Who was in the right here?

mathie

So I'm cycling in today on my morning commute.
I'm in the cycle lane which is on the road.
It's a busy road and the cars are all stuck in a traffic jam.
A large truck is coming out onto the road and is turning right so has to go through the traffic that's stopped.

When I'm about 20 metres from him I notice he looks and sees me.
Then he pulls out right in front of me.
I've to slam the brakes (very wet out today) and I manage to stop safe enough.

Needless to say I thought I was right and he thought he was right.

Opinions?

Vélo

It sounds like he was pulling on to the road that you were already travelling along, which would suggest he's in the wrong.

Unregistered.

Vélo wrote: »

It sounds like he was pulling on to the road that you were already travelling along, which would suggest he's in the wrong.

I wouldn't worry about right and wrong, just be aware in future that not everybody on the road knows the Rules of The Road as well as you. You were right to stop, even though you had the right of way, as continuing onwards could have killed you.

mathie

Cheers for the replies guys.

I think the worst of it was when I said to him "You looked and you saw me and still pulled out!"
He goes "Yeah I know I saw you"
Me "And you still pulled out? you should be ashamed. You're in a truck and I'm on a bike."
He goes "But sure I cycle too!"

You can't win

seamus

If you're pulling out onto a road, you must give way to everyone on that road, including pedestrians. He was completely in the wrong. Did you speak to him and he said that he was in the right? If so, that would explain a lot. Trucks and busses are particularly bad for pulling out in front of cyclists, I'm not sure what their problem is.

As said above, being in the right is far less important than staying alive. By all means guard your road position and right of way assertively, but expect everyone else to ignore your existence.

Also note that rain & fogs tends to cause drivers to drive more erratically, rather than more safely. This morning I had an unprecedent number of idiots speeding up along my right and then having to jam on when they realised they weren't going to make it around me to take the next left.

Unregistered.

Well, there are some Class A idiots on the road today!!!

I was going down Upper Bridge Street towards the river (downhill). I had the green light but because I was far ahead of all the cars some clown - talking on the phone I might add - who was approaching the junction at Cook Street in the opposite direction tries to swing a right turn right in front of me! Jammed on the brakes, skidded and stopped with about two foot to spare over the side of his Ford Transit. I was pooping myself at the time because I wasn't sure if there was cars behind me.
I was lucky i read this thread this morning and I wasn't pelting it down the descent.

BTH

mathie wrote: »

Cheers for the replies guys.

I think the worst of it was when I said to him "You looked and you saw me and still pulled out!"
He goes "Yeah I know I saw you"
Me "And you still pulled out? you should be ashamed. You're in a truck and I'm on a bike."
He goes "But sure I cycle too!"

You can't win

This is the conversation you had with him? A hell of a lot more polite than the one I would have had.

califano

seamus wrote: »

If you're pulling out onto a road, you must give way to everyone on that road, including pedestrians. He was completely in the wrong. Did you speak to him and he said that he was in the right? If so, that would explain a lot. Trucks and busses are particularly bad for pulling out in front of cyclists, I'm not sure what their problem is.

As said above, being in the right is far less important than staying alive. By all means guard your road position and right of way assertively, but expect everyone else to ignore your existence.

Also note that rain & fogs tends to cause drivers to drive more erratically, rather than more safely. This morning I had an unprecedent number of idiots speeding up along my right and then having to jam on when they realised they weren't going to make it around me to take the next left.

This is very true. Came across a suspected case of this last saturday evening in applewood Swords. A car on its roof and a prone cyclist and a mangled racing bike with garda on the scene and an ambulance on its way. I described the section of road to my brother who lives there and he said drivers never stop properly coming out onto that road.
Actually did anyone hear of this accident because it looked pretty grim.

BTH

rounders123 wrote: »

This is very true. Came across a suspected case of this last saturday evening in applewood Swords. A car on its roof and a prone cyclist and a mangled racing bike with garda on the scene and an ambulance on its way. I described the section of road to my brother who lives there and he said drivers never stop properly coming out onto that road.
Actually did anyone hear of this accident because it looked pretty grim.

There was hardly two crashed in Dublin on Saturday involving bikes and overturned cars. Horrific accident. Good guy

http://www.3dtri.com/index.php?q=node/2716

mathie

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

This is the conversation you had with him? A hell of a lot more polite than the one I would have had.

I'm sure both of us were using more expressive language

tomasrojo

In the situation described by the OP, I would make a jabbing motion with my hand, pointing straight ahead. It attracts the eye, and usually makes them pause. Got to be careful not to look as if you're admonishing them though, as sometimes they go nuts.

If you wear light-coloured gloves (or home-made reflective cuffs during day, and home-made wrist lights at night in my case) it enhances the effect.

That's my theory anyway.

Unregistered.

tomasrojo wrote: »

In the situation described by the OP, I would make a jabbing motion with my hand, pointing straight ahead.

Only problem with that is when the driver ignores you and you've one hand off the brakes :P

califano

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

There was hardly two crashed in Dublin on Saturday involving bikes and overturned cars. Horrific accident. Good guy

http://www.3dtri.com/index.php?q=node/2716

Yeah thats definately the one i came across, glad everyone is relatively ok. Sounds like hes making light of it because it looked a nasty scene.

Lumen

Passing stopped traffic in the wet is a recipe for accidents. Pedestrians don't look, drivers don't look, it's deadly in a completely non-colloquial sense.

Having conversations with people in vehicles is impossible. Some chap in a 5 series was trying to lecture me about hand signals this morning, through an open passenger window whilst driving along at 20kph in traffic. At least I think he was. What are you supposed to do, pull over for a full and frank discussion? I've no idea what he was on about.

tomasrojo

Unregistered. wrote: »

Only problem with that is when the driver ignores you and you've one hand off the brakes :P

Good point; you do it just before you reach the junction, not in the junction.

nerraw1111

You were in the right but not much use being right and dead/injured.

If that was me, I’d expect the truck to go ahead as other motorists are letting him in.

I’d also expect him to use most of the road in order to make the turn so I would've started slowing down straight away as soon I saw the truck.

Yes, it is annoying and you had the right of way. But you have to be aware that motorists can be considerate to other motorists at such junctions which means its best to slow down in advance.

tomasrojo

Another one to watch out for is yellow boxes. You can physically cross them when other traffic can't, but you really have to watch out for crossing traffic, because they really won't expect you.

buffalo

Lumen wrote: »

Passing stopped traffic in the wet is a recipe for accidents. Pedestrians don't look, drivers don't look, it's deadly in a completely non-colloquial sense.

Having conversations with people in vehicles is impossible. Some chap in a 5 series was trying to lecture me about hand signals this morning, through an open passenger window whilst driving along at 20kph in traffic. At least I think he was. What are you supposed to do, pull over for a full and frank discussion?

I had this a couple of weeks ago - driver nearly squished me when he exited with me off a roundabout. I was turning right ahead, and ended up alongside his window as his lane was moving slowly. I politely* asked him to leave more space in future, and as he shouted that he gave me plenty of room, he accidentally drove up onto the left-hand footpath. I felt no need to point out that he was obviously in total control of his vehicle at all times.


*seriously, actual politeness

el tel

By the sounds of it, by seeing you and nevertheless moving out to block the traffic to make a right turn the trucker was treating you just like any other road user. I suppose its a move in the right direction...;):p

kenmc

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

There was hardly two crashed in Dublin on Saturday involving bikes and overturned cars. Horrific accident. Good guy

http://www.3dtri.com/index.php?q=node/2716

Sounds like a (relatively) lucky escape and I hope he recovers soon, but I take issue with this phrase in his post (unless it's sarcasm, but my filter doesn't detect it):

Obviously if someone flashes then you have right of way and don’t have to look out for anything else coming

.
Even if someone flashes you, you do NOT have right of way. In fact flashing has no legal effect whatsoever, and only serves to confuse the situation, as my driving instructor went to great lengths to explain to me 17 years ago whilst I flashed a car during one of my lessons, since the flash could have been accidentally caused by someone trying to turn on the wipers, the headlights, the radio etc etc.
Nowhere in the rules of the road does it say anything about yielding to other traffic "unless flashed"

dited

kenmc wrote: »

I take issue with this phrase in his post (unless it's sarcasm, but my filter doesn't detect it

I think you may need to recalibrate your sarcometer

kenmc

dited wrote: »

I think you may need to recalibrate your sarcometer

Damn. must be working too hard

glic71rods46t0

Pretty controversial ending to that guy's crash report " What I’ve learnt from all this is never to underestimate drivers, that the big metal things on the road are a lot more solid than you, and to always wear a helmet!!"

kenmc

d81bspgce207w3 wrote: »

Pretty controversial ending to that guy's crash report " What I’ve learnt from all this is never to underestimate drivers, that the big metal things on the road are a lot more solid than you, and to always wear a helmet!!"

Controversial? how so? Seems spot on to me

tomasrojo

kenmc wrote: »

Controversial? how so? Seems spot on to me

It's a blatant attempt to turn this into a helmet thread. I'd advise people not to take the bait (really, it's been covered in great detail on this forum over and over again), but it's up to you.

(I see that forum.ctc.org.uk isolate all helmet threads into one sub-thread, as if they were tainted with plague. I think this is quite a good idea.)

kenmc

tomasrojo wrote: »

It's a blatant attempt to turn this into a helmet thread. I'd advise people not to take the bait (really, it's been covered in great detail on this forum over and over again), but it's up to you.

(I see that forum.ctc.org.uk isolate all helmet threads into one sub-thread, as if they were tainted with plague. I think this is quite a good idea.)

Oh right. I'm immune to helmet stuff. I just saw the other two points and was wondering how they were controversial.

Hermy

d81bspgce207w3 wrote: »

...always wear a helmet!!"

Especially when posting on Boards!

zico10

tomasrojo wrote: »

It's a blatant attempt to turn this into a helmet thread.

The OP posted about a near miss he had with a truck, later a second poster enquired about an accident he witnessed and a third poster gave a link to the casualty's (maybe not a poster, but at the very least a fouth conspirator) account of said accident. This account was posted on an independent triathlon club's website, that has nothing to do with boards.
I still fail to see what's controversial about the ending of the report, but you appear to be fairly sure Fencer is of the same midset to yourself. But then the first mention of helmet in this thread was made by Fencer, who you seem to be agreeing with.
If it is an attempt to turn the thread into a discussion on helmets, then it's far from blatant. To be fair to all involved, their endeavours at least are wothy enough to be labled subtle and well orchestrated. I'd be no Sherlock Holmes, but I never would have never picked up on these underhand tactics only for you.
And extra kudos must go to the guy knocked off his bike, so as to facilitate the 4/5 posters here, who collaborated to turn this into a discussion on helmets.

TinyExplosions

zico10 wrote: »

The OP posted about a near miss he had with a truck, later a second poster enquired about an accident he witnessed and a third poster gave a link to the casualty's (maybe not a poster, but at the very least a fouth conspirator) account of said accident. This account was posted on an independent triathlon club's website, that has nothing to do with boards.
I still fail to see what's controversial about the ending of the report, but you appear to be fairly sure d81bspgce207w3 is of the same midset to yourself. But then the first mention of helmet in this thread was made by d81bspgce207w3, who you seem to be agreeing with.
If it is an attempt to turn the thread into a discussion on helmets, then it's far from blatant. To be fair to all involved, their endeavours at least are wothy enough to be labled subtle and well orchestrated. I'd be no Sherlock Holmes, but I never would have never picked up on these underhand tactics only for you.
And extra kudos must go to the guy knocked off his bike, so as to facilitate the 4/5 posters here, who collaborated to turn this into a discussion on helmets.

d81bspgce207w3's got prior form round here tbh, and I also thought the same as tomasrojo, and so didn't respond

tomasrojo

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Fencer's got prior form round here tbh, and I also thought the same as tomasrojo, and so didn't respond

Yes, it's more obvious what's going on if you know Fencer/TimAllen.

But I did like zico10's post. That's a lot of sarcasm!

glic71rods46t0

tomasrojo wrote: »

Yes, it's more obvious what's going on if you know Fencer/TimAllen.

But I did like zico10's post. That's a lot of sarcasm!

Iagree, Zico10's post is one of the witiest here in some time. I really like Fridays but Tomas, I feel like I'm being rude, you have obviously gone to such an effort to know me and I haven't gone to the same bother to get to know you;)