1. • CommentAuthorPAG
   • CommentTimeFeb 2nd 2007

    
   It can't be just my imagination can it?
   But everytime im cut up or a car passes within inches of knocking me off, it's almost always a BMW - anyone else noticed this?
2. • CommentAuthorlattie
   • CommentTimeFeb 2nd 2007

    
   Driven by a blonde mom on the mobile as well
3. • CommentAuthorThe Mechanic
   • CommentTimeFeb 8th 2007

    
   Well I am a BMW driver and I hope that fellow cyclists think of me a considerate when I am in the car. I always try to behave as I like other drivers to behave towards me when I am on the bike. It's the chavs this p**s me off. They honk like hell right alongside you on country lanes, not realising that you can hear their dustbin exhauts a mile away. Think they are sneaking up on you.
4. • CommentAuthorPAG
   • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2007

    
   OK I relent, I may have been too quick to judge all drivers as being the same. What obvoiusly makes you different is that you are a cyclist and therefore, as you say, drive your car in a way that reflects how you wish to be treated by other road users. The biggest problem in the UK is that very few car drivers cycle. As a result, they do not have any realisation of the dangers they put us cyclists in when overtaking close or dangerously.
   Here is another one for you to concider. We are all aware of the need to give way to horses but has anyone been carved up by a horsebox - I have!
5. • CommentAuthorgreywolf4
   • CommentTimeMar 26th 2007

    
   Boat trailers are wider than the cars that tow them , the driver/week end boaties think they have given you plenty of room oblivious that the inboard ,rusty mudguard/fender on the boat trailer only missed riping your calf muscle off by inches !!!
6. • CommentAuthorAlisonS
   • CommentTimeMar 27th 2007 edited

    
   I am a really new rider, only a few months if that. I started so that I could do a duathlon next month. Anyway I go out early in the morning, I also have kids and work so its the only time, however for me being a new rider its the pack riders that scare the c..p out of me...
7. • CommentAuthorsoinclined
   • CommentTimeMay 11th 2007

    
   What's the difference between a BMW driver and a porcupine?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   With a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside!
8. • CommentAuthormorebrains
   • CommentTimeMay 12th 2007

    
   Convertibles of any kind (BMW or not) are the bane of my commuting existence. I live in a university town and, now that the weather is nice, they're out with the tops down... shouting "get on the sidewalk!" as they buzz past me.
   
   Too funny, soinclined... I'll have to remember that one!
9. • CommentAuthorbiikeguy.mike
   • CommentTimeMay 12th 2007

    
   Well ... the porcupine joke is older than I am ...and that is old...so no offense taken.
   
   I too drive a BMW some of the time. I ride a bicycle about 6,000 miles a year on the road and I do not think there is a common denominator among those that come "Close"
   
   using a mirror helps as you can hear them coming
10. • CommentAuthorsoinclined
    • CommentTimeMay 13th 2007

     
    +1 on the mirror. I feel more vulnerable without one.
11. • CommentAuthorspikelops
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2007

     
    I find all German car drivers to be universally poor (yes it is an extreme generalisation - but it fits my myopic world view).
    
    Mercedes drivers are for me the worst - they appear to think that because they spent some money on a car this automatically makes them
    
    1) A good driver regardless of previous skill level.
    2) In a desperate hurry to get everywhere.
    3) Able to judge distance down to the millimeter (next time try looking both sides of the car not just the drivers side). Mirrors are there to be used.
    
    Buying a Schiphol taxi (all taxis at Schiphol airport seem to be E class Mercs.) means you have an expensive car with an easily snappable bonnet ornament. it does not mean you can drive, have any taste, or have the God given right to squeeze your enormously fat car through impossibly tight gaps. The guy on the bike is not to be used as an object to stop your car being damaged by the parked cars beside you.
    
    Now that is out of my system. Good.
12. • CommentAuthorchrisrust
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2007

     
    I've seen research that says it's the men in white vans that get closest.
13. • CommentAuthorradial
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2007

     
    greywolf4, have to second your post on weekend boaters with oversize trailers. I live near a lake so I see a lot of these. In fact, I got clipped by one last summer when he decided it was reasonable to pass me on a two lane road while descending through a blind turn. Luckily for everyone, there was no oncoming traffic. But, the boat clipped my shoulder when he came back over early, my front wheel went sideways at 25mph or so, I launched like a meat missile, and the rest all happened too fast for me to remember. Woke up in the middle of the road only semi-conscious just in time to see another truck bearing down. I rolled out of the way, but my bike wasn't so lucky. Now when the trailer people pass, I get on the brakes and give them plenty of room to drive poorly without involving any more of my skin.
    
    Oh yeah, I drive a BMW too. Personally, I'm biker friendly (of course), but I have to agree that people in relatively high-end cars are generally more of a threat.
14. • CommentAuthormellophonium
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2007 edited

     
    Hey, newbie here in Kentucky. Thought I would chime in with a positive. I had a very nice person today, she was not driving a BMW ;). Anyway, I was waiting at a light and she was turning right on red, but noticed that I was unable to "trip" the light. So, she offered to wait there and "trip" the light for me.
15. • CommentAuthormakeart
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2007 edited

     
    If a car get too close. it's almost always a Lincoln Continental!
16. • CommentAuthorEvilSpike
    • CommentTimeJun 4th 2007

     
    Got sandwiched between the kerbside railing and a BMW's nearside passenger door. The six year old kid in the passenger seat saw me but his muppet dad who was merilly texting away on his phone didnt.
    
    I did try chasing after him to point out the error of his ways but he got away...
17. • CommentAuthormopactanner
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2007

     
    the BMW drivers must also drive HUMMERS too as well!
18. • CommentAuthorxgrahamx
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2007

     
    But how many of you have been knocked of your bike by a car overtaking you?
    i would say, on the whole busses & lorrys scare the crap out of me more than any little car
19. • CommentAuthoryekeraps
    • CommentTimeSep 1st 2007

     
    Nice comment chrisrust, I can second that opinion.
    
    I had a white van pass me once and I felt the exhaust 'puff' against my left calf. I wonder to this day how close it actually came to me, or if he even saw me.
20. • CommentAuthorChainline
    • CommentTimeSep 1st 2007

     
    Yep, it's always the workmen in a white van/truck! They seem to be easily offended that other people aren't driving a white van like they are, I suppose ;)
21. • CommentAuthorpmilne
    • CommentTimeSep 6th 2007

     
    I agree about the BMW drivers - and so do my German friends! They also regard Merc & Audi drivers as a menace. Of course there must be friendly BMW/Merc/Audi drivers but they do seem to attract arrogant drivers. As for white van drivers, I'm one of those (but bike-friendly of course). There are so many on the road, that it is statistically inevitable that you'll meet some bad WV drivers - and yes, a big VW at your elbow is scary, so sticks in the memory.
22. • CommentAuthorUncle Riotous
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2007

     
    Living in the UK and having spent years on motorbikes before finding MTBs I have to agree that (at least in the UK) BMW drivers have taken over where previously Volvo drivers held the record for bad driving.
23. • CommentAuthorvoxpop
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2007

     
    have to defend German drivers; I am a New Yorker but I work there a lot and yes, they drive fast, and there's a definite heirarchy on the autobahn: if you drive a mercedes, you get out of the way of an approaching porsche; if you drive an audi, you get out of the way of an approaching mercedes, etc. However, they KNOW how to drive. It's not that easy to get a driver's license in Germany - you have to go to driver's school, log in x-number of hours, day driving, night driving, autobahn driving, etc. People understand the rules and they drive well. When there's an accident, though, it's a bad one, because they drive so fast.
    
    Everybody jokes about the German obsession with order, but there are some aspects to this which are good. IMO. Also, it's a bike-friendly country; great bike routes everywhere.
24. • CommentAuthorelwilliamson
    • CommentTimeJan 28th 2008

     
    Definitely the white vans are the worst.
    
    Was coming along St Kilda Rd (in Melbourne, VIC, Australia) and a guy opened his van door in front of me (into a bike path). I took the whole door off and skidded across this very busy road in peak traffic!
    
    After three years of physiotherapy I'm finally back on my bike this month, but got clipped again today on another busy road (I was in the bike lane again) by...take a wild guess...a white van!
25. • CommentAuthormrwr382
    • CommentTimeMar 31st 2008

     
    I just assume that I will be hit once a year. I think fresh kids behind the wheel with their pot smoke blocking the windshield are the biggest danger. I have an airzounds horn that scares the crap out of any driver who comes too close. But, I think we have to admit that riding a bike on the road is a dangerous thing to do. Accidents happen and the cyclist is the one who pays.
    
    I think there are just too many people who choose road biking without realizing that they are choosing to put themselves in harm's way.
26. • CommentAuthormetzenberg
    • CommentTimeApr 19th 2008 edited

     
    Hey PAG,
    
    I don't think you are imagining at all. There are a lot of terrible drivers, but more than any other brand, BMW is the one that says, "Look at me, I am an important person because of the car that I drive!"
    
    That's one of the ironies of the automobile in America. It is a strangely democratic feature of our country, that anybody has a "right" (of course, this isn't really true) to drive. The cheapest way for any person to feel important is to buy a car that other people will stare at. The auto is like a portable castle that you can take with you.
    
    Check this thread on bikeforums.net, and see the attached article in a Des Moines newspaper. It is the most disgusting commentary on the automobile I have seen lately:
    
    http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=405182
    
    Des Moines Register - Noted Iowa rider killed in car-bike crash
    
    My guess is that beemergirl51 doesn't really drive a beemer, but she aspires to it or identifies with it. My own experience is that it is not the high end car drivers that are the worst, but the teenagers who are in a hurry, whatever they drive.

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