Originally Posted by
thebarerider
I pretty well understood what you meant. I was a bit reactionary in my earlier post. Apologies
No problem.
Originally Posted by
thebarerider
But this is what gets me. As if I need to signal my intentions to do nothing? It's not my fault or the OPs fault that this driver has possibly had negative experiences with cyclists before and it's not my responsibility to signal if I'm not going to do anything.
You do not have to signal if your intention is to do nothing (but even then it can help in some situations.) Safe and cooperative cycling is not just about doing what is required and especially not about giving up on your own full responsibility for communication.
However in this situation the cyclist did already signal a desire. They may not have meant to but they did. So in this case they need to signal to clear up any ambiguity or confusion that results from a cyclist looking back, especially a cyclist looking back several times (not that the OP did) and is slowing down and/or ever slightly drifting leftward - all things that cyclists merging often do (conscious or not) and are subtle but are easily picked up my other drivers as clues to what a cyclist wants to or may do.
Al