@ECC - I would hardly call that rubbish cycling :-) I guess the driver thought the junction was clear so went for it - I've definitely made that mistake before so I'm not throwing any stones. Mine today was definitely rubbish cycling though - I came down from the links towards Tollcross earlier and completely absent mindedly cycled the wrong way down Leven Terrace towards the cut-through to Melville Drive and met a cyclist turning right out of Valleyfield street. If that was you my apologies...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
(4520 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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@algo - I should have been paying more attention to what was in front of me, rather than to what the white car was doing :). I reckon the driver of the black car assumed the white car would get out of the way fast enough for them to get into the road before I arrived there. Not great driving, but I'd say maybe 50/50 for fault.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@algo: I've definitely made that mistake before so I'm not throwing any stones
Sorry, but IMO this is the attitude that gets people off careless driving and dangerous driving charges.
The driver of the black car should have been looking further forward than the car immediately blocking their path, as well as looking for traffic on the main road that they were obliged to give way to. If that's too difficult then they should just have waited for the conditions to clear up a bit. Impatience is no excuse for failure to carry out adequate observation.
I don't see how any fault could attach to EdinburghCycleCam - he actually did well to avoid a collision with a motor vehicle which had violated his right of way. Yes, with better observation on his part he might have anticipated the hazard better (and yes I also know that being in the right is no comfort when you're in hospital), but the actual infraction was committed by the driver of the black car.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Agreed; I had the car on Friday and was turning right into a petrol station. HGV driver left a space and then flashed me over in the gap, and I could see him in the cab checking his mirrors to see if anything was coming up the inside, and then he beckoned me over again. If I'd trusted him totally, a biker would have gone over my bonnet (I just had a feeling that there was something there).
Posted 6 years ago # -
This morning circa 7:45 on the Balgreen - Bankhead path, I witnessed the worst cycling I've ever seen on a shared path.
The offender was a very slim male wearing jeans and a sky blue t-shirt on a racing style bike.
If anyone recognises him on their commute this evening, please pass on my offer of a half days free training.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Edinburgh Cycle Training "This morning circa 7:45 on the Balgreen - Bankhead path, I witnessed the worst cycling I've ever seen on a shared path."
Details?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Small peloton coming the other way this morning decided that the path was a great place for a group sprint finish. First half-wit over took slower person; moments later they were near four abreast desperately trying to pass this chap determined not to pull back in behind him despite my mass looming towards them.
Innumerable elbow passes, including one last night who passed just before the ramp to Ravelston having moments before passed me so close I could have pulled there front brake proceed to push their bike up the ramp.
The path is no fun on foot.
Posted 6 years ago # -
A dozy chump emerging from Jeffrey Street on a bicycle onto the Jeffrey/St Mary's/High Street/Canongate junction and going as far as where the median line would be if it were extended upwards from the Canongate, despite the lights having just entered the east-west phase, having been all pedestrian green prior to that. Could see if he'd just started off from a stop behind the stop line or had failed to stop after coming along Jeffrey Street. Fortunately there was little coming east and he stopped before meeting up with the westbound trucks and buses. As I passed he was still in the road but dismounting and looking to walk across.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Trying to go East-West in the south of Edinburgh is vile. Went up through Mortonhall, but dumped out on Comiston Road, Oxgangs Road and so on. Hermitage on the way back which is glorious but Glenlockhart Road is not glorious.
Shouted at by a junkie-faced weasel-passenger for cycling in my own street and hooted at by a taxi-driver on Glenlockhart for forcing the car behind to overtake into his path.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@steveo. was given Fuh sakes by quite hunched Ped at Meadows crossing (west end of meadows) this morning just as I thanked said Ped.
I am hyper vigilant at this stretch just now as dem students is only just learning how to walk.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Me this morning on the NEPN - I was SO convinced by the very bright headlights and sidelights approaching that there was a car or van coming towards me down the path that I slowed to a complete stop and tried to bail off the path out of the way & in doing so forgot to dip my extra-bright headlight.
Turned out to be two cyclists riding side by side and not moving over to give me any room to pass safely.
I guess that made them as bad as me, if not worse - VERY bright lights and making no effort to move over a bit trumps me forgetting to dip my light when I was too busy being in a panic thinking I was about to get run over!
Posted 6 years ago # -
@IWRATS - Not even the benefit of the doubt that the taxi driver was hooting at the overtaking driver?
The last taxi driver who beeped at me did so to give a thumbs up. I had stopped quite suddenly at a crossroads despite having a green light, as I heard an ambulance coming on the perpendicular road. By the time the ambulance was past the lights had changed to the pedestrian phase, so I got off and walked across. When the taxi driver behind beeped, I assumed it was in some sort of anger at me slowing him down, but he gave a thumbs up.
Posted 6 years ago # -
very bright headlights
Yesterday was the first dusk run home for me and I started to wonder whether I should use a camera flash or my 300lm headtorch to "light the way" as some of these ejits seem to.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@IWRATS - Not even the benefit of the doubt that the taxi driver
I have chosen to share in your generous apportioning of credit. Let us make it so, even if he kept hooting as he passed me.
Posted 6 years ago # -
> Let us make it so, even if he kept hooting as he passed me.
Unlike when you're about to plow into pedestrians in the city and can happily press the horn and hold down the accelerator at the same time without risk to yourself, when you're approaching a bad overtake head-on you usually have to focus on taking some sort of evasive action before pressing the horn to mitigate the risk to yourself. Therefore, to make your displeasure fully known, a long blast well after the event is sometimes the only option available to the discerning horn user.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@iwrats: Depending on where you are heading, you can avoid Oxgangs Road by taking Pentland View, East Comiston, Camus Avenue or Caiystane Crescent. All offer permeability through as far as Oxgangs (though I'd agree that you might not want to actually go there as a final destination...)
All those options do still require Comiston Road to be negotiated for a geater or lesser distance. Least is probably Pentland View, if you don't mind dismounting to cross Comiston Road at the Buckstone pelican crossing. Next least worst probably East Comiston which has a path leading to Fairmilehead Park.
There are also paths and traffic calmed roads you can take though Colinton Mains to get most of the way to Tesco, or even Redford Road should you wish to go that way.
(I have almost perfected my route along behind the Dreghorn army housing estate next to Morrison's car park, over Dreghorn Link by the footbridge, round the barracks and through Dreghorn Wood to Bonaly, thence to Torduff reservoir, or Woodhall Road to access the WoL path to Balerno. Some of the route I take is not ideal for non-MTBs, although it should be possible to access the footbridge over Dreghorn Link through the housing estate rather than through the woods behind it.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@sallyhinch "So does whistling 'my fingers are cold' to the tune of Happy Birthday (or anything else) warm them up, or is it just a distraction technique? Also, if you're whistling, how do you know what words you're whistling to the tune?"
I seem to be incapable of whistling without some sort of lyrics going through my mind. sometimes it's simply da-da-da-da-da-da-da sometime's it's more complex. It doesn't warm my fingers unless I tap them at the same time, I suspect the lyrics in question were two parts of my brain meeting in the middle to produce notes and words.
At least I wasn't singing. That really would have put them off their cycling.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@ejstubbs
Thanks! Was on a deadline so couldn't risk getting lost in bungalowland.
Very interested in path round the barracks?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@AcSimpson - THat is a Kraftwerk Number, oh nio, Kraftwerk Tribute Band - Trio
Posted 6 years ago # -
The path around the barracks is really only MTB-able, at least in the Redford Road direction, although I have done it in the other direction on my old CX. The easiest way to find it is to ride over the footbridge over Dreghorn Link, which is most easily accessed from the army housing estate behind Morrisons.
At the end of the footbridge turn right to follow tracks alongside the barracks fence, firstly heading north and then north-west, eventually emerging on the road to the main gate of the barracks on Redford Road. You don't have to go on to Redford Road itself: you can nick down the remains of the old road that leads to the old, low-level Redford Bridge over the Bonaly Burn, and thence through Dreghorn Woods towards Bonaly. The easiest way to do that is to follow the main path through the woods upstream until you emerge at the new Polofields development, where you can turn right along Dreghorn Loan and then left in to Laverockdale Crescent, then head generally west until you reach Bonaly Road.
If you have a few minutes to spare in Dreghorn Woods you might instead find it interesting to turn immediately left and follow the track that, again, follows the barracks fence, until you get to the old training trenches which were rediscovered a few years ago, and which now have their own interpretation board. You can then either retrace your
stepspedalling strokes to cross the burn, or carry on in a loop through the woods, always on MTBable paths, to end up at the Polofields development from a slightly different direction.If you turn left at the end of the Dreghorn Link footbridge the track is slightly more feasible for a CX bike. It leads round to the rear of the barracks, to the road that goes under the bypass and comes out on the ex-"dogwalker's parking"* road off the westbound Dreghorn slip road. (This is basically the army's quick way out of the barracks on to the major road network.) It used to be a quiet and pleasant way to get to the Dreghorn Ranges bit of the Pentlands but it feels a bit more intimidating now that the army has put up some new buildings at that side of barracks site (I think they may have moved the boundary fence outwards a bit as well, on the side to the west of their rapid access road, and possibly put a gate in, though it wouldn't have been locked last time I went that way.)
I wouldn't recommend either of these routes for commuting, but they can make for an entertaining wee stravaig before heading up in to the Pentland hills and reservoirs.
* No longer used so frequently for that purpose since the army put in a height-limit barrier. Duck if you cycle under it.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"You know, you could really do with some better lights."
Unfortunately my well-meant advice to the young bicyclist fell on literally deaf ears, as she was wearing great big headphones, bobbing her head slightly in time with whatever tunes were playing, and zipping out a quick text message on her phone, while the two of us waited at a red light on Newington Road at half-past nine in the evening. Although the timbre of my voice is more Joanna Lumley than Helga Geerhart I was but three feet away and she had no idea.
I should applaud her zero-lycra, big-woolly-scarf studenty get-ups for cycling in Edinburgh, if not her total lack of reflectives, but her lights were so feeble as to be invisible from 20 metres away. Her rear one was squint, too, so it pointed both down and to the side.
The slightly ridiculous thing was that I spent this morning designing a poster for the Be Bright, Be Seen campaign, whose grating subtext is not lost on me.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Might as well confess now. that was me shielding my eyes from the bright light on NMW this morning around 8.30. Doubtless someone on here who will subsequently complain about my over-reaction.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I've bought a new cap for that reason, quick dip of the head compensates (mostly) for poorly configured lights.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@ejstubbs
an entertaining wee stravaig
My favourite kind. I once rode down the Bonaly Burn trying to improvise a route home from a pal who lived in Bonaly Rise but I have a memory of the bike sinking up to its axles in mud.
Will investigate, thanks!
Posted 6 years ago # -
Someone cycling through a crossroads when the lights were on the pedestrian phase. They stopped at the red light at the next crossroads and I caught up with them.
I wasn't going to say anything, as they'd checked for pedestrians before cycling through the junction, but they turned round and said "Morning", and I blurted out "So you do know how to stop at red lights". I didn't catch their response but as soon as the lights changed to the pedestrian phase they clipped back in and cycled through the junction.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Lots of cyclists heading into town on the towpath around 6 pm yesterday evening which unfortunately resulted in quite a lot of rubbish cycling. The worst that I witnessed was the person ahead of me pulling out abruptly to overtake a family group, consisting of a parent pushing a pram with a small person on a scooter just ahead, despite the presence of an oncoming cyclist. Somehow they made it through, but forced the oncoming cyclist (who essentially had the right of way) to brake heavily and swerve out of the way towards the canal; luckily, they managed to stay out of the water.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Frenchy about 30% of cyclists who i see in the mornings in London do this too. so far I haven't seen any crashes, but one very near miss on the A10 last week. Guy went through full tilt, turning right, as the lights went green for the left-right traffic. he just barely made it in front of the equally fast cyclists heading in the same direction. if they'd misjudged any of it at that speed, in front of heavy traffic would have been a disaster.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I was cycling along research avenue north and a cyclist heading toward Hermiston walk on the path went over the zebra crossing not respecting the highways codes priority. If on research avenue on a bicycle you have priority over a cyclist using zebra crossing on Hermiston walk from what understand. I assumed I had priority but did google it to be sure as have had that happen a few times when cyclists think they have priority on the zebra over the research avenue cyclist and pull out in front.
" Zebra crossings give pedestrians priority over vehicles on the carriageway" They do not give a cyclist on path priority over cyclists on the road.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I feel like that's a bit of a legal technicality - it reminds me of the whole "you can't go into an ASZ without a feeder lane" thing that got fixed a few years ago. It's an oversight rather than an explicit decision not to give cyclists priority. I'd always give way to crossing cyclists in all types of vehicle because I'd expect most other crossing and road users to be quite surprised if I didn't.
Posted 6 years ago # -
My colleague (cycling) and a random jogger were clearing glass from NEPN beside the Craigleith shopping centre junction and were not impressed by the stream of lycra warriers giving them abuse for being in the way while they did it. Maybe the impatient types should pause for a moment and think about the delay that a puncture would add to their journey.
At the same junction, 30 mins later I was annoyed by the stream of cyclists coming from DMains heading into town who assumed priority at the junction onto the Roseburn Path, causing a couple of pedestrians ahead of me to have to wait, and me behind them on my bike as there was nowhere to pass. Thoughtless and arrogant, were the words that came to mind.
Posted 6 years ago #
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