Author Topic: What would you have done?  (Read 2455 times)

What would you have done?
« on: 05 September, 2020, 12:55:28 pm »
Location: Waitrose car park. These days I park as far from the entrance as I can, having been the recipient of too many anonymous scrapes. As I am about to go in, I see a driver attempting to park driving forward in a too narrow space (a transit has parked taking up more than a space) and he merrily swipes the van, and carries on parking without a pause.

I stand in front and take a photo, when he gets out (he's about 90) "oh, did I hit someone?" I proceed to berate him, quite strongly, suggesting he should consider whether or not he should be driving. I was polite but, I suppose, forceful. That's another way of saying "a bit nasty". " I've been driving for seventy years you know" - "then you should realise how bad what you just did was" etc. After a while I relented and tried to close it out more neutrally.

Should I have minded my own business? Should I have been more "forceful". I'm minded to remember that I was nowhere near as forceful when my dad started driving like it was dodgems in his 80's.

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #1 on: 05 September, 2020, 01:00:47 pm »
Perfectly fair and reasonable IMHO. Idiots very much tend to put things on the ‘ignore’ pile unless it makes a significant impression on them. I don’t want that sort of driver near me when I am riding my bike.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #2 on: 05 September, 2020, 02:01:15 pm »
I had an incident a year or so back when an elderly lady turned right immediately in front of me, as I was coming from the opposite direction. Luckily I threw the bike down the side road inside her.
She had pulled into a cafe fortunately for me. After we’d got past the I didn’t see you bit, I fairly calmly asked her how she would feel if she was giving a statement in a Police station, if she was in court, if she had to explain to her family and friends that she had killed someone. Having considered all that, maybe if she hadn’t seen this large and fairly bright object she should consider reviewing her fitness to drive before she had to end her days in tortured remorse.
She did seem fairly shocked, more so than if I’d just shouted at her.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #3 on: 05 September, 2020, 02:05:13 pm »
Perfectly reasonable, we need to challenge these behaviours if we want them to change.  The tricky bit as a cyclist in general is that we are usually moving while they happen and the "perps" don't tend to be hanging around for much more than gesticulation.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

LMT

Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #4 on: 05 September, 2020, 06:26:35 pm »
The whole been driving is for x amount of years is a bullshit appeal to experience fallacy. Been driving for that long yet you don't know the width of your vehicle? Fucking moron.

I'd report the driver to the DLVA RE: Fitness to drive and also report the incident to the Police as a witness. Hopefully the other party can claim something off his insurance.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #5 on: 05 September, 2020, 08:18:45 pm »
The whole been driving is for x amount of years is a bullshit appeal to experience fallacy. Been driving for that long yet you don't know the width of your vehicle? Fucking moron.

I'd report the driver to the DLVA RE: Fitness to drive and also report the incident to the Police as a witness. Hopefully the other party can claim something off his insurance.

What he said.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #6 on: 05 September, 2020, 09:32:42 pm »
I reckon he'll spend the next week or so complaining about declining standards of respect and decency in society and how people can't mind their own business anymore. Then at some point in the future he'll have the same again, hopefully with someone else this time, and then he might start thinking that perhaps there's something in it. I say hopefully because better a couple of scraped cars than scraped people.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ian

Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #7 on: 07 September, 2020, 09:57:37 am »
If you don't do it, then the next time it might be a person.

Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #8 on: 07 September, 2020, 12:54:14 pm »
The whole been driving is for x amount of years is a bullshit appeal to experience fallacy. Been driving for that long yet you don't know the width of your vehicle? Fucking moron.

I'd report the driver to the DLVA RE: Fitness to drive and also report the incident to the Police as a witness. Hopefully the other party can claim something off his insurance.

I suspect that your stumbling point may be that this wasn’t on the public road, but on private property.

Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #9 on: 07 September, 2020, 01:35:00 pm »
The whole been driving is for x amount of years is a bullshit appeal to experience fallacy. Been driving for that long yet you don't know the width of your vehicle? Fucking moron.

I'd report the driver to the DLVA RE: Fitness to drive and also report the incident to the Police as a witness. Hopefully the other party can claim something off his insurance.

I suspect that your stumbling point may be that this wasn’t on the public road, but on private property.

There is often the statistic quoted by various orgs that older drivers are safer than younger ones, based on insurance claims.

My observations from family members (dented cars, and one getting a lift... never again) is that they are just better at driving off and lying about it.
Somewhat of a professional tea drinker.


Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #10 on: 07 September, 2020, 03:43:43 pm »
The whole been driving is for x amount of years is a bullshit appeal to experience fallacy. Been driving for that long yet you don't know the width of your vehicle? Fucking moron.

I'd report the driver to the DLVA RE: Fitness to drive and also report the incident to the Police as a witness. Hopefully the other party can claim something off his insurance.

I suspect that your stumbling point may be that this wasn’t on the public road, but on private property.

The laws regarding driving apply to any publicly accessible place, regardless of ownership.

Re: What would you have done?
« Reply #11 on: 07 September, 2020, 04:12:14 pm »
The whole been driving is for x amount of years is a bullshit appeal to experience fallacy. Been driving for that long yet you don't know the width of your vehicle? Fucking moron.

I'd report the driver to the DLVA RE: Fitness to drive and also report the incident to the Police as a witness. Hopefully the other party can claim something off his insurance.

I suspect that your stumbling point may be that this wasn’t on the public road, but on private property.

The laws regarding driving apply to any publicly accessible place, regardless of ownership.

Indeed, summed up here for example: https://thedrivingsolicitor.co.uk/2019/03/11/road-or-other-public-place-where-do-driving-laws-apply/

A supermarket car park might not be public land but it is most likely a public place.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."