Yelling at people on bikes.

[ienji]

Quite a few times since I've been here, I've been cycling my merry way along Hepburn/Buchanan Gardens when a car, driven by puerile morons, has careered past me, and its passengers squawked something unintelligible in my ear, knocking me off balance. (Nice long sentence.) Sometimes they're not feeling very creative, and then all I get is a strangled 80 decibels of 'moose in heat' noise. I have no idea whether it's always the same people, but it's a) damn annoying and b) reasonably fucking dangerous. I'm dreading the day when I wobble another six inches, bounce off the side of their car and end up having to fork out for expensive orthodontic treatment.

It's a quiet street, I stick to the cycle lane and I'm not in the habit of making life difficult for road users, so this is really pissing me off.

Does this ever happen to anyone else? Is there any customary response other than to pimp my bike 'Robot Wars' style? Am I just a whining 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' type?

[the_leish]

That's happened to me before in the same street, but I was walking. These douchebags toot their horn and leer out of the windows. Really quite annoying.

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Apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population. Amazing...

[Garnet]

I have seen on so many occasions cyclists holding up traffic, but i guess that's no excuse to shout at them, it won't solve anything.

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so alive, so full of fire and music!

[ienji]

Generally, when this happens, the road is pretty much empty. Not that I can ever really hear what they're saying, but it's more of a leer designed to knock your concentration than a 'get out of my way you stupid cow'.

[Amorphous]

This happened to me once (as a pedestrian) while walking along Market Street after 11pm or something when for some reason all was quiet.

Unfortunately for the individuals concerned there was a police car driving along behind them, who promptly put the blue lights on and pulled them over for a chat.


The only suggestions I have for your situation are of an extremely violent and impractical nature, so all I can really say is that their idiocy is directed at pretty much everyone, and to try not to let it get to you.

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If Jack Bauer was put in a room with Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Nina Myers and handed a gun with two bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

[Orcas]

I got whistled at once, but no shouting.

[Gealle]

In Soviet Russia, bike rides you!

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Funky flunky munky...

[MacMan]

According to a friend of mine from Lancashire, this is a popular sport on long car journeys. Popular things to yell at cyclists are things like "Mate, you're wheel's spinning!", which makes the cyclist get concerned, stop and check their bike. Obviously in this case it has been an adaption for Scottish neds who, in the absence of anything witty to yell, shout the first thing that comes into their heads, often along the lines of "Neeeeeuuuurgh!".

On another note about the insanity of road traffic in St. Andrews, has anyone noticed that alot of drivers are no longer stopping for people at zebra crossings lately? It may just be my bad luck but it has happened alot over the last month or so, resulting in me almost being run over once by a woman in a Corsa not looking where she was going.

[Frank]

There's always a bit of me that really desires to walk out *only* when someone isn't planning to stop for me at a zebra crossing...I mean...it'd probably break my leg but they'd get the crap for it. I imagine it'd almost be worth it.

I'm probably going to die when I leave St Andrews from having had all my real road-safety knowledge wiped out in a haze of bubble-safety!

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"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Bizarre Atheist]

I've noticed that the chav demographic has taken to hurling stuff out of moving cars at pedestrians, be it insults, eggs, and even, shockingly, glass bottles.

Quoting ienji from 18:01, 24th Apr 2007
Am I just a whining 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' type?

Are you really from TW? I'm from Sevenoaks.

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http://www.charities-campaign.org.uk

[Hex]

I had a bottle thrown at me by a pedestrian a couple of years ago, up near safeway/morrisons. Thankfully it missed.

[MacMan]

Similar story here. I had a (full) can of Carling flung at me from a flat in South Street last year whilst I was on the bike, near the West Port. Fortunately they missed but they didn't give up and the next attempt with the watermelon was almost (but not quite) successful!

[romantic]

Quoting dunqn from 10:02, 26th Apr 2007

Quoting Frank from 12:04, 25th Apr 2007
There's always a bit of me that really desires to walk out *only* when someone isn't planning to stop for me at a zebra crossing...I mean...it'd probably break my leg but they'd get the crap for it. I imagine it'd almost be worth it.

That'd be appallingly stupid and dangerous. Pedestrians in this town seem to think they have the right to cross at all times over a zebra crossing. You don't. If the pedestrian is not walking on the zebra crossing then they have no right of way. if the car is coming along and is either moving too fast to stop or is already on the zebra crossing (like the one near tesco) then the car has the right of way. If you get hit, it's your own fault. This attitude that idiot pedestrians have that they always have the right of way over cars seriously irritates me. If I were to drive normally in St Andrews, like I'd be able to do in, y'know, any other town or city in the UK, I'd end up killing about 10 people a day.

On a more related-to-thread note, I've had people going "bleugh" out the side of cars at me when walking. Most irritating.

Agreed. I drive along North Street to work every day just before 10 and the number of students who just walk straight out into the road is disgraceful...especially when it is only 10 meters or so from the crossing!

[FunkyBanana]

Hmm, as both driver and pedestrian I can appreciate both sides of the zebra crossing issue, but I must confess to finding many of the drivers attitudes to be more of a problem. I even had an incident once when crossing the aforementioned crossing at the side of Bottoms Up, being halfway across, as in, in the middle of the road, when the woman stopped in her car began moving sharply without actually looking ahead of her! This ended with my mum being hit in the leg by said car (not severely enough to warrant medical attention, but still!), while the driver merely laughed at her 'mistake' and drove off.

I think perhaps a little more consideration by everyone and understanding of the issues facing the various modes of transport encountered on the road, be they foot, bike, car, bus, whatever, would solve an awful lot of problems! Ahh for the perfect world! P

[romantic]

When I'm approaching a zebra crossing I always slow down, and will stop if someone if obviously walking towards it.

However, the positioning of some of the crossings does cause problems, especially when pedestrains don't actually use the crossing properly, and instead cross outside of the metal studs on the ground.

The best example of this is when driving along Bell Street towards the junction of Market Street. People just emerge quickly from behind the buildings on either side, and rather than use the crossing (which would involve 2 more steps!) they will blindly cross. This often does not give cars enough time to stop.

Also, what really pisses me off are people who stand and have have conversations right next to a crossing. And (even more so) when someone stands at a crossing, so I stop, and then the idiot waves the cars through. Another (unrelated thing) is when people at mini-roundabout wave cars through from their left...utter madness.

Having driven in the South-East for many summers, and many years in and throughout Glasgow, I can safely say that the standard of driving in St Andrews is the worst I have ever encountered. I felt saver in Portugal last year, and that't saying something considering the taxi I was in did 70mph along a long downhill cobbled street!

[MacMan]

Cycled back from Physics today at 1p.m and South Street was pandemonium. It was so jammed up with cars and a foreign artic truck that had gone down towards the West Port for some reason and was reversing back up the street. It was so bad that I just did the totally illegal thing and went up onto the pavement on the Madras side. There were only a few schoolkids there so it didn't cause any problems. Once I was past the mini roundabout and the zebra crossing, which were both causing all the trouble, I got back onto the road.

[thebrookster]

Hmmm, thinking about Zebra crossings. I now have a very nasty hatred of those on south street and all the schoolkids from Madras, normally at lunchtimes. Why is it that they insist on arriving at the crossing in nicely staggered groups. If you stop for the first lot of kids, you can guarantee the the next group will just be stepping onto the crossing as the first group leaves, and so on! Highly annoying, I have been stuck at the Madras crossing for for over ten mminutes before now!

Anyway, Rant over

[MacMan]

Just blast through 'em. If they get in the way, tough.

[Fawksie]

Quoting thebrookster from 14:57, 26th Apr 2007
Highly annoying, I have been stuck at the Madras crossing for for over ten mminutes before now!

Heh, I live at the end of Scooniehill Road, near the crossing over Largo Road. Every school day from roughly 1 to 2 there is a constant stream of Madras students first towards Morrisons and then back. It used to be a zebra crossing and they had to take it out and replace it with a puffin crossing, because they'd just form a continuous line across the Largo Road. Now they still manage to start crossing before the light goes green and long after it goes red, so I don't think it's made much difference.

[maenad]

Today I was at the crossing (no lights or stripes, but bumps on the pavement indicating a crossing) near the NPH, and watched a girl step out in front of a cyclist. I then watched the cyclist cycle up the bumps and onto the pavement with no warning, killing any feelings of sympathy. A minute later a car tried to turn right onto North Street, and turned for some reason turned into the oncoming traffic, forcing a taxi to grind to a stop. Arg.

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Tommy can you hear me?