Closest I’ve ever come to seeing another cyclist squashed today. The cyclist was a bit of a muppet, and the truck driver didn’t help. We were heading through the Meadows, truck stopped at a red light slightly in the bike lane. I was thinking ‘I wouldn’t ride up there’ as we approached, but lo and behold the fixed wheel rider in front does ride up there just as the lights turn green. The truck actually moves right to come out of the bike lane, but this, it turns out (and as I thought was happening) is to get the swing to turn left into Marchmont Road (without indicating). He reaches the junction to turn just as the cyclist is drawing level with the front of the cab.
Fortunately the truck was going reasonably slowly and so the brakes were effective as the rider appears in front. It’s only after the cyclist has carried on (with only the merest of swerves) that the indicator on the truck flashes once. All on video so need to check that tonight.
One of those combination of factors. The bike lane does encourage that kind of manoeuvre, but frankly he looked like a very experienced cyclist (not a hipster fixie, he absolutely blasted past me on the Innocent earlier, in full length lycra leggings displaying cyclist legs) that I'd have expected to anticipate traffic a little better; at the same time the truck moving right did look like he was coming out of the lane possibly having spotted the cyclist, before swinging left without indicating. But still (whether this is seen as victim blaming or not) my very very first thought on seeing the truck ahead and thinking I’d get there before the lights turned green was ‘I’ll wait behind the truck’. Both were in the wrong (in my opinion), only one was going to get squashed.
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