Cycling UK Forum

i urge cyclist not to respond directly to the outbreak of "cyclist harassment"by motoer vehicles that is reaching chronic proportions.honking,yelling
roaring engins,car door banging.2 stroke
sceaming in every area of recreation,cycle paths and parks.get the emails going take numbers and discriptions and report it to the appropriate people in the appropriate manner.

rubbish, a taxi driver tried to push my bike up onto a footpath with his vehicle recently. When drivers are so oblivious of cyclists despite all the lights, high vis jackets, high vis pannier covers etc you have to be able to alert them to your presence (thats why cars have horns).

Screaming normally works, failing that a sturdy thump on the car as it comes ignorantly past or an airzound are all useful tools for a regular road cyclist.

Screaming normally works, failing that a sturdy thump on the car as it comes ignorantly past or an airzound are all useful tools for a regular road cyclist.

These are the most sensible remarks I have seen here for a long time. I do exactly the same

Don't thump too hard though as you might hurt yourself.

I can readily understand how one would feel inclined to "thump the car" but unless you are reasonably well versed in some form of unarmed combat I would consider it FOOLISH IN THE EXTREME. Pick up any newspaper and you will see various items illustrating the casualness with which people resort to violence these days.
Having 'thumped' your offending vehicle, what will you do if it screeches to a halt and some neanderthal gets out armed with a baseball bat ( OR A KNIFE ????? )
and attacks you ??

I'm reasonable capable of taking care of myself, but why invite trouble ?? Is it really worth it. ??

casualness with which people resort to violence these days.

You are obviously refering to the potential crimes against the person by the potential reprisal and not the potential crime against property if the vehicle owner were to be able to claim that you did not do such a thing in self defence.

He would not, because after thumping the vehicle in self defence you are out of the area in next to no time, in time honoured cyclists fashion!

If you have to thump it, you have to thump it.
If you have to shout like hell, then you have to shout like hell. Trusim and true!

you are out of the area in next to no time, in time honoured cyclists fashion!


I thought you averaged about 7mph on your recumbent? If you hit my car quite apart from pursuing you in the vehicle I can run quicker than that over a sustained distance (and I don't run competitively anymore)! If you hit anyone or thing you have to admit you may pay the consequences.

B thanks for saying! I see your point!
In my present role as disabled I would not be able to thump anybody, and get away with it!

I was thinking when I get back to pushbike or some.!

Ah ! Well!

If you hit anyone or thing you have to admit you may pay the consequences.

Since I can be identified for my remarks here, I should also add that whilst bicycles are provided for unde the road traffic acts of 1835 and highways act of 1898, the apparatus I use, is in fact according to case law Bristol Maigistrates 1878 a perambulator Indeed the latin meaning makes it quite clear that soembody who HAS to use something even for walking "per ambulare"
is not a vehicle at all for the purposes of the road traffic acts, even if it is capable of being pushed on a road,the same as any babe's pram with wheels to it.

Far from thumping anybody, if I am threatened or thumped by any road user AND EVEN IF I THUMP them first, they would need a very good excuse indeed to escape criminal penalties.
The disability discrimination act 1995/2005
makes it quite clear what the responsibilities are
towards the disabled wherever they may be!

I will not continue with Trade Descriptions or Assault and Battery in the particular case in question against the criminal employees of Sandbanks Ferry in Dorset

Not half as responsible as a car driver
If you are in a field walkiing along a path,
you have not got a care in the world have u!!?
If you are a cyclist you have not got so many more, have you?!!

If you have got a car, you have got an awful lot of responsibilities compared with somebody walking across a field without a vare in the world!!

Steam gives way to sail! Happy days!

I will not continue with Trade Descriptions or Assault and Batter

I will not continue with the litany of offences against them; there are so many and they will be heard in whichever court I choose, or they choose.

the casualness with which people resort to violence these days

Well said. The last time some car driver shouted at me I caught him up at the next roundabout, and asked him why he shouted at me (was one of my brake lights out). He threatened to beat me up, and was half-way out of his car to do so before he realised that there were two cars behind him (that could identify him maybe?). When I contacted the police they politely informed me that since he didn't actually beat me up there was nothing they could do.

So don't pick an argument with them unless you have your U-Lock to hand.

I would have thought that he could be done for 'threatening behaviour'. I am alarmed by the number of seemingly blind motorists, pedestrians and cyclists one sees about the place.
While I am irritated by drivers who seem intent on terminating me while cycling, I am also pleased to comment on those who do drive more courteously, or at least allow me to get around a roundabout. I ride assertively, signal clearly, stop at traffic lights and don't ride on pavements. I am also peculiar in using lights at night.
Sadly, when driving I notice plenty of cyclists who either have little or no idea of the highway code, as well as lots of drivers of the same ilk.
It seems we are all too important to wait a moment for anything! But as they say, it's better to be late in this life than early in the next!
Mrs Tortoise.

By the way I never go round a roundabout the same way as a the cars. That is asking for trouble.
Any number of Mbike accidents like that, and some cycling ones

Go at right angles if I can, and on the grass too if there is enough of it.

I was cycling through town late night one Suinday and overtook some yobs at a traffic light. As I moved off they pulled alongside threatening to beat me up. The feeling of satisfaction when a policecar at a nearby set of lights, seeing the ijncident, came up to pull tem over was immense. Where I'd have ended up without such good luck I don't know though.

When I contacted the police they politely informed me that since he didn't actually beat me up there was nothing they could do.

I would have thought that he could be done for 'threatening behaviour'

Yes of course and even better to have been thumped as some people would invoke and then you have the actual bodily harm (ABH) to prove it, and the witnesses.