CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
stickyI was walking down West Port and saw two women on matching Jamis hybrids* be tailed extremely closely by a black cab. It was absurdly close, especially given that they were both going at a fair clip and couldn't possibly be accused of "holding up traffic".
*i had spotted them a few minutes earlier outside the Sainsburys on Lothian Road; the matching bikes drew my attention.
From Bin Lorry at junction of Grange Loan/Kilgraston.. I was coming down Kilgraston, ironically from delivering PoP leaflets, he had just pulled up at the junction from Whitehouse Terrace, and was stopped. I could sense that he was about to pull across, so I emergency braked and stopped just before he was two thirds across. He stopped then too, but if I haven't braked in time it would have been a squashed shuggie. Lots of waving from me, but he just drove off.. I've sent complaint into council, but unfortunately didn't get his number plate..
I've been lucky that I've not had any really dangerous passes for a long time. Today, one year to the day after I totally broke myself coming off my bike, private hire cab 893, SJ59 LTZ nearly took me out:
I rarely shout at drivers, but this guy really scared me. You probably can't tell, but the spidey sense was going just before he did it as I, for no apparently good reason, decided to move closer to the kerb just before he brushed past me.
Any ideas how I go about finding who to complain to about this? I assume he must work for a firm of some kind?
(I must be getting older and wiser though, as I didn't swear at him at all!)
SN06 EFB, black taxi number 923. Close pass in heavy traffic on Slateford Road in the dark and wet. Didn't strike me as malicious, just incompetent to be driving in those conditions, an impression confirmed when I noticed his rear lights weren't working (one off completely, other one so dim as to be useless).
Black Mercedes 4x4 with Corstorphine Roofing logo, with its front end completely tanned in on Baird Dr this am. Looks like he'd had a smash with another vehicle.
Corstorphine Roofing seem to feature on here quite a bit. Not sure if they are all rubbish drivers, or just a large company with a lot of drivers, some of whom will be rubbish.
Some guy in a VW polo doing a really close pass as I was going up leith walk. The lights about 20 or 30 yards ahead were at red with traffic already queuing. He was braking to stop at those lights as he was alongside me.
@ mkns
The Ferry Road to D-Mains Main St slip road, right? A very bad place for that sort of occurrence.
It may be my imagination, but I'm fairly certain I've had a bad pass from a blue Skoda private hire car before. Wonder if it's the same idiot?
@ Snowy
"so dim as to be useless"
Seems to sum up the driver pretty well too!
@ edd1e_h
"Corstorphine Roofing seem to feature on here quite a bit. Not sure if they are all rubbish drivers, or just a large company with a lot of drivers, some of whom will be rubbish."
You missed out "a large company, all of whose drivers are rubbish", which seems to be the case in my experience. Every single time I've seen them, the driving has at best been suspect, and all too often it has been dangerous. As Edinburgh companies go*, possibly the worst offenders outside of the taxi mobs.
* at least where there are more than just one or two drivers.
That's the place, @Focus. Always wary there, but that pass was much closer than what usually happens.
@mkns - get the registration/taxi license number and report him to the licensing authority. Edinburgh are pretty good at following up such complaints, but I've never tried the other councils, should he be registered out of town.
Robert
Friday, 8:30pm
Another company to add to the (or certainly at least my) boycott list: La Favorita pizzas and again
Heading north along Pitsligo Road (just off Newbattle Terrace), I'm making a good pace as I hear a car behind me. The engine note turns to a rev and the driver tries to beat me to the Give Way markings such that we get there at the same time. Very dangerous and only a few inches off my elbow since it's only one lane in each direction. Totally unnecessary pass, and as the end result showed, I wouldn't have delayed him.
It's not a smart move doing something that stupid when your car is a motorised advertisement for the company you own or work for
They will be getting an email.
La Favorita are already on a list for their extensive history of double-parking outside their premises on Leith Walk and anywhere they might be making a delivery.
Costorphine roofing also raised on ediworstdrivers recently. Pavement parking I think.
Perhaps in a huff at having been unable to overtake earlier, the driver of PE04 KBU (Mondeo, possibly black) took the wrong lane out of Marionville Road onto the roundabout by Sainsbury then cut me off to turn up towards London Road, steaming away and possibly just getting over the stop line before the light went red. The driver of OU52 UVG (Volvo "S80", dark green?) sounded like he was going to attempt the same thing, but ended up behind me when I was in the advanced box. He may have seen me recording PE04 KBU's number plate at this point. As the lights went green there was a solid queue of cars in the car lane all the way back from the Abbey Lane junction, so I went a few metres to the rear of the rearmost on my way to the westbound bus lane, noting an insistent noise from behind and peering pointedly at OU52 UVG's bonnet as I reached the bus lane. The insistent noise followed me, despite the bus lane being a bus lane and OU52 UVG not being a bus. There was a genuine bus stopped at the red at the Abbey Lane junction, so there was no point anyone going particularly fast. I stopped a couple of metres behind the bus (where I could still see the traffic light), noted the insistent revving still behind me and peered back again to note OU52 UVG's number plate (taking a moment to memorise it) less than an inch from my rear light. Shortly afterwards, OU52 UVG's driver-side door opened and the presumed driver emerged, shuffling unhealthily over to my right and muttering aggressively through teeth ill-suited for clear speech. I caught a bit about being in the middle of the road so replied that I was allowed to be and that there was an impassable bus in front of both us anyway. This didn't seem to go down well and threats were issued. I quietly unclipped my left foot in case I needed to lean that way and advised against attempted physical escalation when we were surrounded by potential witnesses, at which point the lights changed and the bus in front started revving. Before slowly shuffling back to OU52 UVG the driver appeared to attempt to weakly punch me in the camera bag, which is why I'll attempt to erport this one to the police. I stopped round the corner to check that I had his number plate correctly recorded. Watch out for him.
@wingpig - that all sounds a bit terrifying - hope you're ok and nothing damaged from the weak punch. I hope the police take it seriously - they really should.
La Favorita, the other day, were quoting 20 mins for collection against 90 mins for home delivery which goes to show that the drivers are trying to pack too many deliveries into too short a space of time.
They also seem to drive at least 50% more than the speed limit.
+1 cb
I live not far away from La Favorita in Morningside and their delivery drivers are terrible. The speed at which these cars drive about the area is going to cause a serious accident at some point if not worse. They have little to no consideration for other road users of any kind and disregard all speed limits. I have thought about writing a complaint many times but haven't gotten round to it yet.
On the other hand they do bake good pizza, though I collect (they are the only "fast food" pizza which the wife will eat, so boycotting isn't an option.) Thankfully it's a rare occurrence when we use them anyway.
I wouldn't bother trying to complain to La Favorita, They simply don't care. (I tried talking to them about using the Greenway outside their Leith Walk place as their own private parking bay. Waste of time.)
+1 to algo on Wingpig
Domino's in Gilmerton are similar - perhaps all pizza place are similar. The one in Gilmerton has drivers pulling in and out at speed, parking on the pavement etc. Plus it's next to a Bingo hall, with lots of chaos at dropping off and picking up time.
Is this the definition of being "left hooked"?
Either way, absolutely pathetic.
Recommend boycotting CP Plastering in Edinburgh until they learn to drive. Had to slam on brakes as he attempted an overtake on myself and another cyclist in Holyrood park (no commercial vehicles...) while there was oncoming traffic. He had to swing in as he was half way past me.
Luckily I'd anticipated it and got out the way before he could hit me. I was able to easily put my hand on his van couldn't have been more than 6 inches form my handlebars.
Hi Alex
I appreciate your e-mail. I will most certainly be taken this incident further with the driver concerned. I am sorry for the inconvenice this has caused you.
Regards
Conor
Cp Plastering
_________
I've pointed out that "inconvenience" is a slight understatement.
Good that he's replied already.
@ARobComp I had a lady in a car do that to me this morning in Holyrood park. A half overtake, on approach to the roundabout. Plenty of cars doing over 30 this morning in the 20 zone.
A mini decided to overtake me on completely the wrong side of the road this morning, at a T junction. Mental. Coming home, I had a Range Rover pretty much drive at me on my side of the road, and finally I fell off my bike while I'm stationary. Clearly the last one isn't bad driving, but I found it funny. Video:
Sitting in the middle of the North Bridge ASL box I'm joined by a youngish guy on a Harley - so close I could feel the vibration.
We set off together for Leith Street - he has the power advantage.
His line takes him across me to the centre of a bus rear, mine takes me to his left.
Bus moves, I move too and stick my hand out for overtaking the bus and he doesn't compete for the gap.
Continue down to the John Lewis lights and arrive about the same time.
He goes through, just behind two pedestrians still crossing on flashing green.
Clearly he doesn't know the Highway Code.
Later I'm overtaken by a car that 'has' to overtake on the section of Calton Road towards the back of the Station.
But he doesn't have the speed/skill to get round the corner ahead of me so we go round together. He passed adequately wide but fortunately nothing was coming.
He was about a second ahead of me as I turned up New Street.
Of course in both cases I should just have accepted that I'd been 'beaten'.
I had to laugh at the sort of laugh/sigh noise at the end of mkns' video above, which just makes me think that we're discussing some woeful decision in the office.
Had quite an amusing run in over the same stop line this morning, which resulted in me having a short chat with a lady in the government car park... will post it up when I get a minute.
I (on foot) nearly got taken out by a car that went through a red light on the ped crossing between Picardy Place and York Place this afternoon. Light had gone red so I stepped onto the road and had got within a yard of the central white line when a grey car driven by what looked like the dictionary definition of a mild mannered bespectacled middle aged man shot past in the right hand lane. Can only assume he saw the green light for Broughton St and assumed that was for him. All I managed to do was raise my arm in a mute "hey!" and then a second later repeat the gesture as an admonishment at his rapidly disappearing rear.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but for any incidents with vehicles, it is worth checking the motor insurance database to see if the vehicle is insured:
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