Splish-splash - Deliberate spray from a car's windscreen-wash

randomname2005

This was also brought up on Late night Live on Newstalk the other day. There was a comment from a listener about how she was soaked by somebody squirting water at her while she was waiting on a lift at the side of a road! And then one of the studio guests said that he turned on his windscreen wiper one day just as a cyclist passed on the inside and the cyclist got a soaking. While some drivers actions are very devious and deserve to get their cars covered in paint, some of them are accidental.

Raam

I was going by some golf course out near Donabate on a long stretch of straight road. A car was coming in the opposite direction. Then I saw an arm stick out of the passenger window and lob what I assumed was a cigarette over the car roof so that it went on to the opposite side of the road. Turns out that it was a banger and it went off right under my bike! There was no damage done and I have to admit that it was a good shot.

Hungrycol

King Raam wrote:

Turns out that it was a banger and it went off right under my bike!

The car was a banger!! I'm sure you mean the explosive kind? I'm sure if you wanted to you could raise some concern with the Gardai about explosives being thrown out of a car window in Donabate. I remember hearing a story in the news about these guys going paintballing out their car windows at pedestrians in the US. Rightly enough the pedestrians were more than frightened being shot at from a car window, no matter what's coming out of the end of a barrel. The eejits got some jail time.

RainyDay

delta_bravo wrote:

What show was it? Would like to hear the podcast of that

It was the 'Life with Orla Barry' though it was without Orla Barry for some reason. Louise something was standing in. I had a quick look on the Newstalk website, but I couldn't find a podcast. Let me know if you do find it.

oobydooby wrote:

I heard a bit of it. Those shows really pi$$ me off. The presenter was alright, explaining that she cycles from time to time, but like many of these phone-in shows they provide a dangerous platform for generalisations. Was it you who rebutted the 'cyclists don't pay road tax' argument with the retort that you have a car and pay road tax but you choose to cycle? If so, well done you made a very level-headed and sensible defence of our plight.

Yep, that was me with the road tax issue. This arose from an incident a few weeks back with an Audi driver who decided to block both lanes of Herbert Park Road when turning onto the road from a side road. You'd want to seen the face of the Ross O'Carroll Kelly lookalike in his Audi A4 who reckoned he had the killer blow in the debate when he told me 'Eh, I pay my road tax, do you'. He nearly pi$$ed himself and shrank back down into his seat when I told him that I pay more road tax than he does and asked if that gives me the right to treat him like sh1t?

daymobrew

RainyDay wrote:

You'd want to seen the face of the Ross O'Carroll Kelly lookalike in his Audi A4 who reckoned he had the killer blow in the debate when he told me 'Eh, I pay my road tax, do you'. He nearly pi$$ed himself and shrank back down into his seat when I told him that I pay more road tax than he does and asked if that gives me the right to treat him like sh1t?

It's actually vehicle tax that you both should have been talking about. We all pay road tax through our income tax.

PeadarofAodh

I decided to be a bit more positive today after some of the advice gained from this thread. I waved thank you to the taxi driver who let me in front of him when there was a car parked on the cycle lane in Ranelagh, I politely informed the man in Dolphin's Barn that he had settled himself right on the cycle lane at the traffic lights...then I absolutely exploded at some girl who looked about 15 who decided to turn right across me and very nearly sent me flying through her passenger window :mad:

Got a few sympathetic looks from the pedestrians who'd turned around to see what the commotion was, that eased my dragon rage...

blorg

Hungrycol wrote:

...not only are we better for the environment because we're not driving unnecessary petrol guzzling 4x4's to work but we're also becoming healthier and potentially less of a strain on the creaking-at-the-seams health service. Unless, of course, the car drivers decide to put us in the hospital!

Don't make me link that monkey dust clip...

Raam

blorg wrote:

Don't make me link that monkey dust clip...

"My one is red"

class

blorg

daymobrew wrote:

Seconded. I'll give a wave when someone gives a wide berth when overtaking, moves right a bit in a line of traffic to let me pass easily (on the left), doesn't pull out of a junction until I've passed (when they could have dangerously gunned it) etc.

Yeah I do this too, I suspect a bit of positive reinforcement works better than the negative approach.

rubadub

daymobrew wrote:

It's actually vehicle tax that you both should have been talking about. We all pay road tax through our income tax.

Yeah, as if all the roads were built on that relatively small amount of money.

It is odd that the furious motorists are so tolerant of pedestrians who also pay no "foot tax", and use the roads, and usually have more disregard for the law than any other road users. Maybe it is because they are pedestrians themselves, I mainly put it down to jealousy seeing cyclists flying by.

'Eh, I pay my road tax, do you'

reply should be "Eh, I am not charged any ,so am not breaking any laws or anything, contact your local politician if you want the laws changed"

In some countries cyclists get tax breaks.