CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Today's rubbish cycling

(4503 posts)

  1. piosad
    Member

    Me. Coming up Marchmont Rd to turn into Strathearn Rd, I was in the cycle lane. Lots of congestion at the lights and a private hire Prius standing in the cycle lane just before the ASZ, indicating right. I tried to get into the ASZ but the car to the right of me inched forwards, which I took as a sign they weren't happy to let me through. I got stuck behind the Prius, which didn't actually turn right. Net result was me stranded on the left side of the intersection and braking rather abruptly when the flow of traffic almost took me past the junction. The gent on the bike behind me almost ploughed into my rear wheel. Sorry! No real damage done hopefully but I should probably have been more assertive in getting to the right-hand lane.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  2. Frenchy
    Member

    Guy on mountain bike going through the red light at Gilmerton crossroads just as the pedestrian lights turned green. Dog not happy.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  3. Blueth
    Member

    The man in black at Haymarket yesterday teatime who just had to overtake the cyclist in front by coming out of the red lane. Too fast, far too shallow an angle of approach to the rails and banked over too far. Not often you see someone getting all three wrong. And his "victim" got away.

    Judging by the style with which he picked himself up and got on his way I would guess he has previous experience, but not necessarily learned from it.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  4. jules878
    Member

    This evening as I was cycling down Morrison Street I was surprised to see someone cycling towards me!

    It was ok though because he decided to turn left into Grove Street!!

    Luckily for male pilot there wasn't much traffic heading opposite direction to him on either one way street at 6.30pm.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  5. nobrakes
    Member

    Maybe he was going to Nodnol?

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Flash Video

    Posted 7 years ago #
  6. jules878
    Member

    @nobrakes :-)

    Posted 7 years ago #
  7. GDR
    Member

    Guy who wheelsucked all the way from Longniddry to Prestonpans today before overtaking like a rocket just past the old power station site. What a hero!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  8. gembo
    Member

    @GDR the old power station site great spot for launching your attack.

    Not really rubbish my example from WoL path the other night, young chap came past me on skinny tyres, I thought little of this, had two heavy panniers and schwalbe marathon plus. However I started to reel him in. I find it is easier to chase than stay in front. The nearer I got to him the more erratic he became, wobbling all over the path, I fear he had perhaps Bonked. I said to hm kindly as we passed, you've dropped your pace.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  9. stiltskin
    Member

    @GDR the old power station site great spot for launching your attack.
    Nah! Novice mistake. There is a real risk of getting caught at the lights.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  10. gembo
    Member

    Ha yes, but in this instance the lights were at green?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. GDR
    Member

    Yeah-he just zipped through the lights as they were changing but I being a fine upstanding cyclist stopped. Next time...

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. gembo
    Member

    There is a chap on my commute, we nod and say hello, he is a bit faster than me but I can reel him in so he would be good to chase except he jumps every single light and goes round the outside bobbing and weaving at every opportunity. I stick to the rules and some days I reel him in anyway

    I do not always stick to the rules but I do when he is in front as I try to act as a counter balance should any driver or general public wish to observe and remember the two different methods.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Shameful display from drop-bar speedo guy on MMW, ringing bell as he flashed down the wrong side straight towards me ringing his bell irately at some poor pedestrian trying to cross. Tumshie heid.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. Greenroofer
    Member

    Very (perhaps overly) confident mountain bike chap on the aqueduct this evening. Heading across at some speed, he did not make an effort to slow for the oncoming pedestrian but just rode right along the edge. I was going the other way to him and stopped against the railings to let him pass. He didn't slow at all, causing the chap behind me to comment about his foolhardiness.

    It's a technique that will work for him until the day he suddenly finds himself in the drink.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. fimm
    Member

    Me, cycling through a "give way to oncoming traffic" sign. Apologies to the nice driver of the black car who didn't appear at all irritated by this.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    The cyclist who, on the approach to the Whitecraig roundabout, veered out into the middle of the road, nearly colliding with me, saw me at the last moment, braked, then gave me the verbals for having no bell. I told him he'd not looked before pulling out (and he hadn't signalled either) but he shouted "you lot are all the same you're all (inaudible)".

    Posted 6 years ago #
  17. Stickman
    Member

    you're all (inaudible)

    Well you didn't have a bell.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. Rosie
    Member

    Stopped at the ASL at the bottom of Morrison Street - not the nicest place to hang out. Beardy bloke on mtb passes me on the left, pulls up past the ASL and of course jumps the red light.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  19. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Just split a MWS presentation box of extraordinary whiskies with my brother and his father in law and cycled home with no rear light. Tssk.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. jdanielp
    Member

    Dangerous cyclists not bothering to signal left before abruptly turning off Dundee Street onto Gibson Terrace on the canal towpath divertion this morning, the first of whom looked to have been quite close to taking out the cyclist who was heading straight on behind him. I suggested that the guy who was just ahead of me who also failed to indicate to do so in the future as I passed him up the hill. I caught and passed the first of these offenders (at least I think it was him) on the towpath, only to then discover him wheelsucking me about thirty seconds later. I stopped pedalling (possibly a little too abruptly - it wasn't meant as a brake test) and waved him back in front. Finally, a little after the bypass on one of the quieter sections of the canal, I found myself behind a cyclist wearing large headphones. After ringing my bell constantly for 5+ seconds without any apparent awareness from him, I decided to overtake him on the right as usual, only for him to abruptly pull over to the right, presumably to let me by on the left, as I was coming alongside. After emergency stopping to avoid contact I shouted at him angrily as I passed on the left. He probably didn't hear, but was apologetic.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. The bloke who I've sen a number of times over the last year who cycles to the front of the traffic at the lights on Roseburn Street, and sits in front of the line resting his left foot against the kerb outside the Roseburn Bar.

    You'd assume with that road positioning (up against the left-hand kerb in the left-turn lane) that he was turning left. But no - when the lights change he cuts sharply right across the left-and-right-turning traffic and heads along Roseburn Terrace towards Wester Coates.

    Given that I first saw him doing this last year, it's a miracle that he's not been wiped out by anyone yet.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  22. algo
    Member

    I was driving through the park yesterday - as I reached the end of Duke's Walk approaching the roundabout at the end of Royal Park Terrace there was a cyclist in front of me. I stayed back, but she was clearly (sadly) expecting passes on the roundabout and slowed down to almost walking pace, and wobbled about hugging as far as she could. I thought in fact she was pulling over at one point and stopping and she was right on the kerb so I overtook as carefully as I could - as did the impatient cars behind. She then appeared on my right filtering to the front at the lights. Probably a bit rubbish by me too, but if she'd just taken primary and cycled at her existing pace there would have been no ambiguity and she would have been a lot safer. Not her fault, but it's a classic example of deference to cars being ingrained and the timidness actually endangered her more.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  23. SRD
    Moderator

    Not so much rubbish as inconsiderate.

    Did a run out to Craigies with micro-SRD on Sunday morning. Lots of cyclists about. Many waves, smiles, etc. But a few tourers who baffled me. Two particular incidents stood out:

    On the Burnshot diversion, we were heading from the pavement bit onto the coned/barried bit where there's a bit of a pinchpoint, when two tourers came up on our left and the first one cut between me and micro-SRD, and the second one came right up beside me as well. We weren't moving fast because the surface was bad there and we'd lost speed because we';d not known the route and had to stop, but we then followed them all the way to Craigies. Why would someone - especially when cycling with another rider - barge in between a child and parent on a bike like that?

    On the way back, two ladies came up from Silverknowes to join the cycle path towards russel road, as we came up from Cramon Brig. they were single file as they enetered the path and we fell in behind them, but then they immediately went side by side very slowly and continued that way as they joined the path and continued very very slowly. We were right behind them and tried and tried politelyu to ask to get past but the only possible way would have been through the middle. Finally path got a bit wider and I shouted 'please will you let my boy past on your right'. I have nothing against sociable cycling, but this was bizarre - I can't see how they would not have known we were there - they saw us as we jointly came up to the path. My only thought is they assumed (wrongly) that they were cycling faster than 6yo could?

    If it was anyone on here, I apologize in advance if I've misconstrued your behaviour, but from my perspective, it was just weird.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  24. sallyhinch
    Member

    That latter example would seem like the perfect use for a bell ... I'm terribly oblivious once I start chatting on a bike ride but a brisk trring will usually remind me to move over if someone's coming through. Or did you ring and they just ignore it?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. SRD
    Moderator

    yes, perhaps I should have rung the bell. It felt particularly awkward because I knew they knew we were there, and ringing a bell in that situation felt really impolite.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  26. sallyhinch
    Member

    Once I'd asked and been ignored, that wouldn't have weighed all that heavily on my mind ...

    Posted 6 years ago #
  27. fimm
    Member

    I'd guess that the slow cyclists thought they were going faster than your 6-year-old could. The solution would be to get micro-SRD to ask, in his loudest, most I-am-so-going-to-embarrass-my-parents voice, "Mummy, why are those women cycling REALLY SLOWLY?"
    ;-)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  28. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Cut a guy on a fast black bike up at the Teviot Place/Bristo Place yesterday. He shouted 'Bike!' at me. No risk of collision, but I did misjudge his speed and my acceleration. Suspect my mind had wandered, which isn't a good idea at that hideous junction.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  29. the canuck
    Member

    to the cyclist who is clipped in but wears strange grey/black utility trousers:
    if you have to cane it to overtake me on a wide bit of street, you should continue to cane it when we hit a narrow cycle lane with heavy traffic. (Melville drive around the Meadows).

    in that same bit of street, if you plan to overtake a fellow cyclist, ring or shout or sing show tunes. the surface of the narrow lane is crap, and i'll be busy trying to avoid potholes and grates and broken glass and drifting cars--i'll have no idea that you've appeared from nowhere and are aiming to go between me and fast-moving cars.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  30. Greenroofer
    Member

    Is it rubbish cycling if you are riding with your 12-year old daughter along the towpath to go to Decathlon to buy something for her and you're using an Elephant Bike to tow a trailer and there's a strong headwind and you tuck right in behind her and grab a crafty tow from her?

    Would this make you a Bad Parent?

    Posted 6 years ago #

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