CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
stickyMessage sent to Symphony kitchens about this - was returning from Bilston riding in the cycle lane here, when as I shoulder-checked (which I was doing periodically), I was almost taken out by the mirror of a lorry, who came so close that I had to take evasive action and swerve violently to the left. In this typically ineptly taken photo you can see where the lorry was driving - in fact I'd go for further left a bit…
@algo Same colour lorry as tried to slide sideways under Cameron Toll this morning.
From Tuesday evening: a bus keeping the space to the left of it clear using decoy indication and someone pulling out from Elm Row...
I take it all the shaking is due to the road surface.
Suffered a very close punishment pass on Warriston Road as I was enjoying the sunshine on my way to B&Q.
Buzzed so close that my elbow brushed the wing mirror whilst they accelerated dangerously past me. The culprit : a unmarked white van driven by idiots unknown who got a total of 20 seconds ahead of me.
I am going to buy a camera now. I've always resisted as I felt that I shouldn't have to protect myself from others whilst travelling. Felt very vulnerable today.
THEN a bee flew into my helmet on the NEPN, it's been a crap day :(
@DeathbyPompi so you were buzzed twice in one ride? (Sorry)
Council-brand accessibilityminibus revving at me a bit on Salisbury Place until it could get rashly past on Grange Road. Might get the plate out of my camera and report it this evening, FWIW.
I got beeped at by an idiot behind me for not being sufficiently in the gutter of Spittal Street yesterday afternoon. I flipped him the bird without looking around: it's my automatic, Pavlovian response if this happens, unless I know I've done something silly. As he passed, his passenger decided to give me a talking to through the open window, gesticulating and pointing as to where he thought I ought to be on the road, and using somewhat inappropriate language too. It was rather warm, and I took exception to this inaccurate advice, rebutting the invalid points with the aid of some rather colourful and choice language of my own.
Right spoiled an otherwise pleasant afternoon so he did.
decent reply from symphony group:
====
Firstly on behalf of the company please accept our apology for any upset caused by our drivers actions, I have traced the driver from our vehicle tracker reporting system and he will be dealt with accordingly through our companies disciplinary procedure.
I would like to say that we don’t usually have problems with our drivers as we do spend time to training them and we certainly don’t plan work which results in drivers speeding around to get their deliveries completed. Once again please accept our apologies for this hopefully one off incident with our driver.
====
This morning. Far too much rubbish driving to list individually, some of it constituting reasonably decent attempts to cut short my existence.
Council-brand accessibilityminibus
Not 'SEAG' was it?
Nnnup. Diagonal EDINBVRGH at the front. Slightly longer than the SEAG bus which blunders around Leith Links most mornings.
I avoid the SEAG bus at all times.
I got beeped at by an idiot behind me for not being sufficiently in the gutter of Spittal Street yesterday afternoon.
I just got beeped by a clown on Quality Street because I was in the middle of the lane...
Why was I in the middle? Because I was about 70m from the roundabout where I was going to turn right onto Main St.
Why was I in the middle? Because I was riding solo on a tandem, and preparing to turn left. These tandem thingies are the same length as a small car, with a similar turning circle, so they need the same amount of road space.
But never mind, drivers know all there is to know about the Highway Code and are well placed to put transgressing cyclists in their place when it suits them. I mean, drivers cannot be held up or slightly inconvenienced, even for a few seconds: them's the ROOLZ!
I was hit by a motorised vehicle today....in Aldi!
A woman on a mobility scooter ran into me at the checkouts. She was going too fast, but fortunately she just ran over my foot - if it had been anywhere else, my knee for example, then it would have really hurt.
She did apologise, but we saw her later speeding across the car park while looking in her bag for her lighter, so I suspect that I'm not the first person she's hit.
Two drivers who felt the need to overtake when I was driving at 25 in a 30
First time poster- apologies for contributing to this thread first instead of something more upbeat!
Had a SMIDSY fright today around noon- turning onto Iona Street from the pavement on Leith Walk (I had walked past the road works), a white van turned onto the street ahead of me. I got on my bike and started pedaling, then noticed the van's reverse lights turning on, so I moved right. Good thing I did, too, because the driver didn't even pause before reversing quickly into the space where I had just been.
Annoyed I didn't think to get the registration number or tell him what I thought of his driving...
5 or 6 cyclists in the westbound ASL at the bottom of Morrison St this evening, all positioned at the left to go through Haymarket.
After a few minutes waiting at the red light the idiot in the black VW Golf at the head of the queue decides to drive right into the ASL. He clearly got annoyed at the number of bikes getting to the front via the cycle lane.
When the light turned green he roared off with smoke coming from the tyres. An angry young man, but no John Osbourne.
... was brought to me by Silver Mazda SG06 UDT. They decided to ignore the fact I was doing 20mph in the 20 zone of Liberton Drive on the approach to the first speed bump. Regardless they decided to overtake, leaving little space to begin with before moving over and slowing down whilst still alongside me for the speed bump.... and the Lorry which they suddenly realised was coming the other way! Anyway I think my shout woke them up a bit - they were lucky it wasn't a hand / foot to their vehicle, they were so close!
They still didn't think it a good idea in gloomy conditions to turn their lights on however.
Many a close pass as I boris biked from Euston - Battersea after my nighttrain down from Edinburgh. One particularly moronic one from a taxi who meandered around me in a dangerous fashion. Sometimes glad of the tank like solid build and low weight of the boris bike, avoid wobbles with close passes.
Yesterday doing laps of Arthurs Seat I had a few silly close overtakes on the bottom road from the paliament/palace on the road towards Meadowbank. Some of the cars had clearly no idea what was going on there or how to drive with people around them. Otherwise a very pleasant ride.
@mogwai1375 welcome… it's unfortunate that negative experiences with drivers or infrastructure motivate people to post, but predictable I think given the challenges for cyclists in the city. I first posted asking for help navigating a difficult junction properly and got an amazing amount of sage advice!
Unfortunately, I have a litany of recent incidents to post about :-(
Now that all the video is edited and uploaded...
1) Monday, Dundee St, Westbound. Close
pass by a silver Mercedes ML320 CDI, reg S006 OBV at the Sainsbury's pinch point, car only half into 'centre' lane. Of course, it gets stuck at the ped crossing anyway. As I turn off to the Telfer sunway, I simply say, "pull out over the centre line when you overtake, please" (as he has his window right down, elbow out). He then swears something. "How about showing respect for other road users?" I retort, to be given the oh-so-clever exaggerated yawning gesture for several seconds. I couldn't resist adding, "Your attitude stinks before heading on, happy in the knowledge I'd probably still get home faster and less stressed than him :-)The video is a bit 'boring' but here's a lovely pic of the 'gentleman in question.
(Right-click, 'view image' for full size).
Plonker!
2) Last Thursday 19th, homebound from a nice ride. Approaching the turn-off towards Craigie's Farm. First, a closer pass than was necessary. But it's what happened later which was most shocking. Only my reactions saved me from going right over the bonnet or into the windscreen. And the idiot never even stopped!
(The music is one of only 3 standard options in the Garmin VIRB Edit software but offers an ironic contrast to events, whilst drowning out my swearing!)
3) Not long after that, I was going through the Dalmeny Estate and was completely disregarded by the drivers of two massive estate worker (or contract worker) agricultural vehicles. Believe me, the camera (as so often) makes the gap look bigger. The first was bad enough with that huge bail of turf unsecured to it's forks, but the second was close enough to hitting me before the trailer it was towing veered towards me. Both were going too fast, neither slowed, but the second couldn't even control the trailer at that speed!
An email with the video and stills has been sent to the estate manager's office (copied in the next post)
4) A road rage incident yesterday, which I think needs its own thread so people can look out for this idiot. Thread here
"Good Afternoon,
Regretfully, I find myself having to complain about two incidents of dangerous and inconsiderate driving by drivers of extremely big industrial/agricultural vehicles on the estate on Thursday evening (19/06/2014) at 21:35. It was a bright, sunny evening (lighter than the video shows) and I would have been perfectly visible, wearing light-coloured clothing.
Cycling through the estate, I am always aware there may be working vehicles on the road, and by and large I have had no issues with them. Some estate workers will smile and/or wave, with most drivers at least slowing substantially if not actually pulling over and stopping to let a cyclist past where the road is narrow. I too will sometimes stop where practical to let them past.
For vehicles of this size, every part of the road is narrow and they should be stopping until a cyclist has safely past them. You can clearly see that neither driver even slowed as they approached. The first one had a dangerous load of rolled up turf or similar and frankly shouldn’t have been travelling at such speed with an unsecured load anyway in my opinion. Had that load fallen onto someone, it could easily be fatal. The second driver was, if anything, worse! Not only was he flying down the steepest hill on the road - in my estimation, at well over the estate’s own speed limit of 20mph (as I suspect the first was too) - he left me no margin of safety and only my leaning towards the verge stopped his trailer from clipping me as it appeared to slide towards me.
Bear in mind that the camera has a wide angle lens and so if anything, the proximity of the vehicles is even less than the video might suggest.
Any vehicle travelling at speed and/or close to a cyclist can be very intimidating, even for the experienced rider. Vehicles of this size present literally an even bigger threat. A less-prepared cyclist could easily have died had they panicked at the sight of these machines hurtling towards them.
I have attached both the video and stills from it for your feedback. (Ignore the dates in the stills’ titles – that only refers to the date was saved from the video, not the date of the video itself).
I await your response.
Regards,
"
Some of those stills (Again, right-click, 'view image' to see them properly):
Forgot this little gem from Wednesday afternoon. Riding up Upper Gilmore Pl from Lower Gilmore Place, this scooter rider comes straight across the front of me, onto Gillespie St. And he saw me coming.
(Right-click, view image for full pic)
Who was he? A Parking Attendant! Once again,I find myself asking how people are permitted to ride on L plates whilst carrying out paid work. Pizza delivery, parking attendants... How?
That area also seems to be a Mecca for PAs, both on foot and on scooters. I counted six the other day, between The Pregnancy & Parents Centre on Lower and the Upper/Leamington Terr junction, a distance of 0.2 miles or under 30 seconds of cycling. It looks less like they find rich pickings and more like they can hide away there from bosses' eyes!
Rubbish driving this morning from the young lady in the Audi that started pulling out into Roseburn Street in front of me as I approached the light. Unfortunately that is quite a common occurrence at that junction. I hauled on the anchors, and she eventually did too, before waving her hands as if somehow I had done something wrong. Clearly my mere presence offended her.
I choose my route through there dependent on the lights at the top - which were at green this morning. I was doing a reasonable pace to make the lights, which then changed in the time I lost letting Mrs Audi complete her maneuver across my bows.
I had just passed on the inside of a female cyclist in a pink jacket, and had noted her intention to turn right into Russell Rd. She was probably slightly confused by me then re-overtaking her on Russell Rd after I decided to use that route instead of sitting at the red light.
We had a quick natter at the next set of lights at Haymarket Yards, so hopefully she doesn't think I'm a complete bampot.
Mrs White Audi (again?), larger version of TT(?), behind me beeped me for driving "too slowly" past a nursery.
Once she passed me, she then sped off past the Steiner School at well over the 20 limit.
@Focus, Lower Gilmore Pl is where the parking attendants have their base/HQ
Ah, makes sense then. Thanks.
My encounter must have been an attendant making a life or death rush to issue a ticket, so my safety (or right of way) wasn't important.
@focus
as i pointed out last year but got shouted down for it:
i guess that's what they mean when they say
BEWARE ESTATE TRAFFIC
If it's the Steiner School in Spylaw then the roads around there are all 30mph. Should be 20 really.
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