There was something in the way he pulled away from the lights that made me know it was going to happen. It wasn’t like he was that young, he had his wife (or girlfriend, or whatever) in the car with him, and was driving a respectable car with space for a family, but he was still frustrated and going to take it out on someone.
Maybe it was because I overtook another cyclist (with plenty of space) a few metres in front of him, or perhaps me keeping up with him over the speed ramps annoyed him as much as his failure to upgrade to the car he really wanted. Whatever it was, he was racing up to the speed bumps and braking erratically, then blipping the throttle making his exhausts rumble. He wasn’t going anywhere as the car in front was going to hold him up anyway. Still, that wasn’t going to stop him trying.
Eventually I went to slip past on clear raised zebra crossing as I used the benefit of not having to slow down on a bike.
I was nearly past when he took action and swerved aggressively towards me.
I don’t think he was trying to hit me really, but it doesn’t make it any safer if he was just trying to block my way through. He probably wouldn’t have wanted to deal with police and ambulances, although I don’t think he would have waited. He was simply a frustrated man, upset with having to buy a nice Skoda, not an Audi, annoyed with the speed limit and speed ramps that limited him to a speed alongside the bikes and mostly just looking to take it all out on someone more vulnerable.
The lady in the passenger seat ignored my torrent of swearing and my hand slapped on the back of the car as much as he did as he sped off to take his aggression out on someone else, maybe the next child crossing the road ahead, and I peeled off into a side road.
I guess I know which side he’ll be trying to come down on in this upcoming Spectator Magazine debate. I think there should be as many people as possible, demonstrating how responsible cyclists are, there as well.
A
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