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.
Phew. Smallish boy and (presumed) Dad spotted climbing out of canal opposite us. Boy on green mountainybike, Dad on grey-red racer (i think). No helmets.
Very dripping but seemed okay - shouted across to check. Didn't see what happened. Dad got him back on the bike after a bit which will hopefully warm them up.
never mind helmets, sounds like they needed armbands :-)
True! Just put that in in case anyone could identify them. Fairly distinctive pair.
Fairly distinctive pair
I almost put a young boy in the canal once. His mistake. Rather, his mum's mistake. Combination of trying to look behind at Mummy going "Look out for the man on the bike", brake and steer all at once. I slowed and pulled in to the left to let him pass on the safe (non-canal) side but he tried to take avoiding action by going the "wrong way" around me (i.e. through the weeds and not along the towpath I had left for him). He somehow bounced and rattled past without ending up in the drink.
Both myself and mummy had a heart in mouth moment. My friend - a few metres behind me - found it rather hilarious.
I've found parents and dog owners who call their charges roaming ahead of them to heel cause more problems than they intend, as first reaction of child / dog is to try look behind them. The children generally do that thing that youngsters on bikes do which is swerve to one side as the little arms follow the neck around, taking the handlebars with them. Dogs generally stop dead, turn broadside across your path and then completely ignore you as they focus on the owner.
It's simplest just to slow and pass like ships in the night.
I agree with Kaputnik here! I mainly find that if people just keep going they'll be fine.
Must admit I am a sailor too and more times than the other we'll spot "something" big moving out there and we'll just hold our course and hope that the chances of hitting are small. By altering your path you are changing the very situation you are trying to avoid. It's like quantum mechanics t'aint it.
Alternately always carry an un-dead cat with you.
I make a point of always saying 'keep to the left' when I call out to my daughter, followed by 'someone overtaking' (or whatever). Seems to work.
If only that worked with my daughters. I can see from the backs of their heads them thinking "left, which one is that again?", and they invariably turn right.
Mine's better on left and right than me....which is useful.
SRD said "I make a point of always saying 'keep to the left' when I call out to my daughter, followed by 'someone overtaking' (or whatever). Seems to work."
You let you're daughter steer the Tandem!?!? eek!!
I have started just coughing loudly, then seeing which way they go before I make a move - mind you, half the time peds seem to have ipods in - almost knocked a girl over at the end of my street due to that last week.
She didnt have a helmet on though, so not sure if that counts as a near miss statistically speaking though.......
@Kaputnik:"The children generally do that thing that youngsters on bikes do which is swerve to one side as the little arms follow the neck around, taking the handlebars with them."
Ah, if only it was just little children. Unfortunately some of us have carried our stumpy little arms all the way into (and through) adulthood, and suffer the same [neck turn = bar turn] syndrome that afflicts the wee ones.
Funnily enough, I was never really aware of my short limb trait until Mrs Knees started mentioning it...incessantly. Now I blame all my physical shortcomings on my underdeveloped legs and arms.
I could've been a contender, you know.
I like your style sir. In my case I have been held back in life due to the ruddy complection of my knees. I'm sure you will understand given your moniker.
Knees..? Don't talk to me about knees...
Mine's better on left and right than me....which is useful.
Until you tell her to keep left when you mean right and she diligently keeps left into the canal!
@ arobcomp as a sticker you might like the furore around the Monty Hall problem as cited in that mark haddon book the curious incident of the dog in the night
K'nik - yes very aware of that risk, but I find on the canalpath esp that I just keep saying, "keep left, keep left, ..overtake carefully...keep left" and it is usually okay.* Also helpful for warning peds that there is a small girl behind them (in case they have missed her ringing bell). For on-coming peds, I like to think it also helps them know which side they should be on, but that doesn't always work...
*turning at intersections more stressful/needs more planning!
Perhaps (and I think we may even have discussed before?) we need resident electronics bodger Steveo to invent a remote control brake applicator that parents can use to reign in their wayward cycling charges?
"...we need resident electronics bodger Steveo to invent a remote control brake applicator..."
You could sneakily fit such devices to the bicycles of people you've spotted riding through lights on the last bit of the way into the office, in order to forcibly stop them the next time they tried when you were within control range.
I wonder how much force a servo would need to apply to operate a rear brake and if you could surreptitiously attach said device...
They seem to manage it with the trolley wheels at the exit to Tesco. How does that work?
@Tom I think it's just a magnet under the paving that opens a catch in the wheels that allows a big spring to push the brake onto the wheel. Needs a key or another big magnet to reset the lock.
I think you could design it something like railway brakes, in that they are fail-safe and are held in the open position, so your servo merely undoes the locking mechanism and the spring does the rest of the work.
How funny. Turns out it was a boy in K's class.
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