I assume there was a memo advising all Edinburgh motorists that this week is Wacky Races re-enactment week. So far BMW and taxi drivers appear to be taking it most seriously, bus drivers are ignoring it.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Did everybody else miss the memo?
(25 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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Alternate explanations: spring fever? unexpected leaves on trees distracting drivers?
Posted 14 years ago # -
Maybe. Something's definitely got into them though, and it needs to get back out again soon!
Posted 14 years ago # -
We're getting closer to festival time too, my favourite death dodging month of the year.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Why does Dick Dastardly get way out in front, stop to set up some evil trap and then end up coming in last.
He should just keep going.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I used to have a Wacky Races bell, but it broke. :-(
Posted 14 years ago # -
@weefoldingski
You pinpoint the Shakespearean hubris of Dick Dastardly. Similarly, in Macbeth, Macbeth is told by the weird sisters that he will be king. Why doesn't he just chill out and wait for the predicition to come true (as with DD - just get out in front and keep going).
I had a lift on Monday back from Blackburn in a social worker's Chrysler - the one that lookls like THe Anthill Mob's car - not very long, quite high and quite fat and if you put the seats down, easily took the tricross without removing fronmt wheel. Meant I cycled 20 miles on monday with 19 of them into the wind.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yogi Bear - Prospero
Booboo - Ariel
Ranger Smith - CalibanPosted 14 years ago # -
Hair Bear Bunch - Love's Labours Lost
Posted 14 years ago # -
any more cartoon bears?
There was one called Smokey - very friendly grizzly who did not like fires in the Yellowstone Park it would be pushing it to link him to Othello.
Posted 14 years ago # -
There was also Iron Eyes Cody the crying Indian who didn't like litter. Turned out his real name was Espera Oscar de Corti and there was more pasta than peace pipe in his family.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Smokey was a bear and a park ranger, I imagine Yogi and BooBoo would object to that.
Cycled down past the Lyceum the other evening, shouted at to get off my bike which I did as I had failed to notice I was on the pavement as I had been distracted by Boo Boo who was the year above me at school and I hadn't seen him for many years. Alas he has re-invented himself as a city slicker and had a phone in his ear so could not hear me saying hello Bruce baby to him (he never liked the Boo Boo moniker). He decided to try to kill me with a stare but by then I was dealing with the angry pedestrian.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Annoyance always seems to come in threes. I wandered down to the garage to find my bike propped up on a pillar instead of in the bike rack where i left it this morning, hashy bugger beside me probably knocked it out again despite it being held in my the bit card which works on every other bike and most other days. Some plonker coming out of canning street who looks at me pulls out them gives a little wave in thanks!
Topped all off by a discussion with a taxi driver about the pros and cons of kermit the frog using bike lanes coming round the top of Torphicen street with that useless bit of cycle path and conflicting road markings, at least i think that what he said, some thing about muppet and should be in there. Should have known he would be gobby when i over took him while he sat at a green light mucking around with his gps probably trying to remember how to get to the airport. When he pressed his horn I could have got off and had a proper word with because i knew what was coming.
Just reinforces my view that it is my singular duty to obstruct taxis in all there forms regardless of what method of transport i choose to take. Just wait until i'm in charge around here then they'll bloody suffer...
/rant
Posted 13 years ago # -
I have one this afternoon, I was wanting to turn right, so check over shoulder, car at some distance behind, give right signal. As soon as I put out my right arm, I noticed that the driver behind was accelerated to overtake me. Why? 50 m ahead there was a red traffic light! All he achieved was an extra 10 second wait at the lights. I was absolutely fuming, the drivers actions were, deliberate, dangerous and completely pointless. There are people out there who should not be allowed to hold a driving licence.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I wrote to L&B Headquarters the other week complaining about the way drivers get away with treating cyclists and ASL's (and RLJ's for a bit of even handedness!) and got a nice letter back answering all my points (which proves someone took the time to read it) and informing me they are planning a push on such offences over the summer and mentioning the bike friendly city aspirations. Most gratifying!
Posted 13 years ago # -
I noticed a couple of motor bike police sitting hidden off a side street on Gorgie monitoring the cycle lane yesterday...
There were not one, not two but three cars in or beyond the ASL on Harrison Road/Ardmillan this morning. Rush hour, a time I usually get off the road onto the Roseburn path but still have to deal with all the lovely George Watsons tanks having dropped Tarquin off at school then trying to get to work as quickly as possible.My favourite rant was the day I walked out my front door to be confronted by a BMW X5 sitting in a queue, blocking a junction in and out onto Harrison Gardens, with 2/3 kids in the back, her mobile clutched to her ear with one hand and the other hand writing a cheque on the steering wheel
Naturally I was in a grumpy mood so walked up to her window (she was so absorbed by her financial conversation she had no perception of me until my nose was touching the window) and I started screaming at herPosted 13 years ago # -
Things have been pretty sketchy on this side of things, too. I've had more people honk and tailgate me in the past week than in the past three months combined.
I think I'm going to start carrying a U-lock, not for actually locking the bike, but to administer some good ol' American Street Justice.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I came in to work early today and I had been looking forward to it as I thought it would be nice and quiet. It was but I had:-
-When I reached the main road I almost immediately had an HGV driver driving right up behind me revving the engine while I was passing some parked cars
-Just around the corner a different HGV driver who slammed his foot on the accelerator and drove right up to my right elbow as I approached a traffic island
-Slightly further on a motorist who blasted past on my right though a red light as I waited at a junction
-Just before the turnoff for the Innocent a motorist who blasted past a cyclist a bit in front of me who was already in the middle of the road and signalling clearly to turn right
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ah, that'd be why my commute was Minless today then. A while back I wrote a theory on the relative busy-ness of the roads and the effect that has on driver behaviour. There's a point in between really heavy and really light where bikes are seen as a moving obstruction, with the traffic juuuust light enough for them to justify squeezing by and so on.
Too busy and they do generally realise the folly of such actions (there are always exceptions), incredibly light traffic and people are more relaxed and realise that even if they are 'held up' by a bike they can make the time up on the quiet streets after.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I generally feel safer during my usual commuting window, when I was driving I was usually in the same spot at the same time and recognised the same cars around me.
Maybe it's complacency on my behalf but I like to think that people driving around that time of day are using to operating machinery around us, and although many are in autopilot we're hopefully part of the stuff they expect.
I always seem to have a lot more bother if I skip off early or are going in late, probably for much the reasons anth said.
Posted 13 years ago # -
This could be true. I set off an hour earlier this morning, 7.15. But I am often on the bike by 6.15 or 6.30 and every seldom have bother at that time. I guess the time in between is the nutter zone.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I've just had a shouting match with a bloke in a car on Magdalene Avenue. I won't tell you the bad words but let's just say it wasn't pleasant.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Bloke, car, Magdalene
...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Roads have definitely been quieter this week (non-parents having their summer holidays?). This seems to mean that traffic moves faster, so more chance for altercations.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Also, some people drive like crack babies full of E numbers.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Due to tram works at Edinburgh Park I cannot turn up Cutlins Road anymore. I have to go up through Bankhead Estate, never nice (except when Burtons Biscuits are cooking twice). This entails a moderate climb ending in a right turn. THe other night the car behind me slowed, flashed its lights and let me turn right. Wasn't that nice. [@SRD is this ambush advertising?]
Posted 13 years ago #
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