Hit a ped (very minor) « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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Hit a ped (very minor)

(16 posts)

Started 13 years ago by CompactDstrxion
Latest reply from crowriver

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CompactDstrxion
Member

- Turning left from Lawnmarket (Royal Mile) onto Bank Street. Traffic light controlled junction.

- On my green light I proceed slowly (cobbled junction so it's a bit dangerous to try and turn at speed anyway).

- As I'm turning I notice two pedestrians just starting to cross into my path, by the time they stepped out into the road I was almost on them already. They obviously have a red man.

- I shout a warning, one of them notices and steps back but the other doesn't.

- I don't stop in time and hit the pedestrian at about 2 mph brushing her leg.

- I stop and have a short conversation with her to confirm she's OK, she confirms she is and apologises saying she wasn't paying enough attention. I double check that she's definitely OK before I continue. She sounded American. Taxis wait patiently behind me while this is going on!

- Reported it to the Police just now as I am obliged to, since I ride a pedelec.

Posted 13 years ago #
Nelly
Member

I wouldnt beat yourself up, I shout at daft peds every week, surprised I havnt had any scrapes myself.

Odd, isnt it how people can ignore bikes / riders so easily?

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

I had exactly the same scenario on West Nicholson yesterday afternoon. No cars about, two peds step out, I brake, ring, ring, BRAKE. One has stopped and stepped back. The other one only saved by my disk brake. American.

A huge number of death wish pedestrians on MMW this afternoon too.

Posted 13 years ago #
Claggy Cog
Member

Tourists visiting from countries where they drive on the right are disorientated and don't look to their right a lot of the time, so just don't see you. The reverse is true when people here visit countries where they drive on the right, we would tend to look right. Either way they soon learn...usually after a few near misses. With the sun out and summer arriving people are loving being out and many are intoxicated with the fact that it is warm or other things and are overexuberant and not really looking out, plus there are just so many of them, getting in each others' way too.

Posted 13 years ago #
Dave
Member

Pedelec or no, isn't everyone obliged by law to report injury collisions to the police?

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

Even after almost 20 years of mainly living here and other places where they drive on left, I still look both ways, obsessively.

Posted 13 years ago #
Nelly
Member

@SRD agree - having seen people go wrong way at roundabouts, up one way streets etc, I try and anticipate the unexpected (if thats even possible).

Posted 13 years ago #
Uberuce
Member

Anticipating the bleedin' stupid seems to be a good enough bodge. He said, taunting karma and/or fate.

Posted 13 years ago #
Instography
Member

Oh, that reminds me of something I read in Wired. Hang on, I'll look it up.

Ah, yeah, this is it. It's a bit of a long read but worth it. I won't give the conclusion away except to say that we are anomalous information.

Posted 13 years ago #
Darkerside
Member

That's a great article, for anyone who hasn't yet clicked on the link.

If you're similarly interested in how human mistakes happen, you can spend many an intigued hour going through the Marine and Rail Accident Investigation Branch reports (google MAIB and RAIB). Sobering to read how someone with huge amounts of experience can end up being so disorientated that a container ship ends up on a beach, or a train travels backwards instead of forwards for a number of miles.

(The Air branch tends to be less detailed and more mechanical, I'm sure partly due to the much greater number of incidents/month. Airprox board [aircraft that get too close together but don't collide] tends to be much more about human error, but requires a good knowledge of air traffic procedures)

*takes off geek hat and goes for second coffee of the morning*

Posted 13 years ago #
lionfish
Member

Regarding the article on the bit about how scientist deal with the unexpected... I think I want to disagree with the 'why we ignore failures': "The problem with science, then, isn't that most experiments fail -- it's that most failures are ignored."

I'd say that the reason is: we're usually supposed to be doing research on A (because of our funding application, PhD topic, collaboration, paper topic, license restrictions, ethics request, cost, etc) and literally do not have the time (or funding/equipment/participants/etc) to follow up much of the mysterious weirdness that is constantly being found.

I do agree with the article that things can't be purely 'hypothesis-driven'. Of my PhD my favourite finding was one I found completely by chance while I was just messing about with the data, seeing what patterns I could see. That's not how my paper describes it though :)

Posted 13 years ago #
lionfish
Member

"...Not surprisingly, undergraduates without a physics background disagreed with Galileo. (Intuitively, we're all Aristotelians.) They found the two balls falling at the same rate to be deeply unrealistic, despite the fact that it's how objects actually behave"

No it's not! It's only how they behave if there's no air resistance.

Also the dlPFC is a huge region, with many mysterious functions! Agh.

I do like his emphasis that being challenged (e.g. at a lab meeting) is very important. The journal clubs/meetings are important, although they always feel like wasting time from the actual research :)

Posted 13 years ago #
recombodna
Member

A guy walked into me last week sending me into a stationary car at the lights. The front wheel came off my bike and i folded the wing mirror of the car in..... everybody was very apologetic. Didn't stop the huge bruise coming up on my leg though.....

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

recombodna - thanks for not feeling the need to show us a picture, unlike certain other people i could mention...

Posted 13 years ago #
recombodna
Member

Ha Ha ! I'll cancel the download then.

Posted 13 years ago #
crowriver
Member

I didn't hit anyone, but I had a very bizarre altercation on Porty prom Tuesday, while cycling (very slowly) with son on tagalong, partner/daughter following behind.

A middle aged man was pushing an elderly lady in a wheelchair, heading west. As we approached, I tried to guess which direction he would go as we were on a collision course and the prom was fairly busy so I did not want to swerve into a small child or sundazed teenager.

However as we got closer the man pushing the wheelchair started zig-zagging, swerving the chair first left, then right, then left again whilst staring me down. I figured out that this seemed to be deliberate. Must say the elderly lady looked most alarmed at being handled like this. I decided to give a wide berth, and spotting a clearing, steered out left leaving a good 3 feet of space. I called "Hey, watch where you're going." At the same time, the man shouted "You're not allowed to cycle on the *@!#*@! prom!" "Oh yes we bloody well are!" I retorted as we passed.

Then a moment later my son piped up "So why is there that sign then?" nodding towards a roundel featuring a bike with a red circle around it on a nearby lamp post. "That sign has no legal basis." I growled defensively.

So, the wheelchair pushing man had a point. But what a way to make it, putting an elderly (presumed) relative in potential harm's way! Is that 'the colonel' I wondered? I also mused whether someone pushing a wheelchair could be done for 'driving furiously'.

Anyway, bloody timid council! Why are the signs still there?

Posted 13 years ago #

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Hit a ped (very minor)

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