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.
stickySilver Mercedes KV16 OCJ. Overtook along Leith Place eastbound as I reached 25mph (via Strava). Proceeded to slow me down until I reached Leith Links.
Not the worst thing ever, just the frustrating low level pointlessness at the base of the road death pyramid.
I had a white Merc LFN 145 attempt an overtake on Gilmore Place on Tuesday whilst I was travelling at 24mph (via Strava) in a 20mph limit. I was indicating right from before where the video starts and am holding a strong position at the right of the lane.
Driver was on her mobile phone at the lights on Tarvit Street and I should have trusted my instincts and circled around to go behind her.
Nothing out of the ordinary, just the usual lack of attention of the otherwise-law-abiding hard-pressed motorist.
Re. Jdanielp and the 45 bus at HW... zebra crossings are a bit horrible, in my view.. Strictly, waiting to cross conveys no formal priority, I think? Once you are on the crossing you are supposed to be protected, but the majority of drivers give priority, meaning it’s easy to get caught out if someone follows the strict interpretation... scope for confusion and risk there.
Is there really any need to be going at more than the motorised vehicle speed limit while on a bicycle?
@barnton-to-town. You don't know what speed you are travelling at until you have finished the ride and uploaded and analysed your Strava data. This was a retrospective measurement to prove @davidsondave's point. Understandable that he would want to move at the same speed as the traffic to stay safer
@paddyirish I don't much buy that as an excuse. Is it valid to speed in a car because everyone else around you is? If caught speeding in a car, is it a reasonable excuse to say "but I didn't know what speed I was travelling at"?
@barnton-to-town- you don't know if you are speeding if your bike is not fitted with a speedometer. To my knowledge, no bike is fitted with one.
Is there really any need to be going at more than the motorised vehicle speed limit while in a car?
@barnton-to-town. Cars have speedometers and are legally obliged to stay within the posted speed limits. Bikes do not have speedometers and the speed limits do not apply.
I don't purposely try to break the [motorised] speed limit but will cycle in such a manner as I feel makes me safest in any given situation [whilst keeping within the law and not putting other people in danger].
I have altered my daily commute to minimise the time I spend sharing road space with vehicles as I would much rather potter along using the NEPN, the canal or North Meadow Walk, however they are not sufficiently connected up.
@davidsondave - I also ride that route and in order to take primary (just as with any other route) it is much safer to adjust to the speed of the traffic. What you did is as far as I'm concerned an example of good roadcraft irrespective of the speed.
@barnton-to-town - I would have thought it is more relevant to make exactly the same comment about speed with regards to the car drivers. Quite apart from the legal aspects, cars going at excessive speeds is far more dangerous that it is for cyclists. I am surprised that is what you feel is noteworthy about a video which demonstrates very well the embedded feeling of superiority and entitlement some car drivers seem to have.
@barnton-to-town Road Traffic Act. Speed limits are for motorised vehicles not bikes, horses or pedestrians and as others point out above how on earth does a bike measure its speed unless it has an on board computer.
As I have one and a speed indicator on the back i am stunned that every single vehicle that passed me across the meadows today broke the speed limit (around 25 offenders) . ....On Queensferry road every one that passed me which was about 40 also broke the speed limit. I know as i was cycling at 20 on the former and 30 on the latter.
I think your time might be better spent having a go at them
I usually don't go along Gilmore Place in this direction as the vast majority of drivers break the speed limit, which makes it feel unnecessarily hostile. I instead prefer going via Lochrin Place.
Likewise, the traffic around me is the only real thing I can judge my speed by. If the car behind me is maintaining the same distance I'll keep accelerating.
@ragingbike, I have plenty of gos at them, on an almost daily basis, usually at the next set of traffic lights, but thanks for the suggestion.
"how on earth does a bike measure its speed unless it has an on board computer" ... err, if you travel fast, and you kno wif you trave lfast, get an onboard computer. It' snot rocket science.
"Speed limits are for motorised vehicles not bikes" - I know that; didn't I say that? My point was that we want slower & safer motorised traffic; however, too many cyclists think "yayyy, speed is god!". There's a time and a place for *motorised* traffic to travel at great speed. Same goes for cyclists. It might not be law, but so fecking what, it's common-sense.
@rob; "I'll go as fast as the illegally speeding car behind me" is not a justification for your own excessive speed.
@barnton-to-town "I have plenty of gos at them" Sounds like you are fitter than I and are travelling faster than I am generally comfortable with.
I rarely travel on main roads and I feel most comfortable when I'm not have to endure drivers tailgating or dangerously overtaking.
If a car or motorcycle is exempt from requiring a speedometer it is not permitted to speed if an accident was attributed to excessive speed not sure a defence of no speedometer would be accepted ; although speed limits may not apply to a bike would imagine may be used to support contributory negligence or wanton and furious cycling if an accident occurred that may be attributed to excessive speed, depending on what type of incident
@barnton-to-town how do I know the car behind me is speeding? I only have a very rough idea how fast I'm going based on how much effort I'm putting in and vague memories of previous times I checked on Strava.
To directly answer your original question:
"Is there really any need to be going at more than the motorised vehicle speed limit while on a bicycle?"
Yes. When the vehicles around you are going at more than the motorised vehicle speed limit.
I ride to minimize my interactions with people in cars. Matching my speed to the traffic ahead is one way I achieve this. Unfortunately, in the incident I posted above there was no traffic ahead so I had to rely on the driver behind not acting in a completely irrational manner.
Turning right (with children attached) from West Mains Road to Mayfield Road I was in primary in the right hand lane and was aggressively overtaken as I took the corner by a car which went fully onto the other side of the road and turned right almost causing a head-on collision with a car turning left from Mayfield Road to West Mains Road. Quite extraordinarily dangerous. I thought I'd got it from my daughter's helmet cam but it ran out of battery unfortunately. Needless to say he was waiting at the junction moments later.
@algo - I often cut through King's Buildings there purely to avoid waiting at the traffic lights. Unless it's rush hour, it should be quicker as well as quieter.
There're also roadworks there at the moment, aren't there?
@Frenchy yes there are - your route advice is much appreciated - next time for sure.
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Police today said they were not investigating the alleged incident.
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Was riding home this afternoon with my 10yo through Holy Corner. We were on Chamberlain Rd headng for Colinton - a route I used to do daily. Cars turning right from Colinton rd onto Morningside Rd nearly took us out.
Now she understands why I prefer to take other routes home.
Postie pulled out on me today, had no time to stop, managed to swerve and landed on his bonnet. was ok and bike was fine, more of a hard kiss than an impact.
I was looking right at him for ages when he pulled out, had bright 1000 lumens front light on (not flashing), was a well lit busy street.
he was quite matter of fact about it and said he didnt see my light, but as i and the bike was ok didnt make an issue of it and we went on our way.
i must admit - i did use to ride with always flashing mode - until i read on the other posts about it annoying on coming riders & potential to cause fits.
not sure where to go in my mind with it all - but i think i'll be going to put a flashing light on my helmet, solid on bars...
oh and saying that everything was ok, actually my front light stopped working every time i went over a bump and then totally cut out...hmmmm
big thanks to a LeMond rider who stopped/ slowed up and allowed me to follow him through the dark bits!!!!!!
every ride for the past 5 rides now i've had an issue/incident - the riding gods are not smiling on me
@SRD: a private hire driver did the same to me driving a car through there the other week - I think it's one of the many junctions in Edinburgh where the uninitiated find it easy to convince themselves they don't have anyone to give way to when turning right. A bit of SMIDSY/DGAF too as well though no doubt.
@rider73
Call the police.
With time and place a post van and the driver in it should be identifiable too, I think?
Yesterday evening on Bristo Place: parked cars on both sides of the road so I was cycling right down the middle of the road to pass them.
Perfect time to try and overtake me, right? Confused looks on faces and upturned palm gestures when I waved them back.
@rider73: I would use flashing lights on roads, especially in the gloom like today. But solid light, on non-roads, especially areas not covered by street lighting such as the canal as the flash relative to the overall background light level is what causes cyclists in the opposite directions problems.
I am thinking that having a wallet sized card, with what to do in the case of any collision would be *really* useful. What should the bullet points be?
@jonty Yes. I'm nearly positive this driver (family in car) would have said 'I just followed the car in front'. He was second in queue and didn't ever look in our direction, until near impact. I think passenger may have shouted at him. or he heard me.
Problem was that daughter wasn't as fast out of the light as she should have been, so we weren't already in the junction when the first car started, which is my usual strategy. But nothing works if they don't look.
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