Monday 28 September 2009

EY07OTL


















EY07 OTL, white van man, 11.05 am Friday, Asian driver, plump face, moustache. Male companion.

Stationary in the road one hundred metres ahead of me. Still stationary as I reach the van. As I cycle past, the van suddenly accelerates without warning. I am trapped in the middle of the road with a speeding van on my inside. I scream at the driver to stop, and he does. ‘You were parked, and you didn’t look in your mirror!’ I shout.

‘I wasn’t parked!’ he shouts back.

Well whatever he was doing – looking at a map perhaps – he wasn’t considering the possibility as he drove off that a cyclist might be overtaking him.

Nor was he in the slightest bit repentant or apologetic.

Pointless having an argument with a driver like that, so I cycle on.

As he overtakes me, he screams at me.

Something uncomplimentary.

I am left shaking from the original shock of being placed in a position of danger, and now I’m furious that the driver didn’t even say sorry, but chose to verbally abuse me, even though I didn’t abuse him but was scrupulously reasonable and polite.

Is it a coincidence that my favourite film is Kill Bill? A revenge film, where lots of bad people are terminated.

Some of us cyclists have a rich fantasy life, you know.

One fantasy involves me giving up cycling and blogging and instead using a car to get around the neighbourhood. And, hey, sometimes dreams come true!