Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 71 total)
  • Avoiding DEATH…
  • wiggles
    Free Member

    Riding home from work today, going straight along a road, 1200 lumen front light attached to my bright green bike, with me wearing bright reflective clothes. Car pulls out from my left acrros my path to turn right, I slam on my brakes, turn my wheel when I am stationary otherwise they would have hit it! The woman then only notices me when she is along side me and speeds off…

    left me a bit shaken about the fact they would have flattened me before they noticed if I didn’t stop and their first reaction would have probably to drive off as well…

    Is there anything i can do to make myself more visable… Not sure anything I can do to protect myself from these idiots.

    Didn’t even get a reg as they just sped off.

    butcher
    Full Member

    A siren?

    riiich
    Free Member

    Yeah, be really **** careful going passed left hand junctions.

    Hohum
    Free Member

    Blues and twos?

    DezB
    Free Member

    Is there anything i can do to make myself more visable… Not sure anything I can do to protect myself from these idiots.

    There’s only 1 thing you can do… drive a car.

    These morons just DON’T LOOK. Which was the point I was trying to make on the “Hi-viz” thread. They are idiots, you just have to ride with that cautionary warning in your mind that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. That way you’re ready, like it sounds you were.
    Similar thing happened to me last winter, lit up like a Christmas tree, car coming directly towards me, turned into my path. Just wasn’t looking. (Woman too, ‘coincidentally’.)

    muddydwarf
    Free Member

    Someone tried to kill me today – i’m almost convinced of the fact.

    Cycling up a quiet residential street that is the original road to the newer 50mph dual-carriageway immediately to the right of the original road.
    Came towards a junction with said dual-carriageway and a small hatchback came around the right hand corner from the dual-carriageway at high speed – fast enough to be on the two offside wheels. The driver saw me in the middle of my lane (i was passing parked cars) and twitched his wheel over to aim for me, gesticulating out of his window and swearing.
    I managed to dive between two parked cars, really, really shat me up.

    hammyuk
    Free Member

    Welcome to the world of Motorcyclists and SMIDSY’s….

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    The problem with many of today’s extra bright front lights (and the reason why they are not all legal for road use) is that they don’t emit any light to the side making it difficult for drivers in side roads to see you. I bet you’d also taken off your spoke reflectors as well?

    hammyuk
    Free Member

    No side vis needed in this case – you are heading straight towards them and they can’t even see that when they look right before pulling out….

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Simply not true rockhopper.

    Maybe the case with your china specials but not the lights i use.

    Today seemed to be kill cyclist day.

    I have footage of 2 people nearly being run down but erractic drivers , nearly got squished off the road at a no overtake point , a hyundai moved in On me deliberately to stop me progressing , so did a sprinter.

    But i got home in the end

    wiggles
    Free Member

    Luckily I noticed her a long way off so already slowed down but thought they must have seen me by the time I got to the junction…

    Yesterday some idiotic person didn’t give way when i was on a round about and nearly took me out as well…

    Commuting home in the dark is going well so far! Less than two miles i spend on the road on my journey to/from work.

    EDIT: rockhopper, my light makes a spot wider than my lane in the road much wider than both my car headlights pit together so don’t see that being the case and no my wheel don’t have relfectors bit not a valid reason when she should have been looking at the front of my bike not the side… Might have noticed them as I bounced over the bonnet I suppose!

    project
    Free Member

    Nearly got taken out by a stagecoach bus tonight,woman driver and stuck on right indicator.

    Ist bus incident this year

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    1200 lumen front light

    so they saw only your superbright unfocused (dazzling) front light. Small emitter and reflector means what you look most like is a motorbike on full beam about 400yards away. Your light is so bright that they can’t look fully at you, so they don’t.

    Want to be seen ? Wear a reflective top and shine a light on yourself

    shifter
    Free Member

    They look, but they don’t see.

    hammyuk
    Free Member

    1200 lumen front light
    so they saw only your superbright unfocused (dazzling) front light. Small emitter and reflector means what you look most like is a motorbike on full beam about 400yards away. Your light is so bright that they can’t look fully at you, so they don’t.

    So the f@cking idiot STILL shodnt of pulled out

    Want to be seen ? Wear a reflective top and shine a light on yourself

    Stupidest post of the week?

    wiggles
    Free Member

    and no I don’t have my light aimed at everyone’s faces it is aimed at an angle so lights a big spot on the road and throws plenty of light ahead of me ( have tested how it looks from a distance). Also by the stupid look on her face before speeding off she shat herself when only noticing after she was most of the way past me so just clearly didn’t look when pulling out.

    Love how my light is to blame for some ignorant bint nearly running me down!

    allmountainventure
    Free Member

    Nothing. Car drivers just dont care about bikes… in the uk anyway. I got pulled out on once in similar fasion, after I caught up with the driver and asked did they see me she replied “oh yeah I saw you, i just went anyway” 😐

    tinybits
    Free Member

    Is there anything i can do to make myself more visable… Not sure anything I can do to protect myself from these idiots.

    There’s only 1 thing you can do… drive a car.

    And that’s where you’re wrong. People drive into each other in cars just as much, just with less consequence. The worlds full of unobservent arses, and there’s nothing you can do.

    Be lucky!

    iamroughrider
    Free Member

    deal exreme used to do 100 db sirens/ electric horns. Got one and it’s brilliant. Nopt used it long term yet though. Very loud.

    electric horns galore

    mines the black six alarm sounds one with the button on the bars.

    tragically1969
    Free Member

    The best ones are the ones that look you right in the eyes then pull out, had it done to me once as i was right on the junction, i kind of thought she looked like she was still going to go so i just managed to stop myself as i bumped her drivers door with my front wheel, she looked at me in amazement and asked me where i had come from then just drove off !!

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    I have £300 of Ayup lights and they don’t emit a single lumen of light to the side and by that I mean light coming out at 90 degrees to the end of the light itself. That’s nothing to do with beam spread or width of beam.

    irc
    Full Member

    There’s only 1 thing you can do… drive a car.

    Nah, they do it to cars as well. Had to emergency stop in my car yesterday for a woman driver pulling out a side street on my left to turn right. She never looked right until her car was crossing my lane. At least unlike on a bike a crash would have hurt her (small hatch) more than me (Octavia).

    When I looked at her and shook my head she didn’t even apologise.

    DezB
    Free Member

    Excuse me, those who are saying I was “wrong”! I was answering this specific question:
    is there anything i can do to make myself more visable… Not sure anything I can do to protect myself from these idiots.

    Read it again? Hmm. Now who is WRONG.
    Not “completely” visible. “More” visible. And “protect myself”. Ok?

    jonba
    Free Member

    In my experience it isn’t so much SMIDSY as SMIDGAS so I pulled out anyway thinking you’d avoid me.

    wiggles
    Free Member

    I still don’t get your point rockhopper, I was 90 degrees to her right any light coming out the side of my light would be more than useless… the 1200 lumens out the front however would have been perfectly visible had she looked

    D0NK
    Full Member

    So the f@cking idiot STILL shodnt of pulled out

    I’ve pointed out that if a driver is dazzled by bright lights or can’t tell what/where/how fast you are then they should use a bit more caution and you know look a bit harder. Other posters have pointed out that drivers will very rarely do this, however ****ed up that is, they may have a point.

    Road I used to ride would always be chocker and plenty of people turning right out of the left hand side streets across our direction of travel, cars on the main road would leave a gap so the emerging drivers would pull out looking right only, I’d be bearing down on them plenty of flashing lights and my head torch aimed right at them, not a single look. Doesn’t matter if you are filtering inside or overtaking, dickheads like that will still cause you grief, most would finally look as they completed their right turn to see me mid emergency stop or stopped shouting and swearing at them and promptly jump in fright at the sight of me so close to them.

    chico
    Free Member

    So many near misses mentioned above. I won’t be road cycling again for reasons iv mentioned on other threds. shame really as I loved it, but not worth the grief I’ve been through and still enduring. They don’t see you or don’t care.(and yes I had all high viz gear on etc).

    D0NK
    Full Member

    I still don’t get your point rockhopper

    proper night riding lights are pretty lame for commuting, you want decent blinkers for riding in traffic, but probably wouldn’t have made much difference in this case.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Poor light choice then rockhopper

    Jimmy up a difuser cap similar to the joystick ones for use stuff

    iamroughrider
    Free Member
    D0NK
    Full Member

    Want to be seen ? Wear a reflective top and shine a light on yourself

    doesn’t this screw up your peripheral vision? Had some, well not quite near misses, but it’s taken a second look to spot a car whose dozy driver hasn’t bothered to turn their lights on. Don’t want anything affecting my vision.

    and I thought most reflective materials nowadays reflect straight back at the light source anyway? so your lights hitting reflective strip won’t “bounce” towards the drivers?

    pymwymis
    Free Member

    Bet they wouldn’t just drive off if you put your cunningly hidden hammer / emergency glass breaker through their window

    OCB
    Free Member

    Adding to the ‘it’s not just bikes’ thing – I had to swerve right up into the hedge whilst driving home just after lunchtime today to avoid hitting a car being driven in the middle of the road towards me.

    Naively perhaps, but I’d have thought a big white LWB Defender showing it’s side and (properly adjusted) dipped headlights in good driving conditions during the day would have been fairly visible. 🙄

    I’m assuming he was just a clueless driver with no idea about the size of his vehicle (which was only a small town car)…

    I’d already had plenty of excitement riding around Plymouth city all morning too.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Oh no ocb – its worse than that. Its your in a 4×4 you can drive the ditch im not mentality. They dont even slow down round here. I dont do it any more. I just stop. Force them to slow down and manuver proper

    martymac
    Full Member

    i drive a bus, i get idiots doing it to me too, and in the car as well.
    the problem is they dont look properly, the head turns (optional) but they arent actually thinking about anyone else.
    if they are prepared to pull out in front of a 12 ton double deck bus, they are unlikely to G A S about a cyclist (IF they see him/her)

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    As long as car drivers are running into trees or headfirsting into trucks, cyclists don’t have a chance. 🙁

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    So the f@cking idiot STILL shodnt of pulled out

    Yeh, imagine that – a driver doing something you don’t want them to do
    (I’ll put that on your gravestone shall I ?)

    Want to be seen ? Wear a reflective top and shine a light on yourself
    Stupidest post of the week?

    Yeah, if you like 🙄
    I commute by car and I’m aware of how drivers (seem to) perceive the dicks with their megabright lights. I know this because I watch them. They don’t look at you and they assume you’re ages away because your light looks really small even though it’s bright – even if they did look at you, all they can see is your million lumens you’re so proud of; no “person” at all.

    doesn’t this screw up your peripheral vision? Had some, well not quite near misses, but it’s taken a second look to spot a car whose dozy driver hasn’t bothered to turn their lights on. Don’t want anything affecting my vision.

    I’ve not tried it but when I start commuting by bike I will do it for sure. I won’t need any sort of bright light for this – it’s only shining from 2-3 feet away at most

    and I thought most reflective materials nowadays reflect straight back at the light source anyway? so your lights hitting reflective strip won’t “bounce” towards the drivers?

    Depends on the angle of incidence of the beam, surely (and the jacket wouldn’t be a plane surface so I’d suspect it’d be always reflecting from some part of it (I’m not sure it really needs to be reflective either – hi-vis would do OK if you’re illuminated, I think)

    brooess
    Free Member

    Looking properly, driving at the speed limit, waiting till there’s space for your vehicle before you pull out, all seem out of fashion at the moment.
    Doing what suits you and then having a strop at anyone who’s in your way seems more fashionable.
    We need traffic police back on the road, pulling people over and giving them a damn good bollocking/fines/points etc.
    I don’t remember it being this bad since I passed my test in the mid-90s

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    Amen, brooess

    Though, since I’m a stroppy git with a hobbyhorse, I’d include “riding with inappropriate lights that blind other road users” in your list

    supersaiyan
    Free Member

    Until everyone on the planet is aware of saccadic masking and how to combat it, we are all fcuked.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 71 total)

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