CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Edinburgh International Extreme Idiocy On Highways Festival Fun Season

(7 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by wingpig
  • Latest reply from Wilmington's Cow

  1. wingpig
    Member

    Or EI EI OH FFS. Snappier.
    Nothing much this morning, possibly due to it being one of these strange non-holiday holidays routinely ignored by my employer. On the way back, a nice man in a black Saab with the registration SE09 SOE or something similar felt the need to overtake me going along Bread Street, which he couldn't manage without going into the oncoming opposite-direction bus lane at the same time as a rare non-Anth other cyclist was trying to use it. I gave him a cheery wave when he turned off up West Bow, presumably in rightful anticipation of the Cowgate being too full of pedestrians spilling onto the pavement.

    Heading along Abbeyhill, a cyclist undertook me and squeezed to the left of the car in front of me as it was approaching a small roadwork which took a foot off the available space. He kept trying to creep forward, eventually ending up at the back left of a Majestic Tour bus, which eventually started indicating left. To be fair he did wait until it was stationary at the top at the junction before sneaking along its left-hand-side, jumping the red light and heading up Regent Road. I'm not sure if the raised right hand was acknowledging the bus for not squashing him or my shouted comment.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Waiting on Waterloo Place to make a left onto North Bridge. My lights red, pedestrian crossings green.

    The sort of girl you see on the "cyclingchic" blog on a rattly old BSO sails out of Princes Street (through a red) and just barges her way through the throng of dozy tourists crossing the road. Not content with that, she did it on the wrong side of the road.

    "Tut, tut" thought I. "I really must have a word". Caught her at the lights at top of North Bridge / junction with Royal Mile, when she does the same. Through the reds and then through the next set on other side of 4-way junction, just barging through the pedestrians. At least she stayed on the correct side of the road this time.

    Again almost caught her at Chamber Street / South Bridge when yet again she went through the red! Fortunately the hill slowed her and I got her in my sights again just at Nicholson Square, which she made a right into (very surprisingly, signalled her lane change and turn, although with no shoulder check she only got half points for that.

    I administered a polite verbal warning about not giving cyclists a good image and there being plenty of problems without creating our own, it being a bad habit etc. She said "sorry". I don't know why. Why was she apologising to me? Maybe she didn't know what else to say, having been thoroughly busted. Or maybe she was sorry I had to deviate from my intended route home (although she didn't know this.)

    Anyway I think she was not a local from her accent. Maybe she only knows "sorry" and "out of my way" in English.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  3. Dave
    Member

    At the north end of North Bridge crossing Princes St. yesterday, I almost smashed a woman who was quite oblivious to my presence (I was a bit too conscientious, and adjusted my steering to go behind her, but of course she saw me at the last minute and started flapping).

    Coming home at the same junction, a random driver who'd got beached coming out of Waterloo Place tried to go forwards when the queue cleared, although it was obviously the turn of traffic coming from Leith. I denied him initially, then made as if to balance my hand on his bonnet when he tried to share the lane.

    He got as far as halfway round the turn to the jammed North Bridge and I zoomed away, waving nonchalantly.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  4. wingpig
    Member

    A motorcycling person riding the motorcycle SN57 CHU or similar pulled up alongside me at the head of the queue waiting for the lights to allow us to head from the MooCowGate to Holyrood Road. After the slight flap caused by an ambulance steaming from St Mary to the Pleasance there was a car turning right out of St Mary which for some reason stopped half-way through their turn when the east-west lights went green, as if not wanting to cross the pedestrian crossing, even though there was no-one trying to cross as the red man was showing. The motorcycling person bellowed gruffly at the driver through her open window whilst I (after checking that the cyclist who'd pulled up go my left wasn't going go try and undertake) set off, went found the back of the car and proceeded eastwardly along Holyrood Road, leaving enough space for the motorcycling person to steam angrily past at forty before I'd reached St John's Road. The motorcycle was sitting in the pedal cycle box opposite the Scotsman when I rolled up so I left it to it, hanging back out of the way of the fumes. A tour bus of some sort had left Dynamic Earth and was in front of us along Holyrood Gait, evidently causing further frustration to SN57 CHU who swung out as if to try and overtake it, eventually thinking better thereof, similarly acting like he wanted to overtake it round the roundabout but eventually settling for steaming past it along the short stretch between roundabouts.

    On a happier but almost unheard-of note, I was let out from under the Abbeyhill viaduct this morning by an SUV.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  5. Instography
    Member

    Hard to judge who is the idiot: the track standing 50 year old builder on the old bike with Sturmey Archer gears or the private hire driver in the minibus. Private Hire and Sturmey are travelling along Shandwick Place - PH in front with Sturmey a little behind, conveniently in (what looked to me) his nearside blind spot. PH slows and drifts across the bus lane (no signal) to stop outside Boots but Sturmey barrels on either trying to outpace the taxi or failing to see his manoeuvre. Only when he's in danger of being pushed into the kerb does he back off and let the taxi driver in.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  6. wingpig
    Member

    Everything back to normal today my saddle-contacting area.

    At the end of the road, a van was in the middle of U-turning. They gestured for me to get past, but they were blocking most of the view of the road to the north. They then sat nicely behind me for three blocks, overtook when there was plenty of space and then stopped to let a pedestrian across a pelican crossing, so overall they were quite nice, though it was a hire van and therefore possibly not a real van.

    Just before the first roundabout, an eejit who'd overtaken the van then overtook me, having to cross to the other side of the road to do so despite the risk of hitting the pedestrian refuge to achieve this. About to emerge from the first exit after I'd entered the roundabout was a blue car which saw me, paused, then started up again, causing me to e-stop on the roundabout. They were headed the way I'd come so I'll probably meet them again sometime.

    At the bottom of the Canongate a girl on a bike was going round the pavement to Calton Road, despite the lack of traffic on the road.

    At the top of the Canongate I'd already moved out to turning-right-into-Jeffrey-Street-position behind the short queue in front of me when some form of X-beemer type thing swung out rashly past me before turning left, though fortunately his driver's window was open, allowing my shouts to enter.

    At the top of Market Street, a man on a bike was riding along the pavement. He dismounted to chain up to the pavement-barrier but could easily have walked the last couple of feet from the road.

    At the westbound lights at the galleries on Princes Street (positioned just to the left of the left-hand track) I was briefly joined by a heftyish Lycraman on an MTB who partially-shoaled me on the left. Behind him was a bloke with a patchy beard, more of whom later. I don't like people squeezing up the left there (when I'm not as far across as normal to avoid having to cross back over the tracks before the cobbled bit starts) as it leaves them right next to the railings with things itching to get past them if they're not very quick to accelerate, like him.

    At the Frederick St lights I ended up behind two taxis, one of which was in the ASZ. When MTB man arrived he tootled slowly past, swerved about a bit then went in front of the taxi but sufficiently to the left of it for it to steam straight past when we got the green light. He did much the same thing at the Lothian Road/Queensferry St lights, though I was distracted by the bloke with the patchy beard, who had initially pulled up behind the stop line to turn left/south down Lothian Road but then started rolling round and round in circles whilst he waited for the light to change; he might have known the sequence/timing very well but there was still a chance he'd have ended up facing into some impatient motor traffic half-way through a circle.

    Going home this evening should be fun if everyone's in the same mode with the added humpiness of a Monday's work under their belts.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  7. I'd concur, strange morning on the roads - more drivers passing too closely this morning than in the whole of the last 6 months. And pretty much all pointlessly.

    As well as 3-point-turning-Galaxy-man and the hi-vizzed cyclist referred to in another thread.

    Posted 13 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin