To the chap who passed me on the A90 path heading south past the bus stop at the Dalmeny slip last night around 5.45pm. I can only assume you called me a 'w**ker' as perhaps you thought my light was too bright when you passed. I had dipped it as you approached, clearly not enough for you unless there is another reason you shouted this. I would like to point out however that your light was also very bright...I however decided not to resort to abusive remarks.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
(4503 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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Lad cycling along St John's Road tonight. No lights, hands stuck in his pockets, weaving all over the road.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Unlit black-clad ninja on the towpath this morning. Made visible only by the reflection of his pedals in my light. The thing I thought was a helmet turned out to an extravagant hairdo, which is lucky, because had it been a helmet there would have been good grounds for a discussion with him about getting his risk management priorities right.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Greenroofer
If only someone would mistake my coiffure for PPE...
Posted 9 years ago # -
Not Edinburgh and not today but an absolute belter I just remembered from a few days ago and thought worth sharing.
I'm driving, having been persuaded to visit IKEA in Warrington (the 1st one in the UK you know...)
It's about 9pm and we're done shopping and heading home. Roughly at this point there's a fella in black or grey trousers and black or grey hoody (hood up of course) on a white MTBSO. He's going straight on at the roundabout, so he's in the 3rd lane. No lights, red rear reflector obscured by the 'crud' style rear mudguard he has attached at an odd angle. I'm turning left and as I undertake him in lane 1 is see that he has his phone in his hand in front of him and is browsing/texting/maybe even navigating.
Did someone mention the Darwin Award?
Posted 9 years ago # -
so, i've come across valleyfield, get to toucan at Melville drive. button has been pushed. two peds waiting as well. i sit on the cycle path, behind the line, waiting. bloke on road bike, two panniers, hamax rack, cherry bomb style red light so bright it hurts my eyes, pushes past me, blocking the pavement and pushes at button (despite display being brightly lit, and in fact within seconds of turning). i remonstrate with him*. he's like 'i was pushing the button'. then as light changes and we go across onto the shared path opposite, there's an older gent in front of him so he dings at him. when i suggest that this is inappropriate as it is shared use** he's like 'i'm 'letting him know i'm here'. bullish*t. this was a bell saying 'get out of my way'.
this was an experienced, well-kitted out cyclist, who just could not be arsed to get give the pedestrians 2 seconds of his time and space, just like all those drivers who behave in exactly the same way to cyclists.
*yes, i know i should have kept myself to myself and not engaged.
** yes i should know better and be better behavedPosted 9 years ago # -
"yes i should know better and be better behaved"
Nah, yr 2 yung.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Forgot to mention yesterday evening's optimist...
It's dark, it's very icy on the towpath. Surely you'd need a light on your bike to see the ice before you ride onto it (it also helps other people see you: pedal reflectors alone aren't good enough).
Maybe it was his attempt at peril-sensitive glasses.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Came off the bike this morning on black ice. I was being far too overconfident in the state of the Roslin-Loanhead railway line into the old Roslin Institute.
Gave me such a fright as I had my 18 month old daughter on the bike seat on the back. Thankfully she was fine and a couple of lovely dog walkers picked us up and dusted us off. Poor little girl had such a fright she didn't want to get back on the bike again. Did the rest of our journey VERY slowly after that.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Ooh, sorry to hear that Lezzles. I think we've only had one off with our kids in the seat , and I've always been surprised that they weren't more traumatized.
Although, afterwards my daughter - not much older than yours - did always say 'slowly mummy slowly' at corners!
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Lezzles - I sympathise and hope you are both ok. The shock for the kids is difficult to overcome directly afterwards even though they are physically fine. I had a bolt shear on the weeride which meant my daughter fell off in the seat which I'll never forgive myself for, but she's totally fine and appears to have forgotten all about it... if only there was some helpful saying about get straight back on your bike....
Posted 9 years ago # -
Coming off a bike on ice is never nice, having a child on the back makes it feel much worse. I hope everyone is recovering and will soon be back on the bike.
When ours went on the back in a Hamax, I looked at it carefully and then realised that, due to the design it actually cocoons them very well and so they are most likely to come away from the experience physically unhurt. I drilled into ours the discipline that if they thought we were going to fall over they should hold tight to the red bar in front of them (on the basis that this would keep their whole body inside the seat, and it would then cocoon them as it hit the ground). Never had to put it to the test, luckily.
I was doing the same myself yesterday on the ice. Thinking 'if I start to fall sideways I'm going to tuck in my elbows and hold tight onto the bars' on the basis that this would make the bar-ends take the impact and not my outstretched hand. Again, I don't know if this would actually have worked...
Posted 9 years ago # -
greenroofer - all very sensible, but hamaxes don't have red bars do they? i do think this is where the copilots are trumps - until the kids get big. definitely lots of protection as long as their straps aren't slack.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yes she was in one of those plastic bucket type seats (not entirely sure of the make and model as it was a cast off from a friend) which seems to have protected her from the worst.
Just a fright for her. Of course adrenaline really pumps when the little ones get hurt. Took about 15 minutes before I realised my leg was all grazed and bruised.
May hold off on the cycling to nursery for a bit - or find a better gritted route. Not sure if thats all that possible here in Roslin that early in the day.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@SRD - you're right. I got my Hamaces and Co-Pilots confused. We had both for a while. Oddly, I remember spending a lot of time persuading small feet that they wanted to go into the foot restraints on the Hamax (which I recall as being tough rubbery things), but I'm not sure that we used the equivalent straps on the Co-Pilot (he says looking back in time guiltily).
Posted 9 years ago # -
Cyclist going down Morningside Road near M&S a few minutes ago in the pouring rain with no light at all on the back and red light on the front.
On the road? In this weather? Seriously?
I genuinely hope they make it home safely.
Posted 9 years ago # -
This morning, walking towards Haymarket Station past Ryries, minding my own business, became aware of someone & bike appearing and moving slightly faster, very close to my left hand side.
Turned out to be a “gentleman” scootering his bike towards the bike racks. I made some comment about bikes on pavement, reasonably politely considering the personal space invasion. To be told in return to “F**k Off”.Firstly, I have absolutely no problem generally with scootering, provided space and respect given to pedestrians, however, as the space in front of Ryries was very busy with pedestrians, not the cleverest of manoeuvres.
Secondly, the anglo saxon response was over the top and unnecessary.Whether we like it or not cyclists are often ambassadors for our transport choice, we can so often display the arrogance against pedestrians that we ourselves are subjected too by drivers, both are inexcusable.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Cycling home along the dark NPN in last night's horrible wind and rain. A couple of cyclists side-by-side in the distance ahead of me blocking the path effectively. I ping my bell but they don't move. Ping again a few yards later and no response. I ring my bell a third time and they still don't move. With the wind against us, perhaps they don't hear.
By this time I'm close to them, murmur a 'Scuse me' and the right-hand side guy finally notices I want to pass.
"Don't you have a bell, pal?" he asks aggressively as I squeeze through.
Criticising my lack of accessories might have been fair game if I hadn't been ringing a bell steadily, or if he hadn't been cycling a bike in that weather with NO LIGHTS at all.
I didn't say anything, though, as he was bigger than me.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Me.
Inadvertantly followed a BMW through a very red light. Everyone who had a green light had to wait while I got out on the way.
Not clever.Posted 9 years ago # -
Me, with stoker. 7pm. MMW/NMW/Gilmore place
4yo wasn't up to torchlight procession, so I took him back to my office, where tandem had been left, with helmets etc. but unfortunately not the lights. We had lots of red lights on helmets and the childseat but only one helmet white in front/ red in rear lights for the front.
So I stupidly took off the helmet light to attach to handlebars. Couldn't get it to stay on. Fell off once. Then lost the chain in NMW and lacking my own helmet with its good white light, I couldn't see what I was doing. Somehow managed to get chain back on, and us back on the bike. Then on GP noticed light was getting fainter and fainter. Batteries seemed to be failing - maybe hadn't been out in right after previous fall? Then light fell off totally at Leamington terrace. Gave up and walked the rest of the way home.
Argh.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Just back from a trip to London. Mrs Greenroofer was driving the Greenroofermobile and was completely bemused and horrified to watch a cyclist approaching a T-junction to our left take a good look at our car and then sail out in front of it regardless. The use of the horn would have been completely appropriate in this situation (as a warning, not a rebuke, of course) but the Greenroofermobile is quite new and she wasn't completely sure where the horn button was...
Shockingly bad cycling.
I quite like the new Greenroofermobile. It absorbs all four Greenroofers, and still leaves room for a fully assembled adult bike to be put in the back (although you do have to put the middle seat down). It will take two kids bikes and a folded Brompton in the boot without folding any seats at all. That's probably a topic for another thread, though.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Pavement cyclist heading north from Drumbrae roundabout. My wife got a very good look at him as she actually overtook him while walking. She was going to ask him to get on to the road but she felt embarrassed for him as he was struggling terribly up the hill. He would have been better getting off and pushing.
Some people need to learn what gears are for. And what the Highway Code says.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Roadie-clothèd racing-turnip impatiently passing me on the way down towards Five Ways from the west, evidently not having noticed that I had slowed to walking pace for a reason, specifically the presence of people in walking two abreast in front of me with two more walking towards them at less than walking pace.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@stickman ... why would you want someone who would appear to have been less than a competent cyclist to cycle on that ridiculous stretch of road rather than the pavement? Didn't sound like he was being insensitive or intimidating from your description.
Even the uk government appreciates the fact that pavement cycling is sometimes ok ... http://lcc.org.uk/articles/minister-for-cycling-clarifies-pavement-cycling-advice-after-1057-fines-for-pavement-cycling-in-london
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Even the uk government appreciates the fact that pavement cycling is sometimes ok ..."
Sort of. The Cycling Minister has said that really the enforcement on this particular operation, in London, at those areas, is not aimed at 'responsible' cyclists (the definition of which is then left up to interpretation by those on the ground anyway). And the advice is not even binding on the police enforcing the laws in those areas in London; let alone being policy, then law, that then has direct effect on the rest of the country. And transport matters such as this are devolved in Scotland. So an opinion by one member of the government, with no ratification from the house that would in any event only be able to legislate for England, Wales and Norn Ireland on this particular matter.
I guess in short what I mean is, the Cycling Minister's comment is a bit meaningless in pretty much every respect (including that particular London operation).
Though I would agree that this particular cyclist doesn't sound like he was causing much of an issue (I don't know the road / pavement in question), and over the years my stance on pavement cycling has softened somewhat (though I've as much influence on that issue in Scotland as Goodwill MP).
Posted 9 years ago # -
Fair enough, poor attempt at humour by me.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Not at all.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I was behind two fellow cyclists this morning on Semple street, one ahead was in same lane as me next one was in lane for turning left but he drifted across the path of the guy in front of me without shoulder check so that he could turn right. No big deal but had premonition of what was coming next. He took the far left lane again only to allow him to turn left. But of course the lights at lothian road go to a filter for straight ahead only. Sadly many of our brethren ignore this and take the left. This large fellow this morning did this and ploughed into numerous pedestrians who were crossing on their green man.
I declared You do not have a left there. He said I do. I said follow the rules of the road or else you are a (bad word, but not the worst bad word). If you were the other cyclist caught in the crossfire, many apologies.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Rubbish cycling is rubbish preparation. New-for-Christmas waterproof overshoes are probably excellent if you put them on before getting caught in the rain.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Me last night (I had a moment of mis-judgement).
I made an overtake on the canal towpath (westbound heading out of town, just past aqueduct I think). There was a cyclist oncoming although quite in the distance and I was making a pass, but didn't see a dark clothed pedestrian just up from the cyclist I was passing and I had to cut back in quickly as I couldn't pass both before the oncoming cyclist.
Sorry. I will be more careful in future.
Posted 9 years ago #
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