KY57PZF: it's going to make a great video

It's interesting to compare cultural differences between Montpelier and Clifton. Soon, Montpelier. Today: Clifton. As we've noted, the local anti-cycle policy does encourage driving rather than cycling, so someone on pedals is unexpected; people don't know what to do.

At the same time, for all their driving, the wide streets of Clifton, and the higher value of their cars, means that Monty-driving-techniques just don't apply here. If you've ever been held up in your van while some fancy car hits the "mirrors in" button and then crawls along, you'll know what we mean. There's a fear of scraping your mirrors against other vehicles. In Montpelier, the locals don't have wing mirrors, have pre-scraped cars, and know the technique: drive close enough to the right to be almost touching the parked cars, let the left hand side look after itself.

That lack of skill and excessive protection of their car puts the Old Cliftonians at a disadvantage. Look at this video here, on Beuafort Road, Clifton, one weekday morning.



There's a bin lorry collecting rubbish. Nothing unusual there, except in Clifton the rubbish is better. Empty bottles of fine Bordeaux wines, not crumpled up cans of Tennants Export -"brewed in Scotland for the English Bastards".

Where the bin men are, there are delays. Here the oncoming bicycle goes past them, only to see KY57PZF blocking the way in front, waiting for a chance to get through. Why haven't they done that gap already? It's wider than many of the Montpelier 2-way streets, and there's excellent visibility. We'd have gone for it. Of course this Peugeot 207 1.4S is in better condition in our van, but our dents and bashes were our way of learning the exact dimensions of the road.

Because the car hasn't got the nerve to commit through this -massive- gap, it ends up blocking the gap. The cyclist -who believes they have some right to be there- waves at the car to reverse a bit. The driver -rightfully- points at the (obvious) lorry and clearly implies they are going to sit there and wait. The tax-dodger has none of this and tries again. Here the driver of "KY57 PZF" provides some feedback in the form of the clearly mouthed "Fuck off". For some reason the cyclist doesn't take this hint and again, encourages the driver to back up.

Don't they see the disabled sticker on the car? This person is clearly suffering from some disability, which not only prevents them from walking, it probably hurts to reach down to the gear lever and put it into reverse. Yet the insensitive cyclist doesn't recognise this, they just sit there bullying this innocent motorist to go backwards or get on their side of the road to let him pass.

At the end of this incident, the troublemaker says to the driver "It's going to make a great video", which the driver doesn't hear. Reaching for the window clearly causes more pain, so the tax dodger opens it and says "It's going to make a great video look for your registration number on youtube" before disappearing.

We are surprised that the car driver doesn't complain to the evening post about such harassment.

Update: Road name corrected from Belmont Road to Beaufort Road. Credit to an attentive Richard.Howe8!