In the last few days I've seen quite a lot of 'action' (because I'm not wearing the webcam?)
First, there was finally a crash at the dodgy junction between Elbe St and Links Place - just outside our office.
Interestingly the Google Streetview shows a decent amount of double yellow lines and no cars, but these seem to have been removed since, so vehicles are parked right around the kerb (it's sometimes hard to find a gap to walk across). With such poor visibility, it was inevitable that somebody would get t-boned trying to peer out, and a car was impaled by a white van.
Then, I was coming down North Bridge behind a very bright yellow motorbike with full-beam headlights on, who came inches away from piling through the side window of a car which decided to do a sudden u-turn coming the other way! Very dramatic, with smoke, fishtailing, legs sticking out, the whole hog (it didn't help that after he scraped past, the driver tried to finish the manouvre as though me, and the traffic stream following, still didn't exist).
On the same journey, there was a terrifically near miss between a car heading from Leith Walk to Constitution St and a baddie who was trying to turn right from Constitution onto Great Junction St (illegal turn, through the pedestrian green man etc.). The stupid people coming down Leith Walk in their right turn lane flashed him across, right into the path of another speeding car who fortunately had lightning reflexes.
This morning, I was nearly smeared by one of Lothian's less outstanding drivers who changed lanes without bothering to see if anyone was in it - bike or car!
Then finally, I had a gesture-off with a car on the rat run from Manderston to Jane St who clearly saw me, hesitated, half turned across me, then stopped as I zoomed past.
What was interesting about all of these events, from the point of view of a cyclist interested in getting about town safely, was the singular lack of "recieved wisdom".
- A driver doesn't see an entire van (quite a large van) which then piledrives them.
- A driver doesn't see a bright yellow motorbike with full beam headlights (I found it a bit dazzling through my mirror), going at only 20-25mph.
- A driver makes an illegal turn right through a 30mph traffic stream, not seeing an entire car (again, quite a large and obvious car) about to impale them
- a bus driver makes an assumption that he can move from the traffic lane to the bus lane, doesn't bother even to check if anything's there
- a driver sees oncoming traffic but decides to turn across it anyway, because they'll probably brake / move aside.
It makes a bit of a mockery of advice about "be safe, be seen". I don't think there's any way we can ever be as obvious as a long wheelbase transit van or motorbike with headlights on...
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