Near Miss of the Day 421: 'Must Get In Front' driver overtakes cyclist at narrow bridge ... then pulls into car park

Isaac is a better man than me. I would almost certainly have felt the need to pull into the car park and 'discuss' the incindent with the driver. Admittedly this wasn't the most heinous of close passes but it still demonstrates at best a lack of driving awareness, and at worst a complete disregard for the safety of the cyclist. In the past I have on a few occasions been able to follow a close passer to their destination, and with as much diplomacy and tact as possible, ask them quite what the f they think they are doing, and more importanly WHY?! On one ocasion I ended up getting even more angry as the moron I followed into a supermarket car park pulled into a space, and as he got out was still on the phone he had been using! My antics probably only served to fuel his hatred. Had I relised at the time that my helmet camera wasn't working I probably would've been a little less restrained than I actually was. Other encounters have thankfully been far more wholesome. My approach is usually to try and calmly ask the driver how much they think their time is worth, and whether they honestly feel that less than 10 seconds of their time is really worth my livelihood or even my life.

It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that the current perception is that cars are there to get you from A to B as quickly as possible.  This needs changing to "as comfortably as possible" or "to be able to carry the weekly shop" or nowadays "to be allowed into the recyling center".

May be the fact that you can fail the driving test for driving too slowly reinforces this by suggesting that the speed limit is a target rather than a maximum.

May be the test should change to encourage getting from A to B as efficiently as possible to reduce pollution. Drivers would be failed for accelerating and braking unnecessarily. This could cut down on the type of manouvre described here.

I am afraid that until attitudes change we will all carry on suffering.

I was cycling through Long Ashton near Bristol last weekend.  Was doing the speed limit of 20mph behind a car doing the same.  I guess I was about 15-20ft behind him as we passed parked cars.  A car came up from behind me and decided he wanted to get in the gap in front of me forcing me to slow down. I can't say I shouted anything polite at him but it did contain the words f**kin' & idiot.  He heard me because he made a hand gesture which I expect was not a thumbs up. He then turned right 3 seconds later.  

"MGIF", Haha, thanks. Encountered one yesterday. Overtook me on a completely empty road and while he was, I already wondered why he was going relatively slow. Then he turned right into a small road directly I front of me and I had to slam my brakes to not hit the passenger door. (Germany, so I was driving on the right and the car overtook on the left).
I was going about 35kph and I guess the driver simply misjudged my speed. Not aggressive, just very very bad driving...

Assholes have been doing burnouts in the carpark

Uglyfying a beautiful spot and polluting the air while they're about it ;-(

there is definitely something about the "nearly there" / last 200 yards of a some drivers' journies, particularly when it's home.
You're usually just passing by the time they're getting out and are perfectly positioned to say "random", or something to that effect. Perhaps he magically knew those sheep would be there on the ascent. 
You just gotta hope his passengers noticed - "Dad, you're so stupid; ohmygod, so embarrassing".  It's like dog training - if any more than 5 seconds elapse between a good or a bad deed, Fido won't conect it with the response, be it "good boy", or "bad dog, no!"  
Probably best to just ride on this time, what good is any sort of confrontation going to do? 

I've had the same thing, and I'm sure many have, and I still find it baffling. Why wait behind when there is plenty of room to safely overtake and then overtake at the narrowest point?

This happened to me a few years ago, with a driver staying behind me on a dual carriageway and then he overtook the moment the it reverted to single carriageway. I shouted something utterly inappropriate, and he must have heard me because he slowed up matching my speed, wound his window down and asked why I'd shouted, and unlike most drivers, he really did want to know, so I told him. Hopefully he's a better driver now.