CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Today's rubbish driving...

(11330 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Stepdoh
  • Latest reply from fergus
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  1. Stickman
    Member

    Monday morning madness today - I felt that there were a lot of drivers not concentrating this morning.

    Had the usual couple of close passes at the Wester Coates pinch point, including a red private hire cab which raced past and then stopped 100 yards on at the tesco.

    Then as I turned left into Roseberry Crescent a car looked for all the world that it was going to pass me as i was turning. He was right behind me and was pulling out. Citylink coach was coming down the hill and there were people also nippin across the road, so I really wasn't happy. I glared at him and he pulled back, but it wasn't nice driving.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. fiets
    Member

    Not sure whether to post here or on the 'nice way code thread'. Had gone around the sharp bend at Ryans bar in the West End (alongside the end to end queue of buses leading to Princes St). Started to filter to the 'if you must' right and made eye contact with the driver of the bus behind the gap. Glad I did as he instantly closed the gap. Traffic started up and I moved to the 'nope' left. Not fast enough. He floored the accelerator to make sure he blocked me here too. Gave up. Got off. Walked past him and then back on the road to cycle the empty lane to the other side of the square. Utterly depressing.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. fimm
    Member

    Oh, yes.
    Observed (from bus) driver of National Express coach go through Absolutely, Blatanty, No Excuses Whatsoever red light on Princes Street on Saturday.

    And this morning, driver of taxi overtook and then stopped, so I had to stop too, there being a big truck behind me into whose path I did not wish to pull.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. ARobComp
    Member

    4 drivers texting/reading maps on their phones. I only cycled past about 40 cars so that was a startling 10% of all drivers I saw on my 10 minute commute this morning.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. tammytroot
    Member

    @fiets Do you think the bus drivers actions were influenced by the Nope/If you must NWC messages? If they were then the NWC campaign is not only a poorly thought out waste of money but is positively dangerous to cyclists.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. fiets
    Member

    @tammytroot would it be too depressing to say yes? I've cycled in Edinburgh for 15 years and this was the most calculated and nasty bit of bus driving I've encountered. It's difficult to avoid linking the two...

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. Snowy
    Member

    @fimm

    Black Ford Focus SK10 NT0 / SK10 NTO. I'd stopped at the traffic lights at the Lanark Road/Longstone Road junction...

    I think I recognise that description from at least two previous encounters with said vehicle in Chesser area. Pretty aggressive driver with utter disregard for anyone else on the road. Actively avoid.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. Rosie
    Member

    Rubbish cycling and driving.

    At the Dewar Place/Morrison Street/Gardeners Crescent cross roads. There's a filter for turning left. Red light was on for straight ahead, and I was in that lane. A cyclist jumped the red light. Other traffic was turning left on the filter. Then the car behind me started hooting and yelling at me to move. I shouted back "red light", but they kept making a racket. Highly unnerving, a car shouting at you to jump the red light.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. johnnyboy
    Member

    When I got to the bottom of Hanover Street tonight, some tourist was very lost on Princes Street and after lots of tooting from taxis and buses managed to head up Hanover Street. By this point the Mound/Hanover Street traffic had the green light so I moved forward but was blocked by a bus and taxi still driving along princes Street East to West. By this point, traffic was turning from the Mound onto Princes Street and about 5 bikes got tooted at by a taxi driver hurling towards them, some traffic braked and he managed to carry on. If he'd hit anyone, I fail to see how he could have not been to blame....

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. Tulyar
    Member

    @fiets - worth remembering that almost all buses used by main operators in Edinburgh now have CCTV and it usually records over every 7-14 days. There will additionally be traffic monitoring CCTV at that location, act quickly and you should be able to secure a record of the incident.

    I'll need to check but my understanding is that if there is an issue like this, under the Conduct of bus drivers, conductors...etc Regulations 1990(?) the driver can be required to give you his number (the old rule about having a PSV licence badge on display has been discontinued unfortunately).

    @fimm all National Express coaches should have CCTV also but you'll need to identify the route so the contractor can be identified - time & place should be a good start. I nailed a bit of bad driving in Birmingham that way recently.

    As for SK 10 NTO - again it may be useful to note whether there are any buses in the vicinity as well as CCTV on street or on buildings. On London incident was captured on the cameras covering the front of an hotel and the cyclist was able to view the detail by asking the hotel to provide access to their recordings.

    @Rosie remember its the car driver not the car that is pressing the horn switch! Cars, parked and without a driver behind the wheel are generally very safe.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. Tulyar
    Member

    @fimm just tracked back on SK 10 NTO - sounds as if its a regular commute with the habit of using the bus lane. Worth keeping an eye open for that time & direction (creatures of habit) Note in one of magnatom's videos he passes Mr "Shreddies for breakfast" (as I'm driving junior to school) for a second day, and in another he passes the same van & trailer that nearly wiped him off the road a week earlier - and still with the faulty rear lights. If the times can be narrowed down they can be nabbed for the bus lane infringement.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. wingpig
    Member

    (The driver of) large black car SM10 VFD suddenly slammed on his brakes after sailing merrily out of Alemoor Park to head south without having looked first. He then attempted to overtake in the fifty yards leading up to the point where his (but not my) path was blocked by a right-turning van, eventually aggressively revving past at the first available pedestrian-refuge pinch-point.
    (The driver of) BR09 ZZZ seemed to have been offended by being behind a bus and two cyclists in thebus-lane-which-becomes-the-left-turn-lane on London Road/Abbey Lane, so steamed past somewhat incautiously as soon as the bus and other cyclist had gone straight on and they'd turned left after me. In order to prove how fast they were despite me still being immediately behind them they then followed a car out from under the rail bridge without checking for oncoming traffic from the Easter Road direction.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. fimm
    Member

    @Tulyar, what do you mean by "tracked back on"?
    I don't recall encountering him before, but I'll keep an eye out for him now. It was mostly the overtake of free-flowing traffic that I thought was notably dangerous/agressive. I'm not sure exactly what the time was, but if it was after 6:30 then he could use that bus lane legally (just not at 50 mph...)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. Darkerside
    Member

    Had a car draw alongside me yesterday at around 35km/h and hold about a foot away. So the passenger could film me on their phone.

    The temptation to grab the phone and lob it in the loch was almost overwhelming.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Coming down Johnstone Terrace this morning, an easy roll of 25mph behind a coach. Muppet behind, halfway down the hill, decides to overtake us both (doing about 40 in the process). I moved slightly right so I could see past the coach and film just how blind the corner was that he was overtaking on.

    No point in sending it to the police, obviously (agfter all, I film someone overtaking in the opposite direction coming within a whisker of flattening my head on, get spoken to twice, then.... nothing....), which just actually reinforces in me the need to put these things on YouTube. Doesn't lead to enforcement, but means that someone out there can see how daft the roads have become (they are getting worse if you ask me).

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. PS
    Member

    More last weekend's rubbish driving than today's, but I was struck by the sheer number of south Fife (young, male) drivers whose pavlovian response to seeing cyclists was to lean on the horn. Strangely it was almost always cars coming in the opposite direction, rather than those overtaking.

    Those overtaking simply chose to show their appreciation by delivering a close pass (to be fair, not a punishment pass, but no conscious decision to cross the central white line). Do they not have NiceWayCode ads in Fife?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. Edinburgh Cycle Training
    Member

    The Haus Werk van driver who drove straight through a red light on Slateford Road at Shandon back of 6pm.

    Wasn't even close to being amber!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. Rosie
    Member

    @ Tulyar

    "The creatures on two wheels looked from car to driver, and from driver to car, and from car to driver again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

    (An update of the last sentence in Animal Farm.)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. Focus
    Member

    Was just about every taxi I encountered last night! But especially two examples. The first around Nicholson Street/South Bridge who turned sharply from his lane into mine without a look or indication. I was forced to bang repeatedly on his window to avoid being hit, to the sound of gasps from the many pedestrians. Window winds down and I get a rather sarcastic "sorry". "More than I would normally expect", I think to myself, having told him he needs to look and signal before moving. Any minor credit I gave him for that immediately disappeared when he started shouting some gobbledygook at me as he drove down the road behind me. It sounded like, "How many of you are there on the road?" :-o

    Second example was the typical 'throwing the anchor out with no warning' on Queen Street. Brakes jammed on, hazards started flashing so he could let passengers out. All I could think of as I just avoided him was, "That's NOT how to do it!", and he bizarrely seemed to be shaking his head in a sort of "Crazy passengers suddenly telling me where to stop" sort of way. Hard to explain how I interpreted it as that, just that it didn't seem to be aimed at me. Hardly an excuse though!

    Add in the extra safety-blind pedestrians you get during the Festival and the City Centre was definitely somewhere to avoid early yesterday evening. Idiot (with earphones in) ran from behind front of a bus right in front of me and only my quick reaction avoided a collision; mother with pre-teen child decided stepping off the pavement into the Mound cycle lane with her back to me was a smart move, especially with large shoulder bag nearly catching my brake lever (and after I'd twice avoided being clipped by taxis overlapping the lane); and mother and child crossing Hanover Street after ped lights were flashing and north of the actual crossing, only for the young teen boy to stop in front of me midway across to look back at other people in his group still on the pavement!!!

    I really wasn't in the mood following my lovely ride out to Ormiston being spoiled by a puncture as I started the return trip.

    Aaarghh!!!

    And breathe...

    Posted 11 years ago #

  20. Focus
    Member

    One brighter note to add to the above was the pleasant reaction from the traffic warden policing the east end of Chambers Street. I was stuck in slow moving traffic heading towards South Bridge and wanted to cut through to go down the Mound. I was behind one of the buses carrying Tattoo visitors turning into Chambers Street to park and called out to the warden to ask if I could head that way too, and to my surprise she said, "Yes, just watch for the pedestrians" Thumbs up for some sensible "traffic" management :-)

    (I did ride up very slowly to the end of the street in case any of her colleagues weren't so keen to let me be there but I don't think they even noticed me!) I did have a laugh at the other end as a ped said, "You could be waiting some time!" at the crossing. I was (especially as some tourists didn't know they have priority over me) but it was still much quicker than staying on South Bridge.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  21. fiets
    Member

    @ Tulyar
    Didn't take any details - was so angry...Will apply the [code]advice next time though - thanks

    Posted 11 years ago #

  22. LaidBack
    Member

    Fife Creamery truck at 10.20 today.
    Overtaking me on corner on Marchmont Crescent inside the 20mph zone and forcing me off road. Reported to company.
    He knew I was there - on an upright Paper Bicycle and he decided that he's go for it despite me checking over shoulder.
    Driving like that keeps people off bikes or on pavements.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  23. Greenroofer
    Member

    Spotted on the towpath this evening.

    I didn't see what happened, but the gentleman on the left was absolutely sodden, as was the quad bike. There was quad-bike sized area of flattened reeds. I must assume that the bike had been pulled from the canal, which, in turn means it must have been driven into the canal. It was OK, though, because you can see that someone was wearing a crash h****t.

    So, from my perspective, this was rubbish driving because it ended up in the canal. I'm ignoring the fact that it's illegal and stupid to ride a quad bike like that along a narrow towpath at rush hour when it's full of people of all ages on bikes and on foot.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  24. SRD
    Moderator

    that's useful. (see the other two threads re my dealings with poliss)

    I was trying to explain that it didn't look like what I would call a 'normal' quad bike, but maybe that is 'normal' for UK? almost dune-buggy like.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  25. Uberuce
    Member

    It's with great relief that I pass on the crown of Richly Deserved Canal Idiocy Pelters to the individuals involved.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  26. amir
    Member

    You can't change history Mr uberuce

    Posted 11 years ago #

  27. twq
    Member

    Yesterday post-work heading down West Port, going straight to Cowgate. Driver of car SL13 LCC was turning right out of King's Stables Rd. She stuck her (I think it was a her) nose out so I slowed a little, then I kept going. I was mostly past her, when she took off and hit the back of my bike. Luckily the pannier took most of the force, but the back wheel buckled a bit. She didn't stop, but some friendly pedestrians came over to give me her plates. Not sure if it's worth chasing up with police.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  28. SRD
    Moderator

    @twq. YES. ESP if you need a new wheel, but also so he realises she can't get away with it. That is leaving the scene of an accident, which police do take seriously.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  29. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "Not sure if it's worth chasing up with police"

    They hit you, caused damage, and lef tthe scene of an accident incident. Most certainly. May be nothing happens, but adds it to their stats to show just where the real dangers lie.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  30. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Okay, I keep being beaten by SRD - gimme a chance!

    Posted 11 years ago #

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