CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Today's rubbish driving...

(11330 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Stepdoh
  • Latest reply from fergus
  • This topic is sticky

1…424344…378

  1. gdm
    Member

    White Van Man on Salisbury Rd this morning simply couldn't wait to get past me so he could ZZZOOOOOOM ahead 20 yards to the red lights.

    I raised my objections and he noted there was loads of room for him to overtake, despite the fact that he had started to move back over to the left immediately having overtaken me, which would have cut off access to the ASL.

    He then said, "I wasn't even going fast - I was doing 22 in a 30 zone!"

    He seemed genuinely surprised when I pointed out that it was, in fact, a 20 zone which seemed to shut him up. If only there was some way to let these drivers know about the speed limit - like signs on lampposts all the way down the street or maybe painting a ginormous 20 on the street.

    Ah. Yes. They ARE already there. The drivers just don't see them...

    One can only presume they're too anxious thinking about showing me 'respect' and giving me "THIS MUCH ROOM!".

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. deckard112
    Member

    @Stickman re Wester Coates. I travel this every day and as others have already suggested taking a firm primary and ensuring eye contact (hard or otherwise!) usually ensures I get priority.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. cb
    Member

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/late-motorist-led-cops-on-high-speed-chase-1-3007327

    "He had denied speeding at more than 80mph in a 50mph limit, driving on the wrong side of the road past “keep left” bollards and going through a red light on the A89 near Broxburn.

    The self-employed tradesman was fined £750, banned from driving for a year and ordered to resit an extended driving test before being allowed back behind the wheel."

    That sounds like a more reasonable punishment than we are used to hearing about.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. custard
    Member

    too lenient IMO given what could have come of that driving

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. custard
    Member

    mine today is from a motobike on Lothian road
    sitting on Morrison street at red lights,I had the bike behond me revving away with a loud exhaust
    once we made the turn i was treated to full revs and a close pass
    Its annoying from cars,but I personally expect a bit of empathy from MC riders
    sady tired legs and a bike bin of shopping meant I was always a set of lights behind them
    I really wanted a word with the driver!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. Kenny
    Member

    @edd1e_h - I would report the driver if it was me, moreso for turning right illegally, but I'd also mention the lack of respect given to you afterwards.

    My "incident" the other day is more fun than anything, and didn't directly involve me, but it caused me such happiness, I thought I would retell it.

    I'm driving up Lothian Road, and I'm going to turn left to Bread Street, but the lights change to red, so I stop before the ASL, as do the cars to my right. Then a motorcycle filters up and plonks himself in the ASL. Rage starts to build. I think he heard me, too, as he checked his left mirror to see what I was doing (arms gesticulating wildly as I rant to the wife and kids about him). Anyway, then three cyclists appear, alongside him, and two of them look at him as if to say "where are your pedals, then?". But then the best bit; one of the cyclists, a lady in a nice upright cycle, drifts in front of the motorcycle at the exact time the lights changed, preventing him getting away, and then stays in primary in front of him. It was glorious! I suspect he got in front of her sharpish, I didn't see as I had turned left by this point, but what a win for that lady. I congratulate her a thousand times.

    How she timed it so perfectly, I'll never know (maybe she knows the timing of the lights better than I do, which wouldn't be difficult).

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. allebong
    Member

    In the past few days:

    close pass, close pass, very close pass, suicidal close pass on blind corner, close pass, squeezed close pass approaching pinchpoint, close pass while road ahead is empty, close pass, close pass then immediately turn left, close pass followed by stopping inside ASZ, close pass....

    I suspect the heat has made my steel frame strongly magnetic and hence irresistible to nearby vehicles. It's the only explanation.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. neddie
    Member

    The heat is stopping people from sleeping. Its been like this for weeks...

    Imagine all the zombified drivers out there who haven't slept properly for 2 weeks or more. It's driving* everybody mad.

    * quite literally

    (PS. I'm not complaining about the weather)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. DeathbyPompino
    Member

    The numpty turning from Bread Street onto the wrong side of Lothian Road, driving in the middle of the lanes.

    God help us!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. Snowy
    Member

    Two in quick succession this morning on Merchiston Place - always a hotspot. First car fully pulling out of parking space without looking, into the direction of oncoming traffic (me), requiring a wide swerve by me into the other side of the road...and not 5 seconds later an idiot who went straight through a give way sign at the crossroads with Merchiston Ave and straight across my path, locked the back wheel on that one.

    Prior to 8am, 3 cups of coffee before driving ahould be mandatory.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. paul.mag
    Member

    Heading home on Friday night eastbound at St Johns road and enjoying the tailwind. I see the cars in the outside lane are all queued up, "lovely" thinks I as I pedal along the quiet inside lane. This all changes as I spot the car in the side street ahead on my left, I lock eyes on the driver and on his front wheel I find this gives me the best clue as to what the driver is doing. The driver wants to make a right turn so he is looking left, 25 ft away, still looking left 15 ft away. Front wheel moves as I'm 10ft away!! Cue a loud shout from me as I swerve round his bonnet. Obviously because all the cars in the outside lane can't go anywhere no-one can do anything. Pillock!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. EddieD
    Member

    One thing yesterday got me a wee bit peeved - heading west down FountainBridge yesterday, needing to turn right through Springside to cross the WAR to get to Dalry - there was a car parked on the zigzags on the crossing, I sit up (on an upright at the moment, following a hydraulic brake hose failure on the 'bent), freewheel and indicate clearly about 75 meters from the turn. I continue indicating, and when I'm about 20meters away the car is passed by another car, the moving car passes, I commit to the right turn, and the parked car lauches off without indicating and nearly T-bones me. Fortunately, the old Croix is a nimble beast, and survived me doing an emergency turn to dodge. I should have stopped and waited, but the driver had seen me indicating and manoevering. A bit irritating, but I had just had a lovely saunter through East Lothian, so I was remarkably mellow.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. SRD
    Moderator

    Might be the lothian bus number 10 that either ran a red or a very, very late amber from Home Street into Gilmore Place. Suggested as much to him as I went past his window, only to have him overtake very fast and very close....

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. stiltskin
    Member

    ..consisted of two cars. One of whom drifted to the right into the southbound middle lane (I happened to be in it at the same time) at the junction of Gardner's Crescent & Morrison Street: Stopped at the lights in the straight on lane with the green filter showing left. Then moved off after 30 seconds to turn left down Morrison with someone driving up his inside. This was shortly followed by the people carrier, who, having stopped behind me for a few seconds decided to pull round me through the red light straight across the junction. To be fair to her, when I caught up 100 yards later, she had the grace to appear shocked when I pointed out what she had done. Worryingly, she said: 'but there was a filter arrow' (for left, not straight over.) & she was completely unable to answer the question why she thought a cyclist was sitting stopped at a red light ahead of her....sigh

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. neddie
    Member

    @Snowy.

    Those are stop signs on the Merchiston Ave/Pl junction. So the car should have come to a full and complete stop and applied the handbrake before setting off across you!

    I agree with you though, what seems like an innocuous junction on residential roads is actually quite dangerous (and there are loads of rat-runners there too)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. zesty
    Member

    Interesting ride in... just about got killed by a black VW Passat.

    Cycling down Queensferry Road when he pulled out of the Craigleith Drive side road on the right to go straight across and down Orchard Drive.

    If it hadnt been for the wide entrance to Orchard Drive I'd have been over the bonnet.

    He eventually stopped when I yelled at him, claimed he never saw me even when I was 2 foot from the side of his car doing over 20!!!!
    God knows how since I was wearing a red and white top, was so close to dragging the *&^$"£*^ outta his window.

    This is my first close encounter since starting to ride in at the start of the year... no doubt it wont be my last!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. cb
    Member

    There's no requirement to apply the handbrake at a stop sign.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. gdm
    Member

    There's no requirement to apply the handbrake at a stop sign.

    Erm... I only passed my driving test at the beginning of the year and was told during lessons that failing to apply the handbrake at a stop sign would be an instant fail.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Interesting - doesn't appear to be a requirement:

    HC
    171
    You MUST stop behind the line at a junction with a ‘Stop’ sign and a solid white line across the road. Wait for a safe gap in the traffic before you move off.
    Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 16

    That said, it's not actually a requirement in the HC not to hit the kerb when three-point turning, and that'll still get you a fail.

    So I think there isn't the requirement, but doing it in your test is a requisite.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  20. gdm
    Member

    At the risk of introducing pedantry (on a cycling forum? Never!) I suppose that depends on the definition of 'stop'.

    I would have imagined in respect of the HC it means to come to a halt and secure the handbrake, as opposed to simply ceasing to move forward.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  21. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    From another government guide with hints for your driving test:

    "Make full use of the handbrake whenever it would help you to prevent the car rolling backwards or forwards if you have stopped"

    Posted 11 years ago #

  22. 559
    Member

    Handbrake use may depend on whether it was a Give Way or a Stop

    Posted 11 years ago #

  23. Kenny
    Member

    Do all cars have to have a handbrake?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  24. Snowy
    Member

    I can't think offhand of a manual transmission car that doesn't have a regular handbrake, and 'manual' probably covers 95% of cars in the UK (my own guestimate).

    Automatic cars shouldn't roll backward on a slope if they are in 'forward drive' mode, because when you take your foot off the footbrake, they will either hold still or start creeping forward. Automatics can have some quite odd handbrakes, in some cases only intended for use when you have parked. Foot operated things, or on the door side of the drivers seat, for instance.

    Going back many *cough* years to my own driving lessons, my instructors view was that the procedure of stopping and applying the handbrake was a ritual enforced to make sure the driver took enough time to see what was happening in the junction. Which is a Good Thing.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  25. Kenny
    Member

    I also can't think of a manual transmission car without one, I was just wondering whether cars *had* to have one due to some law or some such. A bit like a speedometer - cars now have to have them, but it wasn't that long ago (depending upon how old you are, that is ;) ) that they didn't have to, despite most having them.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  26. Kenny
    Member

    Another excellent example of bad driving, with a happy ending:

    http://cheezburger.com/7684094976

    Entitled, "We'll take it from here".

    Posted 11 years ago #

  27. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Here's the full thing with sound;

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Widget

    INSTANT JUSTICE!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  28. wee folding bike
    Member

    Friends who use more modern cars tell me that some cars have electrical handbrakes.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking_brake#Electric_parking_brake

    My cars are a bit more steam punk so I've yet to experience this.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  29. Kenny
    Member

    Friends who use more modern cars tell me that some cars have electrical handbrakes.

    Yeah, my old Renault Scenic Grand had one of those. It was actually really useful for hillstarts, as it just switched off when you accelerated.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  30. fimm
    Member

    I've driven (hire) cars with electrical handbrakes. I hate the things myself, but I think that might be a lack of confidence/familiarity. I remember the first time we had one, I didn't realise that it turned off automatically when you pulled away, and made a right old mess of trying to do a hill start, much to the irritation of the person behind me...

    gdm, were you taught to put your handbrake on when stopped at lights? I always do this & my boyfriend thinks I'm strange for doing it...

    Oh, and the reason for coming onto this thread - I had a proper left hook this morning - jammed on my brakes and avoided them, no harm done, and decided not to follow them into the cul de sac and have words, what's the point?

    Posted 11 years ago #

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