Comment & Analysis: Dont touch the car. Dont tap on the window. Did the driver nearly run you down? Or your children? Did you feel like your limbs and even your life were at risk? It doesnt matter. Touching a car is worse. Or, at least, that is what many motorists seem to think, and some will assault you for it.There are three cases which have happened recently or which have been in court recently where motorists and passengers have assaulted cyclists I know that at least two of these involved the people cycling tapping on a window or banging on a car.One of these was an assault that was videoed less than two weeks ago at Marino Mart in Fairview in Dublin. Thankfully, the person who was swung at repeatedly says hes okay. He tapped on a vehicle after a close Two cases from 2022 that were resolved in the courts were recently reported.In the first court case, the Irish Independent reported that a 28-year-old driver was reported to have pummelled a 66-year-old man who was cycling in what was described as a vicious, revolting assault on Dublin street.The motorist was jailed for nine months for the assault. The details are slim enough about how this started, but it is yet another worrying case of a driver in a case of road rage assaulting a cyclist.In another case in Cork, the Irish Examiner reported that a 25-year-old man was cycling home after a soccer match at Turners Cross when he was cut off by a motorist, and when he tapped on the car, it somehow led the occupants to think that the reasonable thing to do was to beat him up.The two occupants were unidentified, and the cars owner was not in the car at the time. But the owner was prosecuted, resulting in him being fined 1,500 and banned from driving for two years after failing to provide information under the Road Traffic Acts.Judge John King said he was very lucky he was only charged with that and not pervert the course of justice. The Judge was reported to have said: Someone commented on someone elses driving by a little tap on the car to complain.From my experience and from listening to others, people who cycle generally end up tapping or banging on a car for one of two reasons: To try to stay alive in the moment or to let a motorist know theyve engaged them or others.Around a decade ago, a taxi driver cut me off. It being Dublin, he didnt get far, in this case, maybe a few metres ahead before he was caught at a traffic light which made the dangerous overtake even more pointless.The driver was irate that I tapped on the car as he passed. He was having none of anything I was saying, and apparently I was never in danger he tried to make out despite the fact, I could tap on the car as he passed me.In a much closer shave, a few years before that on Arran Quay, a Dublin Bus driver did something similar. It was just before Church Street this is an old Street View image of roughly what it was like at the time when bus drivers used to have to pull across the cycle lane into the bus stop:I only managed to right myself and also stop the bus driver from continuing to drive in on top of me by banging on the window of the bus.Im sure that was frightening for the passengers, but, at the time, I had survival in mind.When he stopped and I was able to talk to the driver, he was also having none of it. Banging on the window was the worst thing that could have possibly happened in the minute before talking to him.That was a case of banging and not tapping, as I thought I was a goner. It felt like slow motion, and I can replay it back in my head. However, tapping can produce the same result, regardless of whether it is on a cars bodywork or the window.(As an aside, you find yourself explaining yourself more than you should have to when these things happen: Why didnt I cycle away? Its hard to cycle away when a bus is knocking you off your balance after the driver started to overtake, but when youre still around mid-point along the bus when he then starts to pull in. I should also add that Dublin Bus drivers were overall far more aggressive towards cyclists back then)I would honestly advise anybody to avoid tapping or in any way touching a car unless you think that you are at immediate risk and youre trying to warn the driver. There are all sorts of psychologicaland physiological responses involved when you startle or frighten somebody by tapping on a window.A motorist especially one who is oblivious to the significance of a close pass, or even the fact that they nearly ran you over will likely feel like they were just driving along minding their own business until you tapped on their window and invaded their space.Theres been a lot written about cars as a private bubble which moves through public spaces containing two armchairs and a couch. Knocking on a window punctures that space. For some, I imagine, theres little difference between tapping on the window of a car and knocking on their living room window when they are relaxing in front of the TV.Theres also psychopathic behaviour from general psychopaths and a hint of it from people who think cyclists are somehow different to them because of the mode of transport they are using. The latter happens in no small part played by some in the media, depicting cyclists as more lawless than anybody else.For those who are not frightened or startled, people (regardless of what mode of transport they use) really dont like being told that they are in the wrong. And some people will react worse than others to this.While avoiding tapping on cars, both while cycling and as a pedestrian, Ive also had motorists react by pressing down on their horns in reaction to anything from me giving them an obvious dirty look of disapproval, holding both palms open in the air, or polite or at least not unreasonable vocalisation (ie what are you doing after zooming past a zebra).