Near Misses

jimmycrackcorm

Last night on my way home - I nearly went into a car that pulled in front of me to go into a petrol station but stopped at the entrance. The woman driving gave me a look of horror as I passed as I suspect she realized that she had panicked or something.

this morning, going along the canal a van driver turned right across from the opposite side of the road (into the cycle lane ) and I skidded into him just narrowly avoiding a complete smack into him. Again he knew he was completely in the wrong.

But I'm left wondering if this is what I can commonly expect? I had resisted cycling in Dublin due to an thinking that it was too dangerous and now I'm wondering if it actually is or this is normal for everyone and part an parcel of being a cyclist.

72hundred

I've only cycled in Dublin city centre for a year, so my knowledge won't be as expert as some here. But I think as a cyclist you become even more aware of what could happen around you and this helps prevent any problems, much in the same way that a kid playing with a ball at the side of the road is a red flag you learn what are the red flags about Dublin - and you rarely make the same mistake twice!

Canis Lupus

Keep your eyes open and don't put yourself in a position you can't realistically jump out of if you have to.

I've had a white van overtake me to the point where I was half way between front and back and he then takes a left turn. A quick (and slightly panicked) bang on his side stopped him dead.

Cycle defensively and intelligently, you'll be fine. Usually it's the Weekend/fairweather cyclists that get completely stuffed imo.

(As a slight side note Weekend/Fairweather cyclists drive me bonkers. If they couldn't drive they wouldn't hop into a car for a spin but they've no problems taking themselves out onto busy roads when they don't know where to look and cycle like a 5 year olds with stabilisers.)

Gavin

Close calls are not uncommon. Crashes are uncommon.

There's nothing that can be done about the completely irrational accident, but the majority of close calls can be seen coming and accounted for.

Cars coming out of a left will usually nudge their nose out, you move into the main lane to avoid, well beforehand.
Cars facing you, turning to their right can sometimes not see you as you are obscured by cars on your right. Again, move into the lane so as you can be seen.
If a car is slightly over on the cycle lane, odds are it's going to move a bit more in, stay back from it and watch what it's going to do.
Don't go up the inside of trucks.
Watch for gaps in stopped traffic, an oncoming car may be turning to the right and through.
Watch for petrol stations/shopping centers entrances etc like above, a car may pull into it/out of it without indicating. They can generally be identified by their slow movement to the left of the road.
Look through stopped car windows to see pedestrians
Look through stopped car windows to see if there is a driver, they may be about to open the door, move out if that's the case. Slow down if you can't move out.

More stuff on the safe cycling part of the wiki. It's the same as driving really (I imagine), you keep your eyes open and expect everyone else to do stupid things.

Keep at it !

irishmotorist

I find that it goes in waves. I can go weeks without incident and then have loads. Interesting actually that there was a lunar eclipse at the weekend - I wonder if that drives people bonkers the way a full moon does.
Twice, while going home on Friday, I had to brake hard and full (causing a skid) to avoid a colision - the second one was more dangerous for me. I was booting up the N4 through Palmerstown with a nice tailwind. As I was flying it and the road was a bit damp, I had a good mid lane posistion to discourage any silliness around me. However, this wagon in a 07-d-7xxxx (I don't remember the xxxx numbers, much to my dismay) black Toyota Auris decided to overtake me and turn left in front of me giving me inches to spare - instead of slowing slightly more for no more than 5 seconds. I was a bit shaken from it, but feel that if I hadn't adjusted my brakes the day before I'd be brown bread.

jimmycrackcorm

Verb wrote: »

Close calls are not uncommon. Crashes are uncommon.

There's nothing that can be done about the completely irrational accident, but the majority of close calls can be seen coming and accounted for.

Cars coming out of a left will usually nudge their nose out, you move into the main lane to avoid, well beforehand.
Cars facing you, turning to their right can sometimes not see you as you are obscured by cars on your right. Again, move into the lane so as you can be seen.
If a car is slightly over on the cycle lane, odds are it's going to move a bit more in, stay back from it and watch what it's going to do.
Don't go up the inside of trucks.
Watch for gaps in stopped traffic, an oncoming car may be turning to the right and through.
Watch for petrol stations/shopping centers entrances etc like above, a car may pull into it/out of it without indicating. They can generally be identified by their slow movement to the left of the road.
Look through stopped car windows to see pedestrians
Look through stopped car windows to see if there is a driver, they may be about to open the door, move out if that's the case. Slow down if you can't move out.

More stuff on the safe cycling part of the wiki. It's the same as driving really (I imagine), you keep your eyes open and expect everyone else to do stupid things.

Keep at it !

Some good pointers there - especially the petrol station / shop entrances.
Another one from this morning, albeit I wasn't too close, was a motorbike cutting in between the stopped cars on the canal that then went up the cycle lane - Had I been closer to him then I'd have been straight into his fuel tank.

Gavin

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Some good pointers there - especially the petrol station / shop entrances.
Another one from this morning, albeit I wasn't too close, was a motorbike cutting in between the stopped cars on the canal that then went up the cycle lane - Had I been closer to him then I'd have been straight into his fuel tank.

Sounds like the same thing as happened to thesunwashot. It wasn't a pony express courier was it ?

seamus

Yeah, I rarely get very bad ones - four years on a motorbike gave me a sixth sense on what to look out for. I usually get caught out when I make my own bad decision.

Had it on the Rathmines road this morning, where the road from the barracks meets the rathmines road. It's a black spot for me, for people pulling out and across cyclists - I'm convinced there's a bermuda triangle there which causes cyclists to become invisible.

Anyway, an aul fella coming from the road on my right, I could tell he was going to pull out, so I was tenative. He did pull out, I was close to him, but if we kept on our courses it would have been fine. Of course he didn't. He stopped suddenly in the middle of the road because he had failed to look to his left before pulling out and didn't see the van coming from the opposite direction. So I had to swerve around the back of him. If there'd been another vehicle behind him or if I'd otherwise had no room, I'd have been over his boot.

And I know that I wouldn't even have thought twice about it, if I'd just applied the brakes and shook my head in the first instance.

You can't control other drivers' behaviour, you can only control your own. 99.999% of incidents can be avoided if you're vigilant enough, even when someone else has made the mistake.

Raam

From reading Bikeradar forums, it seems that quite a few people have cameras on their helmets which they use to record incidents. Does anyone here ride with one?

Danbo!

Raam wrote: »

From reading Bikeradar forums, it seems that quite a few people have cameras on their helmets which they use to record incidents. Does anyone here ride with one?

Have been condidering one for a while, but they're a bit steep price-wise. Although, they could be priceless in certain situations. Even for non-legal matters, I witness idiotic drivers/motor-cyclists/moped riders/cyclists every day and would love to stick together a compilation of it.

unionman

Had a couple of classics this morning.

SUV on conyngham road makes a swift change of lane left into my path, no mirror, no signal, nothing.

Another SUV does exactly the same thing again, into the bus lane on Bachelor's Walk. Same driver is texting when he pulls up at the lights at O'Connell Bridge.

But the classic humdinger getting today's big eejit award is the muppet in the rear passenger seat outside the Arlington Hotel who flings the car door open right into my path.

In each case, I was watching each of these vehicles before they made their move. Maybe that's the effect of experience, I don't know. To some extent, every journey feels like the first, you just never know what's going to happen.

Verb's list ^ makes a lot of sense.

DirkVoodoo

I nearly had a very bad one that gives me shivers when I think about it:

Two saturdays ago, cycling to howth.

Had just crossed over onto the "on road" cycle track and was going over that kind of cement/concrete segment of the clontarf road (the bit that isnt tarmacced).

Anyway, cycling along at about 35 kph when all of a sudden, my front wheel catches one of those crevices in the concrete (stupid road!). The front wheel and the back wheel decide to start fighting each other and the whole bike starts to do that god-awful pre-crash wobble. I'm there thinking christ this is gonna be bad, theres a van speeding behind me and a nice big kerb to my left! Somehow I ride it out, regain control and try not to think about what a bad one it would have been.

State of Irish roads is truly appalling, especially whenever they do any pipelines stuff around my area, the roads are left in tatters.

unionman

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Anyway, cycling along at about 35 kph when all of a sudden, my front wheel catches one of those crevices in the concrete (stupid road!). The front wheel and the back wheel decide to start fighting each other and the whole bike starts to do that god-awful pre-crash wobble. I'm there thinking christ this is gonna be bad, theres a van speeding behind me and a nice big kerb to my left! Somehow I ride it out, regain control and try not to think about what a bad one it would have been.

State of Irish roads is truly appalling, especially whenever they do any pipelines stuff around my area, the roads are left in tatters.

That's spooky, the exact same thing happened to me in the same spot two sundays ago. Came out of it OK but it knocked the wind out of me for a few minutes.

I've been advised since that Malahide Road / Baldoyle is a better route out to Howth, at least as far as road surface is concerned.

Stark

Canis Lupus wrote:

(As a slight side note Weekend/Fairweather cyclists drive me bonkers. If they couldn't drive they wouldn't hop into a car for a spin but they've no problems taking themselves out onto busy roads when they don't know where to look and cycle like a 5 year olds with stabilisers.)

I think you overestimate people's attitudes towards driving in this country

DirkVoodoo

Thanks for the advice unionman.

It is a dangerous stretch, my mate nearly got taken out by a car that was parked in the "cycle lane". It didnt edge out but rather did a boy racer style tear off.

Its my least favourite part about gettin to howth, glad i can cut it out now!

bunnygreen

Here's one that happened to me on Sunday morning.Descending at speed (dont know the exact name of the road, it comes down to meet the bridge if your going across to the Hellfire club from Jonnie Foxes),when a deer jumps out and dashes across so close to me that i did'nt have time to break and i just clipped it's hind leg with my front wheel,holy f*** it happened so fast,luckily i stayed upright and kept going,if you go up that way you'll see the brown stain on the road,ive had near misses with cars before but how can you anticipate deer antics,there would have been some spectacle on the road if i'd hit it.Should have done the Humpy 100 instead,there was only a few boulders and flood debris to avoid on that one.

Stark

unionman wrote: »

I've been advised since that Malahide Road / Baldoyle is a better route out to Howth, at least as far as road surface is concerned.

Interesting. Would you turn off onto Tongalee Road or continue up and turn off at the point where the Malahide road meets the N32?

unionman

I haven't been out that way since but Tonlegee / Kilbarrack road is an option (a longer spin but direct enough).

Looking at it again, the Howth Road cuts out most of Clontarf and alongside St Anne's Park, which is where I think the surface is most problematic. It rejoins the coast there at the end of James Larkin rd, just before Kilbarrack rd junction.

Raam

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Thanks for the advice unionman.

It is a dangerous stretch, my mate nearly got taken out by a car that was parked in the "cycle lane". It didnt edge out but rather did a boy racer style tear off.

Its my least favourite part about gettin to howth, glad i can cut it out now!

The surface might be better on Malahide Road, but I wouldn't bother heading out that way if you are going to Howth. Stick to the coast as there are less lights and in my experience the traffic is a bit more cycle friendly. I take this route everyday, and yes, the surface could be better, but it doesn't stop me

Edit: the Howth Road ain't too bad, but you have more junctions and traffic to negotiate. The bottom of Collins Ave is a suspect spot.

Chips Lovell

Unionman, I take the Howth Road rather than the coast road out to Howth. I've had that scary, tyre caught in the concret moment too on the coast road. The other advantage to the Howth Road is that there's a bit of a drag up to Raheny, which gives you a bit more of a workout.

mbradso2003

Had a few close scares myself mainly cycling from Sandyford to City Centre.

Was involved in crash last year on Goatstown Road. Car turning left while we were both travelling straight side by side and only indicated 5 yards from corner while we both doing 50kmph! I managed to brake sufficently
which allowed him to pass get slightly in front but still a nasty crash none the same!

Driver held hands at scene and lucky my injuries for few cuts and bruises.. Bike only suffered E200 in damage as well.

To make matters worse it took me 6 months to receive payment for damages, as driver ignored my numerous emails and phone calls.. Lucky for me it was a company car (whom he was a regional manager for a very well known multi-national company) and only after contacting CEO did he agreed to go through company car insurance company!

Moral of the story, call Gardai no matter how small accident!

stopped_clock

bunnygreen wrote: »

Here's one that happened to me on Sunday morning.Descending at speed (dont know the exact name of the road, it comes down to meet the bridge if your going across to the Hellfire club from Jonnie Foxes),when a deer jumps out and dashes across so close to me that i did'nt have time to break and i just clipped it's hind leg with my front wheel,holy f*** it happened so fast,luckily i stayed upright and kept going,if you go up that way you'll see the brown stain on the road,ive had near misses with cars before but how can you anticipate deer antics,there would have been some spectacle on the road if i'd hit it.Should have done the Humpy 100 instead,there was only a few boulders and flood debris to avoid on that one.

Similar thing happened to me in Richmond Park in London. Coming down a hill fast with a buddy close behind and a deer jumped out in front of me. Didn't come as close as you though!

Howitzer

unionman wrote: »

Had a couple of classics this morning.



...rear passenger seat outside the Arlington Hotel who flings the car door open right into my path.

I had this from a taxi yesterday morning. All the other passengers screamed at the door opener - stopping him in his tracks. I was well enough out of the way - but still thankful to those other passengers for pointing out the fool's mistake.

I often think about the safety of it all vs. the benefit and it downright scares me sometimes. I'm educating myself by reading posts like this etc. Considering getting a cyclists road-craft type book too.

I've also thought about the helmet cam. I reckon when they come down from €120 to €60 I'd get one.

I've even thought of helmet with jaw protector... having heard of someone else's dental repair bills!!

one other tip is try and never be late. the bike is not a time machine and you make worse decisions when pedalling hard and out of breath.

edit:
http://www.bikedock.com/posit/shop/index.php?category=81&group=9&manf=&format=1
http://www.beseenonabike.com/shopuk/

Just saw these. I'll be getting a backpack cover at some stage.
Hump looks the best - but sweet lord it's not cheap!
http://www.beseenonabike.com/shopuk/images/HUMP%2060%20.jpg

TinyExplosions

Howitzer wrote: »

I've even thought of helmet with jaw protector... having heard of someone else's dental repair bills!!

I'm looking at 1400 to fix one tooth after a spill!

seamus

Howitzer wrote: »

one other tip is try and never be late. the bike is not a time machine and you make worse decisions when pedalling hard and out of breath.

If you're late, you're also likely to be sharing the road with a few thousand other people who are late and trying to make up time by making rash decisions.

Particularly during the school term, avoid being on the road between 8.45am and 9.15am as this is when all the tardy people are at their looniest.

Raam

I had a near miss yesterday. I'm travelling along the Clontarf-Sutton cycle-track. There is a section where there are bustops separated by a low wall. The track is exclusively for bikes and there is a grass section beside it. Sometimes people waiting for buses stand on the grass. So it goes: road - path - "little wall" - "cycle track" - grass" Today was no exception, as one lady was waiting on the grass. As I got to about 15 feet from her, she starts to walk across the track giving me very little time to react. I had to shout to get her attention and throw on the anchors. Thankfully she stopped, but it was a close one and I had visions of me smacking right into her.

PeadarofAodh

Was out last weekend with a mate, we were approaching the descent towards Laragh and were passing that small carpark/pull-in area just before it. There was a family standing there in the pull-in area on the rights of the road, their dog on the opposite side of the road. We were going fairly snappy at maybe 40/50km/h and gave the dog a wide berth, swinging onto wrong side of road. I'm about 10 ft behind my mate when the family decides to call their dog back to them (with us in full sight!). Dog runs across road right in front of my mate, freezes and everything seemed to slow down. Cue the biggest speed wobble I've ever seen as mate slams on brakes and just avoids dog.

Couldn't believe he managed to stay on the bike...my heart-rate must've just about doubled!

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I had a close one with a dog as well. I was going along at a slow enough speed when the dog decided to run under my front wheel.

The owner was very apologetic and promised to pay for the repairs to my now wonky wheel, but luckily it somehow straigntened itself out over the course of about a minute and was good as new.

And the dog was fine.

jimmycrackcorm

This morning I saw someone crossing the road along the canal who came out into the cycle lane from between parked cars without looking left for oncoming cyclists. Luckily they were far enough ahead but I think the odds are stacking up for a sore collision sometime.

zzzzzzzz

Not really a near miss - more glad to not be injured...

This morning coming in to work in Dell, Loughlinstown was coming up to the small island right outside the front door. Car coming around island slowly, watched him stop and he was looking right at me. I thought, "sound he's given me the right of way that i'm supposed to have at this junction". Must have glanced away from him briefly because next thing he's pulled out right in front of me. Slammed on the brakes and somehow managed to do a complete 180 before hitting the car with my back. Wasn't going very fast and sort of landed on my feet. Went up to the driver and was all "What the fcuk are you doing?" and he had the cheek to say "What the fcuk were YOU doing?" anyway... bike was fine and I was completely injury free suprisingly... so I let him go on his way.

Would he have pulled out if I had been a car coming down the road? Eh...no.

zzzzzzzz

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

Not really a near miss - more glad to not be injured...

This morning coming in to work in Dell, Loughlinstown was coming up to the small island right outside the front door. Car coming around island slowly, watched him stop and he was looking right at me. I thought, "sound he's given me the right of way that i'm supposed to have at this junction". Must have glanced away from him briefly because next thing he's pulled out right in front of me. Slammed on the brakes and somehow managed to do a complete 180 before hitting the car with my back. Wasn't going very fast and sort of landed on my feet. Went up to the driver and was all "What the fcuk are you doing?" and he had the cheek to say "What the fcuk were YOU doing?" anyway... bike was fine and I was completely injury free suprisingly... so I let him go on his way.

Would he have pulled out if I had been a car coming down the road? Eh...no.

So... I'm now starting to wish I'd taken this guy's reg. Neck/shoulder started hurting last night. Hopefully it goes away! :eek:

here's some cctv of the incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufwLmXBatw

hermann

Hi all,I've recently taken up cycling to work and am still learning.

In addition to the great list posted by Verb on page 1, there is one other thing that has nearly caught me out a couple of times:

Coming along in a cycle lane, want to turn right, I check over my shoulder, let one car go past then I signal and pull out into the road. Now before I pull out into the right-turn lane, I check over my shoulder again. At this point the car i've just let go past, which wasn't going very fast, hits the brakes hard for some reason while i'm looking back, and i turn around to very narrowly avoid getting a close-up look at his rear upholstery. Lesson is to keep a good distance especially when about to check your back i suppose.

(ps aidanoffbeat above: that was crazy, the guy seemed to stop for long enough to have a good look and then drive right at you!)

DirkVoodoo

hermann wrote: »

Hi all,I've recently taken up cycling to work and am still learning.

In addition to the great list posted by Verb on page 1, there is one other thing that has nearly caught me out a couple of times:

Coming along in a cycle lane, want to turn right, I check over my shoulder, let one car go past then I signal and pull out into the road. Now before I pull out into the right-turn lane, I check over my shoulder again. At this point the car i've just let go past, which wasn't going very fast, hits the brakes hard for some reason while i'm looking back, and i turn around to very narrowly avoid getting a close-up look at his rear upholstery. Lesson is to keep a good distance especially when about to check your back i suppose.

(ps aidanoffbeat above: that was crazy, the guy seemed to stop for long enough to have a good look and then drive right at you!)

Something very similar happened to me a few months ago. It was on the stillorgan dual carriageway at the sliproad up "the hill" road. basically the woman had stopped to let me pass and I nearly planted myself into the back of the car. If she had pulled in as i moved to swerve left, it wud have been nasty. In the end all i got was a broken spoke and a fright.

Gavin

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

So... I'm now starting to wish I'd taken this guy's reg. Neck/shoulder started hurting last night. Hopefully it goes away! :eek:

here's some cctv of the incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufwLmXBatw

Wow, that's terrible driving. I was thinking that maybe the driver thought it was a roundabout and he had right of way, but he stopped at the yield line and then went on. That's great that you got the video, really shows how it was completely his fault. You could possibly hang around the same spot and the same time for a few mornings, might spot him again and get his license plate..

I'm sure you'll be grand though, just bruising.