Firstly, the aggressive driver behind me as we crossed the King's Theatre junction who blared their horn at a cyclist who was trying to turn right from Gilmore Place - ok, so the cyclist was clearly in the wrong, but the driver could have just slowed rather than blared the horn quite so aggressively, and given that they then pulled up into Gillespie Street on the left it is not like it slowed down their journey very much.
Next, what appeared to be a police officer driving a mini-bus pulled out from Upper Gilmore Place and turned right in front of me as I was approaching at speed, forcing me to slow a little, although as it happened I was slowing to turn right onto Lower Gilmore Place anyway, but they should have waited.
Next, the long truck that was using the towpath just beyond the lifting bridge for the purposes of turning round, casuing an increasing number of cyclists and pedestrians to bunch up at either side as we waiting for it to manoeuvre. Ok, so there was at least a guy stood near the back of it acting as a spotter, but that didn't stock the truck abruptly lurching and knocking into the side of the metal post closest to the lifting bridge, possibly causing some damage. The truck finally moved away far enough to let people get through behind it, only for it to abruptly to start reversing back into the space. The 'spotter' said "Watch out, he's coming back again" to those of us who were trying to get through (surely he should have been the one to signal to the driver that it was safe to reverse rather than reacting to the driver), to which I retorted with something along the lines of that the driver really shouldn't be doing that manoeuvre at all.
Finally, turning left at the top of Hermiston House Road after exiting the canal and failing to spot the kingfisher, the truck that had thundered past as I was approaching the turn was slowing down and pulling onto the pavement just ahead of me (I choose to ride on the pavement as far as the traffic island to cross to the Heriot-Watt Campus rather than join the traffic on the A71), coming to a stop just before the traffic island. As I was passing the small gap that remained of the pavement and then cautiously crossed at the traffic island despite the fact that I could barely see around the truck, the driver was in the process of getting out and then also appeared to be trying to cross the busy road. Maybe he was looking to ask someone for directions, but why he didn't pull up in the bus-stop layby another 20 metres down the road instead of on the pavement and almost blocking the crossing I don't know. I regret not taking his registration number...
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