Respect street parkers

[ColinOldnCranky]

In my experience my following is a description of an outlying poor behaviour. However, it is outliers in poor behaviour that gives rise to serious injury and death. Hence this post.

Today I witnessed a cyclist abusing, in passing, a motorist who was in the midst of a difficult reverse parking move.

It was outside the IGA in East Perth at peak traffic and shopping time. I had just reversed myself in a parking bay, the bay immediately behind being then being vacated by another car.

A car then arrived as I was about to hop out and commenced his reverse parking into the bay behind. He approached the curb a little steeply but even locals typically find some difficulty as the bays are fairly tight and of differing lengths. He was doing alright as I left my car.

Now the nub - as the driver nudged a smidgeon outwards to reduce his angle of attack a little, a cyclist passed at a bit of pace and hurled a short stream of abuse. Presumably making the point that the driver was moving into his line. As I said, it was a slight move by the driver to better position himself.

I was in perfect location and my assessment is as follows:

• The driver was doing a good job of negotiating the maneuver. Lots of competent drivers do worse.
• None of the drivers actions were sudden, extreme or unpredictable.
• The driver had plenty of angles to watch simultaneously and the side mirrors would not have given him a vision of any rider approaching along the edge of the road. It's just the limit of side mirrors.
• The car bay under discussion was only 20M from the corner, an inner city controlled intersection at 5pm, with four other busy bays between the intersection and the bay - a place where any road user should be acting according to the conditions for both own safety and that of pedestrians there. ie Somewhat gingerley.
• There was no car approaching from the front on the other side of the road. Nor from the rear. There was plenty of room for a rider or car to deviate around if choosing not to wait.
• It was the rider's choice to neither slow down, nor to wait nor to deviate. Rather he chose to make a close pass.
• The rider would have seen what was happening well in advance. The choice to be in the position he was in was entirely his own.

POINTS

• We should always be aware that some maneuvers require the cooperation of others to be carried out with minimum risk.
• The place for making a point or pursuing an agenda is best somewhere other than the road.
• Unjustified loud abuse by a cyclist tars other cyclists unfairly

[Gordonhooker]

Great post - I agree with you Colin.

[Cyclophiliac]

Except for the last bullet point, which doesn't do cyclists any favours. We don't see a motorist do something wrong, and then say "unjustified <whatever> by a motorist tars other motorists unfairly". And before someone mentions outgroup bias: by accepting outgroup bias we're condoning it, so we should we pointing out the absurdity of all cyclists being responsible for the actions of one cyclist, to everyone at every opportunity.

[g-boaf]

I’m patient with other motorists unless they do something dangerous.

This is a problem with people just acting too old and cranky…. Everyone needs to calm down a bit.

Spending 8-10 weeks without walking or riding will do wonders for your levels of patience.

[Mr Purple]

I agree. And one of the benefits of being a cyclist is that you can easily and safely move around a motorist performing a low speed maneouvre.

Having said that I wasn't impressed by the dual cab driving individual last week who pulled out from the verge in front me when I was doing 40km/hr to block the entire width of the street and reverse into his driveway.

But I didn't yell or abuse him. That's just not making us any friends. I hope he felt my extreme disappointment in his driving ability through the sunglasses and helmet, but doubt it.

[Johnj]

A few weeks ago I was passed by a motorist. A second motorist went to pass me, over a speed hump. When they got level with me it dawned on them (long after I'd spotted it) that the first motorist had stopped and was about to reverse into a parking spot. So the second vehicle slowed down almost to a stop next to me. I kept going and went around the reverse-parking motorist. I judged it safer to overtake than to get sandwiched between the two cars. I turned left soon afterwards and never saw either again. No shouting, but the whole exercise seemed rather stupid to me.