No, I don't want to move over

I got shouted at today.

This isn't a rant at white van drivers - it's more of a request to *all* drivers.

He shouted at me to tell me to move over to the left while I was cycling on the road. In fact, he rather aggressively shouted at me, asking me "Do you want to move over?" as he approached (very closely) from behind me. At least he waited to overtake until there was enough space for him to do so safely - to give him *some* credit.

Although he was long gone in the short time it took me to gently and politely reply "Nope", it was satisfying to reply. I wish he'd stopped so I could have explained *why* I didn't want to move over, but of course he wasn't really interested in my response. He wasn't really asking me. He was telling me what he thought I *should* have been doing.

The reason I didn't want to move over, is that there were inch deep pot holes and grooves covering the entire left hand strip of our side of the road - not comfortable or safe to cycle over even without being 34 weeks pregnant. I would have happily swapped sides of the road with him, had he wished to do this, though I noticed that he seemed to have no intention of driving over the pot holes himself either.

My issue is that (a) I have as much right to be on the road as any car (and not just squashed into the curbside) and (b) sometimes cyclists can't or shouldn't move over i.e. if it is terrible road surface (like it was), just one among many other reasons (ice, very windy conditions, other obstacles...).

Anyway, I guess this man will probably continue to shout at cyclists (though I really hope he noticed my fat belly as he drove past and felt bad about shouting at me), but I am aware that there are many drivers who have never cycled and possibly don't realise that we can't always move over to the left, so this is the intention behind my post - just to raise a little bit of awareness. If we're in your way, it's not necessarily to be irritating or just to make a statement - there's probably a very good safety reason.

If you're already very careful about cyclists, then please ignore this post. If not, I hope it helps a little bit. I know there are loads of bad or annoying or aggressive cyclists out there, but not all of us are like that. And, just to clarify, I know that not all drivers are mean to cyclists - most people are very, very nice and I always thank those that give me lots of space.

Rant over. This tired, fat-bellied lump is off to bed.