CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Today's rubbish driving...

(11330 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Stepdoh
  • Latest reply from fergus
  • This topic is sticky

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  1. Stickman
    Member

    Nothing major, just the usual low-level rubbish we're all accustomed to:

    - the woman on Dewar Place who was looking at her phone and didn't see that the filter light had gone green. I said calmly but loudly "put your phone down" at which point she threw it aside and drove off, but didn't look at me

    - same junction, the driver of the stereotypical black BMW 4x4 who can't do hill starts and rolled about 6 feet backwards towards me (I'd left plenty of room having had this happen before)

    - then on Gardner's Crescent the private hire that overtook on the blind bend in order to reach the queue at the red light about 3 seconds before me

    Usually don't post these as they are so routine, but they all happened within a minute.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  2. Frenchy
    Member

    PHC pulled into the kerb in front of me without indicating.

    I stopped and let him know his rear left indicator light wasn't working.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. Neil
    Member

    @Stickman low level perhaps, but the frequency of low level rubbish increases depressingly at this time of year.

    Why someone feels the need to beep because I've chosen to cycle in the main lane rather than the visibly icy cycle lane...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. CJC
    Member

    I stopped and let him know his rear left indicator light wasn't working.

    That's a good one, I hadn't heard before. I'm going to use that...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. Arellcat
    Moderator

    can't do hill starts and rolled about 6 feet backwards towards me

    When I learned to drive, I was taught "tar and tyres" as a rule of thumb for judging how near to stop behind another vehicle. If you can't see the road and the tyres of the vehicle in front you're too close. It came in handy particularly when a skip lorry rolled backwards several feet when the driver did a hill start on Craiglockhart Avenue.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. jonty
    Member

    Roadcraft also points out that the rule neatly leaves about the right amount of space to serve as a refuge for filtering cyclists :)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. algo
    Member

    yesterday at around ten past 4, I was passed on East Preston Street going West insanely closely by a white vw polo S18RMK - the driver was following me from before the left turn from Dalkeith Road so she must have seen the trailer at least - with lights and reflectives etc... When I filtered past her on West Preston Street, she was still busy texting as it looked like she was when she passed us...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @algo

    I did my best not to appear in that post. Strange experience - it's the first time I've ever overtaken a cyclist I know at the controls of an automobile.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  9. algo
    Member

    @IWRATS - yours was an exemplary pass of course - exactly how it should be done. It's a shame I left the serenity of the hill to hit the maelstrom of eejits in town.... I pretty much always go straight on on Dalkeith road to get to the Rankeillor Street link with the trailer - it was stupid of me not to do it this time...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  10. wingpig
    Member

    This phone-using person pulled up alongside the bus I was on on Sunday evening, so I can't definitely say that they had the phone up whilst driving, but the other bright light on their dashboard was what appeared to be some sort of television.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  11. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @algo

    You also appeared to be catching up that poor roadie. I guess you have to hand in your Oaklies if you're dropped by a guy in denim towing a trailer.....

    Posted 7 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    "I can't definitely say that they had the phone up whilst driving"

    Do you mean 'while moving'?

    Doesn't matter, stationary counts as driving.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  13. algo
    Member

    @IWRATS - ha ha, you are very kind. Unfortunately that's not entirely correct, but I'm going to pretend it is.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  14. Min
    Member

    I met up with a couple of friends over the weekend who have moved to Somerset. While they were here they went cycling. They said that drivers here are markedly more aggressive than they are down there.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  15. Roibeard
    Member

    So, encouraged by meeting with the Procurator Fiscal, learning that they were interested in close passes or near misses after all, I reported a dangerous overtake to Police Scotland.

    https://twitter.com/RobertGormley/status/803590211489955841

    Given that tar patch is 1.5m across the pass to me was much less.

    However, unlike in the West Midlands, this isn't dangerous, careless or even criminal. Guess the driver is lucky he isn't guilty of the geographically restricted driving without due care and attention.

    Robert

    Posted 7 years ago #

  16. ARobComp
    Member

    Multiple bad drivers while driving around a lot recently due to upcoming house move (buying all our furniture off the Gumtree). Yesterdays boy racer in a Vauxhall convertible thing trying to occupy as much of my rear mirror as possible and trying to place himself in the most awkward space as possible for the road layout. Some horrible close passes seen as well. I have been giving practical lessons in the correct way to wait and pass a cyclist correctly. Unfortunately this tends to result in "must get past" syndrome with the people behind me resulting in close passes for the poor person on a bike :(

    Posted 7 years ago #

  17. fimm
    Member

    Amusing one yesterday evening. Coming up to the Robertson Avenue/Slateford Road junction which has temporary traffic lights. I know this and am taking the right hand lane. Idiot driving the car behind me decides he MGIF and tries to pass me on my left; only to discover that there's a parked car. Driver has to slot back in behind me.

    That was followed by a much less amusing moment as a driver that had somehow got himself trapped in the wrong place when our lights went green tried to barge into the moving traffic; giving me a horrible moment when I thought I was going to end up on his car's bonnet...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  18. CJC
    Member

    resulting in close passes for the poor person on a bike :(

    This is so common! If I notice a driver waiting behind me impatiently whilst I am driving behind a cyclist I always watch how much space they give a cyclist when they pass. It usually ends up in a punishment pass for the bike, because I have given them a sufficient amount of room. :-(

    I thought I was going to end up on his car's bonnet...

    Eek!

    Very angry driver this morning at Haymarket. He was in the right hand lane and wanted to be in the left hand lane, so just blasted his horn and started to push his way across. I signalled for him to wait (there was another bike + a car and taxi in the left lane) which resulted in him swerving towards me repeatedly and shouting abuse at me until we got to Coates Crescent, where he decided to brake check me before wheel spinning away. It's been a long time since I've seen a driver so incredibly angry! Myself and the other cyclist were actually laughing at how extreme he was.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    @CJC I know it's a lot of effort to report such things, but it's in an area that must have a lot of CCTV.

    Such drivers (statistically) are likely to have, or may in future, committed other offences (not just motoring ones).

    Certainly unlikely to be a 'one-off'.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  20. CJC
    Member

    @chdot I found it so funny that I never even looked at his registration plate (and no camera running either). It reminded me of the infamous Ronnie Pickering. I realise others may not have found it quite so entertaining though...

    I have stopped using my camera due to mostly cycling away from the road and never actually recording anything, but I think I'll start using it again - even if it's just to make a viral video of an angry driver!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  21. CJC
    Member

    Thinking back to the "incident", the driver kept saying "I hope you've got this on camera". I couldn't work out what he was referring to. I realised that my helmet light (which was off at the time) looks a lot like a camera. Obviously didn't work as a deterrent!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/321423/anger-as-hundreds-of-tayside-and-fife-drivers-caught-driving-distracted-on-multiple-occasions

    Posted 7 years ago #

  23. algo
    Member

    Visited by the police this morning after I reported the close pass and phone usage by the driver from the other day. They understandably can't do much, but were in general pretty sympathetic and at least the registration of the car is logged with their intelligence systems....

    Posted 7 years ago #

  24. jdanielp
    Member

    I would have been reporting some rubbish taxi driving this morning had my phone managed to save the draft of the text in which I made a note of the registration. As I was heading up Gilmore Place beyond Viewforth, a black cab passed me within about a foot or two and then cut in on my path before the pass was complete, despite the fact that the opposing lane was completely empty. The driver then proceeded to sound the cab's horn unnecessarily at a cyclist who had stopped on the lane divider to wait for the cab to pass before turning right up Merchiston Avenue.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  25. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.itv.com/news/central/story/2016-12-02/6-year-sentence-for-lorry-driver-who-was-on-social-media-seconds-before-fatal-crash/

    Posted 7 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/04/dangerous-drivers-who-kill-face-life-sentences

    Posted 7 years ago #

  27. Frenchy
    Member

    @fimm

    Did anything come of you reporting that Nissan driver?
    I ask because I had a close pass from the driver of a non-MOTed car today.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  28. fimm
    Member

    @Frenchy I was asked to get in contact in order to give a statement but I am afraid I never got round to it.

    On this thread to report being reversed into! I was being somewhat cheeky, pushing the Brompton out between two cars. I was aware that people had got in to the car in front of me, which I was not looking at because I was looking for a gap in the traffic coming from behind; the first thing I knew was the driver of the car behind me (also occupied, obviously) sounding their horn. Then I was hit at very low speed as the front car reversed back. I banged hard on the car and it stopped. At that point I got a gap in traffic and got out and cycled off.

    (Could you be in a blind spot if you are stood directly behind a car?)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  29. Frenchy
    Member

    Thanks, will see how it goes anyway.

    No, there shouldn't be a blind spot behind a car (assuming they have a rear view mirror and a rear window). A driver in the process of parking on the pavement on Drum St (double yellow lines too) just about reversed into my wife last night as we walked past. He then cut off a taxi as he pulled out to look for a legal parking place.

    Really no excuse for not looking behind you as you reverse.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  30. piosad
    Member

    Seems to be a thing today. Going down Granville Terrace (not bombing down given the conditions), suffered a completely unnecessarily close pass by a blue van (MB? Electrical), only to discover it was in such a hurry to, er, get into one of the driveways on the left-hand side. So terrible was the rush that van began reversing into the driveway before a pedestrian had cleared it, forcing them to do a startled gazelle impression.

    Posted 7 years ago #

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