Being nice to car drivers

[reohn2]

I too agree with the OP and do this quite often,I agree with Bygad too that if if you use a route regularly ie commuters,it will be repaid.

[mark_w]

I've had quite a few times recently where I found a little display of thanks helps a load. I always thank drivers who have taken the time to wait behind me, or given me loads of room. A little thought goes quite a long way I find, and I usually get a friendly wave back Plus it makes me feel better that I'm spreading a little bit of thanks.

However, In the reverse, today I saw quite an interesting display of just what I percieved to be utter rudeness by two cyclists in York, - here on Heworth Green - which made me embarassed, to be honest, to be a cyclist.

Woman on the front bike (a proper old sit up and beg type) wearing a high-viz with 'POLITE' on it, which can only have been designed to look like it says POLICE, being followed by an extremely high-viz guy on a mountain bike which looked like he'd ram raided the bolt-ons department of Evans Cycles, and a helmet with what I can only gather was a video camera on top of it. Looked like a fat pen stuck up on a mount from the top of his helmet with a lens on the front.

So a pinch point comes up (I'm about 50-60 yards behind them) and the cyclists move out as you do. Then a VW golf starts to overtake - giving plenty of room. There was probably a good car's width and was well over the other side of the road, with no-one coming up from the roundabout. Guy following then pulls out to primary position and shoves his arm out as though he was going to turn right. Golf panics and slows down, as you would do, to let him out. Except he then pulls his arm back in, for a split second, so Golf pulls further to the right. He then pulls his arm out AGAIN which confused the Golf driver even more, but then he pulls back to the left into secondary position, and proceeds on as normal, leaving the golf driver utterly bemused as to what was going on, and the cyclist having given the rest of us a bad name (I'm sure I saw the Golf driver shaking his head!).

Sometimes we don't help ourselves! Was the following bike rider being one of those Militant types who gives us a bad name? RLJ's are the worst, but the militant car haters also do us no favours!

[drsquirrel]

Were you(they) past the pinch point before he put his hand out? And you mention roundabout, how far away were you from entering it...? Certainly seems a bit weird.

[graymee]

I agree with the sentiment, if someone waits to overtake me because there is insufficient space to do so safely I like to wave to say thanks. If on the other hand someone squeezes past between me and the white line, particularly if there's nothing coming the other way, I like to let them know they were too close. Nothing obscene, just a gesture to indicate they should move over.

[mark_w]

Were you(they) past the pinch point before he put his hand out? And you mention roundabout, how far away were you from entering it...? Certainly seems a bit weird.

They had just gone over the lights and the pinch point was a car parked on the LHS of the road over the cycle lane. Road is about 3 lanes wide at this point. Roundabout probably 150-170yards away.

See - if I thought it had been justified I'd have probably understood it, but as a following cyclist, I was actually appalled by the way he acted. It was almost as though he was going to move out to turn right at the roundabout, but the way he did it, it was definitely done to stop the Golf from overtaking him, even though the Golf could have done it with loads of space and very safely.

[thekelticfringe]

Spoils it for the rest of us

[jan19]

My daughter passed her driving test a couple of weeks ago and I've been going out with her on a regular basis to get her completely confident before going out on her own.

Today we saw a lycra cyclist on the road in front of us - not at all easy to pass at that point so I told her to slow down and wait until it was safe ( which she duly did). As she passed by, he gave her a wave to say "thanks". He obviously realised she'd hung back until it was safe to pass, and I think she learnt a good lesson. Obviously both her parents cycle so she's more aware than most but he didn't know that and I thought the gesture was a nice one.

Jan

[AlanD]

My daily commute to work takes in an uphill climb along a twisty narrow 'B' road that is also very busy because it is the most direct route between two towns i.e. 'Trecherous'. Some drivers are patient, some are not. Although I find that the driver of the No2 Bus is patient and stays behind in his crawling gear as I struggle up this hill. I have twice now rung up the bus company to express my thanks for this drivers consideration. I think this pays dividends.
Alan

[NUKe]

The more cyclists that are courteous and friendly to motorists, the less cyclists will be mown down each year

Sorry Graham but the above does suggest that you think that If we are nice to car drivers less of us will be knocked down.
I have a number of issues with this as a statement
1. Most accidents with Cyclists are not acts of aggression by the driver, but are caused by the carelessness, lack attention, or poor driving skills of one or more parties
2. The drivers that do take extra special care will generally do so and are not the problem.

I do acknowledge people who give me space or wait behind etc It just makes the world a nicer place. But I do question that this has any bearing on the accident statics whatsoever

[GrahamNR17]

Hi Nuke,

I regret that in the large majority of cases you are probably quite right. But I do believe there are drivers who simply dislike cyclists, for whatever reason, that will cause them danger just by their attitude - maybe they've had bad experinces with chavs or idiots riding dangerously etc and like to tar everyone with the same brush. But surely if they had a better experience of cyclists generally one or two might be less aggressive when they spot a 'normal' sensible cyclist? I'd like to think that at least could be achieved.

But the careless/blind/stupid I agree cannot be dealt with by courtesy alone. I can't say I know the answer to those kinds of drivers

Cheers,
Graham

[jonbott]

on my usual route to work is a single lane tunnel and and section of narrow road I do nod and say thanks to car drivers stop,shame they don`t normally do the same for me

[drossall]

Surely we don't need evidence that it makes life safer before we acknowledge consideration? Most of us are drivers as well anyway - should be normal behaviour whatever we are driving/riding.

I've also exchanged a grin with a driver when one of us made a silly mistake and waved an apology.

[byegad]

When I started driving in 1969 country pubs had just started doing evening meals (Chicken or Scampi in a basket was a favourite, although soup in a basket did less well!) and the car parks were packed. In the pub everyone was drinking including the drivers. After a lot of work by the police in enforcing the drink drive laws, breathalysers had been around for a while by then, not a lot changed.
Then the advertising industry came up with the idea of making drink driving socially unacceptable.

While the problem is still with us to some extent, the number of drivers who do not drink while out for a meal is high.

What we need is to encourage the decent drivers, there are a lot of them, and make bullying a cyclist as unacceptable as drink driving. I feel that communicating with drivers by thanking them for small acts of consideration is a long term survival ploy well worth the small effort. Similarly when we see a driver using his vehicle to endanger a cyclist, ourselves or someone else, we should report it. Many, well maybe some, Police areas seem to collect and collate these reports and will on occasions contact the owner of reported vehicles. The more reports a Police area gets the more likely it becomes that they will act.

[AlanD]

Byegad,
Don't hold your breath for a response if reporting to Thames Valley Police