@greenroofer, good point, the poly bag's days are numbered. Big John still has a fine collection for his regular walks on the towpath.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
(4503 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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SRD - "I really must be developing one of those age-related conditions that affects my ability to see in the dark, and makes me more vulnerable"
Perhaps
I was out last night at 'rush' hour - fully dark for first time in months.
I noticed just how many lights there were in all directions, and how much extra concentration was needed to process it all. Traffic was mostly slow/stationary (Abbeyhill, Bridges, etc.) and I wanted to proceed as fast as possible.
So don't know if eyes/brain are 'out of practice' or there's too much 'light noise' to deal with or eyes/brain 'too old'!
Time for annual eye check.
Posted 8 years ago # -
This morning, as seems to be a theme in this thread, it was me!
Creeping out of a junction into stationary traffic when it started to move in both directions.
Many thanks to the considerate driver who let me out, despite having a green light.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Time for annual eye check."
showing your age... (or that I'm a cheapskate)
"You can have a free eye examination once every two years if you are between 16 and 59 years old.
You can have a free eye examination once a year if you:
are under 16
are 60 or over
have ocular hypertension or diabetes
have glaucoma, or
are 40 or over and your mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter has glaucoma."Posted 8 years ago # -
The plonker who appeared on my inside while I was crossing the tram lines out of S Charlotte St this morning and then persisted in half-wheeling me. I was right behind a car, so no potential 'benefit' could accrue to him.
He kept trying to nudge in front at each subsequent halt to Castle Terrace. He fell back rather rapidly once Lothian Road started going uphill, odd how often that happens :)
Posted 8 years ago # -
"or that I'm a cheapskate"
Wouldn't know...
Must admit I thought everyone was entitled to check-up every year. (Should be compulsory for road users - and probably pedestrians!)
I have a contact lens 'contract' (age unrelated).
Posted 8 years ago # -
Plum on a folding bike going up Blackford Avenue to Kings Buildings 9:40am today, very much an "I will not stop for anything" type. So at bottom of Blackford he comes up the right turning lane, but then cuts in front of a (moving) car to go straight on, then proceeds to plow up the hill, overtaking slower bikes without one shoulder check to see if it was safe to do so (it wasn't safe, fortunately he had wary drivers around him). Then waiting behind a bus to turn into gate 4 of Kings Buildings, the bus is letting a car out of the gate, meanwhile the folder is shouting at the bus for this heinous crime and then decides to just go past the bus and cut the corner and stuff waiting.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Three metres behind someone on the wet-leaf-covered Innocent is not a wise place to be.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Maybe I was more aware last week as clocks changed, or because I have been out and about late evening for various reasons - but there seem a lot of ninjas riding around the meadows/marchmont/newington areas.
New intake of students?
I am frankly amazed none of them have come a cropper yet.
In other news, at least two cyclists on the towpath rocking red blinkies on the front of their bikes - whats that all about??
Posted 8 years ago # -
Was me - Brake checking a minivan twice...
Heading from Haymarket into town I was in the left hand lane. A minivan came half passed me in the right hand lane and put on his left indicator. He got a shout of 'Oi, Where do you 5hink you are going' and dutifully braked and tucked in behind me in the queue.
The next set of lights went amber as I approached and in the split second I debated going through but I thought I should not give him the opportunity to think less of me so I stopped abruptly. I could hear a sharp braking behind me.
The righthand lane ' s light went green and we waited. We got out green but just as we were setting off the right hand lane went red - this confused me and I braked while I worked out what was happening...
I wonder if he thought either/both were deliberate?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Possible worst ever bad cycling tonight whilst I was waiting at bus stop outside st micahel's church in shandon after watching spectre with Gembo junior.
Three ninjas are heading into town along the pavement. The third one SIGNALS he is coming off the pavement by sticking out his right arm. He keeps the arm out and crosses the lane into the west bound lane and continues towards the oncoming traffic. He then turns up the filter lane coming down from polwarth. Again on the wrong side of the road.
Astonishingly, he would appear to still be alive.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Filter lane..."
Harrison rd? Left turn lane?
What an idiot.
Saw two guys on BSOs, seats much too low riding thru Harrison park earlier. 'ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding' "outta my way everybody" followed by a 'thank you' to some peds. Suspect they were high on something.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Yes SRD as odd as that may sound that was the route he took. On the plus side he did indicate the manoeuvre with appropriate hand signal
Posted 8 years ago # -
There's a possibility that he was a foreign student.
I suspect that in some countries cyclists are taught to cycle on the wrong side of the road, just as UK pedestrians are meant to walk on the wrong side of the road in the absence of a footway.
In other countries, it is similarly perfectly legal to cycle on the footways too.
However, now that I come to evidence this, I'm hampered by performing an English language search because the English internet cycles with traffic rather than against it...
Robert
Posted 8 years ago # -
There are plenty enough cyclists around Edinburgh to observe that that doesn't happen here though.
I could hear a sharp braking behind me.
If it was debatable whether you should have gone through, he definitely shouldn't have! Point to you.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Roibeard,
I think that's definitely wrong, unless they are from somewhere very foreign. It goes against the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which even states that while pedestrians on roads with no footpath should be facing traffic, anyone pushing a bike should "keep to the side of the carriageway appropriate to the direction of traffic".
In any case, the manoeuvre Gembo describes around an acute blind corner would appear likely to be extremely life-limiting.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Thanks for the correction - I was beginning to doubt myself already as I'd thought I'd find a reference somewhere in English, if only along the line of "strange foreigners with their strange ways".
Perhaps it is just subjectively safer to be able to see what's about to flatten you, than just hear it approaching and hope... Objectively, I sincerely doubt it, and yes, a blind corner clearly isn't a proof case!
Robert
Posted 8 years ago # -
in rural bits of Canada where pedestrians walk on the shoulder against traffic, it is definitely not uncommon to see people cycling that way too.
Posted 8 years ago # -
If on a country road with speed limits of 60 mph then cycling on the wrong side of the road only increases the closing speed by say 15 mph if uphill possibly much less. So I suppose in theory it may be safer to see cars coming on a road that is too narrow to pass and have closing speed increased by 25 percent. The disadvantage of the higher closing speed could be more than offset by the advantage of seeing cars coming and being able to move of the road if a car is traveling to fast or wide vehicle.
Of course would look a bit odd and not be allowed, but I suppose could make a safety case for cycling this way as due to the speed differential between cars and bikes on the open road a bike like a pedestrian may be travelling a much lower speed that a car or truck. If the speed limit was 100mph or a 150mph then cycling on the wrong side would make more sense, so where does the speed differential become large enough to consider a switch of sides would depend on width of road and visibility also, there may be times when it safer even with 60 mph limits not that this would be possible as illegal and cause confusion as not the current practice.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"there seem a lot of ninjas riding around"
I was in Edinburgh last week and most of the cyclists I saw on the road had no lights. Weird.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@SRD - I definitely encountered that a few times in the prairies! But it does make rather more sense on a wide shoulder - especially, I imagine, if you'll be turning off on the same side, as it saves you crossing two lanes of traffic. (The shoulder in bits of Saskatchewan was like a whole extra lane in places. T'was great!)
Posted 8 years ago # -
He is not a foreign student in my opinion. Saw him again today wearing same hoodie, cap and trackie bottoms. This time he was specialising in rear brake skids. Three from new paving that allows you to avoid the speed bumps before the new boroughmuir along to leamington lift bridge. He was good at them. My belief is that he is a gansta ninja who declines to recognise that it is safer and more sensible to try to abide by the Highway Code because he can get away with all sorts of nonsense. I should say that he is visible in a kind of light grey style.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The gentleman in a blue cycling jacket who, when faced with a crowd of around 50 people getting off the tram at Bankhead Drive decided that the correct approach wasn't to slow down to a sensible speed but to aggressively ring his bell while charging through at about 15mph.
When I shouted at him to slow down he moved - imo quite deliberately - across barging into me and catching my hand with the brake levers on his drops. My thumbs certainly isn't broken, but it definitely hurts. I'll be having words if I bump into him when I'm back on my bike.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@The Boy Sounds almost like assault, especially if there is any CCTV which might have caught it...
On the WoL between the Victoria turnoff and the Chancelot opening there was the usual cloud of pedestrians going in both directions, which were apparently invisible to the impatient turnip who steamed up from behind me and went through them all as they passed each other without slowing.
Posted 8 years ago # -
It did occur to me that a phone call to the local plod might have been worthwhile but tbh nobody was hurt, and I couldn't really tell you anything about him other than his blue jacket and palpable sense of impotence.
It's just a bit worrying that he will presumably go that way every day (this was prime commuting time) and it's really not unusual for the large crowds of students coming off the tram to simply wander across the path without looking. If it was a car passing him and other cyclists he would no doubt expect the driver to drive to the conditions.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Last night's rubbish route selection was by me. Instead of my usual route home, I reckoned I'd go via a quieter road in deference to the fog.
Cue me failing to spot a pothole, losing my pannier and then skidding over some autumnal anti-cyclist leaves as I braked with intent to retrieve it.
Last night's rubbish concern for fellow traveler was the driver who swerved past the pannier on the road and then the cyclist picking himself off the ground a few yards later and then carried on. Admittedly I was fine aside from a scrapey bruise, but meh.
Today's rubbish pannier maintenance was me, managing to break the shoogly clip that was one link in the cyclodown chain. String will have to do until I get it replaced.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Older cyclist last night riding in the dark thick fog at rush hour on Clerk Street / South Clerk Street without any lights. He was wearing dark clothing and riding at the edge of the road - not very obvious to other road users or pedestrians.
I said to him "you really need lights, you're almost invisible, it's not safe for you"
He said "I know".
Posted 8 years ago # -
@The Boy Sounds like the typical behaviour of Mr Angry McShouty, someone I've mentioned a few times on these boards due to his aggressive behaviour towards pedestrians on that route. If they're on the bike-side of the path, even if the other side is completely clear and giving him plenty of overtaking space, he'll charge towards them at speed, dinging his bell like crazy. If they're lone females, he'll deliberately elbow them as he squeezes by, whilst screaming abuse. He is so aggressively violent that I worry how he behaves when he's not cycling
Haven't seen him for a while at my usual commute time (thankfully), so suspect he may work changeable hours.
Usually wears Castelli bibs or longs.
I did once get a very clear pic his face on helmetcam as he's stopped beneath the trambridge, facing me as I approached, to put a jacket on. I wish I'd kept it now.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Top prize (possibly of all-time, and with considerable risk of being posthumous) goes to the person dressed in black, riding a bike with no lights along Gogar Station Road in the pitch dark this evening. To put that in perspective, it's a narrow, unlit country lane busy with traffic rat-running between the A8 and the A71.
I only saw them at the last minute, and I was outside on a bike. For someone in a car with oncoming headlights glaring across a rain-spattered windscreen, they would have been invisible.
Completely insane.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The guy last night on the motor bike.....sorry, electric mountain bike* who under took me at the lights by Ocean Terminal then proceeded to under take a cyclist on Lindsay Road who was being overtaken by cars.
*what's the point of these? Shouldn't they be sold with stabilisers?
Posted 8 years ago #
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