CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
sticky@Gembo - yes I've regularly come close to being clipped there. I have the misfortune of living in Hutchison so normally I need to sit in the middle lane and try to turn right across the two lanes of traffic.
Someone came very close to running me over a few months ago. His excuse? He was writing a text message and didn't see me.
Even if you didn't get the reg of the bin lorries, it's worth reporting anyway - they might be able to work out who it is from where and when the incident was. I've reported several council vehicles (transit van driving around with side door wide open!) and always had a good response, even from managers who don't know I'm a council worker myself.
Yesterday on Craigmiller park road around 4.40pm,heading towards Cameron Toll
Police van(small Fiesta size)
went down the bus lane(nose to tail traffic in the main lane.
overtook a cyclist at the lights and turned left right accross them.
had the cyclist been doing a decent rate of knots,it would have been a collision
completly stupid and unforced move by the van
Last night and again tonight on Dalry Road at about 1745, unreasonably close pass on an otherwise empty street by Renault VelSatis HY52FKT.
Slowed down when I protested to talk, apparently I was "in the middle of the road". He's right I was, in order to go round cars parked in the lane, of course.
Not many VelSatis barges about so if you see one, say "hi" from me.
Not a fan of the Gorgie Dalry corridor as many parked cars and mad drivers also later some peds who cannot distinguish between road and pavement . Will watch for the vel satis
Theres a Vel Satis parks near the school on Springwell Place.
probably a good chance its them as they are pretty rare
@alibali, according to the dvla website his ved ran out on 01/07/12, mind you, he may have renewed it and the computer not yet been updated.
If he did renew, you can console yourself that keeping the barge sharing the road for another year just stung him for £270!
@Smudge, Ah, probably explains why I wasn't acused of not paying Road Tax!
@gembo, Yes, agreed. Am experimenting with alternatives to the Canal for the reasons explored in another thread.
@custard, Most likely. I think there are only a few hundred in the whole UK. Probably mostly in the hideous metalic beige this one is though.
You can always report, online and anonymously, vehicles you have seen without a vald tax disc... >:)
Car pulled out as I was turning into Inveresk Road. I turned left to avoid it and luckily wasn't being closely followed. To judge by the revving the driver panicked when he/she saw me and pressed the brake, clutch and accelerator. Several witnesses. Pavement cyclist called it "a close yin". Couldn't see the driver through the heavily tinted windows. Neither of us stopped.
Came from a 23 bus on QBC. I'd been spoilt by 2 weeks of cycling with the family round South Holland, and was just cycling back from Waverley with them...Fuming now though!
Sent to Lothian Buses:
Dear Lothian Buses,
re: service 23, 3.45pm Sat 14th July, SN11 ECV , George IV Bridge/Bristo Place, heading South.
I was cycling with my 9 year old son, and we pulled up behind a Lothian Buses Tour bus which was on the ASL at the red light (maybe legitimately, I’m not sure), however there was no safe way round to the ASL for us. The number 23 then pulled up behind us, and I noticed that it had approached closer than normal, which caused me to turn and glance at it. The traffic light changed to green and my son pulls off, with me following, both at a reasonable pace. The driver chose to accelerate, move into the left lane, undertake us, and then cut in front of us, to catch the green light filter, as it turned in Teviot Place.
This happened at the start of Edinburgh's 'Quality Bike Corridor', where the traffic lights are on a slight uphill beside the National Museum of Scotland , prior to the narrow middle bike lane which takes cyclists round to Teviot Place and the Middle Meadow Cycle lanes. It's a challenging junction for cyclists , that Lothian Buses should be aware of.
Normally I'm really impressed, as a regular commuter, by Lothian Buses drivers, and in particular by the education it gives it's drivers , however I'm moved to complain about this one!
Firstly it was clear that there was a child in front of them. The driver's action was dangerous and unnecessary for the few seconds of time it saved.
Secondly it's a part of Edinburgh that has many cyclists and must be a common junction for the number 23 drivers, to navigate with caution, due to the higher volume of cyclists there. The driver needs to be made aware of the implications of repeating that move in the future.
Look forward to your attention on this,
That is a horrible bit of road for drivers undertaking before swerving in front and jamming the brakes on to get round the corner. I hope your son wasn't too put off by it.
Thankfully he didn't notice!.. It was me doing all the fuming...
This guy clearly didn't have the faintest idea I was there... good quality video:
http://contour.com/stories/give-way-to-a-bicycle-no-chance
Somewhat crapper youtube video:
This was on Monday, incidentally, not today, hence why the ground is dry and there's some blue stuff in the sky.
Last 3 letters of number plate are LUL which is slang in dutch..... it means Penis or cock!! Quite apt eh?
had two close calls yesterday:
One a car turned at an intersection w/out indicating as I was coming up the left hand side. we were all moving pretty slow. no huge deal. just unnecessary.
Then, in the afternoon as I was heading down colinton road at speed in pouring rain, a big people carrier suddenly appeared in front of me turning into south gillsland. glad i'd gotten the brakes serviced the day before. seriously terrifying. there was a van on my side of the road turning right into Gillsland, who had obviously waved the turning vehicle across. Worst was that there was also a car turning out of South Gillsland, which must have been able to see me and the people carrier, but failed to do anything except look shocked. If she'd leaned on her horn, I might have slowed down sooner, and/or the idiot drivers might have clued in.
I was too quick to say how forgiving the traffic in London was (http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7059#post-78613)
I was conclusively left-hooked by a Majestic Wine Warehouse van on Gray's Inn Road in London today. There was a queue of traffic with a taxi and then this van following. The taxi indicated and turned left, the van was well in the middle of the road and had slowed down to let the taxi turn. He wasn't indicating and his road position suggested very strongly he would go straight on. He didn't and pulled left in front of me. I had to turn left too to avoid being hit. No contact between bike and van and I remained upright.
He didn't look in his left mirror before turning, and I reminded him forcefully of his obligation to do this.
If it had happened in Edinburgh he'd be on YouTube by now, but the trouble with Boris Bikes is that they don't have a camera mount as standard...
Was brought to me by the elderly idiot in a maroon mundano who HAD to overtake me (badly) while I was doing 30mph down the hill from Craiglockhart. Not only stupid and dangerous but criminal, and as you probably failed to work out as you joined the back of the queue, and then was overtaken by me, utterly, utterly pointless.
Muppet.
I had two close encounters with vehicles making (or rather not making) U-turns on Gilmore Place today.
One on the way in. Distinctive van, driver of which very tattooed and harassed me out his window further on.
And again on the way home, this time a middle aged woman in black people carrier type thing.
Do people really think that it is okay to drive their car in one direction while looking in the opposite ?
I had another incident at the roundabout at the end of Main Street, Davidsons Mains, and Quality Street. It's becoming a bit of a nemesis for me, that roundabout.
I'm coming down Main Street towards said roundabout and I go straight on into the street that's a cul-de-sac. Two cars in the right hand lane turning right, no-one in the left hand lane. I get to the roundabout and it's safe for me to go straight over. After I join the roundabout, a lady in a blue car either doesn't see me (unlikely) or assumes I'm going left despite the fact I'm clearly going straight on, and just pulls out into the roundabout to go straight on. Quite how I didn't go into the side of her car is anyone's guess.
And yep, I've got it on camera, including her blank/startled expression (I can't tell which) when I'm about to go into the side of her car. And her number plate.
http://contour.com/stories/talk-about-a-close-shave
Now, I know Cav is one hell of a sprinter and Wigg is a top GC man, but have either of them got the reactions to avoid that collision? I'm not sure how I managed it, to be perfectly honest. I think my only saving grace (so far) is my ability to predict idiots are about to do something stupid. I'm sure my luck won't last.
@mkns - Slightly OT: how do you mount your Contour camera on the bike? It looks like it's on the front fork, but what's holding it on? I've just got a Contour Roam (love it) and ludicrously expensive handlebar mount, but am looking for a more subtle way of mounting the camera.
@Greenroofer - I've had it on my helmet and on my handlebars, but I've now got it quite high up on my front fork as you quite rightly guessed, and it's so far the most ideal place to put it. It's attached with one of these somewhat expensive bits of rubber:
I say it's somewhat expensive, but it does work, and it doesn't slip. You get what you pay for.
Mkns, of course the driver should have seen you and waited but you were going quite fast and heading for a rarely used exit from the roundabout.
Maybe it'll be less hazardous for you if you approach a bit more slowly so that you and the drivers have more time to react safely.
I think that driver would have been caught out the same way if you'd been in a car, having made the wrong assumption about your exit route.
I disagree that 16mph is "quite fast" in a 30mph zone If I was to go slower, drivers would go round me while turning left, as has happened in the past.
Is 16mph the speed you crossed the GW at the roundabout? That might be a bit hot, and faster than the cars turning right, who were also free to proceed.
Many folk here have commented on the slow thought processes of drivers...
I'm not sold on the idea that reaction time is a factor when the driver hasn't looked to see if there's a need to react.
Ach, I thought you could see the speed I was going on that video. Turns out I can see it on the Contour Storyteller software that I have at home, but when it's uploaded, you can only see the wee yellow line.
So, I'm coming down Main St at 20, I slow down to 16 when I am joining the roundabout and then I'm @ 14mph when I'm midway across the roundabout and have to hammer on the brakes and turn sharply left to avoid the car.
I wasn't hidden in any way from the blue car as I was approaching the roundabout. There was a clean line of sight from the blue car to me at all times. The blue car can clearly see me before I cross the zebra crossing as I'm approaching the roundabout. As I cross the white line to join the roundabout @ 16mph, I'm leaning right to make it as clear as I possibly can that I'm not going left. This is obvious from the video, considering it is mounted on my bike, not my helmet.
The cars turning right were stationary for no apparent reason. They were initially waiting for a small white van to cross, then they didn't move. Them not moving is not a valid reason to force me to be going less than 16mph. I'm also still quite surprised that you think 16mph is "a bit hot"; I mean, I know some cyclists go slowly, but 16mph is not too fast to go round a roundabout, surely? If it is, what's the speed limit?
While I appreciate that the issue would have been avoided had I been going slower, that would merely have been on that occasion; going slower on other occasions would merely mean that cars overtake me and turn left while I'm going straight on, knocking me off my bike. I've got a video of that happening if you want to see it.
The bottom line in this incident is that the driver of the blue car just completely failed to see me, or pay attention to me. A week previously to this, the exact same thing happened up to the point that the car has fully crossed the white line, but then stopped when she realised I was going straight on, and put her hand up immediately to apologise. No problem - she stopped with time for me to react, and I went round the front of her without having to change course. The blue car drove dangerously, IMHO, and I'd take it to the police if only for the fact that they won't do anything despite it being clear dangerous driving.
--- 8< ---
The moral (sp?) of this story is, don't trust cars and their drivers, always assume they are going to do something daft because if they *do* do something daft, you'll be the one who comes out worse. I always watch out for drivers doing something completely unexpected, and while this doesn't mean I will never be in an accident, it helps me to avoid some of them.
I suspect we all know this, mind you.
Yarp, from a practical self-defence point of view, you assume that you've angered the local Mob boss and every driver is the assassin who's been instructed to 'make it look like a SMIDSY' but on an emotional level you assume everyone is basically a good egg just trying to get where they're going.
@MKNS, I do not wish to be negative, but I do view every incident on the road as a learning experience, and would like to think my comments would be taken from that viewpoint.
I use that roundabout both as a driver and as a cyclist. Iam usually very cautious when entering or exiting into East Barnton Gardens, because it the quietest of the four roads on that roundabout, traffic to/from it is often unexpected.
I would suggest that your approach speed mentioned earlier 16mph is a tad fast, we as cyclists would criticse drivers doing similar, also you positioning IMHO should have been further to the right. Finally on your video you enter the roundabout at pretty much the same time as the blue car.
If I was doing this roundabout, got to eyeball the driver and signal that you are going straight ahead, whole arm point I find usually works.
@559 - it seems multiple people feel 16mph is too fast; I will just have to accept the fact that I need to be going at light jogging pace than cycling pace, especially on this roundabout. I'd better let all the guys who regularly defeat me on Strava know that they need to slow down. :)
What I can't accept is the car joining at the same time as me - it as clear as day that I am on the roundabout vastly before the blue car joins, and I'm halfway over it while the car's rear wheels have still yet to cross the white line. I've replayed the video countless times now to confirm this.
As for eyeballing the driver - I was. Didn't make a blind bit of difference, and if I had been pointing straight ahead, I wouldn't have been able to take avoiding action and would no doubt be recovering in hospital, having gone head first into the side of the car.
I've never heard about how to indicate that you're going straight on. I'm not taking the piss here - is that in the highway code? I've never seen a cyclist do this, ever. I also think it would just confuse the crap out of the driver (if they had seen me, which they hadn't).
I do appreciate that you're looking at this with a helping attitude. I just figured this thread is about terrible driving, and I thought this was one prime example. I seem to be getting more of a bashing than the driver, though, and it seems that I'm more at fault than the driver, which surprises me. You live and learn.
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