CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

For the first time - fear of commuting

(18 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by thebikechain
  • Latest reply from Smudge

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  1. thebikechain
    Member

    In less than a week I have had 3 near misses.

    1. Coming along Chamber Street - middle of the lane. West bound. A honda civic starts to but out of the parking spaces ahead and pauses. Then decides to go for it entering my lane. Cue me slowing down and putting a foot down behind it as the driver realises where i now am. Then, they take a left and start indicating right to turn against the no right turn sign. I ride alongside and tap the wing mirror deliberately on the passenger side. I admit i was angry and i shouldn't have done it.
    THEN, the driver pulls up behind me at the lights instead so I get off the bike and walk it back to speak to them.
    "Are you going to pay for that wing mirror?"
    'Are you going to pay for nearly hitting me?'
    "I saw you coming that's why I pulled out - i could see where you were!"

    I just stood there wondering how to counter such blatant stupidity. You pulled out on me because you could see me...?
    The wing mirror was absolutely fine BTW as i literally tapped it.

    2. This morning. Coming down Yeaman Place again in the middle of the lane due to parked cars. Saw an Audi A6 estate parked on the 'wrong side' start to pull out. Then pauses, then actually just goes for it right across my lane about 3m for me. Thankfully disc brakes do a marvellous job.

    3. Albany St Death Junction. 2 Luton vans trying to exit and the lights are now turned off for some reason so i decided having prior knowledge of the lights being down to sit right back in mirror view and let them be on their way. 1st van, no probs, he turns right.
    2nd van, no signal so i remain where i am and assume he must be going onto Forth Street. Incorrect.
    He dummies a right turn and then feints left. Numpty.
    Of course, being of the 'they can't see me' persuasion i was back behind the van so that was all fine. I can imagine what might have happened.
    His master stroke was entering the bottom roundabout on Broughton St INTO traffic who in turn activated audible warning devices and proceeded to go right. This time he had discovered what the stock next to the steering wheel did.

    I know, i should stick to the canal.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. Min
    Member

    You can wear the brightest colours available to man, have the brightest lights, have the strongest brakes and ride in a text book fashion but the only way to avoid the murderous scum is to avoid roads.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    "I saw you coming that's why I pulled out - i could see where you were!"

    I'm afraid this is the standard behaviour with some drivers.

    'I can see bikes, but the are smaller/less important/shouldn't be on the road and will stop if I'm in the way.'

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Min
    Member

    AKA SMIDGAF

    Sorry Mate I Don't Give A F***

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. SRD
    Moderator

    The other day I had one of those ';parked wrong way' episodes too.

    On Polwarth gardens, parked very close to a black bin, so no visibility, and a huge amount of bonnet to swing out before she could see me. I saw panic in face of passenger though, who must have shouted at driver.

    Thank goodness for disc brakes!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. chdot
    Admin

    "Thank goodness for disc brakes!"

    Yours or theirs!?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. bdellar
    Member

    I had a van sideswipe me on Leith Walk a couple of months ago. His excuse was that he was a cyclist too, and he had seen me. Crazy...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    There was an e-petition doing the rounds on twitter about making cycle awareness part of the driving test.

    I'd rather that some remedial physics to cover accelleration, deccelleration and some of the fundamentals of kinetic energy were included.

    It seems many human beings (and this is not just drivers, but the tonnes of steel and hundreds of horsepower they control exaccerbate things) have a basic inability to judge the speed of an approaching object and are then greatly overconfident about their own abilities to get going / come to a halt.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "His excuse was that he was a cyclist too, and he had seen me"

    Forgotten the width of his vehicle then(?)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. mgj
    Member

    My morning SMIDSY; coming down High Street at 9:15, approaching city chambers. Police car parked on double yellows obscuring view up the hill; second police car pulls out from exit to turn right up the hill as someone beckons him out. Cue slam on of brakes, and driver pulling a snarky face at me. Must go speak to my friend who heads up Police Division at the SG...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. ianfieldhouse
    Member

    My morning incident was some impatient loony in a white Passat estate deciding to toot his horn at me and then wave for me to get out of his way since I had the temerity to be in the primary position approaching the mini roundabout heading east on Braidburn Terrace. Once passed me he gained the massive advantage of being about 10 feet ahead of me as we passed along Hermitage Drive. I can only presume he was pissed off with the fact he had been stuck in the perma-jam of traffic on Greenbank Crescent that I had passed. I hope I made his morning by giving him a huge smile whilst flicking him the bird.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. Darkerside
    Member

    Just for balance, the most severe incident I had this morning was a slightly chilled nose.

    Which is also the most severe incident this year. Verging on bitter, it was.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  13. DaveC
    Member

    These are all reasons why I try to keep off the road as much as possible, even if it means I take longer route, because everyone know you don't get a slightly chilled nose on shared paths.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  14. Min
    Member

    I can confirm that Broughton Street - which has always been what can be described as "edgy" is now an absolute death trap and the London Road roundabout seems to have followed. Best avoided IMO.

    I will try Death Walk and MacDeathald Road tomorrow as an alternative but I think the council are close to forcing me off my bike.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  15. sallyhinch
    Member

    It's not just Edinburgh - cycling into Dumfries today I had TWO smidsies, one a van turning right onto the road I was cycling on (I should have anticipated it, but then again, he should have looked) forcing me to take extreme evasive action, and then a car turning right at a t-junction cutting the corner and almost driving right over me as I waited to make my turn, before he looked and took evasive action. This at 2 in the afternoon.

    To put it in perspective I've had about 5 Smidsies in almost 5 years up here. Is it something in the water? It was quite a glary day

    Posted 12 years ago #

  16. gembo
    Member

    First cycle of 2013 for me due to flu. Broke in the ice tyres on a 32 km round trip Balerno, craigmllar, moredunvale, Balerno via braid hills road. I love that road, superb views, superb width. Was on canal and innocent in the morning. Was going gingerly. Nothing to report in any of the route other than a happiness to not be on a bus and a hope the flu does not bite back. I think I have left it long enough. Will have lemsip in bed tonight just in case.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  17. Smudge
    Member

    Got to say I've been avoiding smidsies round Edinburgh for(blushes) over thirty years, I don't believe it has become worse, in some places it has become better, when I worked as an MC courier around twenty years ago I always put my lights on when travelling down Leith walk because of the number of Taxis who liked to U-Turn without looking, and the generally rotten standard of driving. Elsewhere I didn't bother in good conditions. I suspect it's much the same now, though I don't have to ride it very often.

    A loud horn used as per the highway code and good defensive riding will avoid 90% of smidsies, just have the mindset, the ARE out to get you and many of the problems will be avoided before they develop!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  18. Smudge
    Member

    Though please don't anyone take that as a personal attack on their defensive riding skills! We all get caught out sometimes and it can be horribly scary :-(

    Posted 12 years ago #

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