To quote the country and western song... "Got to know when to hold em, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run..."
I had similar the other week but was in my car. I was positioned in the correct lane and the bus driver got it wrong. Had he held his hand up and coughed his bad then I would have moved and we would both carry on our journey as happy fellow men. When the dong decided to flail his arms and gesticulating at me to reverse, well thats where it all goes horribly wrong. I am not an argumentative person but when my buttons are pressed my first instinct is primeval violence. I am a polite person and I expect the same in return but these days it seem to be getting like every man for himself. The percentage of drivers that simply cant be arsed to indicate etc is frightening. Its as though someone has put something into the water that is making people ignorant and intollerable of each other.
I don't know ... but with a whole bunch of GP Pro cyclists, YouTube would have been full of crappy videos by now.
It used to be lead in the water and in the air damaging everybody's brains. But the levels of lead are gradually dropping, so perhaps it's something else.
Nothing's changed at all, I remember a van driver jumping out and decking a biker when I was a kid, all because he had the audacity to be not stuck in traffic. The only difference now is the internet, so you see more of it.
Bad I know but when I was driving with friends during a camping trip in Berkshire I partially pulled out on a rider then stopped. No danger of collision but he skidded his FZR to a stop and got off the bike. Then he yanked open the door and grabbed hold of me. I got out of the van and thought 'fuck it' as he wasn't even prepared to talk, only a violent rage. I punched his visor as hard as I could and crumpled it inward. Lots of blood and no more fighty biker. Then lots of sweary stuff from me and I kicked and punched him back toward his bike - then I got back in and drove off. Still feel mildly ashamed.
This was a long time ago, 92 or 93. What was ridiculous was the circumstance, a winding country road and me turning onto it. I looked right, left and right again and moved forward. I was looking right when I saw the bike so stopped. Brake, clutch, out of gear - I hadn't pulled out more than 4ft so waited thinking little more of it. This guy skids to a halt and without deviating his course stopped in front of the van. When he opened the door I hit the seatbelt button so was straight out with him. Its funny how you remember stuff when you come out on top. I struggled briefly and pushed him away and that was it he was enraged. He had on a really old helmet - a Kangol -which I thought was unusual cos he had a really new FZR1000, and the visor was part way opened so I hit it really hard. The visor deformed and the right side detached from the helmet. The visor had poppers to secure it when it was closed and the left side one cut his cheek with my punch further making his nose bleed. What I found really offensive was the tandori-beer breathe.
I borrowed a mate's car and got a puncture, when I checked it I found nearly all the tyres were bald, and the spare had wires poking through. Great. So I limped to a tyre centre and they were rammed out, so to help out I jacked the car up and took the wheel off myself. Putting the wheel back I got beeped and a load of abuse hurled in my general direction for being in the road, so up went the royal salute... Next thing, the biggest black bloke squeezed out of his cab and started heading towards me at a rate, scary looking bugger he was, and he wasn't about to compliment me; I did the only thing I could think of doing - beat him to the punch. Knocked him spark out as it happens, which is jolly good cos if I hadn't I reckon he would have killed me This was on a low speed dual carriageway, loads of cars parked in lane 1 and the cab was trying to squeeze up the inside of the traffic, until he got to me. Road rage was well and truly alive in 1986, but it's only recently they gave it a name. Stick a bunch of red-blooded men on a lump of tarmac and give 'em lane options, and only one thing will result. Quite frankly I'm surprised there isn't more road rage rather than less.
