Viewing 22 posts - 41 through 62 (of 62 total)
  • A centimetre from a very serious accident
  • brakes
    Free Member

    The most effective things I have found from a safety point of view are to ride in a primary position on the road, use lifesaver looks a lot and use powerful front and back lights even in broad daylight.

    the lifesaver look is key as it does a number of things (in my experience):
    – obviously allows you to spot any potential risks related to approaching vehicles and the road lay out, allowing you take any necessary action
    – allows drivers to see that you’re looking at them and that you’re a person with a face, not just an inanimate man-bike ensemble
    – it makes them think about any hasty manoeuvres as a look over the right shoulder from a cyclist might mean they want to move into the road and turn right further ahead so makes them hesitate

    Toasty
    Full Member

    Or two riding side by side having a chat despite holding up a car which they wouldn’t be doing if they were single file.

    ..and the net result of this is what? The cars have to slow down and find a good time to pass.

    The alternative, they ride in a longer single file line promotes drivers trying to pass whenever they fancy. Oncoming car? Never mind they can quickly nip back onto the line of cyclists.

    Honestly, if a car was driving head on at you, would you have a head on collision, or automatically swerve into the soft targets? I think it’s just self preservation.

    Riding 2 abreast is a very sensible part of the highway code. People just need a bit of patience.

    Gotama
    Free Member

    Toasty – it’s difference of opinion but the road in question is generally plenty wide enough for a cyclist to have easily enough space whilst cars pass without going over the white line. Not so when they are two abreast. I have ridden it myself for what its worth.

    And two abreast isn’t the same soft target but at the same time more likely to result in a bigger accident?

    It’s an age old discussion on here with a variety of opinions. On the whole people probably do need more patience but the non-cycling masses won’t see it that way, particularly south of london where the roads are saturated with cyclists on sunny weekends and Isabella is trying to get young Horacio to his football match on time. Anyway, this is going way off topic now.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Given the short distance to the bridge could you have read the road and traffic better?

    You know what, honestly, yes I could of. In fact it’s precisely what I thought when I joined the road. The junction was wide open and I was traveling at some speed approaching the junction; slow enough to stop easily but quick enough to carry speed onto the road and accelerate up to about 26-28mph pretty quickly (that section of road is slightly down hill and very quick. It is also 50mph)

    It was a good five or six seconds (which is quite long when you count it out loud) before the lorry was directly behind me and in that time I clearly remember think that I would have much preferred not to have him behind me even if it had meant being perhaps more cautious than the highway code would have demanded.

    The commanding position on the road wasn’t very far away from the verge either; it didn’t need to be there was a solid white line and blind corners ahead. I think the thing that might have compounded the situation is that the road lay out has changed at that spot. There’s now a new roundabout a few hundred metres further up the road.

    I don’t think the guy was being a dick or deliberately trying to scare me to be honest. I just think he/she was careless and wasn’t thinking enough about the cyclist ahead.

    I’m not having a dig at geetee directly although i fear it may be coming across that way

    As for this, it’s OK, I don’t think you’re having a dig, at least not now. I would be happier with some sympathy but if you’re challenge makes me think a little better next time and keeps me safer as a result then I will be grateful.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Isabella is trying to get young Horacio to his football polo match on time.

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    @GeeTee – had the very same thing last week with a Discovery towing a caravan.

    I was not hard over as it was a decent two carriageway road but he cut back in before he was fully past me and the caravan forced me up onto the grass verge.

    He stopped and was very apologetic, he’d forgotten that he was towing a huge double axle caravan! 😯

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    He stopped and was very apologetic, he’d forgotten that he was towing a huge double axle caravan!

    I’m sure it’s what happened here as well.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    He stopped and was very apologetic, he’d forgotten that he was towing a huge double axle caravan!

    Caravanner with a 4×4. Generally the biggest **** going

    Gotama
    Free Member

    As for this, it’s OK, I don’t think you’re having a dig, at least not now. I would be happier with some sympathy but if you’re challenge makes me think a little better next time and keeps me safer as a result then I will be grateful

    Yep, that is largely what i was getting at, just trying to pose a different side to avoid a repeat, albeit possibly coming across badly. I’m glad nothing happened and it must have been terrifying at the time. The number of cyclists I’ve seen approach the front of traffic lights in London which are on a bend when there is already a stationary lorry there makes me shudder. Technically they’re in the right but you can’t throw a highway code book at someone from 6 feet under.

    Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve got some deliveries to make and this trailer is really slowing me down. 😀

    D0NK
    Full Member

    ton – Member

    in busy traffic area’s like leeds city center, i ride on the pavement.well according to the nicewaycode people Ton you need to MTFU

    Don’t go complaining that the road network is optimised almost exclusively for motor traffic and parts of it are bloody dangerous. You just need to grow a pair!

    a lot of road cyclists take the ‘I own the road’ approach

    quite possibly more of an “I am a legitimate part of the traffic I shouldn’t be cowering in the gutter” approach.

    myheadsashed
    Full Member

    I’m never surprised when I’m cut up in a bike….it also happens when I’m driving a bloody big van, generally to many cars on the roads and people being under pressure to ‘be’ somewhere.
    All company drivers should have limited hours not just lorry drivers, it frightening how many people are so tired they shouldn’t be driving and how many people are on the phone while driving – sadly it has become the norm. A generally more selfish attitude in society doesn’t help. 😳

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    also far too many, probably older motorists driving with poor eyesight – shudder.

    myheadsashed
    Full Member

    Bunny hop I was thinking a similar thing the other day – you can pass your test at 17 and drive for 50 odd yrs without having your sight checked??????

    It should be done at least every 10yrs

    Madness 😯

    molgrips
    Free Member

    All company drivers should have limited hours not just lorry drivers

    Yeah we’re told not to drive more than I think 4 hours if we’ve got a full day of work.

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    myheadsashed – Member
    All company drivers should have limited hours not just lorry drivers.

    Was at a client meeting recently when he told me that there is an extension to the tacho rules coming into force for smaller commercial vehicles, and that those who tow a trailer for commercial purposes will require an additional license. It sounds like a very good thing, he’s a clued up bloke so no reason top assume he is incorrect.

    Always thought an additional test element should be needed to tow, esp bit stuff like caravans and horse boxes.

    brakes
    Free Member

    there’s always a lot of chat about how the roads in France and the Netherlands are better because of cycling culture and because of respect for cyclists.
    is it not (also) because there’s far less traffic on the roads? because there’s less people and also because they’re less inclined to go to the shops to buy stuff every other minute and because the shops aren’t obliged to open 12 hours a day 6 days a week?

    simons_nicolai-uk
    Free Member

    Hope it hasn’t shaken you up too badly GeeTee. I’m still on edge from my last road ride in Kent when some C*** in a white Audi convertible thought it would be amusing to buzz Katie and I at 60mph. An A road, clear in the other direction, and he passed literally inches from my right side. The first I heard was Katie scream as he passed her. Then jeering from him and his female passenger as I screamed at them.

    here’s always a lot of chat about how the roads in France and the Netherlands are better because of cycling culture and because of respect for cyclists. Is it not (also) because there’s far less traffic on the roads?

    Population density in the Netherlands is nearly twice the UK (463 vs 257). The driving in the Netherlands is just as bad as the UK BUT the roads are organised so that you don’t come into conflict with motor vehicles. Pretty much any road where traffic is travelling at over 20mph will have a separate bike track. Small roads are closed to through traffic or made priority for bike (a country lane would be both slow and have bi-directional bike lanes marked and a single lane for traffic).

    Rural France is lovely for cycling – and that does come down a lot to the less busy roads. (I’ve just come back from the south). The french drive terribly though – always too fast, always tailgate, always try to overtake even if you’re driving at the speed limit. Don’t anticipate other traffic.

    BUT they do tend to leave more space when passing. Helped by clear equiv of highway code that says leave 1.5m of space rather than ‘as much space as you would a car’ (I pass cars with inches to spare officer, that’s fine isn’t it?)

    Nice to see these signs both in France and Basque Spain:

    Would have been a much better investment here than ‘nicewaycode’ shit.

    simmy
    Free Member

    Tell you what I’ve noticed a few times, being overtaken by about 3-4 cars then the first one indicates to turn right, slows and the others, ie the ones now right at the side, don’t know what to do so either stop dead or squeeze you out onto the kerb.

    Bad enough on the MTB but at least you can bunnyhop onto the kerb, a skill I’ve yet to master on the road bike.

    Euro
    Free Member

    That’s me that is.

    Say what you want about riding on the path (and some of you no doubt will), but i’ve had ZERO encounters with crazy drivers almost killing me while doing it. I’ll admit i’ve spooked the odd ped who wasn’t paying attention but i’ve never hit anyone. There are occasions when i take to the road, but only when the path is busy.

    I suggest everyone starts doing it. It’s a better and safer (for us) way to draw attention to the lack of decent cycle paths.

    edlong
    Free Member

    I rode through Leeds city centre in the rush hour the other day. Didn’t feel the need to use any pavements, assumed every other driver would do something really stupid that would endanger my life, so when one or two of them did, I’d already reacted when it happened.

    project
    Free Member

    get a cheap 7dayshop camera

    some of my near misses here

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSadcyclist?feature=watch

    still looking for the boss or owner of the white transit van.

    aracer
    Free Member

    He stopped and was very apologetic, he’d forgotten that he was towing a huge double axle caravan!

    If I’d had that sort of attitude from the old boy who tried to kill me with his caravan I might not have reported him to the police (sadly he was based in the West Midlands police area, and whilst my local force say they’d have paid him a visit they didn’t reckon WM police would bother). It’s a really good job I swerved left when the car came past close enough to touch, as I’m convinced the caravan was on a collision course with me until I did. When I caught up with him at the next junction, apparently I was “swerving all over the road” – well I had moved into the middle of the lane just before he passed to avoid the awful road surface to the left, but as I pointed out to him, if I was swerving all over the road, shouldn’t he give me more space, not less. I honestly don’t think he’d have cared if he did hit me.

Viewing 22 posts - 41 through 62 (of 62 total)

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