CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Awareness

(18 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from kaputnik

No tags yet.


  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I guess we all know that SMIDSY isn't reserved just for drivers...

    Riding to work this morning in a bus lane behind a chap who has raced away from the lights ahead of me in true commuter-racer stylee. ahead there are two buses stopped, the one at the back hasn't reached the stop yet (due to the one in front) and so hasn't started to disgorge/engorge passengers. Very very obvious that we're going to have to move into the right hand lane to go round.

    I look back, see lots of traffic, spot a gap that will be alongside me by the time we're 10-20 yards from the buses, signal and aim for it.

    I sere the rider ahead virtually ride into the back of the bus, swerve out right, causing the driver of the Skoda I've just pulled in behind swerve out to the right in turn.

    Bad awareness and anticipation all-round really. The cyclist should really have been paying attention and planning (he looked experienced and pretty 'daily'); the driver should have realised he wasn't going to ride into the side of the bus (the swerve by the driver was very late on).

    Just another Monday morning. Stay safe out there people.

    Thank you for cycling.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. wingpig
    Member

    "(he looked experienced and pretty 'daily')"

    ~anth

    "From another direction he felt the sensation of being a sheep startled by a flying saucer, but it was virtually indistinguishable from the feeling of being a sheep startled by anything else it ever encountered, for they were creatures who learned very little on their journey through life, and would be startled to see the sun rising in the morning, and astonished by all the green stuff in the fields."

    ~Douglas Adams

    Working on the assumption that at least some of the people you see on the roads who have some cycle-specific clothing on and have invested at least £10 in lighting and exhibit tell-tale behaviour like anticipatorily dodging long-standingsunken pot-holes have been on a bicycle before, some seem disturbingly blissfully ignorant or unanticipative of common traffic situations like buses blocking bus lanes, being caught filtering between queues when lights change or even that tricky "lights changing to green" situation, when you think they'd capitalise on their having skipped over the stop line and past the pedestrian crossing markers by setting off as soon as the change occurred rather than spending three seconds staring into space before finally getting round to working out where their foot is, only then considering how it might be raised from the ground and made to somehow interface with the pedal, perhaps with a view to eventually pushing downwards. As with many things, until someone develops real-time thought-reading hardware it'll all remain mysterious.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    "you think they'd capitalise on their having skipped over the stop line and past the pedestrian crossing markers by setting off as soon as the change occurred rather than spending three seconds staring into space "

    In some places of course they are in advance of the lights so can't see them change!

    (eg Lothian Road northbound at WAR)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Yes, that whole 'sitting in front of the stop line so you can't see the lights' thing I find bizarre...

    Loving the Douglas Adams quote - suddenly it all makes sense. @wingpig, finally got round to reading the Colfer 6th HHGTTG book recently. Reasonably entertaining, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, read like someone trying to do an impression of Adams.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. crowriver
    Member

    being caught filtering between queues when lights change

    This is always a tricky one. Even if you know the sequence of the lights (as I do at most of the junctions on my commute), if you are filtering when they are red you cannot be sure exactly when they will change. I usually can judge when it is too near to the change to filter safely by checking where in the sequence other lights are. Still get caught out now and again though.

    It's worse when vehicles are occupying/blocking the ASZ/cycle filter lane. Especially if they are HGV/bus or have 'snuck in' at an awkward transverse angle (often but not always taxis in mid u-turn). You cannot get to the front safely even if there's plenty of time, and have to hang back in the queue with traffic building around you. Can be unnerving when the lights change and the race begins...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Not really related to this thread, apart from last comments from crowriver about cars being at weird angles.

    Semple Street was a hoot this morning. Unusually, when lights changed at Ponton Street there was a tailback around corner into Fountainbridge. There's no filter lane so I went round the outside of the cars queing to turn left Fountainbridge into Semple Street. There was then a car ahead of me that had come the other direction from Riego Street and must have wanted into the carpark under Scottish Windows, so I detoured around that too as it was diagonally across the lane.

    There was a single decker LB at the stop that wanted to pull out and into the right hand lanes to go eastbound at Morrison Street, but it was blocked by some articulated lorries backing up in these lanes. So the bus was blocking cars wanting to go up Semple Street and left at end onto Morrison Street (westbound). These cars also couldn't go around the bus because of lorries, but thought they'd try and randomly arranged themselves across all 3 lanes, like a very unsuccesful game of Tetris. These were the cars that meant that the car wanting into Scottish Windows couldn't get in.

    So where am I going with this? Not sure but think I must have used every lane and cycled in every direction on the point of the compass just to get down this 40m long stretch of very wide, single-direction tarmac. It wasn't even that busy, but due to impatience, nobody could bear to sit in the correct lane and wait a bit and was blocking everyone else in turn so nody (except me on the bike) was getting anywhere.

    I had a wee laugh as I went down Morrison Street with nothing visible ahead or behind me.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    "I must have used every lane and cycled in every direction on the point of the compass"

    That's TERRIBLE.

    You should have stayed patiently in line - like everybody else...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. Min
    Member

    I had a couple of those last week Kappers. Was great to simply ride past then get a huge bit of road to myself afterwards. So long losers!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. Smudge
    Member

    Bring on the gridlock... mwahahaha B-))

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Every now and then crossing Lothian Road from East Fountainbridge to Fountainbridge the traffic going down LR completely clogs up the hatched boxes. I have to admit to a guilty pleasure in seeing them doing this, knowing I can skip through a gap and leave the motorised traffic behind.

    On Sunday, heading north to Doune Castle, we drove through town (as the bypass is a biiiiig loop and quite often takes longer than the town route). It reimpressed upon me a disbelief that so many people put themselves through that every single day. 50 minutes it took us to get from Duddingston to Newbridge, in only moderate traffic. Why why why would you do that to yourself?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. wingpig
    Member

    The Queen Street/Howe Street/Frederick Street junction on Friday evening had some similar non-orthogonal car-orientation kerfuffling as people tried to change lanes whilst waiting in a nose-to-tail line to try and avoid the various people already stuck in the junction after prematurely crossing the stop lines only to find the road they wanted to turn into was blocked. I'd reached the queue by the portrait gallery two blocks east by the time anything else escaped and caught up.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. Smudge
    Member

    Tbh I can understand why the less fit and/or those who *believe* they are not fit enough, would baulk at cycling round Edinburgh. What baffles me is that they then sit in traffic jams morning and night watching (the same) mopeds, motorbikes and bicycles passing them while they sit fuming and burning petrol. Yet it never seems to occur to them that they don't need to sit there, they could get a two wheeler and not queue? (and not contribute nearly as much to the traffic)
    Sheep indeed!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. cb
    Member

    Cars at funny angles when there is no need is one of my many pet hates.

    E.g. when turning right off a main road into a side road, you should be positioned parallel to the centre line, not at 45 degrees, or any number of degrees. Once you start moving is the time to start using the steering wheel.

    How many times does the rear end of a car cause a needless obstruction?

    Also cars at T junctions who sit at the give way line already partly turned. Do you not know how to use your steering wheel?, it's really not that hard.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    In fairness at T Junctions some of them are particularly wide and it makes perfect sense to sit partially turned at the Give Way line. If there is space for two cars therethen I'm personally not going to point straight forward with my left indicator on, blocking traffic behind that is going straight forward or right, or running the risk that someone else is going to be turning left and goes up my inside making the assumption that my positioning means I'm not actually going to do what my indicator says...

    Funny angles between lanes, or blocking cycle lanes in stationary straffic before they turn off to a side street (which I think is your first example) gets my goat too though. Even better is when someone HAS to overtake you on the bike before a queue of traffic and winds up at an angle pointing back into the lane you were in. You scoot by, and they're left blocking two lanes for absolutely no gain whatsoever on you...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Oh, and while we're on funny angles. Drivers who park just before bus stops meaning the bus can't pull into it properly - HAVE A BIT OF COMMON SENSE!

    Yesterday I pulled into a parking space by the side of the road, realised I was sliiiiightly too long and was encroaching on space for someone to get out of a driveway. So I moved to a different spot. Came out the shop I was visiting to see a GIGANTIC Nissan pickup stopped in that initial spot, completely blocking the driveway (as he was somewhat bigger than I). Looked even worse because in the intervening period the car that has been parked behind him had gone, so just looked like the pickup had been virtually abandoned there.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. cb
    Member

    "and they're left blocking two lanes for absolutely no gain whatsoever on you... "

    That can be quite funny though!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    "Also cars at T junctions who sit at the give way line already partly turned. Do you not know how to use your steering wheel?"

    Perhaps, but slightly turned wheels can be a more reliable indication of where they are going next than their indicator lights!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. kaputnik
    Moderator

    as people tried to change lanes whilst waiting in a nose-to-tail line

    I think Wingpig hit the nail on the head - we need an education campaign to inform drivers that their cars cannot be turned or move in a laterall manner without being in motion.

    For what seems like years now (probably because it is years) the bus lane on South Gyle Access road has been out of use (surprise surprise because of tram works that have never even happened yet!) What this means is that drivers are told to use both lanes. However the left (green) lane has 2 bus stops in it in a short distance, so many drivers who can't be bothered waiting behind the buses try going up the other lane (the right turn lane onto Bankhead) only to find they can't get back in because of cars queing in "their" lane (the bus lane). Their solution is to stop in the middle of the lane, thereby blocking drivers trying to make a right turn and in correct lane to do so and then try forcing their way into a non-existant gap in the left-hand turn lane queue. The options available to cyclists are to a/ not go this way if at all possible (but the same tram works long since ruined the cycle path) b/ join the queue in the bus lane or c/ grit their teeth and filter up the middle, keeping a wary eye on lunging lane-changers who move without indicating and making intricate detours around those sitting diagonally half-in-half-out of both lanes.

    It's my daily fun to get to the front (no ASL any more) and then nip onto the remains of the cycle path and then back onto the road around the corner inbetween the convoys of cars where the light cycle produces a break.

    I'd like to thank the blithering idiots who decided to make the above changes for works that never happened, as wasting 20-30 minutes of my day, every day, sitting on the number 22 bus in these queues was one of the major motivators for me taking up cycling!

    Posted 13 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin