Today I was riding with my flat mate to FWR to get his puncture fixed, before we got there we pulled into a set of traffic lights and we just zip past a car and this van. Then out of nowhere this blue laguna came side by side with me (in a two lane road) and purposely cut me off to the wrong side of the road and almost hit an oncoming traffic. Got so angry with that plonker I wanted to pull him over and give him a piece of my mind (well kevlar on my knuckles more like). First time its happened to me, but im still pissed thinking about it, why wuld you purposely danger another motorist like that!
Why indeed. There are three possibilities assuming, as I shall, that you did nothing to provoke a reaction (however unjustified).
Road rage - some imagined slight
Didn’t see you - they never look
Psycho out for kicks - you have kevlar knuckles and a friend, he has … a gun and a wrongly-wired brain?
Many riders I know have experienced deliberate attempts by other road users to cause injury, even death. Why do some people do this? I suspect that it is because they believe it to be untraceable crime and thus it has no consequences for them - and they don’t care about the consequences (fatal, possibly) for you.
It is almost always a man behind the wheel, although there have been a couple of widely-reported exceptions. Testosterone is a highly dangerous drug!
Part of reading the road is reading drivers. You can sense stress and aggression in the way they drive. Getting a glimpse of them can tell you a lot, too.
Women ‘read’ male states of aggression automatically - we’re genetically programmed to do it. When we sense it, we get out of the way. As bikers, male or female, it’s an instinct we can all sharpen.
f*&k! I sound like I’m giving a lecture again. Sorry!