Dr RS – utter rubbish. Defensive riding is to ride out from the kerb – motorcycling schools have been pulled up for that before

Walking pace is around 1.5 m /s Ride 30 cm from the kerb you have 0.2 seconds to react if a ped steps off before they are in your path. Ride 1.5 m where you should be then you have a second – and your field of view is wider so you can see then earlier.

That’s the difference between hitting them and not. Good technique and road positioning gives you more time

Er TJ, don’t shoot the messenger. That is what a proper riding school was teaching…..

1 second! So, in 1 second you can have analysed the situation and either swerved (probably then hitting something else) or braked?

If you can than I bow to your greatness. But somehow I doubt it…..

The only pedestrian I have hit was a man who stepped into my path giving me no time to brake.

He was blind. 😳

OMITN needs the sticker more than me 😀 I’ll go for a wheelchair user next!

TandemJeremy – Member
Al – do you ride out from the kerb? In the past you have said you do not. Its a basic element of defensive riding. Unless you adopt the primary position at hazards then you are not riding defensively

How far were you from the kerb when you hit the ped?

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, I just don’t blindly follow advice from you, IAM or whoever.

When I ride close to the kerb there is generally lots of space on the road for me to be overtaken safely and few pedestrians or traffic lights.

I’d guess I was 6-8 feet from the kerb when I hit the ped. Do I get your approval?

The one I was –><– that close to taking out was the local lollipop lady! You’d have thought at least they might look both ways properly. Nope! Just a cursory glance to see if there was any motorised traffic, and stepped in front of me with about 2 bike lengths max. to put in an emergency stop and swerve.

I’d guess I was 6-8 feet from the kerb when I hit the ped. Do I get your approval?

Sounds more like it. How on earth did you hit him tho as then you would have a second or two to react.

I’d guess I was 6-8 feet from the kerb when I hit the ped. Do I get your approval?

was he running???

He was comin from the other side. I only realised he wasn’t stopping too late. All the other peds were stood in the street slowing or waiting for me. He kept going.

*waits for TJ to say he would have avoided it or it could have been avoided*

dirtygirlonabike – Member
Did you or the ped get hurt despite there being no damage? There’s a ped crossing in balerno which always scares me as the lights change v quickly and peds walk out instantly without looking and I can be doing 25mph at that section and stopping in a split second isn’t going to happen!

There’s only one light controlled junction in Balerno and if you’re doing 25mph through there then you’ve worked out an interesting route to avoid the potholes.

cynic-al – Member
He was comin from the other side. I only realised he wasn’t stopping too late. All the other peds were stood in the street slowing or waiting for me. He kept going.

If you’d been riding nearer the kerb, you’d have had more time to react.

HTH

I only realised he wasn’t stopping too late

My point made If he was coming from the other side you have even more time to see him and react but you did not for whatever reason

AS I said above legally his fault but If I hit a pedestrian under those circumstance I would know and accept I had made a mistake.

One crucial thing is to learn from these incidents.

Al, Teej – are you two a married couple ?

Cynic-al
“managed a shout and to slow down befor I hit him, so no damage, but a full-on impact?”

Don’t think you were responsible for the accident at all, you can’t plan for everything and one thing you definately shouldn’t have to plan for is people wandering across a crossing when it’s at red. Buuuuut, without going all STW Armchair Crash Detective, how did you have time to shout and slow but not just ride round them?

On scooters… When I did my cbt proper defensive positioning was drilled into us from the word go, we weren’t allowed on the road til we’d been taught the basics of controlling your lane. Not surprised to hear that some schools would recommend bad road positioning for peds, but it’s disappointing. Some schools are awful and CBT-specialists seem worse since they’re catering largely for teenagers and couriers/delivery riders.

A mate of mine did his CBT, rode for 2 years and had a string of crashes, went back to do his refresh and crashed 5 minutes into the carpark training, breaking his hand. The school passed him. Possibly because they charge £90 for a first attempt, £20 for a resit.

TJ, I’m constantly amazed how, without being anywhere near the incident, you always seem to know more about accidents that happen to other people than the actual people involved.

It’s a good trick – how do you do it? 😉

how did you have time to shout and slow but not just ride round them?

I guess I either froze doing that or didn’t have enough time/headspace to change direction.

I accept it could have been avoided, it was one of those “he has seen me, everyone else has, hasn’t he?…oh no he hasn’t” moments.

cynic-al

I accept it could have been avoided,
😯 🙄

❓

I accept it could have been avoided,

which is why it’s just an accident not an assault, I guess.

When I did my motorbike test they taught the moped group to stick into the kerb as it was safer (cos they were so much slower than other traffic) to be out of the way. So being closer to the kerb was defensive riding.

Well they were teaching them wrong! The 2 mopeds I took my CBT with were both told “You are doing the speed limit, so get into the middle of the road or you’ll just be cut up all the time. It’s your bit of road, so use it”
Words to that effect anyway. I still cringe when I see a moped riding near the gutter….

Defensive riding is to ride out from the kerb

What if you’re taking a right hand bend then TJ? You should know the answer to that…. 🙂