I went for a swim after work and there was a man in the pool who I am convinced is the sort of driver who overtakes cyclists too close and too fast to get to the red light three seconds earlier. He swims like that too.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish driving...
(11330 posts)- Started 13 years ago by Stepdoh
- Latest reply from fergus
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Posted 11 years ago #
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The guy who hooted - three times - at a cyclist trying to turn right off morningsider road opposite waitrose. I felt bad for her. It was totally unnecessary. She pulled out a little before signalling, but he wasn't going anywhere. Traffic all. Asked up and she pulled out and signalled well before she needed to turn.
Posted 11 years ago # -
He swims like that too.
It might have been this guy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fastshow/characters/competitive_dad.shtml
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was the subject of a close pass today by a blue Citroen Saxo/Peugeot 106. Not too serious, and I contributed to it (in part) by riding too far to the left, giving them room to squeeze past in the face of oncoming traffic. Nevertheless, it wasn't necessary and should not have happened.
Pulling up behind the culprit at the traffic lights 200m further down the road (as you do), I spotted a sticker on the rear window, which read
"How's my driving? 0800 F*CKU"
Charming!
Posted 11 years ago # -
You get a lot of looks and comments ridng around on a bakfiets.... mainly positive and friendly but I got a right look of "what the F*** are you dong on the road?" today whilst taking one of the recombettes to the dentist by the female driver of a small hot hatch as she tried and failed to overtake at the traffic island at meggetland... as she drove pasted and mouthed the F-bomb I noticed she was in mid text on a shiny iphone 4 with a pink cover.....
Posted 11 years ago # -
I had a blue, i think Fiat, decide that indicating left was not required onto Albany Street nor was braking.
Lucky i leave gaps to stop and plan accordingly etc
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was on the Ute this afternoon, taking some bulky items on errands. I was cruising down a side street, signalling to turn right onto Easter Road. The Ute loaded is quite wide so I was in primary.
As I approach the junction, I hear a car behind me. I stop and wait for the road to clear before turning. After 30 seconds there is a beep on the horn behind me. I turn around to see what the issue might be, to witness a small blue Micra/Fiesta or similar approaching very close. The bumper of the car gets so close it almost touches my back wheel. BEEEEEP! I turn my head back to check the road ahead, still not clear so I wait.
As I turn right, the wee blue car overtakes at high revs: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep......
What exactly is the ****ing problem, I wonder out loud. 25 yards ahead, the wee blue car is stuck in a queue at a pelican crossing. I sit behind it in primary. Off the car goes, and join another queue at the next junction 150 yards on.
I catch up and pull level with the driver's window, taking up the right filter lane. Loud music is blasting from the open window. I look the driver in the eye and ask calmly what the problem is. After a second attempt he hears me and shouts:
"You were waiting, waiting, waiting, in the middle of the street!"
"Yeah, and what exactly are you doing then?" I reply.By this point the lights have changed and we are both blocking the main road. No-one is beeping though. "See, you're doing it again!" quips the driver over his music. The irony of his position appears not to have occurred to him. Ahead, the lights have changed again to red: it's a very short sequence. The driver of the wee blue car revs his engine, laughs maniacally at me, and zooms off through the red light, despite the fact that pedestrians are starting to cross from the right hand side.
What an idiot. Some people really should not be on the road. I doubt he heard me cursing after him as I settled into the ASL, but some pedestrians looked a bit shocked at the whole episode.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was alongside a woman a while back who was writing an email on her smartphone while driving through Leith. Actually driving, too, not just stationary in a queue.
It's not something I can really get worked up over any more. Even if you hand the police HD video they won't do anything with it (and if they did, either the CPS would piss it away or our noble peers on the jury seem hell-bent on acquittal).
Posted 11 years ago # -
"The driver of the wee blue car revs his engine, laughs maniacally at me, and zooms off through the red light, despite the fact that pedestrians are starting to cross from the right hand side.
What an idiot. Some people really should not be on the road."So driving his car erratically = may have been drunk?
Quite common at this time of year. Police would be very interested to find out if you gave them a number. I reckon random breath tests at moment would certainly boost bus passenger numbers plus save a few lives.Posted 11 years ago # -
It seems that drunk driving is one of the things that Police do take very seriously on the road. Perhaps the addition of "I could be wrong, but there may have been a smell of beer coming out the window" to the list of all the infractions described above would prompt a more appropriate response?
After all it stands to reason that someone driving like that must be drunk - no sober driver would behave in such a manner now, would they?
Not that I could possibly recommend such a course of action, I'm more wondering aloud on the point and around the fact that without any scientific evidence, it appears that the Police pick and choose the way they enforce different laws that are all meant to be about the safety of all road users.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Never got his licence plate number. He was just an erse: there are quite a few of them around! If he'd been drunk I could possibly have been rear shunted, injured or worse.
There seems to be a kind of driver (usually, but not exclusively, male) that loses the rag when cyclists "get in the way". How dare we use "their" roads? A cyclist's mere presence in asserting any road space seems to be an affront to them. I think it's simply a territorial thing, completely irrational, but whoever said humans were rational beings?
Posted 11 years ago # -
and if they did, either the CPS would piss it away...
To be honest I don't think they'd take any notice of any infractions you filmed here either Dave. Mainly due to the CPS being English... ;)
In fairness the Procurator Fiscal service would doubtless ignore it to.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Coming along McDonald Road, in the bike lane, in the dark late this afternoon. Front dynamo light is pretty bright, so I assume others can see me: hey I'm even wearing a yellow jacket.
Narrowly avoid being doored by a driver in a parked car on the approach to the lights who flings the door open to its full extent with not a single glance backward: luckily I'm not going fast and am on the right edge of the lane.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing!" I exclaim as I swerve out into the road (luckily nothing behind me).
"Oh, shut up!" comes the reply from the driver, a sour faced woman in her sixties (at a guess, but maybe she's a really heavy smoker in her forties).As I continued to reprimand her while passing, I marvelled at the callousness and vitriol necessary to feel completely justified in being so casually, thoughtlessly dangerous.
Just goes to show it's not just boy racers, executive saloon owners, and white van men who've got it in for cyclists!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Sounds like she gets it in the neck every minute of every day from someone else. It can have that effect.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I marvelled at the callousness and vitriol necessary to feel completely justified in being so casually, thoughtlessly dangerous.
...and all too frequently observed.
I'm sick of the uneasy catalogue of memories i've accumulated over the years relating to dodgy road incidents at the hands of wilfully ignorant motorists.
Casually life-threatening situations, the worst of which leaving unresolved feelings of anger and terror.
Its almost enough to make you reconsider your primary transport mode.
Almost...
Posted 11 years ago # -
Not a cycling incident this, but travelling back from a meeting in Glasgow along the A8 this morning, overtook a lady driving a white Audi A5 Coupe at around 60mph who was...and I sh*t you not...curling her hair with tongs!!
Found myself to be completely dumbstruck (and that doesnt happen often!)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Re dooring, one of these days I'm not going to screech to a halt or swerve out, but will just take the door off. I reckon if I hit it square on with the recumbent (feet first...) I could make a pretty good/safe job of it.
Some kind of ram (sorry officer, chainguard) might be of assistance.
Might make the nonce behind the wheel realise why they have to look first.
Posted 11 years ago # -
There was one episode a few years ago, back when driving was allowed on Princes St. Someone had driven their expensive sports car (Porsche, Ferrari, can't remember) onto Princes St, pulled up at the kerb and flung open the door ready to get out. Needless to say they hadn't looked round before doing this, and the bus that was just behind ploughed straight into the door and ripped it right off the car.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was on the front seats of the upper deck of a bus yesterday, coming from Dalry Road to Gorgie Road. As we got to the five-way junction, there was a car in front of us indicating right, as if they wanted to turn down Muireston Road. The bus moved slightly to the left and went to undertake the car, which I remember thinking seemed a bit impatient as the car wasn't slowing that much - and then the car stopped indicating right. The bus was now to its left, blocking access to the Gorgie Road, and so the car merrily went to the right of the traffic island and remained in front of the bus! It was just as well there was nothing coming the other way.
Not sure whose "fault" it was, though my feeling was that if the bus had just waited for the car to make its turn it would have been held up for seconds...
Posted 11 years ago # -
If anyone witnessed an incident involving a blue car and a cyclist at 07:40 this morning at the junction of West/East Mayfield and Minto Street, could they please contact me. The car departed westbound along West Mayfield -- perhaps you saw suspicious driving there at around that time?
The cyclist is ok and has spoken to the police. There may be evidence from bus CCTV, but no registration number, and conflicting descriptions of the car model.
Posted 11 years ago # -
On the bus this morning (still convalescing). Was at the corner or Rosebery Cresecent - near Haymarket station. It's always pretty hectic here with taxis queuing up to turn left into the taxi park, and others turning right.
Anyway, there was a lot of tooting - but I couldn't see what was going on. The next thing, a taxi pulled left into the rank but parking in the middle of the road. Then a police cyclist was at his window giving him verbals with a pointed finger!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Hurrah!
Posted 11 years ago # -
It's slightly disconcerting when someone drives straight at you... Mondeo this morning, I'd expected to move into the middle of the road because there were parked cars both sides and a speed cushion in the centre.
What I didn't expect, having slowed to give him space for the move (he was at the obstruction before me, pure common courtesy) was for him to then continue drifting to his right, heading straight for me. He swerved pretty violently back left at about the same time I took similar evasive action.
Just not paying attention, felt like a classic 'checking something on the phone' situation, despite my two rather bright lights on the front.
Last night the roads just felt 'frustrated' - cmostly down to a silver Fiesta driver who tried to overtake me, on a blind corner, with another cyclist ahead, and a queue of traffic stopped at a red light. He'd sat behind till that point, no idea what was going through his head.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I felt that too, WC. It's as though the combination of cold air, rain and wind makes people all up tight and drive in a similar manner. They've got wipers and central heating for crying out loud. They're not the ones cycling into a gale and being shotblasted with icy droplets.
Must. Get. Around. That. Corner. Beforethatcyclistdoes!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Quite a few stupid drivers out in the rain this afternoon. I had close encounters with two on Portobello Road.
A white VW Golf, decided to overtake while I was passing a traffic island, parked cars on left. Gave me a wee beep as he started to pass far too close (literally a few centimetres of space), just so I knew who was in charge.
As I chased the VW to the queue at the lights so the driver could take a few tips o overtaking, a red Micra tried to ram me from the side as he pulled out from a junction on the right: luckily he finally saw me and braked in time.
Took the shared use path on the way back: not a soul about in the heavy rain, no idiot drivers to worry about...
Posted 11 years ago # -
Well this morning I wasn't far off being Flat Anth.
Coming up the Royal Mile there are traffic-lit roadworks. Naturally I'm slower through there, but was at the back of the traffic, so no worries - till I hear a truck roaring up behind me. Gosh he's close. Very. Close.
I can hear him revving as we approach the end of the roadworks, but there is traffic queueing coming the other way, so he has to wait. Then there's a gao, wahey! Floor it, there's a crossroads less than 100 yards ahead and the lights are green, I might just make it!
Except he's in a truck. Going uphill. Progress is slow. Hmmmm. I'm not going to be past this cyclist before I get to the crossroads where I want to turn left, I've misjudged that a bit. Oh hang on! I know! I'll put my left hand indicator on, that makes cyclists disappear!
And so I sit up and slow down, because I'm only just level with the front of his trailer. What I didn't quite realise was just how looooong a trailer, so it's just as well I did sit up, because otherwise I'd have been another one of those statistics of "I was just sitting there guv and this cyclist rode up my inside".
Don't remember any company markings, but hopefully the camera picked something up...
Posted 11 years ago # -
When you hear it described as anth has above you start to realise there are actually dozens of times in your memory where a similar thing happened. Perhaps I've been riding in town too long to now think of it as intrinsically dangerous! Glad you're not flat.
Posted 11 years ago # -
The thing is, because I'd anticipated it the actual danger itself was minimal, because I sat up, and while I could have reached out to touch the trailer it wasn't heart in mouth stuff.
If I'd been less awake, or less experienced, you can see how it would be easy to mis-read and wind up under the wheels. All for some impatience (given he was stuck in a queue of traffic on the road to the left after I'd gone through an entire cycle of the lights (they changed to red when he was 2/3rds through).
Posted 11 years ago # -
Pretty much what happened to me on George IV on the way to the traffic forum. Luckily for me it was slow moving traffic, I knew the road (and its reputation) and I know what vehicles like that are wont to do. But terrifying nonetheless, especially if you think of cyclists for whom those three things may not be true.
ps also glad you're not flat
Posted 11 years ago # -
Some while ago I was passed a bit too close by a gas company Transit.
Seconds later the wheels of a wider-than-Transit trailer passed even closer!!
Posted 11 years ago #
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