The height of abusiveness?

Ghost Rider

I'm sharing this anecdote not primarily to bitch about a particular driver - though certainly that - but because my concept of how abusive motorists can be has had its boundaries permanently enlarged as a result.

I should also preface it by saying that I don't claim any moral high ground here. Quite the contrary: I reacted in a way that would be legally indefensible, should a court case ever arise. Nonetheless, I did what I did in a spirit of solidarity with the victim of the story, who remained silent throughout and who therefore, to my mind, seemed to require some kind of advocate (however foul-mouthed...!)

Anyway, I was cycling along near the college by the canal in Portobello, Dublin the day before yesterday. As I approached a very narrow one-way street, I heard some kind of commotion up ahead. I saw a shiny black 05D-reg Peugeot - probably a 607 - moving quite slowly down this very narrow street. Then I realised it was the driver who was doing the yelling - through his opened window. I soon saw who he was yelling at: an elderly woman on a Triumph 20 -type bicycle cycling very slowly in front of him.

Now she was not cycling in the middle of the lane, nor was she (apparently) drunk or out of control of her bike. She was cycling to the left, where cyclists are supposed to be. She was just going very slowly. However, the road was so narrow that this was enough to block a car from passing, especially a large saloon car.

I assumed there had previously been some kind of altercation between this pair. But as I approached I could see the cyclist was not engaging with the driver at all, merely going very slowly and causing him to do likewise.

I knew the cyclist was 100% in the right to take her time but, in a way, I also empathised with the driver. Anyone who's ever driven a car in Dublin knows how frustrating it can be to get stuck behind a painfully slow driver or cyclist.

But any empathy I might have had with him drained quickly when I heard what he then screamed at the cyclist through his opened window:

"YOU STUPID C*NT!"

Now I'm a man who swears colourfully, regularly and with great relish. I'm a great believer in the expressive power of cussin'. But this shocked me. This was not a motorcycle courier or someone equipped to defend themselves in the rough and tumble of urban streetlife. This was an elderly woman tottering along slowly and vulnerably on an old bike.

Then I looked into the car to see who was driving it, Maybe I shouldn't have been shocked, but I was. He was a well-dressed man in a suit and woollen overcoat, aged probably in his late 50s or early 60s. He could have been a successful solicitor or a Government minister.

As the road widened, I caught up with them and leaned into his open window. "How dare you abuse that woman, you ignorant a**hole," I told him.

"F*ck off," he said, giving me the finger. "F*ck off and mind your own business."

I told him I would report him, to which he replied that he would report me too. He then gave me the two-fingered salute and drove off.

At this stage, the woman on the bike had disappeared into a side street so I never got to catch up with her and see if she was okay, or find out what, if anything, prompted this abuse.

Anyway, the driver was right to threaten me back because, just as he had abused the old woman on the bike, I had also abused him. So I hadn't a leg to stand on. All the same, I had taken the registration number of his car (which I will provide by PM to anyone who wants it) and, just as I was resigning myself to putting the episode behind me, I was lucky enough to spot a Garda squad car coming up the street.

In one of those rare and delicious twists of fate, I realised this would give me the opportunity to report him verbally without having to commit my own details to paper. So I hailed down the squad car and told them what the driver had said to the woman on the bike. I also pointed out that my own language had been "colourful" in her defence. Luckily they were decent and sympathetic, one of them pointing out "You cyclists have to stick together, right?"

So off they went, in pursuit of the driver. I've no idea whether they caught up with him - probably not, given the labyrinthine nature of Portobello's streets - but by Christ it gave me a small measure of satisfaction.

Sneaky of me to report him in that way? Yes.

Justifiable under the circumstances? I think so.

GhostInTheRuins

Fair play to you for saying something to the pr*ck. I don't think there's anything sneaky about reporting him like you did, but I doubt they did anything about it to be honset.

Bicyclegadabout

Fairplay.

PeadarofAodh

A real man would've put his bike through the driver's windshield...but I suppose you did alright under the circumstances!

niceonetom

sounds like you were the very model of restraint. well done.

i probably would have gone into bonnet slapping mode and given him a proper target for abuse. i secretly long for the day when motorists live in fear of cyclists, and not because of legal ramifications, because of serious and disproportionate physical violence.

mmwwhhhaaaa hhaaaa haaaa haaah haaaa haaaaa haahaahaa!

Stark

He should have gotten a smaller car if he's looking to make progress through narrow streets.

Cabaal

Stark wrote: »

He should have gotten a smaller car if he's looking to make progress through narrow streets.

never a truer word spoken...er typed
Ghost Rider in my view you were right to do what you did

Studoc

Well done! Don't feel bad at all for giving the driver abuse. It's the least the (making assumptions here) stupid, impotent, lard arse deserved!

roadmanmad

We can only hope the lady was stone deaf.

Harrybelafonte

You did well. This guy was obviously w**ker first motorist second. Funnily enough I've been called the same think when driving by someone very like that guy. It's a pity they always seem so well off.

arse..biscuits

I was waiting for you to say that you did something much worse than that, I would have had to be restrained if I saw that. Yesterday I saw two little ****s interfeering with a bike just off thomas street, I went back and threatened them with lots of descriptive violence till they naffed off. Cyclists Unite

blorg

607s are not at all common (nice looking cars though.)

RainyDay

If incidents like these go on for a few minutes, a mobile phone camera (still and/or video) is very handy for capturing evidence.