Cars Buses and idiot drivers

blaze1

Hi Folks,

I've cycled into town (dublin) 3 times this week and I'm yet to have an uneventful journey... Creamed by a bus in Fairview, told/forced to stop by an idiot who didnt have the right of way in kilester and some abusive taxi driver who couldnt understand why I was on the road instead of the cycle/footpath in fairview.

So feeling fairly angry with drivers at the moment, so was just wondering does this happen with many other folks who bike it in to town and how do you deal with it.

Hungrycol

I have found aggression on the roads worse this week. Think it's due to the end of the summer*, oppressive low cloud cover, traffic's bad because schools are back. Everyone's angrier, even peeps in work!

*heard someone once say they love Irish summers, sure isn't it the best day of the year!

christeb

the main skill I find you need on a bike is being able to look directly behind you while keeping totally straight. Gernarelly, I over take cars on the right and when in doubt assume a dominant position in the middle of the road (although you need to be going relatively fast). Blow kisses or wave when you get beeped too, they love that.

I cycle through Fairview x 2 every day too btw, traffic is tough there!

blaze1

Glad its not just me so, was begining to think the world was out to get me!

I might the elastic out of my shorts and stand up pedaling to moon people.
If i carry on getting so wound up I'll have my cycle license taken away

Beasty

Schools are back, so car journeys are taking longer and the occasional driver is getting frustrated

A lot will start to adjust the time they set off in a morning, and hopefully it will settle down in a week or two, but in the meantime this is probably one of the most difficult times of year for commuting into (and out of) the city

tomasrojo

When I was cycling to and from Fairview everyday, I used the backroads in Marino, Philipsburgh Avenue and Ballybough Road so I never had go near the main road in Fairview. I just don't like it, and that awful cycle lane on the footpath that skirts the park means that bus drivers feel justified in buzzing you when you try to use the road.

BostonB

Rarely have any problems. I think it depends on your route though. ( I'm not on your route though)...

Ryder

fairview is a living nightmare. I take a dominant position in the bus lane so WHEN busses buzz you, you have room to move in etc. Stopped getting pissed off......it just ruins your day

seamus

People are definitely more stressed and frazzled the last couple of mornings. Twice this morning, I had cars attempt to take a left-hand turn from the right-hand lane while there were tonnes of cyclists coming down the left-hand lane.
Just keep an eye out for it, accept that your journey might be a minute or two slower than usual while you compensate for traffic silliness.

Jawgap

I come through Fairview a lot and I just use the bike lane there - it's not too bad.

The only time I don't is for a month or so when the leaves fall and the surface gets covered in slippy leaf mulch.

victorcarrera

blaze1 wrote: »

... how do you deal with it.

Garda Traffic Watch 1890205805

It is a crime to verbally abuse another person in a public place or to act in a manner which provokes violence. People get prison sentences for doing it outside pubs at 2 AM. Why should it be any different if they are driving a car or a bus at 8AM.

StaggerLee

I've cycled the fairview route 3 times in and out this week. All fine. I always use the cycle path on the way into the city, if I dont I find buses always buzz you and get pissed off. The path is fine, in good nick. I just take it easy on it as the pedestrians always walk in and out of it. I'll be out on the road though once the leaves come down :eek:

cipo

I ride a lot on the areas mentionedby OP... I've learned to ride defensively, expect them not to see you, expect them to pull out on you etc...

I've had numerous run-ins with Dublin bus drivers & taxi drivers especially along fairview/ northstrand... No idea why but I still try to talk to them when they do outrageous stuff & a lot of the time it's deliberate intimidation.... Guess what Dublin bus did after I fornally complained- nothing.

Once I reach clontarf I ease off the speed and trot a long about 10kmh slower.

Ride defensively and as if you are invisible to others... That's my motto on my commute!

Stat safe.

Tenzor07

cipo wrote: »

Ride defensively and as if you are invisible to others... That's my motto on my commute!

True! Don't expect someone driving a 13 metre bus with 50+ people in it to be as nice as pie if your cycling out in the middle of a bus lane..

tomasrojo

Tenzor07 wrote: »

True! Don't expect someone driving a 13 metre bus with 50+ people in it to be as nice as pie if your cycling out in the middle of a bus lane..

They buzz you when you're at the side of the bus lane, not the middle. I do not expect bus drivers to pass me with centimetres to spare, no matter how much in the wrong or how much of a nuisance they think me to be, since a lapse in judgment on their part will hospitalise or kill me. I'm not sure whether controlling your temper and driving in a manner not likely to hurt others is "nice as pie", but it's what anyone should expect and demand in a civilised country.

Tenzor07

I doubt it's intentional in 99% of cases, though I am not a bus driver I have a bus licence and its bl00dy hard trying to steer a bus through the city centre so i can see things from a bus drivers point of view... I've also been a push bike courier a while back and never had any incidents...
I've also commuted along the Fairview bus lanes for about a year without incident...

But hey, these are just my expieriences...

tomasrojo

When a driver changes course as he approaches you, resulting in a closer pass despite there being ample room to continue on his original course, then it's deliberate.

Also, these very close passes never happen in bus lanes that don't have an adjacent cycle lane.

Finally, some posters here have caught up with the driver, who has then told them that he did it deliberately to teach them a lesson.

blaze1

I can understand the buses are a pain in the arse to drive, your man yesterday had plenty of time and space to allow me room to pass so just putting it down as "you'll come of worse than me"

I was grand on the cycle path there but took the turn around the pedestrian walk way when it was slippy and nearly wrote of the bike so I just point blank avoid it. That was a while back before the leaves had started to drop btw.

Im going to change the route because I cant cope with going that way at the moment.

tomasrojo

blaze1 wrote: »

I can understand the buses are a pain in the arse to drive, your man yesterday had plenty of time and space to allow me room to pass so just putting it down as "you'll come of worse than me"

I was grand on the cycle path there but took the turn around the pedestrian walk way when it was slippy and nearly wrote of the bike so I just point blank avoid it. That was a while back before the leaves had started to drop btw.

Im going to change the route because I cant cope with going that way at the moment.

Try going round the back of Marino Mart, past Bram's café, through the roundabouts, and emerging on Philipsburgh Avenue. I always found that quite stress-free. Though I did get lost on the all the weird roundabouts the first time.

Jawgap

tomasrojo wrote: »

Try going round the back of Marino Mart, past Bram's café, through the roundabouts, and emerging on Philipsburgh Avenue. I always found that quite stress-free. Though I did get lost on the all the weird roundabouts the first time.

Marino is very, very easy to navigate through, but there again I was born and grew up there - perhaps not so easy for incomers!!!

On being buzzed or shoulder surfed by buses, my perception on the airport road is that it is nearly always intentional - there's no need to come that close to another road user, especially if you can't or have no intention of overtaking.

Dublin Bus complaints procedure is a pure waste of anyone's time - the outcome is always the same - the driver gets off. If you complain you'll get a, usually, polite acknowledgement of your complaint and that's it - you never find out, officially anyway, what the outcome was.

My own pet hate are the private coach operators - esp on the airport road - their collective philosophy appears to be "no prisoners."

blaze1

Marino looks a bit hectic alrite, will give that a go next week with a mate who cycles that way.

Going to go down east wall and over into clontarf I think for today. Might do the coast for the craic.

Jawgap

Have you tried going through Fairview Park?

monument

Small shared bus lanes got ranked poorly in the Investigating Cycle Route Preferences in the Greater Dublin Area report.

Jawgap wrote: »

I come through Fairview a lot and I just use the bike lane there - it's not too bad.

It's desperately designed for high or low speed, and unusable at all if you're trying to keep your speed up.

It's the kind of cycle track which is disallowed by the National Cycle Framework Policy but still partly allowed by the NTA's Cycle Manual.

Jawgap

monument wrote: »

It's desperately designs and unusable if you're doing any kind of speed at all.

True - I usually use it to recover from the Baldoyle to Clontarf TT, before the Tolka Sprint.

monument

Sorry, made edits after posting, but you get my point anyway

Jawgap

I do, but I feel your argument is critically deficient.......

the cycling lane in Fairview has a very high totty quotient, because of the gym, the proximity of East Point, the bus stops and the Park - avoiding it and belting along the road at speed means this vital amenity is not availed of.:)

blaze1

Yeah the park is nice, but miss the entrance on the way in from the malahide road, and on the wrong side on the way and dont like to cross on the way back