Commuting Woe

Some people deserve an ear-bashing, like idiots who holed up traffic in the yellow box junctions. It happens alot in kingston (near the college roundabout for those who are familier with the area) and none of the buses can get through, so traffic gets held up everywhere.

I hate getting all red-misted. Best thing to do is to pull over and calm down, anger can get you into all sorts of horrible and easily avoided accients.

Matt

What way do you come out of SE london as i see a curvy SV going the opposite way to me quite often (Down BH Commen, past deptford, up to rotherhithe, along up to L Bridge...).

Don't you love london. Its really really making me hate the UK with the ignorent sh1tty "im always right" people round here...

Originally Posted by alpinestarhero

I hate getting all red-misted. Best thing to do is to pull over and calm down, anger can get you into all sorts of horrible and easily avoided accients.

I'd hate to pull over to calm down with a WVM chasing you.

Around here, in a chase because of road rage, I'd just hit the gas & hope it was a nice PC Plod that pulled me over (inevitable around here). In London, it would depend on traffic, but I'd probably just turn off my usual route, and keep turning on major roads until he got the point. Either that or filter away in heavy traffic.

At the end of the day, all they need to do is tap your rear wheel, and the results aren't something I want to even think about.

I've been subject to red mist in the past, but I've also talked to bikers who have had their wheel simply nudged (by accident) and seen the results of it. If someone wants to drive like an ar*e, fine, they can happily stay in front of me. Thats where I can see them best, and I control how far away they stay, not them.

Spot on Baph.

I think that's what's bugging me about this morning's incident - usually I ride like you say above, letting the nutters get on with it and stay in front of me. If only I'd not let this guy get to me this morning everything would be fine and I wouldn't still be obsessing about it and feeling crap about the way I rode and the hard time I gave perfectly inoccent other road users.

I must learn from this!

Everyone has bad days fella (don't know if you saw my red mist post, car pulled out on me at a mini-roundabout, so I opened the throttle wide behind them, then closed it quickly to put the front wheel back where it belonged ).

Don't be too hard on yourself, otherwise you'll still be thinking about it on the way home

Originally Posted by Daimo

What way do you come out of SE london as i see a curvy SV going the opposite way to me quite often (Down BH Commen, past deptford, up to rotherhithe, along up to L Bridge...).

No, that's not me. My commute's only a short one within London - home is SE22, work is SW9. I could walk it in 45 minutes but I'm lazy!

Originally Posted by Baph

Everyone has bad days fella (don't know if you saw my red mist post, car pulled out on me at a mini-roundabout, so I opened the throttle wide behind them, then closed it quickly to put the front wheel back where it belonged ).

Don't be too hard on yourself, otherwise you'll still be thinking about it on the way home

Thanks dude - that helped a lot.

Why does everyone seem to want to kill each other as soon as they get behind the wheel in this country??

Driving in Spain and France people are often more pushy but they dont want to get out and stab you like here!

Any ideas??

Originally Posted by mclarenmike

Why does everyone seem to want to kill each other as soon as they get behind the wheel in this country??

Driving in Spain and France people are often more pushy but they dont want to get out and stab you like here!

Any ideas??

I once got a taxi from the airport in Paris to our hotel, kids in the car as well. BIG Mistake when we could of taken the train.

Taxi driver decided he'd do the usual stuff, like undertaking, which scared the Mrs a little, but I was fine with it. But he also had someone cut him up at a junction, and they had to stop for traffic, so our driver got out to have a 'chat', got back in, and proceeded with our journey.

He also at one point came up on an accident on the autoroute, which we only really knew about as we passed it. Emergency services hadn't got there yet, but there was folks helping out, and a truck stopped to block traffic. What does our clown do? Straight on to the hard shoulder, undertaking all the traffic, past the truck, then swing HARD back into the main lanes to avoid pedestrians helping out at the accident site

I've never witnessed driving as bad as that, and I don't want to again.

I've also seen how the French police stop cars when they need to. Guy on a push bike rode along in a police uniform, parked his bike, walked out into the road, and pointed a gun at the driver of the first car that approached him That's probably why they don't get too hostile overseas.

Originally Posted by mclarenmike

Why does everyone seem to want to kill each other as soon as they get behind the wheel in this country??

Driving in Spain and France people are often more pushy but they dont want to get out and stab you like here!

Any ideas??

Here are three basic reasonsit started of as one but kept extending)

1. There is much too much traffic on the roads in the UK, especially in the midlands and south east - car drivers get frustrated as hell. White van drivers, having to drive about in the sh*t all day get paranoid.

2. Brit drivers seem to transform into the beast when he/she gets behind a wheel.

3. Our roads are becoming unpoliced. A camera cannot lecture a driver/rider commiting a misdemeanor.

A spaniard wanted to brain me in Barcelona some time ago - just because I'd given him the driver's salute. I sometimes drive and ride like a tw*t too - don't we all? The problem is that it only takes a touch to banjax a biker, whereas a car or van can 'knock' about quite happily without any real damage.

JohnH

Originally Posted by ejohnh

3. Our roads are becoming unpoliced. A camera cannot lecture a driver/rider commiting a misdemeanor.

You obviously don't live North enough Unpoliced? Hah! I see more police cars/vans during a commute than I do WVM!