CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years 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.
" large white van, and wasn't particularly dreadful. Except. Except. The van had the Bike Station logo prominently on the side..."
If it had been unbranded you would have let it go... understand as it should be driven cycle aware coming from that sector.
Rented vans and blank white ones we expect nothing from and are rarely disappointed. :-)
Two close passes 15 minutes apart this afternoon, when it was wet and windy and generally awful.
The first one was partly my fault - on Gilmerton Road, the driver overtook me coming up to a red light (giving plenty of space), and stopped about 2 metres from the kerb, so I went down the inside and stopped between them and the car in front.
The lights turned green, the car in front and I moved off, the driver behind waited till after the traffic island, then passed me with about 3-4 inches space.
If I was going to go down the inside, I should have either waited for the car I'd passed, or taken primary:
Then the second one on Dundee Street, where the driver passed way too close - about 6 inches, and there was much more wind and rain at this point.
I caught up with them a little way down the road, and then they decided to stop a car length past the stop line at the junction at Diggers, and rolled forwards another metre or so when the green "ahead only" arrow came on (not on the video):
‘Tis the festive season close pass winter festival time
One driver managed me and the cyclist in front of me heading down towards our dynamic earth this a.m.
Taking my eldest to school this morning - was on my front seat - one of the dutch style ones with a bike seat on the crossbar and foot rests. They are pretty handy for drop-offs etc...
I went to overtake a doubly parked car (bane of the school run) and a blue Transit GV13... came up very fast from behind to overtake us - I put my hand out to ask him not to but he barged through within inches at speed.
I caught up with him outside the school and told him he was a lunatic - I refrained from swearing. Apparently it's my fault because he'd never seen anything as dangerous as the crossbar seat and I wasn't wearing a h****t (daughter was). I asked him if that meant we deserved to die - cue torrent of victim blaming bull****.
Sometimes I harbour really dangerously corrective thoughts.
@algo
Hope you are OK. I heard you shout. I took the plate down as CX13 XXG which checks out as a blue Transit.
He also went side-by-side to a left-turning car when exiting Warrender Pk Rd, to turn right, even though there isn't room to do that. So he was on the the wrong side of the road at that point too. Clearly a very poor driver who "makes progress" at the expense of everyone else...
"really dangerously corrective thoughts"
Magnetic limpet mines are my bad (farfetched) thought
Brake fluid is very corrosive to paintwork
<did I put that here?>
@neddie - thanks loads for that. I got two witnesses also come up to me in the playground so I will be taking it further (need to get one of their names). Shows what community means when people support you like this.
@Murun - I think mine are less technological but I like the idea
@algo
Solidarity to you and the girls. Report it as an assault?
thanks IWRATS - would that work? I was going to go with dangerous driving
Did the incident constitute 'a physical attack on another which is intended to cause bodily injury or which puts the victim in a state of fear that he or she may be about to suffer bodily injury'? Sounds like it did.
The only time I've ever bothered the polis was a guy who took a (wildly incompetent) swing at me from the driving seat of his automobile. They went and got the CCTV and everything.
Taking a swing with a whole transit van is properly murderous.
that is bad, the old palm of the hand nornmally prevents overtakes on the A70 on blind corners or summits
but obvs this guy is judge jury and executioner
I would refer back to where the other parent or whoever was double parked, they are also culpable here. Double parking near a school?
I suppose sciennes managed to shut their street as there is no housing around and only parking for 4 Chelsea/Marchmont tractors.
Hope you are Ok Algo
algo that sounds terrible ... hope the girls weren't too shaken...
thanks @gembo and @miak. I did lose my temper outside school which wasn't great. I'm afraid double parking is rife - and it's usually other parents.
@gembo
Tis the festive season close pass winter festival time indeed.
Two more really seriously dangerous overtaking manoeuvres tonight again. On a normal night is bad enough but in these windy conditions, people just don't anticipate that someone riding a bike could swerve to avoid a pothole etc or be blown out into the road.
If I'd done either at the wrong moment on my route home to my family I'd have been at best in the fracture clinic at worst in a wooden box.
@algo that rush of adrenaline and anger is only natural when you're life is in the hands of clowns like that.
Sorry to hear about that, algo - I hope my luck isn't rubbing of on you!
RE: reporting it as assault - I've reported a few incidents as assault with a vehicle, including last week's (video below). They've never been investigated as an assault, and I suspect the 101 operator doesn't log it as such when I explain someone drove at me - certainly when the police attend to see the video, they always refer to it as "inconsiderate driving" - not even careless / dangerous, let alone assault.
From last week, where the guy close pass / MGIF'd me, then rear-ended me (Not on camera, though I now have my rear camera set up again):
[EDIT: Contains rule 2's]
Skip lorry driver illegally parked outside the new Holy Corner eatery on Bruntsfield Pl leg of the junction (blocking the pedestrian crossing & hazards on, natch). I clocked him while waiting in the Colinton Rd ASL. My lights go green and I proceed toward Bruntsfield Pl in primary. Just as I'm nearly alongside, skippy starts pulling a fast u-turn. Thankfully my brakes were efficient. I get a bit sweary at this point, and bloke in hi-vis on the pavement (not sure if supposed site banksman or just in vicinity) starts hollering at the skippy "Did ye no see the cyclist?" and gives me a sad shake of the head.
Feeling unseasonably uncharitable to all these unsafe fools.
As a minor bit of positive news on this gloomy day - the van driver from the other day accepted a careless driving charge and £100 fine and three points.
I have to say - a very positive experience dealing with excellent Police.
The positive upshot of this hopefully is that this man will drive more carefully around cyclists in future.
Thanks again to nedd1e and others who came forward with witness testimony and reg plates etc - this is what community means.
@algo
Excellent news on a bleak day.
Wow, excellent result.
Well done!
@Algo, glad to hear this
@Algo - Woo!
Is there a rubbish parking thread? Back Cab on the zig-zags at Surgeon's Hall so the driver could nip into the bookies.
Fair enough - there was an HGV in the bus lane with double yellows.
excellent Algo!
I came down Constitution st very carefully the other night, because it was my first time being there since the construction started, and i wasn't sure exactly what was blocked or open.
which was lucky, because just as i entered the jnction on a green light, a large taxi flew through the red.
had it been my second time there, they'd still be picking bits of me out of the works fence.
nice one @algo
@algo, given the amount of hassle and disinterest others have had to deal with when reporting similar incidents to the police, do you have any thoughts as to what made a difference for you? Witnesses? The presence of a child on your bike? Just good fortune in getting a sympathetic policeman?
Beeped at for not cycling in the cycle lane on Gilmerton Road, as if I wasn't already aware. The poor driver had to wait a whole 5 seconds to overtake me, and I reached Salisbury Place before they did, where we went our separate ways.
Another driver used the left turn only lane on Minto St to undertake me through a junction. Might have saved themselves 3 seconds in the process.
Mini-CAT-excavator-transporting flatbed SM60 FJD on Willowbrae Road, whose driver underestimated his length and didn't want to bang his poor wee vehicle on an evil Keep Left sign on a traffic island at a pinch point.
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