“I don’t have airbags, I need to brake”: Cyclists slam “entitled” driver creeping along at roundabout and forcing cyclist into emergency stop; Bike lane or “cyclist execution chamber”?; ‘brat’ summer but make it cycling edition + more on the live blog

You see someone in a motor vehicle who should be stopping and letting you pass, but you know that they’ve seen you and decided that they’re still going to give it a try, you slow down and just as the two of you are on the collision path, wits take over the driver and they gracelessly stop, but so do you, because of course, you’re the one who’s got the most to lose… But yet, the driver gives you the look saying, “I don’t know where you came from mate!”, or worse, a honk to say, “Come on now, don’t waste my time here”.

I’m sure this exact incident, in some way or the other has happened to so many of us, yet it’s always a pretty disarming moment… This time, it happened on the roundabout junction between the A4020 and Church Road and St George’s Road in Ealing, London to the cyclist who goes by the name of Das_Pig on social media.

“I don’t have airbags. If you don’t look like you're going to stop, I need to brake,” they said. “No need to shout your face off because I prioritised my safety. Another Hats Group driver with an irrational hate towards cyclists.”

I don't have airbags. If you don't look like you're going to stop, I need to brake 🤷

No need to shout your face off because I prioritised my safety. Another @Hats_Group driver with an irrational hate towards cyclists 👎@SafeUxbridgeRd @BetterEaling @EalingCyclists @THINKgovuk pic.twitter.com/MNMZ7ycZTx

— Das_Pig (@Das_Pig) October 7, 2024

Several cyclists replied sharing their stories of how many times this has happened to them. One even mentioned the most disastrous hiccup you can face on the bike: Having to pull an emergency stop while being in a big gear and then struggle to get up-up and away.

“I would tend to fluff my restart there. It can sometimes take me an age to get back down the gears after an emergency stop. If only they had waited correctly in the first place, neither of us would have had the unnecessary delay, whilst I fluster and apologise for taking so long.”

Another person talked about how motorists don’t get what it means to be a cyclist, writing: “This is the number one thing car drivers don't get. Hit a car in your car, it's a big bill. Get hit by a car on your bike, it's serious injury or death. ‘Over’ cautiousness is a given.”

Eddie Coldrick also mentioned another instance of poor driving by a Hats Group driver, saying: “I nearly got squashed by a Hats Group ambulance at a pinch point on my bike. Wrote an email to them, but no response. Somehow they are RoSPA [Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents] accredited, but all I see are complaints about their poor driving and disregard for cyclists. RoSPA also ignored the complaint.”

Some other comments:

“You totally did the right thing there mate!”

“Sometimes the drivers know full well they've driven poorly, but like a guilty child who's done something wrong they just blame someone else. There's only you, so they blame you. At least you don't live with them, everything would be your fault.”

“Entitled d*** of a driver.”

What do you guys make of it? If you’ve experienced similar near-miss events like this, let us know!

I know summer’s over, but brat summer? It still lives on!

If you’re as terminally online as me, you’re probably vaguely aware of the cultural storm of British pop star Charli xcx’s 2024 club album ‘brat’ (erm, aka your live blog host’s favourite album of the year!), and how it’s minimal yet garish album cover has basically claimed the colour neon green as it’s own. So this image of the bike lane with that green paint with the lower-caps text and that sans serif font… come on now, that’s a brat-coded bike lane!

when i'm in the lane, yeah i'm biking that (@mvddm on Twitter)

And once again, if you’re as terminally online as me, you might’ve seen the host of TikTok dance videos it’s given rise to, primarily the song ‘Apple’. So it was only a matter of time we’d have cyclists recreate the video.

And it’s not just any cyclists, it’s Ed, James and Tommy, or as they are known by the Instagram account ‘thehairlessbikers’, who cycled the length of Norway and stopped at Bratland to film the dance video!

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by The Hairless Bikers (@thehairlessbikers)

One of them even got himself a brat green helmet. Wow, sooo brat...

No I mean it, literally!

Meanwhile, in the cyclist execution chamber pic.twitter.com/WDXEBaVRVg

— The🚴‍♂️Infra-PM 💚 (@theInfraPM) October 7, 2024

I think Mel C Thompson best summarised how such a dastardly thing probably came to be, commenting under the tweet: “City planners be like: The punishment for making us do these lanes in the first place.”