Black range rover this morning driving west along PrincesvStreet, so no surorise whe it continued along Shandwick Place, Athol place and west maitkand street
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish driving...
(11331 posts)- Started 13 years ago by Stepdoh
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Posted 10 years ago #
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the award for yesterday must go to the taxi driver who on entering Charlotte Sq from the SW, saw me approaching from the East to west,so he slowed at the traffic island, i slowed too to let him past me to go east first,as i was heading to the cut through, and more often than not courtesy is exchanged here between myself and pretty much all other drivers here.
So when he drives past me glaring and shaking his head at me, i am thinking to myself " i am in lane, i am not obstructing him, theres no one behind me, what have i done? I cycle back east and catch him at the lights, and ask him if he is ok?
He rolls down the window and i say to him,
"Hiya, is everything ok? You were shaking your head at me back there and i dont know what i have done."
He says: "You were going the wrong way round the roundabout, you should have went behind me to turn right".
Yes he was suggesting that i ignore the road markings and large obvious sign, to take a left to cut right round a traffic island, staggering that he thinks this is a roundabout and that would be ok to do but anyways......
I say " thats NOT a roundabout, your wrong" to which he replies "thats what YOU think" and drives off.
I just could not believe I had heard this amazing stupidity, so i look again at the 18ft Square sign in the middle of this "roundabout" and the road markings put down around it, its certainly a traffic island all right.
At this point, a passerby not involved with this starts shouting " he slowed down for you, all you people are the bloody same" I say " all what people, i am just one person, you should just mind your own business" and he storms off grumbling loudly, another passerby stops, and says " you did nothing wrong there, these people are nuts, get yerself hame son" but by this point i didnt know whether to laugh, cry with despair or get angry.... it was just all so pricelessly dumb. Still a tad fazed by it now.
A great start to 2014's commuting. RJPosted 10 years ago # -
Red Vauxhall launches itself out of Murieston Crescent, straight at me, I have to jam the anchors on to avoid it, it then proceeds to immediately cut into the bus lane, squeezing me against the curb - I had to slow even further, otherwise I'd have been off. I chased him through the lights, and up Ardmillan Terrace, but I got caught by the lights at the top and lost him.
On the other hand though, as the lights changed back to let me go, just as I was starting, I saw two rather bright flashes of light, as a car coming along Angle Park Terrace went through the very red light.
For the first time in nearly a year I've actually got something interesting on my cam.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Another needless close pass (video below) last night, I've cut the start off but I had just ridden out of the end of the bus lane there where the video starts. In the time it took to catch up, as I invariably do, I decided that I wasn't going to swear and be as calm as possible. WARNING: the driver was very sweary so don't watch in front of children. I didn't even have to say anything when I got to his window before he started at me. A typical commute in Edinburgh, unfortunately.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Terrible driving - what's more I reckon that was a "punishment pass" - as he didn't need to go into the left lane (the car in front didn't seem to be indicating until later), and if it had just been careless he wouldn't have been ready to give you and earful of complete nonsense as he did. You were totally right to take primary in that lane as you did.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It makes me think that maybe my Primary, isn't "Primary" enough and I should start hanging out even further to the right, though in this instance I was about a foot away from the white line, so I'm not sure how much more of a lane I can take without inviting an undertake. I'd agree that it was a punishment pass as knew exactly who I was and why I was stopping before I even said anything. No wonder people don't want to cycle in Edinburgh when this is commonplace.
Posted 10 years ago # -
in my opinion you got that spot on, and were unlucky that you coincided crossing that bit with that idiot... others may have better opinions, but I'd probably be riding in the middle of the lane and you're a tad further right than that....
any more news from the other terrible overtake on Whitehouse Loan?
Posted 10 years ago # -
@algo
Unfortunately I never managed to get in touch with the PC who decided that there wasn't enough evidence as every time I called he was out, or was next on duty at an inhospitable hour which prevented communication so I've effectively had to let it go, other than keep an eye out for the car.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@condor2378 are you reporting this? Looks pretty cut and dry.
On another note, your camera is pretty good. What is it? My ContourRoam2 is almost completely useless for winter commutes in the dark.Posted 10 years ago # -
And another one which happened on 31.12.13. The little wiggle of the front wheel just before he passes is me checking I don't have a flat as I'd just hit a pot hole hard. As you can see, theis City Sprint driver uses the left turn only lane to proceed ahead within inches of me. I complained to the company, who reponded that they would speak to the driver but he was off on holiday as of 31.12. I emailed asking for an update today,. As ever, I'm a bit sweary, especially when I've nearly been killed. Sorry in advance.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I hope that gets properly dealt with - shocking. He went straight on from the left lane - once again it almost looks like a punishment pass. It's particularly bad as you would have assumed from where you were that noone was going left as they were all queuing in the straight on lane...
Posted 10 years ago # -
@twq
I've reported one to the police before (in this thread a month ago) which was closer than this (though not as close as City Sprint, which I've just put above) and the police said there wasn't enough evidence so I'm a bit in a "whats the point" frame of mind. That said, I did contact City Sprint with the video and they seem to be taking it seriously. The driver was on holiday 31.12 so I emailed and asked for an update today and their Operations Controller came back to me within 2 minutes saying the driver is back on Monday and he will let me know what happens. Oh, and the camera is a Mobius Camera, discussed in the past here. I'd highly recommend it.
@ algo
The annoying thing is that we'd been sharing the road (albeit I was using the bus lane) all the way down from Holy Corner, with no issues or conflicts. He was just trying to jump the queue to get a few cars in front. Oh, and he "pays Road Tax, and I pay f*** all", which makes it all right.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Bloody hell - that City Sprint driver wants a swift kick in the pants - everyone I've shown it to has just gasped at that - I thought my incident today was close, that was just ludicrous.
Posted 10 years ago # -
That is awful. @CitySprint_UK are on Twitter btw are you @condor2378?
Posted 10 years ago # -
@cyclingmollie I'm afraid I'm not @condor2378, that was already gone when I joined twitter :-(. I contacted their Edinburgh Office by phone when I got to work and they asked for the video, which they got and are dealing with it.
@EddieD City Sprint have seen the video and responded that they will be talking to the driver when he gets back from holiday on Monday and will let me know. They seem to be taking it seriously and I'll post the results when I hear them.
Posted 10 years ago # -
City Sprint....good god, I don't have any words for that. That twunt needs taking off the roads immediately.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@condor2378 it's probably worth bringing up with the police again if it's not dealt with to your satisfaction. I had a great response from two PCs I've spoken to. Think one was Mark Williams who is the Chief Super. He said my close pass video was enough to go on, but then it turned out to be a company car, and the PC allocated my case said they couldn't find out the identity of the driver without a criminal case.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@condor2378 Okay. The Twitterstorm can be held in reserve.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@cyclingmollie. Thanks. If they try to brush it under the table on Monday then we can unleash the metaphorical hounds. :-)
Posted 10 years ago # -
Wow, that City Sprint overtake is really frightening :-\
Posted 10 years ago # -
Already online:
Posted 10 years ago # -
nd he "pays Road Tax
Correction. City Sprint pay the "road tax" on that vehicle.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@condor2378 - looks like your driver from last night was also sitting in the bus lane in the video (South Bridge by the looks of it). In terms of positioning I take a similar line to you coming up there and move to the right hand lane pretty soon after the junction as I turn to head along Chambers Street and it's best to get into position early. If not the traffic tries to get past and then cuts in to go straight on. It's always so busy there, I don't like that stretch of road. Should be one lane each way with nice cycle lanes and wider pavements.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@ianmb
Yes, it's South Bridge, and I'll admit I don't go up there in rush hour often. I was going straight and he turned (I think left) as he never passed me again and I was looking out for him. +1 for the one lane but I think that might worsen the congestion and annoy drivers who get stuck to be even more "grrr" and "argghhhh" when they see a bloodycyclist progressing in front of them.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Metallic Blue Vauxhall Astra
This morning whilst cycling down Silverknowes Road to Parkrun above car overtook me on the right hander giving me about 80cm room.
The entire road was icy. They didn't want to go further to the right as they might have met something coming up the road.
The last 150m nearer the marine drive roundabout was all ice and the next car to overtake me ended up on the central reservation attempting to turn left into Marine Drive.
Posted 10 years ago # -
The effect our videos can have can be quite strong, even if no action is taken. I had never really paid attention to City Sprint vehicles - I couldn't say how many or even if I've seen their vans before. But I spotted one at the side of the road today and instantly thought, "There's a company I wouldn't be in a hurry to use in future."
First impressions (or should that be worst impressions?) last...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Nothing too dramatic for me today, just a few 'could do much better' close passes, but there was one BMW driver (quelle suprise!) who passed much too close and, when I pointed out to my right to show he should have moved over properly, had the temerity to point to his left to suggest I should have been in the gutter for his benefit, despite there having been a nice empty road on the other side of the centre line for him to pass correctly.
Also, a few days back, a taxi-van passed me too close so he could cut me up before the island on Whitehouse Loan and then proceeded to stop well over the ASL at the Strathearn Place/Road junction on red. I glided by and calmly said, "That's 3 points and a £100 fine". When the lights changed, he forced his way past at high speed, between me and a cyclist coming in the opposite direction, with a long blast of the horn. Class A Muppet.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Just watched the City Sprint video and that's simply murderous driving. Not even incompetence. He's old and ugly enough to know what might happen when you drive 2 tonnes of metal within inches of an unprotected human, and he simply didn't give a sh*t. Psycho.
So City Sprint, let's be clear, I work in a very large UK organisation and on Monday I'll be speaking with our procurement dept to find out if we use City Sprint, or not, as the case may be.
Posted 10 years ago # -
SP or N 19 or 5 WGK or whatever it was seeing as none of those are valid, a flattish red car piloted by an impatient nerk. Overtook as I was crossing the mini-canyon at the Strathearn/Greenhill/Church Hill junction so closely that I diverted and followed him to Holy Corner to ask him to leave more space next time. He then drove over the ASL to respond and demonstrated his unawareness of the parked cars along Strathearn Road.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@wingpig - SN is Edinburgh, SP is Dundee - the number is most likely 51 or 61 - 19 or 15 isn't possible.... it might be SN51WGK for example (vw polo).. (just in case that's helpful)
Posted 10 years ago #
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