Dropped my wife at Straiton P&R, lights changed to green to leave, as I started to move forward a car blasted through the red on the main road heading into town. Must have been red for a while before he went through.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish driving...
(11334 posts)- Started 13 years ago by Stepdoh
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Posted 5 years ago #
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@dk1, are you sure it wasn't a bike? I thought it was bikes that ran reds.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Must have been a car, as it wasn't wearing hiviz and I could see it ;)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Black cab bombing down Crichton Street with a prolonged horn sound, almost mowing down a pedestrian crossing outside the back entrance to Appleton Tower. Seriously, pedestrianise George Square before someone gets killed.
Posted 5 years ago # -
If professional motor vehicle driving was like any other similar profession, use of the horn would be recorded, taken as evidence that some kind of incident had occurred and a safety officer would establish what had happened by talking to the operator and viewing onboard camera footage etc to see if any further action is required.
But it's not, so drivers can continue to prioritise horn over brake whenever they sense they might be about to commit a murder.
Posted 5 years ago # -
In more than 30 years of driving I have hardly ever hit my horn. When dangerous situations have ever developed suddenly (very rare in a car if you drive properly) all my attention goes to braking and steering.
Posted 5 years ago # -
When I think professional drivers I think of chauffeurs going at steady pace, checking the vicinity, scanning ahead etc. Not taxi drivers smashing down one way streets they know fine well are one way streets (new street before the no entry signs),
For balance
We were overtaken recently by a very considerate driver, careful and calm. Oddly he was driving an Audi Estate, you do not see that everyday
Posted 5 years ago # -
Talking of balance, I was at the university in Stirling this week and took the bicycle on the train, very impressed by the genteel drivers of Bridge of Allan, who all gave exemplary amounts of space overtaking me in their big cars on what was, after all, technically the A9.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is it Bridge of Allan where they have those super wide painted cycle lanes?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@piosad: Hmm...meanwhile, on t'other side of the university from BoA, the A91 is frequently as scary as <rule 2>.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Two for the price of one, the BMW driver that decided to undertake me as punishment for the heinous crime of going straight ahead at the traffic lights on Slateford road outside ASDA topped only by the Audi driver that squeezed past me to sit behind a bus when I was coming back up Lanark road. First one more dangerous but felt more threatened by the second.
Posted 5 years ago # -
argument this morning with a private hire who tried to bully me and mini-McR out of the way on the bottom half of Castle St.
apparently taxis are allowed to drive on the pedestrian part - who knew ???
have already forgotten the number - its futile reporting.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IainMcR: have already forgotten the number - its futile reporting.
The council taxi licensing folk are pretty good at responding to complaints in my experience. Whether they actually do anything, I don't know.Posted 5 years ago # -
apparently taxis are allowed to drive on the pedestrian part
My plan, should this ever happen to me, is to call the police and say that I suspect a 'vehicle as terrorist weapon' incident is under way.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Have received verbal abuse and threats of physical abuse from a PH driver on the "pedestrianised" Castle Street before. Because I didn't jump out the way when he drove at me.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I raised the issue of persistent abuse of the Castle Street pedestrianised area with Karen Doran, via e-mail, back in September 2017. I received an acknowledgement of receipt of my e-mail, since then nothing. And nothing has changed.
If they can't be bothered to enforce it, they should just do away with it. Ignoring lawbreaking merely normalises it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Cllr Miller was saying on twitter that the bollards are supposed to be getting fixed soon.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I thought that the rising bollards were deliberately disabled after people complained about getting stuck on the wrong side of them?
While they're at it they could do with fixing all the damaged 'stone' seats and 'tank trap' bollards demarcating the pavement from the pedestrianised area (or are those the bollards Cllr Miller means, rather than the rising ones?)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Quite possible that I misunderstood or misread her tweets; I'll try and find them again.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Found it: https://twitter.com/jriddell/status/1093500027610243072
So High St and Grassmarket are getting fixed, but she only said she hopes the Castle Terrace ones will be fixed. I assume there's some Castle Street/Terrace confusion going on here?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yeah - there's no bollards on Castle Terrace afaik. Perhaps the original commenter means they would like some at the bus gate on Castle Terrace?
Posted 5 years ago # -
There are raise-able bollards on Castle St.
https://goo.gl/maps/9rFcXTzbhH22
There is also a pedestrian-zone "hooped" sign missing / destroyed in action which would normally form part of the bollards system.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I thought that the rising bollards were deliberately disabled after people complained about getting stuck on the wrong side of them?
IMO, if someone gets stuck on the wrong side of the bollards, having to wait an hour or two for someone to come and let them out (And giving them a parking ticket to cover the cost of doing so) is a good thing. It means they won't do it again. The times are clearly signposted, there's really no excuse.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't disagree (although I'd rather they got a fixed penalty notice rather than a parking ticket). I'm just reporting what I recall hearing.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Noticed 5 times in the last couple of days, motorists ignoring give ways or looking right and ploughing on without slowing. 3 near misses for me on the bike and once when walking saw a pedestrian being hit yesterday by a driver desperate to turn... is it the weather?
Posted 5 years ago # -
For a moment there I wondered if you had decided to start referring to random assaults and near-misses by drivers of motor vehicles as "the weather"...
(Explanation: a friend of mine who visited Israel in the mid-1980s reported that the locals referred to the frequent low-flying military aircraft as "the weather". I imagine that the actual weather was boringly predictable; it certainly was when I was there in the 1990s.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Not so much today's rubbish driving but rubbish (as in criminal) driving twice in 2004, again in 2017 and once more - a fatal hit-and-run this time - in January this year:
Sentenced to six and eight months (can't help thinking a ban following release would also have been appropriate).
Posted 5 years ago # -
Some more sad details on the above case:
"Robinson's lawyer argued the case should be categorised as a Level Two offence in the Sentencing Council Gudeilines for causing death by dangerous driving, saying that other than his excessive speed there were no other aggravating factors, such as being under the influence of alcohol or drugs - something the court heard the prosecution "surprisingly" agreed with.
However, Judge Martin Walsh disagreed and placed in it Level One, the most serious category of offence constituting a "prolonged, persistent and deliberate course of very bad driving."
"He was also handed a seven year disqualification from the point of his release."
Posted 5 years ago # -
- 1 person parked on the pavement on Melville Dr / Meadows. Was parked there yesterday, so seems to be making a habit of it.
- 1, 2, maybe more, persons speeding past the Primary school.
- 1 smartphone-using-driver, also "outside the Primary school*", complete with nodding-head(TM).
- 1 long queue of cars outside the school with:
- 1 person getting fed up waiting and making a 3-point-turn
- 2 vans in the George IV Br bike lane outside G&V.
- 2 huge 4x4s in the car park (where I park my bike) that you could hardly walk between.Rrrrraaaaaaarghhh!
*Favourite words of certain anti-20mph people.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Wednesday's driver:
Coming up Dalkeith Road towards Holyrood Park, I decided to take the outside lane for a change, since the bus lane was blocked by roadworks further down and there was very little traffic. I normally cycle up the bus lane, and then at the pedestrian crossing at Blacket Place I start trying to merge into the outside lane. Often, I end up not managing to do so, and I end up pulling to the side and waiting for the traffic lights at Holyrood Park Road to turn red, so I can cross 2 lanes of traffic as a pedestrian and wait in the bike box for the next sequence.
My road position was no issue for the first driver in the video - nor the two previous drivers, all of which passed me with plenty of room (I was keeping to the left of the lane to make it easy for them). Mr. Angry, however, emerges from Blacket Ave, and is enraged by my presence outside of the gutter. After 7 seconds behind me (literally - check the video timestamps), he decides that this is completely unreasonable, and decides to undertake me, waving his hands in consternation.
Unsurprisingly, he succeeds in gaining precisely zero seconds, and arrives at the next red light, where I filter to the bike box and mutter "That was worth it..." as I pass him. My apologies to the driver of the black Mitsubishi if they thought that was aimed at them - their drivers window was ajar I see, from looking back at the video.
I snipped the next boring / irrelevant part of the video where the lights change, we move forwards, I filter to the next bike box (arguably not worth it since there's only one car in front, but I want to make a point to Mr. Angry that I'm making better progress than he is), the next set of lights change to green and we all move off.
The two drivers who I filtered past overtake with no issue, then Mr. Angry decides to give a little honk and points at the gutter as he passes, before braking so he can shout abuse at me.
I thought that was hilarious - I'm already riding in the inside lane (I'm in the outside edge of it because I've had more than enough close passes here and the lanes merge), and he decides to overtake me and then brakes, expecting me to wait behind? No chance.
I re-overtake him, and decide to reverse positions - I let him know that HE needs to keep to the left - he shouldn't overtake me and then stop in front of me, after all.He shouts something at me as I pass - all I can catch is "OVER!", and then we get to the roundabout, where he winds down his passenger window and shouts something unintelligible at me.
He then proceeds to tailgate me down most of Queen's Drive (I'm in two minds about showing this to the police on Monday, when they come to see me about some unrelated speeding incident that I reported. EDIT: He's also doing 30 mph down Queen's Drive, so I'll definitely mention this to the police and show them the video of the tailgating).
I cut the video there, but at the roundabout at the bottom (Holyrood Gait), he shouts something else at me - though it's impossible to hear what exactly. I shout back "Goodbye! Have a wonderful morning drive to work! Maybe learn how to drive when you get there!", and we part ways.
Good times. If only I was able to find every incident of poor driving so hilarious.
For a more entertaining interpretation of the audio, see the video description.
Posted 5 years ago #
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