Had a good result tonight. I was cycling home through Chiswich, and was getting towards a zebra crossing and spotted a lady with a push-chair waiting. I stopped to let her cross, and had been stationary for a few seconds, but from behind me a car just carried on, narrowly missing me and forcing the lady to pull back onto the pavement.
Anyway, after this the lady crossed and just seemed a bit annoyed, as I was too. The traffic was quite bad, so I easily caught up with the offending car. I shouted from the passenger side 'do you know what you did there?' The male passenger and female driver were arguing and did not hear me and so I shouted again but louder. The man put his window down and said 'Sorry, but my wife is not allowed to drive over here.' There were 2 PCSOs walking along, so I walked over to them and said what had happened and that I thought that there might be someone driving without the correct licence. The waved the car into the bus lane and asked the driver to get out.
Both the occupants got out, and I explained really calmly what had happened - the lady said that her husband was joking about her not being allowed to drive. I told the PCSOs that I had witnessed dangerous driving, that she had narrowly missed both me and a lady with a push chair. The PCSOs called to proper police officers who were on the scene within 2 mins. They took the driver and her husband a few meters along the pavement and I stayed with the PCSOs. I overheard the police officers asking the couple to provide some details to them - at this point the lady became really irate, and was shouting at the police and also at me, saying that she hadn't hurt anyone. I did not reply, but asked the PCSOs if they could check to see if the lady had a valid driving licence. He said that this is what was happening at the moment, and that this is why the lady was irate. They asked me to leave the scene, as it was being percieved as being antagonistic. I would report the near miss if I wanted to, but the police officers were dealing with the driver. I got back on my bike and started to cycle away, I heard the lady shouting 'I hope you are happy with yourself' and 'I didn't hurt anyone, you should not have done this'.
I had the feeling that she really should not have been driving due to her reaction, and if this is the case am very happy that she has been caught and is being dealt with. Even if she did have a licence (and also insurance / tax / mot) I feel glad that she was inconvenienced for at least 10 mins, if not more, due to her impatience. If the lady with the push chair had crossed just a few seconds earlier then we may have had 1 or more serious injuries, or even worse, take place.
@twitch
Had a good result tonight. I was cycling home through Chiswich, and was getting towards a zebra crossing and spotted a lady with a push-chair waiting. I stopped to let her cross, and had been stationary for a few seconds, but from behind me a car just carried on, narrowly missing me and forcing the lady to pull back onto the pavement.
Anyway, after this the lady crossed and just seemed a bit annoyed, as I was too. The traffic was quite bad, so I easily caught up with the offending car. I shouted from the passenger side 'do you know what you did there?' The male passenger and female driver were arguing and did not hear me and so I shouted again but louder. The man put his window down and said 'Sorry, but my wife is not allowed to drive over here.' There were 2 PCSOs walking along, so I walked over to them and said what had happened and that I thought that there might be someone driving without the correct licence. The waved the car into the bus lane and asked the driver to get out.
Both the occupants got out, and I explained really calmly what had happened - the lady said that her husband was joking about her not being allowed to drive. I told the PCSOs that I had witnessed dangerous driving, that she had narrowly missed both me and a lady with a push chair. The PCSOs called to proper police officers who were on the scene within 2 mins. They took the driver and her husband a few meters along the pavement and I stayed with the PCSOs. I overheard the police officers asking the couple to provide some details to them - at this point the lady became really irate, and was shouting at the police and also at me, saying that she hadn't hurt anyone. I did not reply, but asked the PCSOs if they could check to see if the lady had a valid driving licence. He said that this is what was happening at the moment, and that this is why the lady was irate. They asked me to leave the scene, as it was being percieved as being antagonistic. I would report the near miss if I wanted to, but the police officers were dealing with the driver. I got back on my bike and started to cycle away, I heard the lady shouting 'I hope you are happy with yourself' and 'I didn't hurt anyone, you should not have done this'.
I had the feeling that she really should not have been driving due to her reaction, and if this is the case am very happy that she has been caught and is being dealt with. Even if she did have a licence (and also insurance / tax / mot) I feel glad that she was inconvenienced for at least 10 mins, if not more, due to her impatience. If the lady with the push chair had crossed just a few seconds earlier then we may have had 1 or more serious injuries, or even worse, take place.
Gosh, that was a long rant.....