As a road user you have to be prepared for the what ifs. Like a group of school kids on the pavement. You have to expect one of them to trip, or scuffle with a mate, or spot the bus and dart across the road. Same road sense you should have as a driver.
General problem, as well, is the expectation on the cyclist by most other road users that they cycle in the gutter - "you're taking up half the road" sort of stuff. We all know the sort of thing - it takes courage to take up an assertive position.
Now, suppose you are cycling in or near the gutter - chances of having good time to react are lowered, also you have nowhere to go if there's a vehicle on your RHS..
Not saying that's the situation, but the defensive / assertive cycling position does present more scope in situations where a per steps off the pavement into your path..
I treat pedestrians in my home town the same way I treat sheep on the trails. Assume they will do something really stupid, usually at the last moment.
If that means slowing to a complete standstill while they make up their bloody minds which way they want to go, so be it.
Don't know anything about the incident in the OP, although it doesn't make much sense the way it's described, especially the several shouts of 'stop'. So healing vibes to him, and if he has a witness, he can sue the pedestrian regardless or not of whether there is insurance. Whether it's worth doing is another matter.
^ too many assumptions. You don't know what actions the cyclist did or didn't take, nor the timings involved i.e. how much time he had to react, and therefore you cannot say he didn't take the correct action in whatever time he had available to him.
Glad someone is talking sense. Can't believe its still going on after the Op's follow up post. "Oh, I know what happened, I'm typing stuff on the internet so I must be right."
Hazard perception my arris
People saying this have clearly never cycle commuted in London or Manchester etc
I passed literally thousands of pedestrians on my old 2 mile commute from London Bridge station to the office and hundreds of bikes. Traditional hazard perception where you look ahead and isolate a potential hazard goes out the window and you just have to be hyper aware that immediate braking or turning may be required at any time
Collisions between peds and cyclists happened every day on Cannon St - mostly at low speed and g99% the fault of the ped - it was always the same - because the line of cars was at a standstill stretching in front of them they didn't think to look behind before crossing and just broke out of the crowd onto the road.
Pedestrian crossing the road who has not spotted oncoming cyclist. Cyclist sees pedestrian and shouts stop several times. Pedestrian hesitates and then steps in front of cyclist.
That is what was written in the op. Now to me that makes it sound like the cyclist had plenty of time to brake, which is where most people were coming from i think.
Then the op replied with:
Just to clarify - cyclist shouted stop but was it was already too late.
Which is different to the op.
Regardless of whether you are cycling, motorbiking or driving, if you are travelling through an area where there lots of hazards you should adjust your speed accordingly. When i rode through the centre of Leeds regularly i knew there would be lots of idiots walking in front of me so i didn't ride to fast. Like wise i sometimes drive up chapel town road and harehills lane in Leeds, I always make sure i drive slowly as people just seem to walk across the road with a care in those areas.
What I often see as potential danger is one type of road user going much faster than the majority of other road users (which is usually cars)
Other road users tune into the speed - or lack of it - of the majority and often act accordingly.
Filter too fast on a bicycle or motorbike and you'll find yourself in trouble one day, people are just not expecting something in the traffic to be travelling so much faster than everything else.
Extend the radar WAY down the road in front. Always cover the brakes. Beware peds not looking at you. Beware of passing RHS stopped vehicles without slowing and looking across their front. Don't hack through heavy traffic along narrow gaps. And so on...
Hope the guy gets better but, if all else fails - shit will happen.
Let's stay safe out there. 8)
Do we know the cyclist did not start to brake too?
I was knocked down by a cyclist hitting me square from behind on a pedestrian street. Whilst I was on the floor he tried to cycle off but was lynched by a guy who told him to have the decency to wait till I got up. I was embarrassed and felt really silly even though it was not my fault. I got up and moved on. I had skinned knees, hands and elbows, over the next day I found I had whiplash. The police could do nothing as they don't even know if he was allowed to cycle there...
I hope all involved are ok and recover well. We all witness bad judgement from pedestrians, cyclists and motorists every day, we just need to try and look out for each other more, it's a sad state at the moment in my opinion.
I hit a pedestrian on a shared use (no cars) road a couple of years ago. She was in front of me, I called to say I was passing on her left and she stepped to her left. She did a bit of a tango
I'm a Driving Instructor and the amount of Students I teach who don't know Left from Right is astonishing.
At the moment, I'd say half of my Students I have to point the direction for as well as saying it.
Hazard perception is a skill many people seem to lack. Cycling in busy areas, riding fast in the gutter is an accident waiting to happen as people are, demonstrably, assclowns. Got to take primary, and / or slow down.
I had one in the car today, driving through work's industrial estate. Parked cars both sides of the road, woman in front suddenly dropped anchor in the middle of the road, alongside a butty van. No signalling, nothing. I moved to go round her, thought "yeah, I know what's coming next" and gave her a wide berth. Sure enough, just as I'm coming up alongside her she flings the drivers door wide open and gets out. If I'd not anticipated that behaviour and given her plenty of room, I'd have taken her door off and probably broken both her legs. Whose fault?
She got out and looked at me, I was expecting some sort of "oops, sorry" expression but she looked straight through me and sodded off to get bacon.
People.
yep, 3 cars pulled out in front of me today, none of the 3 actually saw me at all and didn't register anything at all. The biggest problem with all of this the people who are pedestrians/cyclists/drivers all have one thing in common are they are people, human beings with all the same failings and distractions.
... and most of them seem to congregate in Tooting High Street, or as I prefer to call it - "****tard Central".
Hey ho.
Quite.3 cars pulled out in front of me today, none of the 3 actually saw me at all and didn't register anything at all.
I had a SMIDSY on the motorbike once. One-way street with cars parked on both sides, dappy mare pulled out right in front of me without looking or indicating, from being parked on the right. Blocked off the entire road; I couldn't stop in time and given my only other options were to slam into her side or into a parked car on the left, I dropped the bike. Scuffed my leathers to buggery and gave me a limp for a couple of days, should've just ridden into her and claimed on her insurance. Cow.
Good job I was only going fairly slowly to start with. I should've anticipated it, of course, but hadn't made the connection that there was anyone in the car cos the driver was on the far side from my point of view. Live and learn (if you're lucky).
They don't even pay road tax!
3 cars pulled out in front of me today
There are that many cars on Tassie?
I was in the middle of the right hand of three lanes, traffic lights every 50 yards or so I had 3 sets to go through before turning right. Traffic moving slow. Suddenly away of something looming over me from the left, bloody great SUV thing slowly coming over from middle lane into the space I'm occupying.
Couple of shouts did nothing, car still coming over I've got maybe two feet between me and the railings on my right now so tapped on his window and a 'what are you doing shrug'.
"I thought you'd move" he said. And then put his foot down. And then put his other foot down to avoid crashing into the car in front of him stopped at the lights.
Followed him for the next few sets of lights before I turned off. I think I would have preferred it if he hadn't seen me rather than expecting me to make way for him.
Fire up the TJ
not that that helps the poor sod with his head injuries.
there's helmet debate to be had.
You lot are slacking.
There are that many cars on Tassie?
I know it was busy.
[i]Hazard perception my arris
People saying this have clearly never cycle commuted in London or Manchester etc
[/i]
Disagree, 10 years of motorcycle commuting in London taught me to never trust anyone, ever.
A hazard was spotted in advance(several shouts, op's words not mine) and not correctly accounted for. Cyclists fault.
As others have picked up this really is total bollocks. I can shout "stop" three times in about half a second. It's not unreasonable I'd do that as an instinctive reaction if someone stepped in front of me. I suspect it would take about the same time to get onto my brake levers, let alone lose any speed.
I'd assume the cyclist was shouting and braking at the same time. It's what I would try to do. Doesn't mean I'd stop in time though.
Simple rule as a cyclist, the ability to look where you're going is clearly not a common one...
