Psycho: The car makes you crazy

Closed bridges, multiplication of roadworks and the famous orange cones, traffic density … motorists have more reasons to lose their temper and their first victims are cyclists. Why are there so many road irregularities?

A former courier on a bicycle, Pascal Marcox continues to spin on both wheels in his daily life and for his training. He said there was a lot of impatience among motorists in the city. “It’s not often name-calling or physical threats, but more hankering here and there.”

He also has many stories of obvious road inequality, although he finds that not all cyclists are even angels.

“Last year, in Boulevard Gouin on the east, a young man of 25-30 in a sports car, it was hard to accept that a cyclist was going faster than him. In the portion where the bike route stopped, before it even continued, he decided to keep me very close. Then, with traffic, I found myself behind him and at one point he deliberately stopped abruptly. He really wanted me to run with him, he was looking not only for provocation, but also to deliberately hurt me.

But young motorists are not the only ones who consider the road to be primarily for cars. “I also remember a situation, west of the city, there was not much traffic and no bicycle lane, there was an old woman behind me, and she horned nonstop. I went to see her to ask what was going on, I could do nothing on the road and I had to settle down. Offered.

Fortunately, not all road accidents end dramatically, but luck sometimes hangs by the thread. Jonathan Allen experienced this with a bus driver in the Saint-Jerome sector of Laurence. “I was driving and the bus driver approached me. He was up to three inches, which was very dangerous. I called his supervisor to complain. As everything was recorded, they were able to see the problem in the video and it was not the first time that this driver had this kind of attitude, they fired him because he was so dangerous. At some point, you can not let go of it. “

For the French psychologist Jean-Pascal Assiley, motorists are transformed when they are behind the wheel. “Like social networks, the car has become a separating and blocking bubble. This is a very protected physical space, where you can easily indulge in insults more than when you meet them on the sidewalk.

What attitude should be adopted to reduce inconsistency?

When dealing with a ruthless motorist, Pascal Marcox tries to set an example. “I smile and try to be nice, it’s not always that way,” he said. “Even the crazy people in their cars, it’s useless to reason with them. He thinks it’s always better to leave it to avoid the situation. “But if your life is in danger or intentional, you should not hesitate to take the car plate number and complain to the police, because this is probably not the first time that person has been involved. That behavior.”