D0NK – Member
this is particularly tricky if HGV stopped at lights and there’s a nice and “safe” mandatory cycle lane and ASL at the junction.

Maybe a nice solid deeply embedded concrete post at the edge of the cycle lane would help discourage corner cutting.

TandemJeremy – Member
Epicyclo – assumed liability as in most of Europe

Excellent point. I’m going to write my MP and ask for that here.

not so much the corner cutting epi (tho that has happened to me – not a hgv tho) it’s the nice safe cycle lane that suggests “yes undertake this HGV and sit in this ASL, the lorry driver can’t actually see you at any point in this manoeuvre or when you are right in front of him but heck just go for it anyway”.

Cycle lanes designed with safety in mind.

many newer lorries and in london (most are newernow due to LEZ + major contract requirements like Crossrail) also not have an audible warning when indicating left – quite useful.

the ASLs in their current design though are part of the issue as they encourage people to go up the inside of stationary traffic inc wagons – this is ok if you can get to the front and then be seen but if busy with other cyclist or the lights change then this can put you in the worst position.

If all cyclists bothered to ride two abreast, this kind of thing would never happen.

Rkk. Those stickers are on trucks/buses for a very good reason.
If you squeeze through these gaps your drastically shortening you life expectancy..

I agree, and it’s something I try to avoid as much as possible.

However, the local bus company(ies) in Cardiff seem to use it as a catch all “we’re done here with our responsibility”…, which I find very irksome.

Not advocating passing on the left regardless of the circumstances – that would be stupid – but quite right, these stickers are used as some kind of up front defence. Wonder how that attitude would stand up against R151 of the HC if challenged in court following an incident though:

151
In slow-moving traffic. You should… be aware of cyclists and motorcyclists who may be passing on either side

Not that being right would be much comfort or use when you’re 6 feet under in your oak suit…

Making a few cyclists watch this may help highlight how bad visibility is in a truck;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzL0Kyk4m-8&feature=related

Also educating truck driver on how to drive a bit more patiently would help. Oh, maybe more enforcement of the rules of the road for both car and truck drivers may be a bit of a deterrent.

Any vehicles – if you cannot see the eyes of the driver he has not seen you. If you can see their eyes they might have seen you

“it’s lot harder to run someone over once they’ve looked you in the eyes.

Can’t remember who said it, but true.
It’s not just the drivers who need to be taught patience. It’ the examiners too. The ONLY thing I was marked down for on my hgv test, was taking too long to pass a cyclist…..
“he only needs a couple of feet”

There is a pretty notorious junction in London where deaths have occurred.

Travelling west on Upper Thames Street at the junction with Queen Street Place (going onto Southwark Bridge) there is a cycle lane and an ASL. HGVs turning left here have resulted in very nasty incidents. The cycle lane and the ASL encourage people to ‘overtake on the left’ as it’s a cycle lane.

Anyway, I reckon that in all but a few cases, cycle lanes should be mandatory ones with a solid white line, not a broken line. This means that NO cars, taxis, buses, vans, HGVs, scooters, Motorbikes, etc can use them. Better still a phsical seperation so the can’t encroach on the lane at all

If all cyclists bothered to ride two abreast, this kind of thing would never happen.

😀

Perhaps sopmebody could explain why drivers of certain vehicles, overtake cyclists and ten turn left, where as they dont with old grannies driving Peugots at 10 mph.

Because some people can’t bloody drive.

It sounds like the Crossrail contractors need to have an audible warning system fitted, that sounds when a cyclist is on the inside of the lorry. Which is good…its a second system that backs up the driver if he misses something.

Not a troll, just a genuine question: do these “warning systems” and sensors get activated every time the truck overtakes a static object like a lamp-post or comes to a stop at a set of lights and there’s a pedestrian walking near it on the pavement? Cos that would render the system nearly worthless…

Mirrors etc are all well and good, you can have 10 mirrors but if the driver is looking in mirror 10 while a cyclist passes through mirror one, it’s still no good. This is the problem with having all this extra safety gear, it’s going to make the cyclist think “oh it’s OK to ride up the inside of a turning lorry”

And as that video above:

Making a few cyclists watch this may help highlight how bad visibility is in a truck;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzL0Kyk4m-8&feature=related

shows then it clearly isn’t OK!

They’d be better off fitting cameras on the top of city centre traffic lights, looking down at junctions and ASLs. Be useful to absolve any “good” truck drivers too (and they could probably collect unbelievable amounts of revenue fining ASL-encroaching vehicles if they wanted to)

and bigbrotherwatch could wet themselves again, of course 😆

It sounds like the Crossrail contractors need to have an audible warning system fitted, that sounds when a cyclist is on the inside of the lorry. Which is good…its a second system that backs up the driver if he misses something.

Although I’d be concerned that drivers will come to rely on it. In a car with reversing sensors, it’s very easy to start relying on them and to fall out of the habit of looking properly. I fear the same may happen here.

…..and now Crossrail are getting truck drivers onto two wheels to do cycle awareness training. That can only be a good thing but it really needs to be applied to drivers of all trucks and buses and in my experience to quite a few car drivers too.

Truck drivers do cycle awareness training

Not a troll, just a genuine question: do these “warning systems” and sensors get activated every time the truck overtakes a static object like a lamp-post or comes to a stop at a set of lights and there’s a pedestrian walking near it on the pavement? Cos that would render the system nearly worthless…

#

The audible warning outside of the truck normally is activated when the driver puts the lefthand indicator on..

hackney do this:

http://www.hackney.gov.uk/HGV-CPC.htm

in action:

http://tinyurl.com/btw4wh3

Fantastic. I really want to see some of the fat bar stewards at work do this. 😀