@twq - I find that filtering on the right like that can sometimes end up with you in a difficult position if you don't find a suitable place to filter back in. Sounds to me like it was a good exchange and your were pretty considerate really - not sure it classes as rubbish cycling! I know it's better to filter on the right, but it takes some balls sometimes, especially if cars object to it - I'm still trying to get it right....
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
(4520 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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@algo the traffic was moving so slowly I wasn't really on the ball as usual. I think I've got pretty good at filtering and cutting in without annoying drivers. I think the important part is to cut in a few seconds before they start moving.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@twq @algo "I find that filtering on the right like that can sometimes end up with you in a difficult position"
Oops - that may have been me yesterday and, I think, in front of @baldcyclist
I'd deviated from the now-common Ferry Road to go along the NEPN. Hideous, as expected, with the lowlight being the five abreast joggers complete with dogs.
So I ended up heading for Haymarket and found myself totally unprepared for the new road layout.Tried to head along, on the left, but found my way blocked by buses, airplanes, tanks and general transport detritus.
A bike filtered to the right (think it was @baldcyclist) so I thought "that's a better idea!"So I followed him and then realised I had boxed myself into a position in the right hand lane, when I actually wanted to turn left into Palmerston Place!
Embarrassed, I pushed myself in front then took off like a scalded moggy up Torphicen Street because I needed to take a left and head back to Shandwick Place and get over to Walker Street.Pilloch; when filtering, make sure you know where the lanes are heading.
Sorry @BC, too!Posted 11 years ago # -
The girl who wobbled along the footway beside the RCP, rode sideways through the ASL then took up a position three feet in front of it demonstrated that it wasn't just a one-off by going through the red at the end of West Preston Street at least an entire second after I'd stopped as the light turned red.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@skotl - I was thinking of your Jaguar blocking incident too when you tried to filter between the two lanes of traffic.... something similar has happened to me where a car keeps aggressively closing the gap into which you want to filter back...
Posted 11 years ago # -
@algo my sympathies. It's not a pleasant experience knowing that someone is possibly trying to injure you.
Posted 11 years ago # -
lastnight actually...
'lady' (I use the term loosly) in black, smart dress (not a dress obv) with a flo green MTB type helmet with plenty of lights on bike, cycled along York Pl and stopped by me lastnight. She followed me down Broughton Road and past me as I slowed at the roundabout. I was catching her at the first set of ped lights (Bellevue cres) which she sailed through, but I stopped at. Then she sailed through the next set (East Claremont St) .... #Frustrated.
If she'd been knocked off I would have really had to stop myself from cycling right by her! Makes my blood boil!! I don't care it was only ped lights with no one actually in front of her when she rode throgh the red lights.
I couldn't catch at the foot of Rodney St as she sailed through the lights at Eyre Pl.... Where are the police when you want them?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Today on my lunchtime walk I was passing through the Astley Ainsle Hospital and was surprised and disappointed to see a cyclist wearing one of the POLITE police style hi-viz vests going the wrong way up the one way system. I presume, by what he was wearing, that he was aware of badly behaved cyclists and doesn't think of himself as one so would love to know his excuse for this as it must have saved him a maximum of 30 seconds on his journey.
Posted 11 years ago # -
The one-way system was wrongly mapped in OSM until I recently fixed it.
You quite often see NHS vehicles nipping through the wrong way.
What really annoys me though is the high speed that some people drive at through there.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm pretty sure there are one way signs and white arrows on the road (would need to check to be sure) and he definitely entered by crossing the give way marking so he should have realised there and then.
I agree about the speed people drive through there and it is a bit of a rat run with plenty vehicles (motor and human powered) using it as a shortcut.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Trundling northward along NEPN between Roseburn and Craigleith this evening, cyclist (bell ringing) attempts to overtake, despite oncoming cyclist, I highlighted this, his response was to accuse me of being too far to the right.
Just for the record, I wasn't ! and it isn't my obligation to move left to let you pass. If you are that fast and good, you should be more than capable of accelerating once path clear.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Me! Early finish on Friday and late start this am. meant it wasnt until 5.30 home time I discovered rear light not working and front light very poor. Backups at home. Apologiesbto anyone I scared or annoyed on the NEPN heading back to Leith
Posted 10 years ago # -
You were not the only one. 4 separate cyclists in full ninja mode with zero lights, around 17:15, two on the NEPN and two more worryingly on roads.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I stayed behind one ninja from Crewe Toll to when I turned off down the Chancelot, but he negociated five ninja peds and one ninja dog without mishap.
I'd need to collect some proper data but casual observations appear to suggest that there are both fewer ninja and fewer EXETREMEBRIGHTRAAARGH double-headlight numpters on colder evenings.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I don't think that it is illegal to cycle on an off-road path without lights. Annoying, possibly, but as wingpig says there are plenty of other unlit hazards on off-road paths...
I agree that my anecdata suggests that there are fewer unlit cyclists around. I also think there are more cyclists.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"I don't think that it is illegal to cycle on an off-road path without lights"
I think that's probably true - though few people are able to have complete journeys...
However some places - eg MMW are technically roads, so you could probably get done if Police had a crackdown!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Me, this morning. Coming down Chesser Avenue, looking to turn left onto Calder Road. Line of traffic, sat waiting to also turn left on the filter light. I know there are usually cars parked at the side of the road which makes filtering a bit of a hassle and a danger if the traffic moves off whilst filtering but I thought I had enough time to get up the left-hand side of a small Luton box van-type vehicle.
Alas no, the driver was surprisingly aggressive in pulling away from standstill and my pig-headedness in refusing to yield my pretty much completed move almost got me squished between the van and the parked car when it was clear he hadn't checked his left mirror before giving it the revs.
Was some sort of foam wash company van. My arrogant cycling aside, I wasn't very impressed by the driver's general standard of driving thereafter - was accelerator heavy and thought tailgating a moped along Stenhouse Drive so closely I'm sure there was a blindspot issue was acceptable. Lost him after the Stenhouse roundabout though.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Othercyclist in ASZ to turn right/west along London Road from Marionville. He's at the front left of the box so I just behind and to his right. He sets off reasonably quickly, so I stay back as the lights at Abbey Lane are always red. Then he starts being weird, initially drifting right over to the right of the bus lane then slowing right down. I'm going to go left but don't want to go past in case he is too and there's another cyclist in the Abbey Lane ASZ, right in the gutter but looking like he's going straight on. Slowing-down othercyclist keeps slowing down, still on the line between lanes, but then keeps going once he gets to the second stop line and drifts ten feet into the junction before starting an attempted trackstand; his bike had gears so he probably had brakes but it looked like he wasn't using them from the amount he kept moving forward, unless he was trying to sneak through the junction by pretending to attempt to trackstand whilst moving slowly forward all the time. There was just time to mutter at him before the lights changed.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I had a "pretending to trackstand but actually just running the red" crossing clerk st from the meadows yesterday, At least he had lights on. He was also wearing headphones though which I think means that he was invisible so no harm done!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Probably me. A cyclist ahead of me on Gorgie Road at the junction with Stenhouse Drive. I wanted to move right into the filter lane for a turn into Stenhouse Drive. I was trying to move out of cycle lane after the Water of Leith path toucan crossing, but couldn't as a car had moved alongside me and then was keeping pace. I was indicating right and began to slow to move behind the car, but then it hit the brakes as a cyclist ahead of it wobbled out of the lane to also move right into the filter. Need to check my footage but don't think he looked or indicated. Anyway, narrowly avoided ramming the car and managed to get where I was going, pulling up in the filter lane behind wobblecyclist.
A big gap appeared but the wobbler didn't move, so I went to turn right from behind him. As I moved off, the other cyclist either woke up or changed his mind and did a very sharp wobbly right turn and then got a surprise to find I was undertaking him around the corner. Fortunately we were both going slowly so nothing came of it, but I did feel annoyed with myself for not apprecating the situation better and letting the other guy make his move first.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Watched guy in sports jacket, not so dapper variety nearly exit this life at the diggers junction. The taxi in front went through the light at red, driver floored it as amber at this junction gives you just enough time. Chap decides to follow. He is missed by millimetres by cars turning right because they have seen him and turned right very slowly.
I then got him back in range at Lochrin basin lights. They were firmly at red and take ages to change anyway out of the blue he decides to go through the red light, maybe the pedestrian green man came on? I shouted that green was the colour for going. I could tell he was going home to rethink his life.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Twenty-something rider on an upright at about 6:30pm last night decides it's quite ok for her to calmly trundle along Princes St Westbound, through the red light at the Waverley Bridge junction and blissfully ignoring all the traffic coming up off the bridge. She didn't even "time" it, just seemed to assume she was indestructible or that the cars would teleport through her.
Clueless.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Was very nearly me but I redeemed myself.
I was coming up from Haymarket yards and as I got to the lights at the top they helpfully turned green for me. As I was going right I accelerated out across the road to the other side. Then I got that something-isn't-right-here feeling. I crank my head right and notice the barely visible light at the ped crossing is red - the crossing that's on the same corner as the right side of Haymarket Yards if you're coming up it, not the one further towards the station. Whoopsie. Hard on the brake and as the rim was soaking I thought I'd end up blasting right through the red in full view of dozens of peds. At the very last moment the brake finally decided to bite and I stopped with the front wheel contact point right on the wee square metal plates on the ground of the crossing. Further forward than I would have liked but at least I wasn't actually on the crossing itself when the green man came on and the peds starting moving.
At this point I thought how bad it would look to blast through a crossing like I almost did without even noticing it. I can't quite believe what happened next - a 'serious' commuter (cross bike, hiviz, lights, panniers etc) comes flying past me and through the crossing just as the first peds are trying to cross. Twat.
I have to say that right turn is perfectly set up for this to happen again though. As I said, when you swing right you're at pretty much the worst possible angle to be clearly seeing the lights, so if you were say looking out for stray traffic or at the various wet metal covers ahead, you could so easily miss it.
Posted 10 years ago # -
allebong - I think you have misread the lights.
I did the same thing the first time they were turned on - I come up out of Haymarket Yards and turn right most mornings. Like you, I went through the green from Haymarket Yards and then saw the red for the traffic on Haymarket Terrace and stopped (awkwardly in the middle of the road).
After contemplating, I believe that actually you aren't supposed to see that red - the pedestrian crossing is part of the junction from Haymarket Yards and so if you got a green out of Haymarket Yards, the pedestrian crossing will have been at red (maybe it then changed whilst you were sat there?), and you weren't 'running' the red light on Haymarket Terrace - you're not supposed to see it.
I would be happy to be corrected (I've not been down at a slow pace to look into this)., but I think that the problem is that the lights for traffic on Haymarket Terrace are in the wrong place, so they are too visible to traffic from Haymarket Yards.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I think you may be right, but I'm not sure.
We know that when the Haymarket Yards light is at green then the crossing immediately to the right is at red. Thing is traffic coming along from the left would then have to stop, while me coming up from the yards wouldn't even though I end up on the same road, that can't be right surely?
Or, is the ped crossing to the left of the yards exit also linked up to go to red when the right crossing is? Then traffic waiting at the left crossing would see a red light there, then a second red light at the right crossing, but anyone coming up from the yards is free to go through that red light...presumably then the green man only comes on at the right crossing when the yards light goes to red, thus totally stopping all traffic flow through the junction?
Bonus question: If you're going left out of the yards and what I'm saying above is correct, you would have to stop at the left crossing when it's red? I mean that crossing isn't immediately at the exit and you do get a good clear look at the lights, so I assume normal rules apply.
So it looks like you are technically running the red if you come up the yards and go right on the green light but you're not supposed to see you're doing it.
Help, anyone more familiar with this arrangement? I might stop and have a look at the sequences tomorrow.
Posted 10 years ago # -
A ninja cyclist had a close call tonight at the orchard brae roundabout. The stupid fool just cycled out without looking and I had to brake pretty sharpish to avoid hitting him. He was lucky the car driver going right was quick on his/her brakes too otherwise it would have been very nasty.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Pixelmix: I went through again this morning and I think you are correct that I misread the lights the first time.
I think I have everything figured out. The crossing immediately to the right of the yards exit has only one light facing west along Haymarket Terrace, this light is on the right if you were heading along Haymarket Terrace towards the station, so the intention I imagine is that light is not supposed to be visible when going right from the yards exit. It is however just visible depending on the line you take and how closely you are paying attention to that direction which is why it caught both of us out.
I was correct in saying that when the right crossing is at red the one to the left is also red so there's no traffic actually approaching the right crossing when you are 'jumping' the red there. I have to say there's not much of a margin between the yards exit going green, then back to red again for the green man at the right crossing to come on, so if you were slow enough you could end up going through the crossing as the green man appears, even though you were right in doing so.
Well anyway I think that's the drama of this junction over for now, or at least until the trams start running by it.
In other news today's rubbish cycling was the girl on the rusty road bike who decided the best way onto Queensferry street was to go the wrong way down Alva street then pop out of the one-way entrance and into the path of a startled truck driver.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Re the yards. You are not supposed to stop at that red light. It isn't for the traffic that has come out of the yards on green. The key thing to notice is that there is no solid white line for you to stop at: Ergo, you don't stop.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I was reminded of this thread again this evening when heading home Westwards on Haymarket Terrace - a car turning from Haymarket Yards stopped as you did allebong (and as I did in the past). Another car was forced to stop behind it - you could see how this could easily lead to an accident if cars are rushing through the junction nose to tail and the car at the front screeches to a halt. I think the light will need to be moved to avoid confusion.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Student* hipster numpty this morning pulling to in the middle of the between-lane cycle lane beside the RCP, where he was blocking cyclists wanting to use the lane to turn left on the filter light. He then moved past the second stop line to wait to turn right, all the time doing little dancy things to the music he appeared to be listening to on his huge ear-concealing fashion-cans, as worn by people who wish to exude an inability to not listen to music constantly. Despite the left-turn filter already being green, indicating that the right-turn light would soon go green, he removed his rucksack and turned round to rootle in it, barely getting it back on in time. He then pulled up immediately to my left at the East Preston Street left-turn-filter side of the next ASL but then stopped and started looking behind him, missing the light when it turned. He then rolled through the pedestrian crossings to head north along South Clerk Street.
*Looked like one, plus he emerged from Pollock
Posted 10 years ago #
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