Bastard driver nearly killed me tonight
- Thread starter Herbsman.
- Start date
longdog
What is it you can't face?
Speaking of shit drivers... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/6113132.stm.
Apparently she needed help to fill up the car. If she's that bloody doddery and stupid enough to hit the velocerator* instead of the deceleratrix* she shouldn't be on the fucking road.
* (c) Monty Burns
Apparently she needed help to fill up the car. If she's that bloody doddery and stupid enough to hit the velocerator* instead of the deceleratrix* she shouldn't be on the fucking road.
* (c) Monty Burns
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Crispy said:Everybody sees the glowbike coming
And crashes going 'FUCK ME!! IT'S A GHOST!!!!'
dolly's gal
killing things
i got my new bike yesterday. now i am scared, very scared 
tommers
Currently in investor / advisor mode.
Herbie - I feel your pain mate. I was actually considering starting a thread on this very subject a couple of days ago. I have to go right around a roundabout every day on my way back from work.
It's got to the point now that I expect the cars coming down the hill and cutting across my path to the right hand exit not to stop.
I've had it both of the past two nights. People just drive out in front of me. I've had to brake hard both times not to hit them and then they just sit there ignoring my shouting, screaming and impotent fist waving.
I mean, I don't get it. It's a roundabout. There are thousands of them, it's not like it's an unusual driving experience, but I have lost count of the number of times cars have just completely failed to stop.
I'm confused by it mate.
Well, and fucking angry obviously.
Grrr!!!
It's got to the point now that I expect the cars coming down the hill and cutting across my path to the right hand exit not to stop.
I've had it both of the past two nights. People just drive out in front of me. I've had to brake hard both times not to hit them and then they just sit there ignoring my shouting, screaming and impotent fist waving.
I mean, I don't get it. It's a roundabout. There are thousands of them, it's not like it's an unusual driving experience, but I have lost count of the number of times cars have just completely failed to stop.
I'm confused by it mate.
Well, and fucking angry obviously.
Grrr!!!
Herbsman.
Nah Lotion, Pet, Nor Powder.
That's why it's recommended that cyclists have two lights either side of the bars, as far apart as possible. Unfortunately most handlebars (other than certain mountain bike bars) aren't very wide.kyser_soze said:
I think having a light pointing back at oneself is VERY useful. Last night I tried pointing my electron light back at myself while the cateye was on constant. Normally when riding past cars, I look at my reflection in their windows and can see nothing but a dark version of myself. My lights are not visible from a perpendicular angle. With the light pointing back at myself, I looked very bright and visible from the side and obviously even brighter from the front. Any road user who doesn't have headlights (i.e. any cyclist or pedestrian, or a neglectful driver) would see me from a fair distance.
Well, at least the top half of me anyway.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
I will try, but it's hard to take photos of it
EDIT: Thread's still around http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=3941086&postcount=36
that's a crap photo, but you get the idea
EDIT: Thread's still around http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=3941086&postcount=36
that's a crap photo, but you get the idea
One place that pisses me off is going down to chelsea from victoria. Just before you get to the actual train station there is a road which turns left, where the bus station is.
The thing that pisses me off and seems to happen every single time is that your cycling on, on the inside lane (as you do), and some fucking bus just completely cuts you up when your trying to cycle straight down the road. Its so annoying and I manage to be a victim every single time.
The thing that pisses me off and seems to happen every single time is that your cycling on, on the inside lane (as you do), and some fucking bus just completely cuts you up when your trying to cycle straight down the road. Its so annoying and I manage to be a victim every single time.
You're too small, and not enough of a threat to Mr (or Mrs, I'm not sexist) Braindead for you to register. Bottom line is if they are willing to pull out in front of a modern motorbike with its lights on, a pushbike with a few LEDs that weights a 10th of that wouldn't cause em to bat an eyelid. Hell, you probably wouldn't even scratch their bumper, at least I'll leave a denttommers said:
It's almost as though their brain squelches out your image as insignificant, least until they feel the bump as they drive over you Consider how many cars you see pulling out in front of a big fuckoff artic or a doubledecker, in other words something that would put their life at risk. Not very many !! I've only once seen a car pull out and get hit by a bus when the bus had right of way in over 16 years riding in London, I've seen the equivilent with both bikes and pushbikes more times than I care to remember, often with an ambulance in attendance
I think it's psychological too. They don't "see" motorbikes either. Even though they look straight at you. It's a mental thing - if it ain't a car, it don't exist and can be ignored.tommers said:
tommers
Currently in investor / advisor mode.
detective-boy said:I think it's psychological too. They don't "see" motorbikes either. Even though they look straight at you. It's a mental thing - if it ain't a car, it don't exist and can be ignored.
I think yourself and radar are both right. Maybe your mind processes information whilst driving in terms of "threat" and "non threat"? I suppose you have to process a lot of information very quickly.
Worth bearing in mind when you are almost always "non threat".
I still think it more "it can't hurt me" rather than "it's not a car"detective-boy said:I think it's psychological too. They don't "see" motorbikes either. Even though they look straight at you. It's a mental thing - if it ain't a car, it don't exist and can be ignored.
Look at how many times you see a driver refuse to pass an artic on the off side on a motorway because they feel threatened and wont close in beside it, especially on a gradual turn with the car on the inside of the turn radius (ie a right hander). The M6=>M1 junction heading south is a prime example
As bikers, we need another crash mantra. Rather than muttering "Thumbs up, relax, look for something soft" we should be thinking "When do I pop the wheelie to take the driver's head off at the neck ??"
Unfortunately push bikes don't have the mass for this tactic to work
e2a: tommers just said the same thing a lot more succinctly
GarfieldLeChat
fucking awesome but wrong
carry a quick release d lock and use it as a throwing star...
IME it's not worth even a calm but firm repremand. Most drivers are so wound up in heavy traffic that they aren't really capable of a calm discussion. It just degenerates into shouting very quickly. Just let it flow over you and get on with the next delivery or whatever.Herbsman. said:
One could memorise the license number in any future incidents. It may be useful for other bicylists/road users. Also it may be possible, through these boards and others to locate the offenders. Sometimes if the offenders can be confronted by the people whose life they've put at risk they realise they are real people. This method has been used successfully with repeat offenders.
Herbsman.
Nah Lotion, Pet, Nor Powder.
I tried to remember the number plate, but forgot it due to all the thoughts whizzing around my head
I'm gonna start filming people who text while driving (e.g. in slow moving traffic), making sure I get the plate in, and publishing the videos on my blog. Also sending the vids to the cops!
I'm gonna start filming people who text while driving (e.g. in slow moving traffic), making sure I get the plate in, and publishing the videos on my blog. Also sending the vids to the cops!
tommers
Currently in investor / advisor mode.
Herbsman. said:I tried to remember the number plate, but forgot it due to all the thoughts whizzing around my head
I'm gonna start filming people who text while driving (e.g. in slow moving traffic), making sure I get the plate in, and publishing the videos on my blog. Also sending the vids to the cops!
will you be cycling whilst you do this?
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
I was on a bus today and a driver tried to cut up/overtake on the inside to go straight ahead when both lanes of traffic could only turn left (Town hall end of Coldharbour Lane in Brixton) just as the bus was turning left.....the car driver let out a barrage of abuse and long horn blasts.....those on the left side of the bus just looked at him pityingly....some people are just very very stupid indeed and are likely to remove themselves from the gene pool before too long.
This is actually a failed opportunity for the police service to deal more justly with minor traffic offences. They have an "all-or-nothing" policy to each incidenht - they either prosecute you or they don't - there is no halfway house based on previous / future behaviour.CA9I said:
I guess this arose years ago, before the advent of the Police National Computer, when there was no practicable way of centrally recording warnings. Some officers would keep a note themselves (I did it myself when I was in uniform) but it was of limited value as only a small proportion of vehicles are local to the extent that you were likely to encounter repeated behaviour. As every driver assures you they've never done whatever it is before and there is some very good excuse today, each officer rapidly realises that you have to make a judgment on what you have seen and any previous endorsements.
But it could easily and cheaply be done now with the PNC used in connection with every stop anyway (and, when connected to ANPR equipped cameras, even checked automatically) and with details of every transaction (time/date/officer/reason) recorded anyway for audit trail purposes. All that would be needed would be the addition of a coded note of the offence ewarned for and next time the vehicle was stopped and the driver said "But officer, I never speed" you could instantly discover if there were any prior warnings recorded.
It wouldn't be ideal or foolproof (not least because it would be attached to vehicle not driver) but it would be better than nothing and, at least, it would demonstrate that the police were actually trying their best to give warnings where appropriate and penalising continued failure to heed them or one-off serious cases justified on their facts.
You'll be wasting your time - they won't do anything about a single case (though they may about repeated behaviour). They will probably say it's because the offence has to be witnessed by police - it doesn't in law, in fact, but the CPS will not proceed with a case where it is simply one road users word against another and, on a practical level, the police do not have the resources to pursue identification of the driver in such cases (they can't even manage it in minor "proper" crime casesHerbsman. said:
).
GarfieldLeChat
fucking awesome but wrong
corpse in a car... My feeling is always allow them to become the only victims of the accident they are clearly heading toward...Mrs Magpie said:
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Last night I was parking in a residents bay on my street. The empty bay was on my right so I had to indicate right and cross oncoming traffic. Obviously this created a slight queue behind me.
As the last oncoming car passed I noticed a cyclist approaching too so stayed where I was. Trouble is the arsehole behind me hadn't seen the bike and moved to overtake me despite my indicating right.
Had he tried it he would probably have hit the oncoming cyclist so I moved the front of the car across a bit, just a few inches, to prevent him from passing.
Of course I got a shitload of abuse from the driver and the cyclist who interpreted it as an aggressive move.
As the last oncoming car passed I noticed a cyclist approaching too so stayed where I was. Trouble is the arsehole behind me hadn't seen the bike and moved to overtake me despite my indicating right.
Had he tried it he would probably have hit the oncoming cyclist so I moved the front of the car across a bit, just a few inches, to prevent him from passing.
Of course I got a shitload of abuse from the driver and the cyclist who interpreted it as an aggressive move.
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