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.
stickyFurther carrying on the theme of "Lothian Bus drivers, what are they thinking???"...
Unknown bus number travelling east along Slateford road at Ardmillan Terrace blasted through his stop line, through the ASL and eventually came to a halt in-between the line of metal pedestrian road studs, all on a red light. The bus was still moving when the lights for Ardmillan Terrace went green.
@Edinburgh Cycle Training
"Anyways, I just stopped and we had an impasse / mexican stand off kind of thing."
I've thought about doing this at times. It really hacks me off when drivers decide to play chicken with cyclists.
(Something drivers seem to be doing more and more.)
Not sure this fits into "rubbish driving", more like "what was that now?":
Yesterday, I was returning from IKEA with a trailer full of furniture. Cycling along a narrow residential road with parked cars, a transit van further down the road pulled out of a parking space, although the driver obviously had seen me.
Thinking "He really could have waited two seconds and let me pass first...", I stopped where the gap between parked cars was just big enough for the van. When he approached me, the driver smiled and wound down his window and I thought "Oh, he realised the mistake and is going to apologise".
Instead, he said "Sorry to ask you a strange question, but my mate is closing shop, do you want to buy a memory foam mattress?"
Lol, a bit of light relief on this depressing thread I would say Stephan!
(Something drivers seem to be doing more and more.)
Every time I think driving standards can't get any lower, they get lower. I was driving a car yesterday (sorry..) and came to a bit where there were a few cones on the other side of the road. Signs had been put up to help all of the many drivers who don't get that if the obstruction is on THEIR side then THEY should give way. It didn't help and I was forced to stop as three (count em, three) drivers coming from the other direction bullied their way through.
@Min "Signs had been put up to help all of the many drivers who don't get" (insert any highwaycode rule here)
Signs proliferate like cancer cells. I just don't get either why so many signs are needed when there is a general rule already. Every traffic island now has a white/blue arrow sign "drive around this island on the left side". Oh, you didn't see the sign? So make it an illuminated plastic bollard.
A few weeks ago I was driving out in the countryside late at night. The road was dark, empty, and of course you drive slowly and carefully as there were flooded bits, road defects, blind summits, deer or badger crossing, that's just what you expect in the country at night.
But then, around a corner, I was suddenly blinded by several huge warning signs on both sides of the road and an arrangement of yellow flashing lights. For a moment I couldn't see anything at all and thought I've driven into a UFO crash landing site or something like that.
When my eyes had adjusted to the sudden brightness, I saw that the light display was in fact warning me of a slight bend in the road.
Oh yes, my most terrifying driving experience recently - doing 50 in a 50 for roadworks zone on the motorway. Fine in the one with average speed cameras. In the one with no cameras? Terrifying...
You know that thing when the driver of a motorised vehicle beckons you on, despite your having right of way over them because, you know, you're only on a bicycle and they could kill you if they felt like it?
Happened in Portobello, just off the prom yesterday. You don't think about it normally, but it's actually completely outrageous.
"I've thought about doing this at times. It really hacks me off when drivers decide to play chicken with cyclists."
I've been getting quite a few drivers who force me into the door zone recently. It's annoying to have your right of way taken so casually, putting you in a less than desirable position.
So far I've moved aside, hoping the presence of a car would prevent anyone opening a door but it is tempting to stop then scoot around them.
I'm afraid I've reverted to that, particularly where drivers choose to overtake parked cars on their side, expecting that somehow we'll disappear.
I used to stop opposite a gap they could use, however that was an invite to sweep past with barely a twitch of the steering wheel.
So now I stop, prior to a gap they can use if there is one, and bring them to a complete halt, before waving the children through.
I know drivers think this is "thrawn", but they've no skin in the game...
Robert
Today in the morning on South bridge, just past the crossing with the High Street, where the street narrows due to construction work, I was overtaken so tightly by a van displaying "Aden Specialist Trade", Reg. No. SN52 LHC, that if I wouldn't have braked hard which made me nearly come off my bike I would have either slammed right into the van or crashed into the construction works.
Further down the road the van stopped to unload building material, so I approached the driver and asked what happened. He said: "I didn't see you darling, you know, I had 2 people sitting right next to me in the driver's cabin, darling, so I really couldn't have seen you."
So he clearly needs a sight test. I wasn't undertaking him. I was in front of him. He overtook me dangerously and now is claiming he didn't see me. Yeah. Right.
I've called Aden Specialist Trading, they were very sorry, but they had sold this van some time ago. They promised though to get in touch with the person who bought their van to remove the Aden label from their van.
get in touch with the person who bought their van to remove the Aden label from their van
A likely story. They wouldn't have sold the van with the labels still attached, knowing that their liveried van could be implicated in theft; arson; joyriding; ram-raiding; terrorist attacks; and yes... bad and illegal driving.
Black people carrier thing horsing it up Warrender Pk Rd then abandoned on yellow lines to deliver (late) precious darlings, whilst endangering 100s of others' precious darlings on foot.
Blue Jeepy thing blatantly jumping the red light on Westfield Ave/Stevenson Rd (Sainsbury's car park exit had green).
Driving home from the football last night through Holyrood Park, I had just entered the 20 zone (doing 20) when I spotted a shape on the road ahead. I slowed for the fox, but the car behind tooted and overtook at well over 30, just missing Reynard.
Even without a fox, I get at least one overtake with horn and flashing lights per trip through the park.
From link on another thread!
"
it appears to be a classic case of the difficulty in managing a Common Pool Resource. In economics, a Common Pool Resource is one where you can’t easily stop people using it (it’s non-excludable) but where people using the resource deplete it until it cannot be used by anyone (it’s rivalrous)
"
http://drpetermatthews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/park-run-and-common-pool-resources.html
Was deliberately driven into by a van driver today, from behind, while negotiating a speed cushion on a single lane. Lucky to escape injury.
Three hours down the cop shop, fruitless discussion ensues around what constitutes a hate crime or assault, but inevitably it just goes down as a road 'accident' in the log.
No corroboration anyway so best case scenario they will pop round and 'have a word'.
Conceptually I throw in the towel now - will continue to cycle on the roads daily and assert my right to do so but this is what people are capable of, i can't pretend to expect fairness or decency, that's not the real world of UK road conduct / management.
In other words, even as a vulnerable victim of the actions of others in protective cages on the roads, i must nevertheless take full responsibility for putting myself in this position.
I suppose that's as zen as it gets.
@bax, name and shame?
@bax you make the case above trenchantly for presumed liability.
Three hours down the cop shop, fruitless discussion ensues around what constitutes a hate crime or assault, but inevitably it just goes down as a road 'accident' in the log.
This rather puts the kibosh on any ideas I've had about reporting a driver for harrassment. Three times now in the torpedo I've been overtaken, while slogging uphill in South Edinburgh, by the driver of a big Teutonic vehicle, and the driver lays on the horn as he goes past. I now have the registration, but not all the times and dates. I was going to give the Police a call, but I'm wondering if it's even going to be worth it.
Definitely the same one?
If so, I think it's worth a visit to police.
Christ Bax that's awful - and your response kinda sums up my approach. I only bother to report those absolutely dreadful incidents, because I know how little will be done otherwise.
Last night I was overtaken in the wet, just as the road narrowed, with a rough surface, and traffic coming the other way, with about 8 inches of space. I shouted. A minute later as I re-passed with them stuck in traffic I pointed and tapped the side of my head, but it's all depressingly normal.
And then you get a good commute, like I had this morning. I just try and remember those ones.
Would be useful to log all these incidents on collideoscope to have more systematic data to identify problematic locations and repeat offenders.
Avon and Somerset police are trialling an online reporting system, not for incidents where prosecution is likely, but for data gathering to focus ressources.
Police Scotland are in contact with Avon&Somerset to see what the experiences are and if such a system is valuable.
London has had a reporting system like that for aaaaaaages. Can't remember the name just now, but it would be a very useful tool, as you know it's being collated by people who can actually do something about hotspots (not that they will, but you never know), rather than an independent third party gathering that is more easily ignored by the powers that be.
@Wilmington's Cow Oh I didn't know about the London tool (well I don't know much about London at all). Yes, an official tool would better than the third-party Collideoscope. The data can also be requested by FOI and e.g. be used to lobby councils to do something about certain junctions. Systematic data is just much better / more convincing than individual anecdotes.
But until Police Scotland sets up something, why not also log it in Collideoscope? It's not more work than writing about it in this thread, and we then see hotspots coming up on the map and can point councillors and officers to it.
The driver of the truck that had been reversed into the front drive of a property on Gilmore Place this morning (presumably delivering a load, but maybe performing a completely inappropriate u-turn?), completely blocking the east-bound lane, which of course then led to many east-bound drivers maneuvering around the front of the truck despite their need to bump over the pavement on the far side of the road in order to progress towards the King's Theatre junction, oblivious to the fact that I was approaching with the right of way from the other direction. As I approached closely, a sheepish looking woman driving a faux-by-four cautiously completed her pass of the truck as I closed her down. Fortunately the driver of the car behind her spotted me and came to a stop (completely in the west-bound lane) to allow me to pass, so I did so. This was the moment that the truck driver decided that it was safe to move forward despite the truck having been static for the entirity of the time that I was approaching while cars were filtering past the front of it. I made it through the gap and gave the truck driver an incredulous wave of my arm, before squeezing through the gap between the car in my lane and the Tesco delivery van in the other lane, both of which were waiting to head east-bound. Clearly this was mostly the fault of the truck driver for creating the situation and not having a second person present to attempt to marshall other vehicles but, as usual, the average Edinburgh car commuter was more than happy to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit.
Large van/small lorry SN62 AVB decided that I wasn't going fast enough for his liking DOWN Dundas St (in primary, keeping up with traffic)), so overtook me aggressively and close. Of course I caught up with him at the lights at the bottom. I was rather sweary. I stopped around the corner to make a note of his number and a passerby took me to task for swearing, because 'there might be children around'. What a sick society we live in, where endangering a cyclist counts for nothing against possibly offending the ears of a (non-existent) child.
The driver of this lorry who nearly took me out this morning.
He pulled over and said he was sorry. He said he didn't see me because he was "looking in his left mirror".
Basically, "I'm in a big lorry and I don't care".
a passerby took me to task for swearing, because 'there might be children around'
Whereas in truth you would have been a fine real world prop for child development:
"Now, Johnny, *that's* the sort of life-threatening situation where it is acceptable and appropriate to use those words."
"I didn't see you because I was facing in your direction" is a new one entirely, CJC. Top marks to the driver for excuse creativity.
Nasty close overtake from a big DHL lorry this morning.
Several illegal overtakes while I was participating in a triathlon yesterday (in spite of the place being plastered with "Caution Cyclists" signs as usual).
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