DEFINITELY
Do you have details of witnesses? Report even if not.
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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I'll go to the station at lunch. I kind of waved at her right after, to show I wasn't injured, which she might have taken as a sign that everything was fine.
The irony was I had my helmet cam in my bag, as I was only heading to the bottom of Cowgate so thought there was no point!Posted 11 years ago # -
No details of witnesses, I was in a bit of a rush and didn't really think it was an issue until later, when the shock wore off. One of them kept the plate number, so might report it herself. I expect there's CCTV at that junction, with all the pubs & shops nearby.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@twq - if you've got the plate number, report it yourself to her insurer, asking them to pay for the wheel, and reporting that she didn't stop at the scene of the accident (that's probably the only use of the police incident number - the police will do nothing, but the insurer won't believe you without that number).
It will cost you just £4 to get the details of her insurance:
Probably worth it compared to the cost of a new wheel.
Robert
Posted 11 years ago # -
Thanks for the advice, but I think the wheel can be repaired easily enough. I'll give it a bash later. I'll take your advice if I'm not happy with police action.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Yesterday evening, east end of Princes St, junction with North Bridge, outside Balmoral Hotel. Eastbound black car (didn't get make or plates) drives through red light and does a U-turn to go back westbound. By which time the green man is on and the crossing is full of peds, but they continue to drive through anyway.
Nice Way Code? Don't make me laugh.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@wc it's just nice to be agreeing with you so often :)
Posted 11 years ago # -
No it's not.... :P
Posted 11 years ago # -
@twq, hope you get new wheel and are not to injured.
I rode up the York Pl access route to the St James centre this morning. At the junction with Elder St there are traffic lights to allow traffic in and out, and to allow peds to cross through the tram works. The black VW minibus infront just ran through the red light. The bus coming down out of Elder St had to pull into the fence to allow the van past. If I was the bus driver I'd have just gone head to head and blasted my horn. The Black van disapeared into the Car park. I don't bother trying to catch up to have a word anymore as its a complete waste of time. #Nicewaycode
Posted 11 years ago # -
Yesterday, two dangerous drivers on the way to and from the station. Both at the London Road roundabout. The first, in the morning: I'm coming along London Road in the bus lane (on my bike) and the ped crossing lights ahead turn amber. I slow down and stop, pedestrians start to cross. A silver 4x4 next to me accelerates through the lights despirte them turning red and pedestrians already in the road. Driver presumably a mum ddoing school run, one kid in front seat (looks too small to be legal) and one in the back. I shake my head in disbelief.
Later in the evening, on way home. It is dark, and raining. I am dressed in bright red rain jacket, lights front and back, reflective trouser clips, sidewalls, spoke reflectors, pedal reflectors, etc. Come down Leith Street, round Picardy Place roundabout no problem. Next is London Road roundabout, which I always find worse: probably the number of entrances/exits and the relative speeds. Anyway I'm in the right hand lane, going round, getting ready to signal to turn left into London Road. On Elm Row two lanes of traffic waits to get on to the roundabout, at the front are two taxis: a black cab and a private hire car. The black cab in the left hand lane waits as I cross the roundabout. However the private hire car guns his engine as I pass and drives straight at me! I scream at the driver, as there is no way I can reasonably speed up to get out of his way. He misses my back wheel by about a foot.
I don't know whether he was taking a 'calculated risk', being aggressively impatient, trying to intimidate me, or just didn't look properly. Whatever it was, that experience was a frightening reminder of just how dangerous London Road roundabout is for cyclists,
Posted 11 years ago # -
a frightening reminder of just how dangerous London Road roundabout is for cyclists
would it be pedantic to remind you that the roundabout is hazardous, and the driving is dangerous?
Posted 11 years ago # -
o_0, I knew someone was going to come up with this one. I almost put hazardous, but in fact I think it's dangerous because the design allows drivers to do things like that, whether intentionally or just carelessly.
Signalising of that junction can't come fast enough as far as I'm concerned.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Why is the gate at the bottom of the hill being left open until so late? Fortunately I'd been checking behind me and saw the kerb behind me being illuminated and had moved into the red car park bit at the start of the loch by the time the car came past, doing at least forty and still accelerating, screeching as it disappeared. Went past too fast to see the plate and couldn't tell if it was any of the cars parked around the corner as none were exhibiting any noticeable engine-ticking.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Cycling through Linlithgow this morning, heading east, I came across two sets of lights where the car at the front was fully inside the ASL. The first one annoyed me so much that, when I realised they were indicating left, I made a point of going up the inside of them and just in front, and giving them a good heard stare. But alas, at the next set of lights, I saw another car gently coast fully into the ASL. Maybe Linlithgow residents believe they are immune?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Yesterday, but utterly moronic. And viewed by me from my car.
I was heading from Porty to Duddingston (for the record I'd been much further afield than Porty!), driving up Brighton Place towards the bridge under the railway, which narrows, and traffic coming the other way has priority. There's a car coming, so naturally I stop (being a 'nice' driver). All of a sudden the guy in the car behind me swerves out and floors it to go through. Thing is, he's in a beat up old Honda, so it ain't shifting quickly despite the noise, and the car coming down has to haul on the brakes to avoid a head-on collision.
Pure impatience.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Lower Granton Road. Don't know why I keep going that way, it's bad enough filtering past without this...
Posted 11 years ago # -
(why do they make it so hard to get the desktop YouTube link from a tablet?)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Posted 11 years ago #
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@paolobr,
totally sympathise, cars always park like that at that point as the road is too narrow.I would tend to use the shared path next to the water.
Did hear rumour that council were going to realign junction just beyond your pic
Posted 11 years ago # -
existing Lower granton road is barely wide enough for two buses
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Wilmington's Cow, do you think the mini driver would have behaved differently if you had been driving a car rather than riding a bicycle?
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'd observed them from a distance away while they waited for the car in front of me to go past, with roughly the same gap in front of him. And we were going roughly the same speed (I was basically at the 20mph limit, the car in front a little above it). The driver very very clearly (in real time, not through the camera sadly) looked in my direction, made eye contact, and then pulled out.
So no, basically I think she only pulled out because I was a bike rather than a car. Possibly misjudging my speed, possibly not giving a damn.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@559 I mostly do use the shared path, just sometimes if I'm trying to keep speed up along the road I keep going. I've always known that corner was bad, will probably revert to the path.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@559 & Paolobr,
The big problem with this junction is there is no ped/cycle phase at the narrows. When the removed the bridge they should have moved the road to the sea side, giving the flat owners a green space or parking outside without blocking the road. The fact the lights have no ped phase makes the cycle path useless, as you can no cross safely without rasking a veh coming round the blind corner.
Posted 11 years ago # -
at the next set of lights, I saw another car gently coast fully into the ASL. Maybe Linlithgow residents believe they are immune?
No, this is typical behaviour from (what feels like) an increasing number of drivers in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Displays an utter disregard for the rules of the road, or - even worse - a dangerous misunderstanding of the size of their vehicle.
Whilst learning to drive, I was taught that if you lost sight of the white line behind your right wingmirror from it being visible underneath, you had stopped too close to the white stop line. I still aim to stop with the white line below the mirror - it's not about being pedantic, holier-than-thou or even about making a point of being nice, it's adhering to the rules of the road.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@DaveC yes I also find that can be a bit unnerving trying to do that. I've also found myself (if coming from the east along Starbank Rd) hopping onto the opposite pavement (#nicewaycode notwithstanding) before the left turn to avoid getting trapped as I attempt to get onto the shared path. Not a nice junction, I really ought to avoid it.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"I was taught that if you lost sight of the white line behind your right wingmirror from it being visible underneath, you had stopped too close to the white stop line"
Very similarly I was taught that if you're in a queue and can't see the bottom of the bumper of the car in front then you were too close to it. They're all common sense really, like after overtaking someone on the dual carriageway, don't move back in to the left lane until they are entirely in your rear view mirror.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"Very similarly I was taught that if you're in a queue and can't see the bottom of the bumper of the car in front then you were too close to it. "
Me too on an advanced course. One advantage is that if they breakdown you can get out around them.
There's plenty that consider that the distance to be when they are moving, even at 70.
Posted 11 years ago # -
On the topic of leaving distance when driving and poor examples... I was driving home from Aberdeenshire to Edinburgh through really bad snow earlier on this year late one Sunday afternoon. Couldn't safely travel above 25mph because of stopping distances and no grip in the ice and snow on low profile tyres, so had accordingly left 3-4 car distances to the vehicle in front of me on the A90 stretch through Dundee (the part with the series of roundabouts). A woman who decided that this gap I'd left in front of me was now HER gap pulled out from behind the lorry in the lane to my left (indicating only after she had begun the move). I couldn't slow the car down quick enough by gears, tipped the brakes very gently, had nothing but wheelslip on the icy snow, so had three options to make a split-second decision on:
1) Run into the back of her, have the accident as a result of her idiocy in pulling into what WAS a safe space between vehicles to allow me capacity to stop given the conditions; then have the argument re: liability later
2) Pull into my left behind the HGV where she had been and hope the increased stopping distance would be sufficient (it wasn't and I know the grisly details of what happens to people in cars that rear-end HGVs)
3) Move further left and run my car off the road onto the grass, attempting to avoid the back of the HGV and the street lights, praying I'd not missed seeing any pedestrians in dull clothing further in on the pavement incase I couldn't control the car once over the kerb (fortunately I managed to miss both the HGV and the lamp post by inches either side and I was right about no pedestrians)This was the most scary moment I have ever had behind the wheel of a vehicle and in this I include being smashed into from a car pulling out of a junction on me at 60mph, skidding off the road in torrential road and down a steep bank (that one was my own fault) and my Royal Mail van being hit by an aggressive 4x4.
I think it was because it all unfolded at such a relatively slow speed but required such a deal of cognitive decision making in such a compressed time when driving in extremely challenging conditions I had adapted my driving for. I was so shaken up by it, I almost left my car on the verge to go find a hotel because I couldn't face carrying on driving to Edinburgh. The woman didn't even stop. I doubt she realised what she had done.
The conditions were horrific but it was lack of consideration from other drivers on the road that made the prospect of another 3 hours behind the wheel abhorrent. When I finally got home to Edinburgh, I burst into tears (I'm not a person to cry often).
Posted 11 years ago # -
My advanced driving instructor told me to remember "WTT" when joining a queue of traffic. You should always be able to see the car in front's "wheels touching tarmac".
Posted 11 years ago #
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