Well on my way to work this morning a set of road works on a single B road. I know the timing of the lights as they have been there a couple of weeks. So I go down the outside of the queue knowing its borderline but watching for "refuges" as it were in the queue in case a large lorry comes the other way as there is plenty of room for anything else to pass even though I am about a foot over the dotted white line. Anyway Mr Transit appears coming the other way waving and gesticulating wildly even though he doesn't even have to slow down. As I don't lose my temper on the bike I ignore it but have been thinking all day... Was I actually in the wrong, I cannot for the life of me see that I was, I was only doing 15mph at the absolute most....
I’m sure your going to get many different reply’s/views. But what we call “filtering” most drivers view as riding down the wrong side of the road. We all do it, just do safely.
Stinger, nowt wrong with what you did. Same as Jack said Bell End I hope you give him the finger. People can't understand filtering (whats the alternative, sit behind stationary traffic) I don't think so. I think it pisses a lot of car/van drivers off. Weve all seen it where drivers actually alter course to close the gap.I just dont know whats going on in their head. Keep filtering,be safe
If that's aggresive - you should see me Don't think twice about it, don't knock his mirror off, you'll be the bad guy then. Plus, if the van going the opposite way to you, think you'd probably come off much worse than the van. Just let it pass with the total disdain it deserves. Worst thing is to think about it, keep your mind on the look-out for the next fuckwit. What I find really pisses people off when their being aggressive - be extra nice ! Wave back at the eejit, he'll be totally confused, and get even more annoyed, his morning spoilt, not yours. The more camp you can make the wave, the better Was once in road rage (car) with a very aggressive woman, started blowing her kisses as she fumed at me !!! Her face went bright red with anger , I was laughing my bollox off at her
True mate, but it is hard to keep being calm & cheerful as they more unreasonable & aggressive, that's the time to calmly say that you see dead people, and if they don't calm the feck down they will joining them!
But being angry and at the same time so vulnerable, not a good combo IMHO. I manage to let it pass when on the bike. In normal life I'll rip your head off and shit down your neck, but on the bike, I let my inner hippy take control, not my inner chimp (more like a 600lb silverback TBH)
Thanks for the replies. I didnt get angry so the thought of doing anything to his mirror didnt cross my mind. Tbh somehow I drive around in my cage ranting at the whole world but ive trained myself to absolutely never react or lose my temper on the bike regarding other road users. I just think riding angry makes you take risks. I also think you only have to meet a road rager that uses their vehicle as weapon once for it to be game over. I was just trying to replay it in my mind so that if i had really done something it might be a learning for me that might prevent a future confrontation. I too dont understand the deliberate closing of a gap to prevent filtering, i dont see what they get out of it apart from sort of dog in the manger perverse self-gratification. Anyone with more than a few days driving experience must surely understand even if the bike gets to the front of a queue its not going to hold anyone up.
I’ll be careful saying this as I’m sure there are a few van drivers on the forum, but white van man does seem to be getting more and more angry over recent years. They don’t seem to have a lot of tolerance, I was filtering between two lanes of stationary traffic on the A34 in Oxford recently and was deliberately blocked by an angry twat in a van, he finally let me through to a torrent of hand gestures, no idea why he was quite so hostile
It’s not just van drivers, it seems to me that the majority of drivers can be put into one of two categories; either angry and intolerant of all other road users or just totally oblivious of everyone else.
My friend Clive has developed a must effective filtering technique. I have recently taken to adopting this in heavy traffic. Here's how it works. One approaches the slow moving/ stationary queue of cars.....then headlight on full beam...then hazard lights....finally( and this is the one that truly works) Clive begins a sweeping drunken weave .... The effect is akin to the Israelites crossing the Red Sea......waves of traffic part like nobody's business. Antisocial I know and I reserve this technique for extreme situations. ( The one which springs to mind is the A303 Amesbury to Stonehenge bottleneck which I ride regularly). Not that I'd recommend such antics I'm sure.
Now, that reminds me of Umberto Maturana's work on System Determinism Theory of reality based on the neural ganglia of an Amazonian tree frog. Basically it 'sees' only insects flying one way across its field of vision...the other direction it's blind...doesn't even register on the retina. Also accounts for those Volvo drivers "Sorry mate, I didn't see you"
You can change the dynamics occasionally I once had a car driver cut me up badly on the A2....I followed him and when the traffic stopped I knocked on his window...he wound it down and swore at me for ' cutting him up'. I said I hadn't realised and if I'd done that I apologised Much to my surprise his demeanor changed completely...' Oh, in that case I'm really sorry I swore at you ...mistakes happen' and we parted as friends. On the other hand I am 6'3". Who knows what was more effective.
I once had a guy cut me up by pulling out of a queue of traffic into the clear lane I was coming down.It was so close that I had to do a stoppie to avoid him. Horn blazing at him he shot off giving me the finger out of his window. 200 yards down the road he’d stopped at some traffic lights. His demeanour changed suddenly as I pulled along side and proceeded to drag him through the window. He s@#t himself and screeched off through the red light narrowly avoiding cars coming from the other direction. Oh how I wish he’d crashed!
Filtering between lanes 2 & 3 on the m42, all 3 lanes stationary. I noticed a guy well ahead of me making a concerted effort to move over. I assumed it was to give me more room. Strange, cos there was plenty of room for me anyway. What he was actually doing was positioning his car so that as I rode past he could squirt me with his windscreen washers, toss*r.
There are indeed plonkers to be found ...but my own experience suggests them to be a small minority of road users. I'm often pleasantly surprised by how willing car drivers stuck in traffic are to move over and let bikes through. I'm not sure I'd feel quite so generous if it was me trapped in a gridlocked car.
You were in the wrong as you were in his carriageway/wrong side of the road. We all do it. I would have just stuck the finger up and shout a word at him.
In my humble, if you didn't feel "oh sugar, that was a bit close for comfort", then it was fine, so don't beat yourself up about it or dwell on the matter. If it did feel a bit close, then move it from the luck bucket and put it in the experience bucket. But it sounds like you were being suitably cautious and with a plan B if something seriously big came the other way. I personally wouldn't condone aggression (knocking mirrors off etc). By letting the van driver's anger management issue wash, you keep the moral high ground.
I only passed my test a couple of years ago, but I'm becoming more confident about filtering. I find it's hard to judge sometimes, especially when passing a stationary or slow moving line of traffic when the traffic in the oncoming manner is moving. Personally I always make sure that I can see a clear space to pull back into. Having said that, my examiner told me that it was ok to pass "as long as no one else has to take avoiding action" I got a minor for waiting behind parked cars when, apparently, I could have easily still passed them with traffic coming the other way. Whether those people would agree with the examiner, who knows? Likewise a different examiner!
I do pass with oncoming traffic, but only if loads of space and I am sure the oncoming vehicle is fully aware of me, and again I have a space to go into. To do it on your test ??? I wouldn't have.
They like to see one "making good progress"! I also received a minor for doing 40moh in a 60 zone, the examiner said that I could have quite safely been doing 70 and wouldn't have got the minor!!!! This is the same guy who had a go at me a few hours earlier for going too fast in the mod1 ! I'm 6ft3 and have come to recognise short man syndrome quite easily.
