BROTM(1) A Dutch road to Christmas.

[dutchpp]

Mijn egoïsme is van mij !, My egoism is mine !

Last summer I went for a ride on my racing bike.
While cycling on a small country road a car approached from the opposite direction. The lady drove on my side of the road and somehow seemed to anticipate that I would make way for her.
The shoulder of this specific road is made of a very soft peat/clay mixture and it slopes down to the water, so for obvious reasons I didn’t steer into the shoulder but simply stopped on the tarmac.

IMG_1444.jpg
The meeting point.

The lady was not amused and immediately went into full “Karen-mode”, she stopped the car and started screaming.
After about a minute she seemed to calm down a bit, I told her quietly that I found her driving style rather selfish (= “egoïstisch“ in Dutch) and dangerous.

The lady exploded and screamed at me; “MIJN EGOÏSME IS VAN MIJ !” (MY EGOISM IS MINE !), and completely ignored the danger argument.
I thought it was a brilliantly fitting statement and I must admit that I was rather amused by it.
After the exchange of some additional “arguments” we both continued on our way, nothing bad happened but we didn’t solve the conflict.

During this continued cycle trip I started thinking about the incident, cycling is a repetitive movement and very suitable for the “ZEN-like” development of ideas.
I decided I needed to learn more about the origins of egoism and I certainly should develop a more effective strategy to counteract egoism.

A simple Google search was sufficient for a few hours of egoism study.
I learned a lot about overestimation and underestimation of one’s own qualities as promoting causes for unhealthy egoism.
But I also learned that you need a certain amount of egoism to function as an autonomous person.
Acquiring insight in effective counteract strategies proved to be a more complicated quest.

I’m wondering what would be an effective strategy to counteract excessive egoism?

[L.W. Baxter]

i don't know much about countering excessive egoism.

surprised that excessive resentment of bicyclists from motorists is a thing in the netherlands. i figured that was just american culture.

i recall ~30 years go pedaling past clear lake in california, the shoulder was littered with gravel, so i was in the lane of traffic. a cop came up behind and told me to move to the shoulder, via bullhorn. within the same hour, a hooligan threw a half eaten sandwich at me from a passing car. maybe bicycling is evidence of excessive masochism?

[dutchpp]

I was surprised as well, the Dutch traffic laws protect cyclists, if you hit a cyclist as a motorist you're at fault ( almost always!) and you must pay for all the damage, so most motorists are really careful.
Excessive machoism, I've never considered that as an issue, but perhaps you could be right

[Joe (SoCal)]

I could get into riding there is soooooo nice and flat. Every time I go out for a spin it’s always thousands of ft of elevation. California hills are no joke.

[Osborne Russell]

I heard that during the oil crisis of 1973, driving on the Authobahn or whatever it's called was prohibited. So a guy put wheels and a sail on his canoe and went out with the highway to himself. He was arrested and convicted for violating the ban.

Get your canoe running
Head out on the highway
Lookin for adventure
And whatever comes our way.

[Jim Bow]

Why was she on your side of the road? Was she British?

[LeeG]

that road looks wide enough, maybe she has a fear of heights and the right side, the elevation loks different on either side.

Countering excessive egoism in yourself or another? Service for others should do it for oneself. In others why bother. Likewise acquiring insight. Just do the job whatever it is and if insight arrives, yay, if not at least you got in saddle time and cheated death once more.

[LeeG]

Why was she on your side of the road? Was she British?

I’m guessing when she was a child her grandmother and her were driving along a road like that and veered off into the irrigation ditch. They survived but her grandmother died a week later with the ruined car sitting in the driveway for months, muddy and ruined. Since then she hugged the uphill side unless forced over by another car. Until our cyclist came along denying her safety and triggering an episode.

[Vince Brennan]

Thank you, Stephen King.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Punch her out?

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Pul out your cc and shot out her tires?

[dutchpp]

I heard that during the oil crisis of 1973, driving on the Authobahn or whatever it's called was prohibited. So a guy put wheels and a sail on his canoe and went out with the highway to himself. He was arrested and convicted for violating the ban.

Get your canoe running
Head out on the highway
Lookin for adventure
And whatever comes our way.

1973 the ring highway of Amsterdam.
oliecrisis.jpg

[Hallam]

Mijn egoïsme is van mij !, My egoism is mine !



I’m wondering what would be an effective strategy to counteract excessive egoism?

Effective but often resulting in non socially acceptable outcomes? At school it involved a strict no back down response and to deal swiftly and in kind to the protagonist's reaction to that response. This invariably led to a physical altercation, the outcome of which the ego driven bully was left in no doubt about the foolishness of their chosen path.

A more mature strategy is to know when and how to manoeuvre the confrontation to avoid physical conflict. At school you knew your adversary. This is usually not the case with on the road and similar instances so often it's a healthy strategy to 'read the room' and just move on and out of their space especially if there's anything like a wild look in their eyes.

[dutchpp]

Thank you Hallam.

[Peerie Maa]

I had a similar run in with a dumb woman driver when cycling home from work

Prom.jpg

My route was along the Prom to the village in the distance.
When I got to X marks the spot, I was overtaken in short order by a big van and a private car, both of whom turned left across me into the road to the left.
The van did an emergency stop, forcing the car to do an emergency stop directly in my path.
I had to break hard and wrench the bike into the kerb to avoid a collision, giving voice to my opinion of the woman's driving as I did so.
After we all got sorted out, I continued on my way, to be overtaken again by said woman, who pulled in front of me and stopped. She then got out of her car and had a go at me for swearing at her. She could not understand that her dangerous driving nearly caused a collision. She was that affronted at being sworn at that she was oblivious to her bad driving being responsible for the entire incident.

[dutchpp]

That's why a lot of cyclists drive with 1 or more small camera's in the Netherlands ( if I'm right in the UK too), in combination with the Dutch legislation it's relatively easy to charge the offender. There's no need for an "interesting confrontation" at the scene you just hand over the evidence to the police or the insurance/legal aid company.I'm going to buy a camera for the next season.