycling is definitely in the towns conciousness at the moment.

[adinigel]

Well, from what you have posted you wound the driver up so I'm at a loss as to what you would report on this occasion. If there is a genuine incident then it may be worth reporting.

Nigel

[eileithyia]

Depends on how good your memory is, I often have a good memory for numbers if they have passed slow enough for it to be read, often they are passing too fast for reading to be possible.
Alternative, if you already carry a mobile phone, use the "note" facility on it.

[jazzkat]

Well, from what you have posted you wound the driver up so I'm at a loss as to what you would report on this occasion. If there is a genuine incident then it may be worth reporting.

Nigel

I guess it does sound a little like I was deliberately trying to wind him up, but this really wasn't the case. I stayed in primary to try to force him to slow down (he was a fair way away when he started beeping, but travelling at speed) his immediate response was to drive on my back tyre beeping his horn and shouting at the window. This all took seconds. I then moved over. I could quite easily have wound him up more, but he had a rather large metal box to sit safely inside.

It would be the immediate road rage response I would report.
There is a golf club about a mile down the road and I wouldn't have been too surprised if he'd been in the club house and was useing the lanes rather than the main roads to get home after a couple of g and t's

[yakdiver]

We are riding side by side and as a car approached us (going the other way) I maintained primary (wife secondary) to try to get the car to slow down a bit,

I think you were totally wrong by riding side by side as I see it you were trying to stop him from overtaking safely and you deliberately held him up, I'm sorry but people like you give cyclists a bad name, work with motorists not against them

[jazzkat]

We are riding side by side and as a car approached us (going the other way) I maintained primary (wife secondary) to try to get the car to slow down a bit,

I think you were totally wrong by riding side by side as I see it you were trying to stop him from overtaking safely and you deliberately held him up, I'm sorry but people like you give cyclists a bad name, work with motorists not against them

yes I did hold him up, but as the road looked something like this it was a little difficult for him to overtake safely at the speed he was travelling.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/image_galleries/john_toms_gallery.shtml

I'd rather hold him up than risk a trip to A an E.

I'm quite happy to work with motorists. I passed my IAM motorcycle test and travel over 20000 business miles in a car a year. However there are some motorists who immediately take an aggressive stance and won't wait even for a few seconds.

As for giving cyclist a bad name, I would rather have some self preservation going on and irritate a few idiots than end up a KSI statistic.

[yakdiver]

if the road is that small as it the photo what the hell were you doing rideing side by side
and who the hell are you to slow down a motorist, I'm sorry you are very wrong indeed
as I stated work with motorists not against them

[robertrabbit]

As for giving cyclist a bad name, I would rather have some self preservation going on and irritate a few idiots than end up a KSI statistic.

who the hell are you to slow down a motorist, I'm sorry you are very wrong indeed

Now, now, chaps. In a lot of these cases it may be that 'you needed to be there'. Let's not have a full on pop at each other without knowing the full story.

The OP was asking whether to carry a pen and paper to note down unacceptable behaviour. The answer has surely got to be that if you consider it unacceptable, note it (pen &paper/mobilephone etc) report it and make sure you get it acknowledged. You never know it might even be yourself that the motorist hits next time and there's a record of previous behaviour.

[jazzkat]

if the road is that small as it the photo what the hell were you doing rideing side by side
and who the hell are you to slow down a motorist, I'm sorry you are very wrong indeed
as I stated work with motorists not against them

I am genuinely sorry for upsetting you, but I fail to see the problem with riding side by side on such a road (although I admit the road we were on was slightly wider, you could just fit two cars side by side), a car has to slow down to pass anyway, and in that time I'd have moved over.
I'm more than happy to work with motorists.

[Coffee]

I understand what Jazzkat was originally trying to do, I ride on a similar sustrans track along route 51, for motor vehicles it goes to a fishing lake dead end. It's a bendy single track with passing bays, yet you still get blanks, mostly in 4x4's going 60mph plus and they don't know what's around the corner, I'd love to be able to get them to slow down, the slightest tap by a wing mirror at that speed is not going to be a good out come for me.

Bad name, no.

+1 on a decent mobile phone can be used for loads of things these days, notes,videoing or a photo of the vehicle and even phoning police....or ambulance if needed.

[cycleruk]

if the road is that small as it the photo what the hell were you doing rideing side by side
and who the hell are you to slow down a motorist, I'm sorry you are very wrong indeed
as I stated work with motorists not against them

Works both ways. When are motorists going to work with cyclists.
Some do but a lot don't.
How many people where in the 4x4 - I bet there was only one.
So one car driver has right of way over 2 cyclists.

[kwackers]

I'd have no problems riding side by side down that road and simply pulling in as vehicles come up - looks like a nice ride.

It's the usual problem of impatient motorists and their "my journey is more important than yours" mentality.

If you take the OP at face value - whose breaking the law? Not the cyclist. If someone sat so close behind me on the horn they'd be wearing my bicycle as a necklace.