Yesterday: someone stopping in the narrow leith Street exit/enty fence-hole at Waterloo Place to take off their coat and put it in their bag. Someone shoaling and pulling in front of me repeatedly on Princes Street.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
(4520 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
-
Also yesterday: the cyclist turning right from Home Street onto Gilmore Place who passed behind me as I turned right from Gilmore Place onto Leven Street. I hadn't even gone at all early since I had spotted a car still turning right from Home Street at the point when I usually try to get a head start so I can turn right before having to give way to any traffic coming across from Tavit Street. Luckily for the very late turning cyclist, I don't think there were any vehicles turning right immediately behind me.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Turnip on the WoL between Tesco and Stedfastgate, right up my mudguard and buzzing pedestrians once I advised him that he was not welcome so close behind me and should go past. Presumably his first time on the path, as it doesn't take long to realise that it's usually full of pedestrians and that one should slow down for and yield to them.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Stopped at the Bike Station to get a new slap-strap on the way home. Mechanics were stripping a donated bike. Nice enough Specialized racing bike but the alloy frame was worthless because the owner had ridden it in such a way that the rear tyre had rubbed clean through the right hand chain stay.
Imagine not noticing that....
Posted 6 years ago # -
...was almost me.
i had a brain fart yesterday morning.
i was waiting to make a right hand turn, the car coming towards me always wanted to make a right hand turn, but i got it into my head that i had to go behind them, and was irritated that they seemed to want to go in front of me... why did i think this?not my best day ever. was very happy to get on to the WoL path.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Not necessarily a brain fart! Perfectly normal and legal.
Highway code rule 181
When turning right at crossroads where an oncoming vehicle is also turning right, there is a choice of two methods
- turn right side to right side; keep the other vehicle on your right and turn behind it. This is generally the safer method as you have a clear view of any approaching traffic when completing your turn
- left side to left side, turning in front of each other. This can block your view of oncoming vehicles, so take extra care. Cyclists and motorcyclists in particular may be hidden from your view. Road layout, markings or how the other vehicle is positioned can determine which course should be taken.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Snowy: When I was a lad I was taught that right-side-to-right-side was preferable, all other things being equal*.
Friday evening on Dalry Road I witnessed someone nearly collide with an oncoming car in the process of turning right in to the Lidl car park. There was another vehicle coming the other way and wanting to turn right in to Springwell Place. The two right-turning drivers lined up to pass left-side-to-left-side, and the Lidl-bound driver clearly did not take extra care.
* This obviously does not include the instance where two impatient idiots are both trying to 'beat' oncoming traffic as their lights start turning to green - ie they go to red+amber, which as everyone knows means "go" if you're important and in a hurry.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"Road layout, markings or how the other vehicle is positioned can determine which course should be taken."
i was cycling uphill, so shortest distance to cover says, left side to left side. :D
Posted 6 years ago # -
@thecanuck Snowy is spot on ..if you are in the junction first you can hold your line and the oncoming traffic needs to go round you to turn. It is the recommended way so that you don't get hit by traffic going straight on. Particularly useful if its a truck or bus coming towards you.
Posted 6 years ago # -
cheers! i had full visibility there, normally if i can't see 5 seconds ahead, i don't make the turn.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Very busy on the towpath at home time, I’m trying to negotiate the crowds slowly (and regretting not going in the road) when I am startled by a turnip undertaking me at considerable speed without so much as a ding of the bell. Later on also overtaken by someone’s who did ring a bell but was going much faster than is sensible. This person decided that the ding they gave overtaking me was signal enough to steam ahead under the bridge in front of us, which could have ended badly with oncoming traffic.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The young men who drive old hatchbacks with fat exhausts wearing Burberry ride mountain bikes with the saddles too low in exactly the same way as they drive their cars (thoughtlessly and with an overestimation of their competence). The (older) men who drive new BMWs and Audis wearing suits ride expensive carbon road or mountain bikes in exactly the same way as they drive their cars (too fast and with a sense of superiority).
I don't yet see an equivalent of the woman wearing sunglasses on top of her head in a big SUV full of children driving with a sense of entitlement to park on yellow zigzags or anywhere else that suits her. It might yet happen on a bike (Urban Arrow, anyone?) but I suspect that at present the kind of people who buy cargo bikes are too thoughtful and considerate to behave like that.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Maximum Cans Man was back on towpath this morn. He goes too fast through tiny gaps whilst listening to his toons on the big blue earphones
Posted 6 years ago # -
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed
and
The young men who drive old hatchbacks with fat exhausts wearing Burberry ride mountain bikes with the saddles too low
commensurate genius
chapeau
Posted 6 years ago # -
From Ulysses to Parklife.
I am giving up my slot reciting James Joyce this year (gig date changed) as we are putting on the film Breaking Away as part of EdFoC on June 15th. Bloomsday is June 16th. Probably just as well as I was going to drop the C bomb. Which is in a particularly powerful and short para. Of the novel. I was once ejected from the Lord Mayor of dublin's garden party for quoting that para. At him. They called him JR as he wore a big white Stetson. (City Captain not Lord Mayor but same thing). What did they expect they had been plying me with free small pints of Guinness ( an arts club measure just short of the pint) all evening. At that time I thought of myself as a young soul rebel. Was interviewed by Czech radio on the way out the door (was a park - merr ion square gardens no less). You do get a lovely bicycle delivery boy (and girl and intersex) rally on 16th June around these very squares. In Dublin.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@gembo Maximum Cans Man on a chunky MTB?
I experienced another late turning cyclist coming from Home Street onto Gilmore Place the other day. I was just pulling away to turn right when he came bombing around the corner so I tried to slow but just ended up forcing him to take an even wider arc to get around the front of me. Probably more sensible than the previous one who turned the corner behind me. Both lucky that no motor traffic was following me.
I also had a bloke try to cycle between me and the people carrying the boat who I had come to a halt to allow to complete their manoeuvre across the towpath by Meggetland Bridge possibly on the same evening as the Home Street fool. There was no space to do this. Luckily, I'd stopped just before the path down to the boat shed so was able to use it to go round him after sarcastically querying what he was planning to do next.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@jdanielp, that do be him. Blue cans blue trim on bike
Posted 6 years ago # -
Last time I was in Canada the advice was to make sure the bears knew you were there because they're really not fussed about humans but to confront and fight any cougar that showed an interest in you. Glad to say I never saw one.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Fight a cougar? I've had enough scars from putting moggies into carry boxes.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Stickman
The alternative is to be eaten alive.
Posted 6 years ago # -
That would concentrate the mind.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Triple whammy this morning: the cycling aspect was the person who intentionally blocked me from cycling across Slateford Aqueduct while they were dismounting to push their bike across, despite my politely asking if they wouldn't mind if they let me past. I did then pass them as we exited the aqueduct, only to be passed at great speed and without any warning shortly thereafter. I then caught them repeatedly through Wester Hailes as they slowed down repeatedly and theatrically to pass any other path users, which felt to me like they were brake-checking me as well.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Yellow racing-costume person heading anticlockwise on the NEPN through the Drylaw bit this morning. Two abreast (them on the right) with the person he appeared to be accompanying all through the S-bends and under the bridge, but then he decides to start doing fancy hand signals to indicate to me that I should not overtake him until the person coming the other way has come past. I could see the person coming the other way, thank you. Lucky for you that they were still a few metres away when you went through the blind bend before the bridge two abreast.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I stopped behind a car indicating left to go up Esslemont Road this morning, and a cyclist behind rang his bell and told me I was holding him up so went up the inside - clearly a seasoned cyclist on a lovely audax type bike. As he got to go up the inside of the car the lights changed and it also turned left. No harm done - he managed to get in front, but I was a bit surprised - it's very rare I risk going up the inside of a car indicating left, but perhaps I have become overly risk-averse...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Brr. There's a different level of inconsiderate turnippery on the Broomhouse path in the morning, isn't there?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Between the Balgreen ramp and South Gyle Crescent this morning I had a few encounters with a 'middle aged' bloke on an eBike.
Very dangerous buzzing of me (twice) and pedestrians (several times)
I did try to speak to him on one occasion but he decided he'd rather stare fixed forward and pretend I wasn't alongside him or talking to him.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The mahoosive holes in the road at the western end of Haymarket Terrace have been filled in and tarmaced over (looks like a nice job, as it happens - but we'll see how it stands up to daily traffic). However, there is still a big hole at the east end of the sewer works, leaving only one lane open still, westbound between Clifton Terrace and the Haymarket Yards junction. For this reason, Haymarket Terrace west of that junction and as far as Magdala Crescent is still westbound only.
Three times in the last less-than-24 hours I've seen people cycling eastbound along Haymarket Terrace, weaving in and out of the cones that are still in place - on one occasion into the face of oncoming traffic (including buses).
Two of the three bottled out in the face of the single lane of oncoming traffic with no visible means of escape beyond the Haymarket Yards junction, and diverted through the tram stop. Predictably, one of these chancers rode along the tram platform (this was at more or less peak evening rush hour, so it did not go down too well). The one exception was the unusually liesurely Deliveroo rider who ploughed on eastwards through the single-lane-only westbound section, presumably with the aim of taking to the pavement should it all get too much.
When people take the p!ss like this, it's hardly surprising that some folks feel justified in harbouring ill-will against road users travelling on human-powered two-wheeled vehicles.
(Talking of people riding through the tram stop: the least well-advised example I have seen recently was someone riding westbound between the rails of the eastbound track, because a westbound tram was occupying the platform. From the point where you would start doing that you have no way to see whether or an eastbound tram was approaching up Haymarket Yards. And if the westbound tram decided to depart, your own route to Haymarket Yards would effectively be blocked until said tram clears the junction - and there's no guarantee that an eastbound tram won't turn up while you're stuck there. I wouldn't want to bet my safety on an oncoming tram being able to stop in time while I tried to manhandle my bike off the track and up on to the platform. I can only assume, though, that some people have carried out more in-depth risk assessments covering such situations.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
to the chap who came round the blind corner after the A1 underpass (nr The Range) at speed on the wrong side of the path, many thanks for putting me in the bushes/fence.
Rule#2 Rule#2 Rule#2 Rule#2
Posted 6 years ago # -
"I can only assume, though, that some people have carried out more in-depth risk assessments covering such situations."
Yup. It goes something like, 'never gonna happen to me, mate.'
Posted 6 years ago # -
The willingness of people to cycle into the paths of dumper trucks, tipper trucks and road-skooshers to gain zero net time heading south up through Leith Street always disappoints me.
Also this morning, a turnip jumping onto the busy footway on the corner of Princes Street/Lothian Road to do some stupid illegal weaving, when he could just as easily have woven illegally through the stationary traffic and red light on the road.
Posted 6 years ago #
Reply »
You must log in to post.
posts
