CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Today's rubbish driving...

(11253 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Stepdoh
  • Latest reply from neddie
  • This topic is sticky

  1. chdot
    Admin

  2. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Wayne Rooney banned after admitting drink-driving

    "

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41298649

    Posted 6 years ago #
  3. rider73
    Member

    Mini Clubman, grey, decided to get past me with a pedestrian island in the way - instead of holding back, squeezed me into the kerb.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  4. piosad
    Member

    Sometimes I don't understand people in cars. Harrison Road this morning unusually busy both ways, not sure why. As I come up the bridge towards Polwarth Church after being stuck between parked cars and oncoming traffic I finally get to the bit where the lane is wide enough to accommodate my filtering past stationary traffic towards the feeder cycle lane and the ASZ. Except the left-hand side is blocked by a huge white faux-by-four ferrying some kids to school. OK, since the car is so far to the left there is space to the right so I go round and try to squeeze back to the left, but the driver revs and cuts into the gap blocking my manoeuvre, forcing me to wait alongside them in the lane as I can't go on the outside due to traffic there. My brakes were in order otherwise they'd have clipped me. What I don't understand is how the annoyance at being overtaken by a bicycle can be so strong as to actually physically endanger me and my child. Of course the only reason I was attempting the whole thing is because I don't like being stuck in the midst of a queue with numpties like this in it. Would they like their children to be driven at? Sigh.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  5. MediumDave
    Member

    I think the drivist fraternity has realised the bridge works on Harrison Road have been completed and normal "service" has been resumed. The incidence of horrible driving along there has (as usual) dramatically increased with the return of Watsons pupils.

    A large poorly-driven white faux-by-four also sounds very Watsons. Mid Gillsland road in particular is a hotbed for that kind of nonsense after about 0800. At least knowing this encourages me to get out of the house by 0730...

    Walking past such a "blocker" on the pavement definitely winds them up. Particularly when one grins at them...heh heh.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  6. Frenchy
    Member

    On the Low Road in Holyrood Park last night, a taxi driver following a cyclist flashed their lights then passed them with a couple of feet spare. No oncoming traffic and the cyclist was well to the left, so driver wasn't even being held up and had all the time and space they could have wanted to overtake safely. I can't figure out what the light flashing was meant to accomplish.

    VRN was SK04 BZE.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    At the turn from Clerk Street into Hope Park Terrace I'm in the left-turn only lane when the twenty metre long HGV to my right in the stright ahead lane starts shouting at me Robocop style.

    'KEEP CLEAR. THIS VEHICLE IS TURNING LEFT. KEEP CLEAR...'

    Had me furiously trying to see if the driver could see me directly (I think not) and scanning the pavement for a bale-out.

    But it's fine, your twelve year old kids can cycle to school.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  8. fimm
    Member

    IWRATS isn't that precisely what those warning sounds are for? I haven't looked up the junction but 20-meter-long HGVs need lots of space to turn. To describe the driver doing what he needs to do as "rubbish driving" is harsh, IMHO. What do you think the driver did wrong?

    Whether there should be 20-meter HGVs sharing the roads with cyclists is obviously a whole different matter.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  9. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    IWRATS isn't that precisely what those warning sounds are for?

    Yes.

    What do you think the driver did wrong?

    The 'wrongness' as you put it lies with the society and system that allows them to be driving a vehicle that requires warning voices because of poor visibility and enormous size in the wrong lane of a main road at rush hour.

    Main battle tanks also require much room to manoeuvre and have dreadful visibility, especially with the hatches shut, but nobody thinks they should be driven in town. Why not? Because they can crush cars as easily as bicyclists.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  10. jonty
    Member

    Unless they need loads of space they should be straddling lanes like buses do. And they should probably be indicating left before a cyclist legitimately pulls alongside them.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. algo
    Member

    I have no doubt that whatever manoeuvre the vehicle performed was done for a reason, the problem in my opinion is that the driver can't just shout "WATCH OUT" or play the magic message and not have any mechanism for checking theirself what's happening. It's another version of putting all the burden on the cyclist to take care - much like the signs crossing the tram tracks tell cyclists to take care of themselves, but not drivers to watch out for cyclists.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    @iwrats If it didn't start until you were alongside, it's likely the driver wasn't indicating before then.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    it's likely the driver wasn't indicating before then.

    I think that was the situation. I got a fright when it started lecturing me as we had both just moved off. (Both of us in the ASZ, obviously. Me wholly, they partly.)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Traffic Commissioners not interested in bus drivers paying more attention to their passengers than the road;

    Dear IWRATS.

    Thank you for your email enquiry dated 18th September 2017, concerning Heart of Scotland Tours.

    Whilst we have noted your concerns, I'm afraid an enquiry of this nature falls more within the scope of the Department for Transport (DfT) than the DVSA.

    Due to this we recommend you seek further advice from the DfT on the contact details we have provided below:

    For telephone contact: 0300 330 3000.
    For email contact: ivs.enquiries@dft.gsi.gov.uk

    I hope this information has assisted you with your enquiry, but if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.

    Kind Regards

    I've punted it on, don't suppose the DfT care either.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. Frenchy
    Member

    I've punted it on, don't suppose the DfT care either.

    Might your MP be able to help?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Might your MP be able to help?

    That loon's nae ower fussed aboot me, bit ye nivir ken.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  17. ejstubbs
    Member

    I was heartened the other day to see a private car pulled over on Princes Street (eastbound, just east of the Frederick Street junction IIRC) with the driver out of the vehicle and having his behaviour critiqued at length by two motorcycle police officers. I no longer bother keeping count of the number of cars, vans, motorcycles and even sodding great trucks I've seen blithely trolling along between the South Charlotte Street and South St David Street junctions. It was refreshing to see some action being taken against an offender for once.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. jonty
    Member

    A few years ago I saw two buses tooting at and then quite successfully blocking in a car so that a police officer on foot could have a chat. I had seen a similar thing happening earlier in the week - I wonder if the bus drivers knew there was an operation on?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

    "Due to this we recommend you seek further advice from the DfT on the contact details we have provided below:"

    Either it's illegal or it's not??

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. morepathsplease
    Member

    This happened last week. On the A90 approaching Edinburgh I overtook a woman driving a small blue car with a dog sitting on her lap but sitting upright, not just curled on her lap, obscuring her view. I would guess that this is something that she does regularly and am amazed that she hasn't been seen by a passing police car (I assume they would pull her over) or reported by someone else although I didn't report her, perhaps so inured to people doing all sorts when driving and getting away with it. She pulled in to the Cramond Brig.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    "Due to this we recommend you seek further advice from the DfT on the contact details we have provided below:"

    Either it's illegal or it's not??

    Tonnes of things are illegal but just don't have any enforcement mechanism. This may be one such. I expect the DfT to direct me to Transport Scotland.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  22. Stickman
    Member

    This evening I was driving along Russell Road, sticking to 20. There was a cyclist ahead who was going quite slowly so I kept well back as she went under the bridge. Driver behind immediately leans on his horn. There's a queue at the junction with Dalry Road and then again at the lights to head up to Dundee St, so 20mph wasn't holding him up. Get on to Dundee St, still at 20mph and still with traffic ahead of me. He decides he's had enough so overtakes straight in to the path of an oncoming cyclist before turning up Dundee Terrace.

    Another "frustrated" driver.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  23. edinburgh87
    Member

  24. Stickman
    Member

    Don't know him personally but a lot of us here chat to him on Twitter

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. chdot
    Admin

    "

    On the whole, I'm a little irked that telling someone to get off their phone can be considered provocation for a close / punishment pass, but I still think that the Operation Close Pass initiative is a good idea.'

    "

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4903042/Road-rage-row-cyclist-yells-driver-phone.html

    Posted 6 years ago #
  26. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Edinburgh South East (@EdinPolSE)
    20/09/2017, 11:03 pm
    Responding to your emails about cars going too fast in Greenbank Drive. Got anywhere you'd like us to carry out speed checks? Let us know.

    http://pic.twitter.com/80Dq4Hshuy

    "

    Posted 6 years ago #
  27. glasgow megasnake
    Member

    This morning (as every other morning, but some days I manage to tolerate it), the dozens of motorists sitting in and randomly changing lane into the bus lane that descends liberation brae towards the junction with kirk brae. There is no cycle lane here. nobody ever seems to enforce the bus lane, and nobody seems to care.

    (@IWRATS thanks for the lothian buses tip, email fired off)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  28. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Turn from Clerk Street into Hope Park Terrace becoming my bête noire.

    This time overtook a bus stopped at the stop, which indicates and drives forward level with me, passing through the green light on my left and cutting me off from the left turn. Lorries behind me, I'm left stranded trying to slow down enough to make the turn behind the bus not so much I take a tipper truck from behind.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  29. stiltskin
    Member

    Cargilfied school dropping 3 minibus loads of kids off on the Double yellow no stopping lines st the airport. Presumably because they don't want to pay the drop off charges. Great example for the kids.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  30. jonty
    Member

    Think they are actually no waiting ie. loading is permitted unless explicitly banned. Doesn't sound very wise though.

    edit: but looking at Streetview they've got two stripes on the kerb so loading is banned. Oops.

    Posted 6 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply »

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin