PSA: War on britain's roads on BBC1

Open the rear passenger door – can’t drive off with it open.

I was surprised people were saying that it was the cyclists fault when he hit the woman on the cycle path. Would they say the say if someone tried to cross the road without looking?

Think it was the cyclists fault on the cycle path. If you’re bringing up the rear then you should be in control and be able to cope with any eventuality. However it does highlight the complete uselessness of shared use cycle paths. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put bikes and pedestrians together must have been taking some interesting drugs.

I was surprised people were saying that it was the cyclists fault when he hit the woman on the cycle path.

has anyone confirmed it was a cycles only path? if it’s shared use path cyclist should accept most of the blame.

Would they say the say if someone tried to cross the road without looking?

the lady hadn’t stepped off a kerb tho, if there was someone walking down the road I wouldn’t buzz them, I’d slow down take it easy (and maybe suggest she got off the road)

Pedestrians in the vicinity of cycle lanes I view in the same way as sheep on the trails. Only about ten times as stupid!

Hence coming up behind them at that speed will always have the potential for what happened there

I was a bit ambivalent about the cycle path one, partly due to lack of knowledge of the location, e.g. how much / what signage was there? Makes a difference in my view whether it’s effectively a footpath that bikes are permitted on, or a cycleway that pedestrians also use. There’s a few bits of pavement I use (permitted) that I will treat accordingly, and go at walking pace if there’s pedestrians, then there’s dedicated cycleways where I’d expect pedestrians to be expecting bikes, at bike speed, to be going, and I’ll go at bike speed.

HOWEVER, if going at bike speed and approaching pedestrians from behind, I would go for an audible signal of approach (bell, call of “bike behind”, “excuse me”, Hope hubs or whatever), well in advance of reaching their asses.

Got caught by one on a shared use, separated by paint path (wideish pavement, one half of it painted green with bike pictograms at regular intervals) – pedestrian with earphones in decided to go sideways for no apparent reason rather like the one last night, right as I was on her shoulder (from the ped side to the bike side). Wasn’t going quick, but still no chance of avoiding her. “What happened?” she screamed “Err, you walked into the bike path as I was coming past.” “What do you mean?” “Err…”

HOWEVER, if going at bike speed and approaching pedestrians from behind, I would go for an audible signal of approach (bell, call of “bike behind”, “excuse me”, Hope hubs or whatever), well in advance of reaching their asses.

I use shared-use paths a lot and use a bell and I find it very hit-and-miss:

Some peds love it when you ring a bell (I had a guy the other day earnestly say “Thank you very much. Well done young man. Good morning”)

Some peds hate it when you ring the bell and glare at you – presumably because they equate it to sounding a horn and shouting “Get out of the way!” instead of the polite “Hello,I’m here” it is intended as. (I deliberately chose a nice polite ting-ting bell)

Some peds never ever hear the bell. (headphones, hoods, old folk, mobiles, general complete lack of awareness).

Some peds crap themselves and behave irrationally – like leaping from where they were perfectly safely walking to a position that is directly in your path.

As a result I judge each ped as I come to them and only ring the bell if I think they’ll get a fright from me passing, or they have dogs/children/ferrets to keep safe.

Some peds crap themselves and behave irrationally – like leaping from where they were perfectly safely walking to a position that is directly in your path.

It’s interesting to see the differences in the UK and Europe – in Germany, if a pedestrian hears a bell, they keep walking but perhaps move over a little bit. In the UK, they look around and wander all over the path in the process.

It’s what people are used to, I guess.

But that woman was walking along the path and then turned to exit the foot/bike path, she didn’t just turn for no reason. the guy on the bike was going to fast to weave between pedestrians and didn’t make any attempt to make himself known.

Ah, I didn’t see that she was making for an exit from the path – looked to me like she just went sideways for no discernable reason (which I’ve experienced, see earlier post), hence my ambivalence.

Cyclegaz/Gareth is actually Will off the Inbetweeners. Fact!

That is all I have to contribute to this thread.

Fuel truck faaaarrrrkkkk

I had this happen to me twice 🙁

One a tanker and the other artic tipper thing with scrap wanting to go over the Severn Bridge. Nearly killed me and GF…after seeing that again. Flashback. Absolute header that lorry driver.

As a result I judge each ped as I come to them and only ring the bell if I think they’ll get a fright from me passing, or they have dogs/children/ferrets to keep safe.

I usually just shout “good morning/evening” if I think there’s a chance they don’t know I’m there or with horses etc.
That usually gets a pleasant reply.

That one on the programme was way too fast, for the situation in front of him.

But that woman was walking along the path and then turned to exit the foot/bike path, she didn’t just turn for no reason. the guy on the bike was going to fast to weave between pedestrians and didn’t make any attempt to make himself known.

counter, do you switch across all lanes on a motorway without looking first?

Some peds crap themselves and behave irrationally – like leaping from where they were perfectly safely walking to a position that is directly in your path.

I’ve had this a few times. Last time a women walking her rather large dog stepped out in front of me from behind a hedge row. I started to swerve around her and shouted so that’d she’d stop, but instead she jumped forward further into my path! Missed her by less than a foot and her dogs face by less than an inch.

I dont have a bell on my race bike so just tend to shout, mostly people are fine with it, but there’s always a few who get arsey who do something silly.

why don’t the police have blue flashing LEDS on ther police push bikes?

why don’t the police have blue flashing LEDS on ther police push bikes?

I think they should have a big blue light on top of their helmets, with an integrated siren 😀

^ 😆

but seriously they should have something better than a whistle…

few people now will associate a whistle with the police… more liek ravers and refs..

from
http://www.policebikestore.com/ lots of cool stuff! why don’t the UK guys have this?

I was surprised people were saying that it was the cyclists fault when he hit the woman on the cycle path. Would they say the say if someone tried to cross the road without looking?

I will generally defend the cyclists point of view (partly because no-one else does!) but in this case he was being a Richard.

Regardless of ROW (which more than likely belonged to the pedestrian) that collision was innevitable and stupid. You can’t pass that close at that speed, on a path that offers no distinction from one side to the other, and expect not to crash into anyone. It’s gonna happen sooner or later. That seems pretty obvious.

It’s quite annoying when we demand respect from drivers but are unwilling to pass it on to those vulnerable to us.

counter, do you switch across all lanes on a motorway without looking first?

Just being pedantic, but i wouldn’t be turning right of a motorway!!

I know what you’re saying but there was more peds than just her walking along that path. It looked quite well used by both bikes and peds so i would expect bikers to be more wary!

why don’t the police have blue flashing LEDS on ther police push bikes?

Lumicycle make a nice unit with dual Halogen headlights, dual flashing blue LEDs, a siren and tailight:

http://www.lumicycle.com/product/71/police-emergency-and-paramedics.htm

Never seen them being used on the street though.

We need more bike cops like him.

That collar of his must of felt good… proper Police work 🙂

must of felt good

I’d be more concerned about the grammar police if I were you

Lol

You naah wot I meen !

I have to say doing that speed on a shared path is asking for trouble (I avoid them completely).

Putting cops on bikes is only going to cause more accidents, no?

EDIT:Hopefully those subtitles aren’t offensive to anyone. 😳

Pook – Member
Appropriate use of bed music BBC.

woman who’s daughter was killed by a cement truck….

Song choice: DJ Shadow, Organ Donor

Just watched this on iPlayer (interesting programme), they may have changed the track but that was “stem” not “organ donor”

I don’t think Gaz goes out “looking for trouble”, but seems unnecessarily antagonistic when he experiences poor road use.

I thought the program was quite balanced, there are idiot cyclists and idiot motorists.
Thank heavens I don’t commute by bike in that London, it doesn’t look much fun…

butcher+1

If you think you can out-run the bill, think again.

Hmm maybe I could.

Totally OT but have you seen the related link from that video crushers 2008, mmmm rooty, they’re pretty gung ho and hit everything at top speed resulting in some quality crashes, enthusiasm/skill discrepancy, good to see 🙂

Just being pedantic, but i wouldn’t be turning right of a motorway!!

Plenty of those on dual carriageways in Scotland, they look lethal.

I watched and thought that it was more balanced than I was expecting but pretty lightweight. Added nothing to the debate. Reminded me why I don’t ride on the road any more. When I commuted if I was pushed around or endangered, my own reaction was often over the top. The red mist was down and when I calmed down and reflected on what had happened I was always mortified.
Culminated in someone behaving very badly with little provocation – a window slap because they were too close next to me as I was following a bus. They then drove in to me and on to the pavement (old blue Volvo, 1 1/2 tonnes of Swedish Steel ready to run me over apparently – I remember that bit). I jumped on to the bonnet and dragged the driver out of the car to batter him. I heard his wife (?) screaming and calmed down and rode off.
The police arrived and caught up with me because a pedestrian that had witnessed the incident and nearly been hit by the car on the pavement had called them expecting me to need the assistance. The police asked me if I wanted to press charges. I didn’t because I wanted to forget the whole thing and was very ashamed of my behaviour after the event.
I never commuted afterwards and have never ridden on the road since, except to the shops to get milk etc.
At that stage I was late 30’s Chartered Surveyor, partner in a firm with three children. Something happens to some people in those dangerous confrontational situations. That’s why there are all these ridiculous videos and I did not want to be a part of it. Nothing like it has happened in the years since. The worst I do is swear at Piers Morgan. I am a vegetarian for goodness sake.

I feel your post sums up a lot Ed. Very heartfelt.

Just got round to this on iPlayer. Seemed fair and balanced, everyone can be a cock, just different degrees and choice of transport.

Some terrible displays of shocking driving and horrendous judgement, but at least the programme didn’t just focus on shit drivers but shit cyclists as well.

I would say though the pillock at the beginning with the glasses is not an ambassador for cycling, if a driver was speeding behaving like he did he’d have his license taken off him, he seemed to be taking a lot of pleasure in telling everyone how he can get up to 30 miles an hour, and I really don’t think the taxi driver did that much wrong, if anything the cyclist raced him to get himself into a dangerous position………and bike droid or whatever the **** is called just thinks he’s batman

I really don’t think the taxi driver did that much wrong

What about earlier in the clip where he passed another cyclist with around 12 inches to spare?

Dunno, I just got the impression that guy went out looking for confrontation

Was more thinking about the rest of the video and how the taxi driver was driving but didn’t see it as a problem. He even said something along the lines of ‘ well I was a bit close bit I didn’t hit them’. It seemed like he thought that sort of gap was ok and I got the impression he probably passes that close quite regularly.

As regards the guy who was filming he did seem to be looking for bad driving but, then again, if people didn’t pull out on him and cut him up then he would have nothing to video.

Ed, whilst that was obviously a very scary incident which would make anyone think twice about riding on the roads again, I think you’re punishing yourself a little too much. From what you describe I really don’t think you’re to blame for what happened. Sure, with hindsight, slapping the car was probably not a good idea, but that really doesn’t excuse the completely reckless and dangerous behaviour of the driver after that. As for what happened after, don’t beat yourself up about it. Being in mortal danger doesn’t make people act rationally, and you had the self control to stop when it mattered, so really you should be applauding yourself for not doing what a lot of others would. Probably sensible not pressing charges though, you’d have probably ended up getting done for assault once the facts came out.

Pity you don’t feel able to get out on the roads again. In every incident like this you learn a new lesson which makes you a better rider, once you’ve gotten over the fear and reduced confidence.