Under-taking by cars (or Why Can't They Read What is Happening?)

[Bob]

Like all of us on two wheels, if you are taking a corner, you move to the outside of the lane - gives you better vision, smoother line round the corner etc.

So why do car drivers take this as an invitation to come up the inside of you?

Happened today - two lanes, I'm in the outside lane, which is banking right. So I move out to the left for the above reasons - plus I am behind a truck so my visibility is compromised. Next thing I know? The woman in the car behind me accellerates towards the space inside me!

So I move back over, brake, make LOTS of noise with horn (in a tunnel as well, so it is echoing all over the place). She backs off - but not by much (still well within the "two second rule" distance).

So... I slow down. A lot. Like to 20 (in a 50 zone). Until she flicks on the indicator to change lane - after looking rather confused - so I accellerate and leave her standing!

Silly bitch.

[Posh Tourer :P]

Yep... happened a lot to me on the little Honda. People felt the need to undertake, even to the point where I was in the left hand wheel track and they still wanted to go up the parking lane on the left Less so on the beemer, perhaps cos it looks wider and sounds faster. Still, I got undertaken while doing 60kph, so re-overtook (she was doing 80 - calculate my speed) and sat in front of her for the next 200m to work at 50kph

I now sit closer to the middle of my lane. I must say though, I've never had anyone try to undertake me and sit beside me in a lane. It does annoy me (lots) when people make a move and you are only following a car length behind the next person. What do they think they will gain???

Still, I have to be realistic sometimes. People overtake on the right on a straight, then go bloody slow in the corners, pisses me off, but they pass legally, and I cant really fault them except for not knowing how to corner and perhaps speeding, but I do that too, so....

[Two Smoker]

Yeah PT we all know how you go slow around corners lol...... But yes, undertakers, generally i dont have anyone pass me.... But if they do it legally, yep no worries, undertake me and you will have me passing you around the outside of a corner whilst im giving you the bird.......

[wkid_one]

So why do car drivers take this as an invitation to come up the inside of you?

Ummm... how slow were you going?

[Posh Tourer :P]

I reserve the right to call myself a nana if I want to.... none of that doing it for me business.....

[Marmoot]

Someone did that a few days ago. Can't seem to be able to merge properly, I guess. When I was merging in the motorway, this guy decided to speed up (I guess to 120kph) in 80kph zone when I was doing 90, zip past my left side so fast I needed to slam the wheel and ended up on the right hand lane. Almost went to the grass verges.......
I decided to pull up alongside after recovered, and this guy just looked back at me and smirked

So, I noted down the rego (a bit useless) and his 0800 phone number (he was one of ACE Locksmith van.....remind me not to use those jackasses), and spent the next 2 hours ringing him and saying what an a**hole he was and he'd be better off giving up driving.

Is he by any chance one of KBers lurking here?

[Bob]

Ummm... how slow were you going?

50mph... in a 50mph zone! Sitting behind a truck doing the same speed.

Think that is 80kmph.

Well I was doing 50... but as I said I slowed to 20... then accellerated away to, oh, lets say a touch over the limit once I'd gotten the idiot worried and confused...

[Mongoose]

Used to have simular talks with a friend who was a *trained* rider and who used to hug the left of his lane claiming that gave him more room from the opposite direction. My arguement was if you hug too close to the left sooner or later a car(well, the nutter behind the wheel) will over take in the face of on coming traffic.
I tend to sit in the middle, maybe sometimes favouring the right slightly, of the lane I am in to try and force nutters to go around rather than shave past.
Touch wood, we do not seem to have peopleTHAT keen on undertaking around here.

[750Y]

having had this happen a couple days ago, my opinion is renforced that car drivers simply perceive that there is no risk to them by 'shaving you out'. if you are a big guy on a harley you can bet they won't do it because they perceive a risk to their safety(the threat of the beat down) but a guy on a skinny little sportsbike will get it every time. I'm not even sure they do it maliciously, just the 'i'm bigger you can't hurt me' mentality.

[Devil]

Had a taxi undertake me on a 50km/h road. Has happened twice to me now, that was the first time, i was actually quite stunned that someone had done something so stupid (I was following cars, there was no gain to be had). I pulled up to his window and gave him the stare till he slowed and pulled back in behind me.

Stupid fuckers.

[Quasievil]

Happened to me once in Hamilton city where a bunch of young hoons passed me on the inside on a stright bit of road almost knocking me off as I didnt know they were there, they were in some shitty laser or mazda thing, Unfortunetly for them they had to stop behind a car and the next lights I road up with my heavy motorcross boots on and gave his side mirror a good damn kick ,which broke it and I lane split up to the front, before they could do much about it the light was green and I took off satisfied I got my revenge.
Silly behaviour on my part for sure but sometimes I simply dont give a shit about reacting strongly to someone who tries to kill me, am I wrong. The young dickhead will not fuck with bikes again Im sure

[vifferman]

It's something to be aware of on a bike, that you need to position yourself so that people can see you and so that they can't force you into a dangerous position. Make yourself seem bigger than you are, in effect. The complete opposite of riding to the left of your lane, inviting people to overtake you (driving psychology). It's similar thing to those people who intimidate others into pulling over by following too closely, and over to the right: "I'm going to overtake you, so get out of the way".

It's probably slightly but I can't be arsed starting another thread.
Yesterday, it was foggyish on the way to work. The street our building is on has lots of intersections with stop signs on but apart from the last intersection they're all on the side roads. "Hmmm..." I think, "could be dodgy going up there, with poor visibility and all. Nah! - I've got my headlight on, so if I'm careful I'll be OK!"
So, the very first intersection I come to, there are cars over the line on both the left and right, and creeping forward. So I slow down almost to a stop, even though I have the right of way, to make sure they've seen me and aren't going to run me over. The guy on the left sees me and stops, almost completely past the line. The silly bitch on the right takes my slowing down as an invitation to go, and creeps right over the centre line! WTF?!? So I stop. She stops, then decides she can go, then changes her mind. Then sits there visibly confused and upset (She was waving her hands around and going "Blah blah blah") because she seems to think that I am in the wrong!!
Fuck this! I'm not playing this game - I have right of way, I'm out of here.
(Perhaps in hindsight, I should've parked right in front of her car, and explained the meaning of "Come to a complete stop, and remain stopped until the way is clear for you to proceed".)

A couple of intersections further up, the same thing - two car drivers decided STOP means "Slow down a bit, be slightly prepared to give way".
I'm still rather pissed off, so I slow down (had to - I took my right hand off the bars) and vigorously waved them both back.

I HATE D'Auckland car drivers! Most of them are brain dead, have their own interpretation of the road rules, and should be shot!

[aff-man]

Yes looking to my left as i am about to dip into a corner and finding a huge frikken SUV sitting no more than 10cm from my leg gave em a bit of a scare. Went through the cornera bit faster than i would have liked and on a straight turned round and shook my head at them. People out there say bikes have no road manners, well cars are just as worse says i.

[sAsLEX]

A pair of dirty large noisy pipes would cause them to think twice, otherwise some metal on the side of the boot then booted into their door would soon remind them they were doing wrong.

[vifferman]

A pair of dirty large noisy pipes would cause them to think twice, otherwise some metal on the side of the boot then booted into their door would soon remind them they were doing wrong.

The trouble is, it's very easy to provoke someone into a road rage incident, and whether you're in the right makes no difference to them.
I've been very tempted many times to do what Quasi did, but oftentimes the driver is so braindead they don't even realise what they've done.
I worked with a guy (Chris) who rode Brit bikes, and even though he was a weed, when he was in his gear he looked the archetypal BadBikerDude: long scruffy beard, black helmet, scruffy leathers, and he used to carry his bike lock and chain over one shoulder. One day while out for a ride, an old man U-turned in front of Chris, and nearly skittled him. Chris was so pissed off that without thinking too much about it, he grabbed his chain and smashed the guy's headlights. The poor old guy was sitting there in his car, scared to death, no doubt thinking a good thrashing from this wild biker was coming next. (It didn't, and once Chris had remounted and ridden off, he thought, "Oops. Perhaps that was a bit extreme...")