Is it open season on TJ?

Or did someone take a contract out? Or am I just paranoid?

Not one but two taxis nearly got me last night.
1) I am on a roundabout heading straight on in the middle of the left hand lane of two. Taxi comes onto the roundabout from the entrance to my left without slowing or stopping. If I had not been looking down the road for someone doing this he would have got me. Didn’t see me even after I shouted and when my lights were lighting up the car.

2)two lane one way street. heading for a fork. I want the right hand fork so am in the middle of the right hand lane only 50 m from the fork. Taxi comes up on my left and turns right pushing me into the kerb. No indicators. Looked straight at me and forced his way in. Pushing me towards the right hand kerb.

Both times I was in the right position on the road I believe, I have a steady and a flashing light front and rear, reflective stuff all over the bike.

grrrr.

The second one might be on CCTV so the cops are checking it out. if they got him he is going down!

Be careful out there – the b’s are out to get you

Or did someone take a contract out? Or am I just paranoid?

Not one but two taxis nearly got me last night.
1) I am on a roundabout heading straight on in the middle of the left hand lane of two. Taxi comes onto the roundabout from the entrance to my left without slowing or stopping. If I had not been looking down the road for someone doing this he would have got me. Didn’t see me even after I shouted and when my lights were lighting up the car.

2)two lane one way street. heading for a fork. I want the right hand fork so am in the middle of the right hand lane only 50 m from the fork. Taxi comes up on my left and turns right pushing me into the kerb. No indicators. Looked straight at me and forced his way in. Pushing me towards the right hand kerb.

Both times I was in the right position on the road I believe, I have a steady and a flashing light front and rear, reflective stuff all over the bike.

grrrr.

The second one might be on CCTV so the cops are checking it out. if they got him he is going down!

Be careful out there – the b’s are out to get you

Fixeded it for you!

The second one might be on CCTV so the cops are checking it out. if they got him he is going down!

innocent until proven guilty in a court of law?

Or did someone take a contract out? Or am I just paranoid?

just because you are paranoid it doesn’t mean they are not out to get you 😉

if they got him he is going down!

don’t worry TJ, the price of failure is high in my organisation

<sits back in chair, stroking cat>

Big n daft – oh he is guilty – even if I have to stitch him up like a kipper

Sounds dangerous out there, take care, hope you were wearing a helmet!! 😉

Taxi comes up on my left and turns right pushing me into the kerb. No indicators. Looked straight at me and forced his way in. Pushing me towards the right hand kerb.

If he’d done that to me, he’d have had some unwelcome additions or subtractions to the side of his car.

EDIT
It’s like training a dog: There’s no point chastising them 5 hours after they’ve been chewing the sofa to bits, but discilipine them when you catch them in the act and it’ll sink home pretty quickly.

even if I have to stitch him up like a kipper

But that would be wrong, and you’re NEVER wrong

wrt point 1 – happens all the time to me in the burgh. most fun when one gets one’s face right up close to the driver’s window and shout loudly at which point they often poo themselves!

PP -= I was very tempted but I’m trying to grow up now I am approaching middle age – and it might be on CCTV

Flatfish =- end justifies the means

MrK mkII – he was doing 30 mph and didn’t slow down Otherwise I would have done

aaahhh a typical reactionary then

(a leftie whose been mugged/burgled/cut up by a taxi driver :wink:)

Be careful out there – the b’s are out to get you

Swear filter avoidance?
😉

PP -= I was very tempted but I’m trying to grow up now I am approaching middle age – and it might be on CCTV

I know where you’re coming from, but a car has a registration plate on it for easy identification on CCTV. A bicycle does not. 😈

(2) doesn’t sound like fun

I am gonna get me some of these

I want my money back.

Taxis, enough said. IME although they should be highly skilled due to all the hours they drive they must be some of the worst drivers on the road.

Just 2 thoughts on the second one….

……why were you riding in the ‘middle’ of the lane on the bike, I would have issues with your consideration to others on this,

…..also when turning right, if there is traffic or the road is not clear, is a cyclist not supposed to pull in to the left hand kerb until it is clear and safe for you to make your manouver

in no 1 I would question you being in the ‘middle’ of the lane, but guy entering from left and not stopping is clearly a @osser regardless

At junctions, or when overtaking
parked cars, get in the right position
early. For example, to turn right from
a major into a minor road, first look
behind and signal right. When it’s safe to
do so, cross the left carriageway to ride
just left of the centre-line of the road

yep there we go from bikability site……when its safe to do so……..taxi approaching from behind safe to do so?

Have you thought about http://www.rsct.org.uk/pages/level2.htm

Haha! Someone beat me to it! It’s YOUR fault for riding wrong! 😆

……why were you riding in the ‘middle’ of the lane on the bike, I would have issues with your consideration to others on this,

Why?
A bicycle is traffic and should follow that same rules as the rest of the traffic. He is perfectly entitiled to be in the centre of his lane if he so wishes and it is 100% the onus of any vehicle approaching from behind to pass safely and legally. Now, I don’t know the junction in question, but as a regualar commuter I KNOW that if you fanny around at the side of the road you’ll be harrassed by cars and get nowhere. If you’re making a turning on a busy road, act like you own your bit of the road: Mirror, siganal, manouver: Look behind, check the gap, indicate, pull out and get in the correct position. They HAVE to let you do this. They have no choice. Consideration had bugger all to do with it, it’s about making a safe, visible turning, which a cyclist has every right to do.
So a car has to slow down for 10 seconds. Big deal. It’ll get caught in the same queue 10 second later is all…..

yep there we go from bikability site……when its safe to do so……..taxi approaching from behind safe to do so?

Maybe there was a big enough gap. Maybe the taxi was in the other lane so TJ was getting out of it’s way. If you wait for every ‘approaching’ car you’ll get nowhere. If a car turns right, sometimes you have to wait behind them. What’s different for a bicycle?
I find that if you cycle by the book whan making turnings, be visible, indicate and make a confident manouver out from the nearside to the offside, that drivers WILL respect it and let you on your way. 🙂

is perfectly entitiled to be in the centre of his lane if he so wishes

Erm…Highway Code: “keep to the left” ❓

Al – Fine when going down the road, but it’s not possible to make a right turn from the left hand side of the road is it? Stop being picky, you know what I mean!

EDIT
Reading the OP again I can see exactly how TJ was riding: He was making a manouver that would leave him in the middle of the road at this fork no matter where he was positioned, so he chose the middle of his lane and rode in a confident manner to get through the junction as fast as he could whilst remeianing as visible as possible. If he’d have been an the left of his lane at the fork, he would have risked cars coming up both sides of him in an effort to get past. So he chose the middle of his lane to complete the manouver as he judged it the most correct and safest way to do so. After the fork he would ahve pulled back to the left of his lane.

Am I right TJ?

While I’m glad that you haven’t come to any lasting harm.

What else do you expect from taxi drivers, who treat our roads and streets as their own play ground.
😉

In my city, bus drivers are just as bad, and its deliberate.

It would appear that there may be a sub-species of driver who has an inbred hatred of cyclists. An emotion they can neither control or articulate.
Normally observed in drivers of taxis, buses and white vans.

Be Safe.
😉

PP what you are now saying is quite different to what I quoted! Of course you have to move to the right of the lane to turn right, that doesn’t justify riding in the middle of the lane until you do so.

In any event, that’s not what TJ was doing and there was no need, from what I have seen, for him to be in the middle of the lane (unless he was going to turn/move right after the junction in question).

TJ was this Bristo Place?

EDIT

If he’d have been an the left of his lane at the fork, he would have risked cars coming up both sides of him in an effort to get past.

Is this necessarily risky? I think not.

@ ChunkyMTB Anyone with any sense would have paid in full following satisfactory completion of the job…

PP what you are now saying is quite different to what I quoted!

You quoted a short, all encompassing phrase from the Highway Code which you hoped would trip me up, and failed. 😀 😉

That said maybe this bit of mine
“He is perfectly entitiled to be in the centre of his lane if he so wishes and it is 100% the onus of any vehicle approaching from behind to pass safely and legally. “

was a bit vague?
Maybe I should have said

He is perfectly entitiled to use all of his lane to make his turning and it is 100% the onus of any vehicle approaching from behind to pass safely and legally.

EDIT
Just seen your edit!

Is this necessarily risky? I think not.

I think it is. Traffic passing both sides? Or traffic passing only on one side? Catch my drift?

🙂

Ah so you “kind of” admit you’re wrong then? 🙄

Traffic passing both sides? Doesn’t need to be risky IMO/E, this can happen to me daily, it’s not always risky.

As much as I dislike TJ’s ideology he comes across a capable town cyclist. He appears to have acted correctly, the driver was an idiot.
What often helps is beinging 6’10” or carry an axe on the rucksack.
BTW Years ago I seem to remember hearing on the BBC London radio station that statistically you are more likely to be mistreated by other road users as a cyclist if you don’t wear a helmet. That would be a tough one for TJ to accept if true.

Hairychested – Member

BTW Years ago I seem to remember hearing on the BBC London radio station that statistically you are more likely to be mistreated by other road users as a cyclist if you don’t wear a helmet. That would be a tough one for TJ to accept if true.

A recent report concluded the opposite! So he’s OK…

Ah so you “kind of” admit you’re wrong then?

Eh? No. Not at all. I just phrased it differently. We both know what I meant first time, but some people need simple things spoon feeding to them so they can understand…… 😛

Traffic passing both sides? Doesn’t need to be risky IMO/E, this can happen to me daily, it’s not always risky.

So sometimes, at least, it IS RISKY then! 🙂
And if it’s sometimes risky, and TJ can stop it happening, that’s good, right?

Taaaa-Daaaaa! 😉

LOL at the back-pedalling, it should be an olympic sport!

LOL at the back-pedalling, it should be an olympic sport!

what tyres for that?

😆

All good fun Al!

The number on the licence plate of the taxi has no relevance to the expected IQ of the driver,

Got cut up by a taxi a few years ago, took out my camera and started taking pictures of him and the taxi, he got quite angry, i just explained that his pictures would be posted up www,neanderthals driving taxis.com, he even asked how i spelt neanderthals.

Al – bristo place going south towards bristo square

I cannot believe you would put yourself in a position between two lanes and allow cars to pass both sides – thats wrong and dangerous road positioning.

There are two lanes going south – the right hand one turns right the left hand one turns left. There is not room for 2 cars and a bike safely so whichever way you are going on a bike the safe place to be is in the centre of the lane I was about in line with the right hand side of the red car in this pic.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bristo+Place,+Edinburgh&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.426641,28.256836&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bristo+Pl,+Edinburgh+EH1,+United+Kingdom&ll=55.946148,-3.190026&spn=0.011487,0.027595&z=15&layer=c&cbll=55.946051,-3.189819&panoid=WvooiJX_RAN29KXvnvCvqQ&cbp=12,120.37,,0,5

After the junction I would drop to the left into the cycle lane but I would never allow a car to pass both sides. There was another car 20 m ahead of me If I had been in the red painted bit there would not have been room for the taxi to pass me safely on my right, he should not attempt to pass going thru a junction anyway

The IAM, the UK’s largest independent road safety charity, recommends cyclists:

* Take up a primary position around 75-100m before reaching a junction, in the centre of the lane, providing it is safe to do so. This move will mean that drivers exiting the junction will be more likely to see the cyclist as they are in the same traffic flow as more hazardous vehicles.

http://www.iam.org.uk/latest_news/cyclistsclaimyourlanesaysiam.html

There is not room for 2 cars and a bike safely

I disagree. I think I disagree with the IAM also.

EDIT I actually agree with this: “Remember it is not always sensible or appropriate to take the centre of the lane especially if traffic is heavy.”

so cynic al is right, IAM and highway code are wrong.