Not a Zafira, but another Vauxhall.

For many years I travelled to work by bicycle, a journey of no more than 3 miles (I was a firefighter, but as it happened I never felt the need to put a "firefighter on call" sticker in my rear window. Maybe because I was wholetime and not day manning, so never had the need to hurtle at breakneck speed to the station to get my turnout fee because I tended to be already there when the calls came in).

On quite a number of occasions I came close to becoming a victim of the Half Blind Motorists Club, but there was one incident that finally persuaded me that the roads were too dangerous for any more trips to work by bike.

A woman at the wheel of an old Corsa, with a child literally rolling around on the back seat, overtook me one evening on my way home, and as she did so, went nice and wide. So I thought "she's seen me, all OK". Not so; seconds later she turned left immediately in front of me and as I prepared to see my life flash before my eyes I tried to remember my "triple salko over the top of a Corsa" training, but the details of the routine just wouldn't come.

Into the side of said Corsa I went, not too hard, fortunately, but did this madwoman notice the impact and the panic stricken face at her rear window? Not in the least; she sailed merrily into the sunset without even stopping to ask if I'd enjoyed meeting her nearside back door.

That was the moment that a little voice whispered into my still ringing ears "no more cycling for you, My Lad if you want to see three score years and a bit more".

Edited by argybargy on 08/08/2016 at 16:15

Me also. I tend to stick rigidly to the limit or just below.

If you look in the mirror you can often see them getting mad as Hell and waving arms about, but if there's nowhere to overtake they usually get the message after a while and back off. Which is curiously satisfying.

Tailgating, mmm, that’s driving so close that the driver in front can see the whites of your eyes, except that in mist or fog it’s not quite as clear. One day in autumn I was driving on a country road known for speeding and there was a thick mist. Have you heard the saying that ‘even the birds were walking’ ? Following me were two cars, one black and one green. I forget which one was first, but he was too close to me and the one following him was far too close to him. I came to a patch where the mist was a little clearer and increased speed to about 40 mph to gain some distance. Then I saw about 12 mallards walking in single file across the road. I had momentary visions of chewing bits of mallard (which isn’t so bad) and bits of glass from the windscreen, (which is). I braked down to about 15 mph and the front 6 ducks began running forward and the rear 6 running back the way they had come. I went through the gap and accelerated to avoid a rear end impact. I needn’t have bothered because I saw in the rear view mirror that the two cars following me were at angles and stopped. I got the impression that their insurance companies would have liked to have my details.