Near misses - mod warning 22/04 - see OP/post 822

Mc Love

Came across one of the non-traffic cyclists on the way home the other day, surprisingly they had lights and helmet but they were on and off the footpath when it suited them, even as a cyclist it was infuriating to have to go past them.

abcabc123123

Total nutbar in a transit van nearly took me out this morning on Eden Quay outside Liberty Hall. I was in the cycle lane heading straight on, and despite the lights up ahead being red anyway, he thought it'd be clever to zoom up from behind me and cut across to turn left. He was so close that when the front of his van had fully cut across the cycle lane I could still have reached out and touched the bodywork over his rear wheel.

Fun times

Dr_Colossus

abcabc123123 wrote: »

Total nutbar in a transit van nearly took me out this morning on Eden Quay outside Liberty Hall. I was in the cycle lane heading straight on, and despite the lights up ahead being red anyway, he thought it'd be clever to zoom up from behind me and cut across to turn left. He was so close that when the front of his van had fully cut across the cycle lane I could still have reached out and touched the bodywork over his rear wheel.

Fun times

I cycle that each morning and the cycle lane is a disaster, you also get people trying to fly across from the outside lane across two lanes of traffic to take the left turn. For the past number of months now I've been taking the full left lane and only veer back into the cycle lane when adjacent to the lights. Much safer routes as the brain dead motorists in the morning don't see the defined cycle lane as a traffic lane and more of a free for all.

shootermacg

Cycling home today and traffic was slow, middle of Ranelagh.
Car ahead was turning right, but couldn't because he was in heavy traffic and not moving, so I cycled on....well I say he couldn't turn left, quite wrongly as it happens, he could indeed turn left, if he mounted the pavement and cut the corner. Nearly blew me off my bike and stopped an inch from me.

Looked back to shake my fist and there's the car mounting the kerb cutting the corner. This wasn't like putting his wheels on the kerb, his wheels were basically half-way on the kerb.

AndrewJRenko

shootermacg wrote: »

Cycling home today and traffic was slow, middle of Ranelagh.

Ranelagh was mad last night, with the queue all the way from the Hill pub until I got over the bridge at Milltown

Paradicia

Has anyone ever noticed how much of a death trap Constitution Hill is? In the past week, I saw two cars cut into the left lane without indicating that's only supposed to be for Buses and Bikes.

They were both close calls and had I been going faster I don't know if the outcome would have been nice.

Most of the time I have no choice but to mount the footpath as cars are either all scrunched into the bus lane over the bike path making cycling in the left lane impossible. It's a disgrace that people have to make do with this.

magicbastarder

just another one this morning where, despite me taking the lane coming to a roundabout on the strand road, a motorist decided he needed to get past just as we approached it.
i like to think he gave himself as much of a start as he gave me, because he came bloody close to blowing a tyre out on the traffic island, i suspect.

droidus

Southbound its generally OK, but you have to watch out for unexpected left hand turns as you approach Church street.

Northbound its a joke. Completely blocked at rush hour, fast, close passes at the flats when there's less traffic. I changed my route to avoid it completely after a few years of frustration.

Hurrache

Even when you're emblazoned in a police uniform you still get moronic motorists giving you close passes, and another tailgating, beeping and telling him cyclists shouldn't be on the road, mentioned further down in the thread.

https://twitter.com/WMPRHRT/status/1085259042149335042

Duckjob

Hurrache wrote: »

Even when you're emblazoned in a police uniform you still get moronic motorists giving you close passes, and another tailgating, beeping and telling him cyclists shouldn't be on the road, mentioned further down in the thread.

https://twitter.com/WMPRHRT/status/1085259042149335042

Fair play to West Midlands Police in UK - they seem very active and very tuned in to the real truths of cycle safety - ie. getting people in charge of cars to be more responsible.

Meanwhile, our lot are shamefully inactive except for the odd lazy tweet about wearing hi-viz.

Duckjob

Hurrache wrote: »

Even when you're emblazoned in a police uniform you still get moronic motorists giving you close passes, and another tailgating, beeping and telling him cyclists shouldn't be on the road, mentioned further down in the thread.

https://twitter.com/WMPRHRT/status/1085259042149335042

Love this tweet as well..

West Midlands Police Road Harm Reduction Team wrote:

....then whilst taking the middle of the road through a "pinch point" formed by parked vehicles he was tailgated and "beeped" by a driver who said "cycles shouldn't be in the middle of the road" After a few words he was also reported #S3RTA1988, should be interesting at court 👍

...And they hit the nail on the head of a real issue that most cyclists here face every other day when trying to keep themselves safe.

That's the sort of policing we desperately need on our roads to reverse the critically bad situation here.

Can we just ask WM police to come over here and take over the road safety gig ?

I should be surprised at the level of stupid involved with telling a uniformed copper on a bike he shouldn't be on the road or tailgating and beeping him but I'm not surprised in the least.

Ray Bloody Purchase

Duckjob wrote: »

Fair play to West Midlands Police in UK - they seem very active and very tuned in to the real truths of cycle safety - ie. getting people in charge of cars to be more responsible.

Meanwhile, our lot are shamefully inactive except for the odd lazy tweet about wearing hi-viz.

There is no need for the government to do anything when they can let the cyclist vs motorist soap opera get played out. They can just sit on their hands.

From what i can see here, the media view cyclists as the villains and are therefore to blame when accidents happen. It has nothing to do with absolutely woeful planning or lack of enforcement of the ROTR. :rolleyes:

It's a joke that the Gardai have gone back into the closet again after Xmas. It was nice see them out catching all road users up to no good, but now it's back to the good old wild west days where people are breaking lights and acting the bollox in bus lanes.

seamus

It's bizarre. I popped down to the shops in the car the other night. It was after nine and the road quiet, but nevertheless ended up at lights behind a car, with a bicycle Garda at the front of the queue. As we proceed, there's a 50m section of road, high hedges on both sides, just about wide enough for two busses, solid white line, and it bends gently off to the left. In other words, any kind of overtake is shooting in the dark; you have no way of knowing if there's any oncoming traffic, and nowhere to go if someone does come around the bend.

Never mind, the gentleman in front of me proceeds to overtake the Garda on the bike anyway, onto the other side of the road.

One would like to think the Garda would flag him down and stop him, but alas no. That's not to say he didn't take his reg, but chances are he didn't actually do anything about it. Even if someone doesn't care about cyclists, you'd think they'd at least have the sense to wait behind a Garda. But the fact that he overtook shows that he thought it was a safe and legal maneuver.

Duckjob

Over the past 2 weeks I've been driving through and around town a lot more than I normally do, so I've encountered a lot more cyclists than I would in my normal day-to-day.

I find being on a bike regularly, I'm hyper-sensitive as a driver to the need to pass bikes with plenty of space and care. The very act of me doing this seems to infuriate certain other drivers.

I had a van driver yesterday who was driving along normally behind me, until I came up behind a cyclist. There was some oncoming traffic, so I took the extra couple of seconds I needed to be able to pass him with good space. Of course Mr Van-man behind me thundered past the cyclist with no such regard, but interestingly he then proceeded to aggressively tailgate me for the next couple of minutes until he turned off somewhere.

irlirishkev

Duckjob wrote: »

Over the past 2 weeks I've been driving through and around town a lot more than I normally do, so I've encountered a lot more cyclists than I would in my normal day-to-day.

I find being on a bike regularly, I'm hyper-sensitive as a driver to the need to pass bikes with plenty of space and care. The very act of me doing this seems to infuriate certain other drivers.

I had a van driver yesterday who was driving along normally behind me, until I came up behind a cyclist. There was some oncoming traffic, so I took the extra couple of seconds I needed to be able to pass him with good space. Of course Mr Van-man behind me thundered past the cyclist with no such regard, but interestingly he then proceeded to aggressively tailgate me for the next couple of minutes until he turned off somewhere.

I've had horns blared at me from behind for doing the same thing..

What Username Guidelines

Duckjob wrote: »

Love this tweet as well..
That's the sort of policing we desperately need on our roads to reverse the critically bad situation here.

We really do - I don't think there's any other way people will learn about this stuff tbh. You can have a chat with a driver, but if they're convinced they're right, it might even infuriate them more. TV adverts don't work on these people. They need a person of authority, in a uniform, telling them what they're doing wrong, along with the threat of a fine and points, for it to really sink in unfortunately.

Duckjob wrote: »

I find being on a bike regularly, I'm hyper-sensitive as a driver to the need to pass bikes with plenty of space and care. The very act of me doing this seems to infuriate certain other drivers.

My theory is that a lot of motorists don't really see cyclists as traffic at all, and they pass them like they would a piece of street furniture, etc. This is immediately obvious by close passes and unnecessary passes. I was sitting stationary behind a bus at a bus stop and the car behind attempted to overtake me. While stopped. It's easy for us to think "would you do that to a car?" but I'm convinced this stuff doesn't even slightly register and isn't done in malice, it's just ignorance to the rules.

No idea how to change these attitudes, but the great car-vs-bike debate being fuelled by the media is certainly sending it in the wrong direction.

MelanieD

This morning my six year old son was cycling beside me on the bike lane on the Swords road, when a car came out of the Clonturk College entrance too quickly. The driver had to brake hard when she saw him. He was ok but I was shaken by it. I often see drivers come out of that entrance without stopping or yielding to pedestrians or cyclists on the footpath/bike lane especially in the mornings when its busy.

Type 17

What Username Guidelines wrote: »

...I was sitting stationary behind a bus at a bus stop and the car behind attempted to overtake me. While stopped. It's easy for us to think "would you do that to a car?" but I'm convinced this stuff doesn't even slightly register and isn't done in malice, it's just ignorance to the rules.

Ah, the old MGIF game - Must Get In Front is a game/driving style which many drivers play (some subconsciously, others not), involving trying to get ahead of all other road users, all of the time, on the premise that if you get ahead some of the time, it's always good (and never pointless) - typical methods include:

driving too close in the hope of overtaking (even when there is heavy oncoming traffic)
overtaking at every opportunity (just to get to the red light/queue ahead)
squeezing through gaps that aren't really there (bikes don't make the gaps smaller, so it's ok)
driving too fast for the conditions after a queue to make up time (before the next red light)
driving in bus lanes (all that empty tarmac is just too tempting)
nipping down the hard shoulder (it's ok if you're turning left)
going through the early red (but only cyclist break the lights)
constantly swapping lanes in slow-moving traffic (pointless, but I can't just sit there)
refusing to allow others to merge in turn (no one gets ahead of me)
trying to merge when it's not their turn, etc (why won't they let me in?)

Those who drive a lot (Taxi's, delivery vans, private coaches, sales reps, etc) are particularly fond of this game, but there are players from all backgrounds (including the cyclists who must get to the front of the queue at every red light, only to be repeatedly overtaken by faster riders).

An ad campaign naming this game/style should be devised, to challenge the ones doing it to recognise their behavoiur, and to draw other people's attention to those doing it.

AndrewJRenko

MelanieD wrote: »

This morning my six year old son was cycling beside me on the bike lane on the Swords road, when a car came out of the Clonturk College entrance too quickly. The driver had to brake hard when she saw him. He was ok but I was shaken by it. I often see drivers come out of that entrance without stopping or yielding to pedestrians or cyclists on the footpath/bike lane especially in the mornings when its busy.

That's awful, when cycling with kids, I always went behind and out a bit, to keep traffic away from them - but it's hard to prevent this kind of situation.


Here's my near miss of the day - the ninja cyclist all in dark clothing who broke the red light on the Grand Canal cycle track and nearly took out a cyclist coming over the bridge, also breaking the light and on the wrong side of the road! #bloodycyclists


https://streamable.com/z705

homer911

Heading into Dublin on the N11 this morning, in the bike lane approaching Foster Avenue (the section set back from the road). I see three cars with left indicators as I'm approaching. Sensing trouble, I slow down but am parallel with the 3rd car. The first two turn ahead of me, but the third moves ahead of me and begins the left turn, before they spot me and stop. I've seen them start to turn (just a few feet ahead of me) and hit the brakes with the intention of letting them go ahead of me and avoid being hit.
Another cyclist is coming on the bus lane/left turn lane behind the car, far too fast in my opinion and appears to anticipate the motorist taking the left turn (and left hooking me in the process) and getting out of his way. Discovers too late the car is not turning and gives the driver side rear quarter a big whack, before landing on the road. Car driver looks at me like its my fault for not going straight on (when they stopped part-way through the turn). Other cyclist seemed ok but could have had bike damage, and probably car damage..

magicbastarder

magicbastarder wrote: »

just another one this morning where, despite me taking the lane coming to a roundabout on the strand road, a motorist decided he needed to get past just as we approached it.
i like to think he gave himself as much of a start as he gave me, because he came bloody close to blowing a tyre out on the traffic island, i suspect.

the second in as many commutes in this morning; though this time the driver heeded my 'slow down' arm flapping and slammed on before reaching the traffic island. i got an angry beep for my trouble, but that may have been for my 'WTF are you doing look' i gave the driver.

amcalester

homer911 wrote: »

Heading into Dublin on the N11 this morning, in the bike lane approaching Foster Avenue (the section set back from the road). I see three cars with left indicators as I'm approaching. Sensing trouble, I slow down but am parallel with the 3rd car. The first two turn ahead of me, but the third moves ahead of me and begins the left turn, before they spot me and stop. I've seen them start to turn (just a few feet ahead of me) and hit the brakes with the intention of letting them go ahead of me and avoid being hit.
Another cyclist is coming on the bus lane/left turn lane behind the car, far too fast in my opinion and appears to anticipate the motorist taking the left turn (and left hooking me in the process) and getting out of his way. Discovers too late the car is not turning and gives the driver side rear quarter a big whack, before landing on the road. Car driver looks at me like its my fault for not going straight on (when they stopped part-way through the turn). Other cyclist seemed ok but could have had bike damage, and probably car damage..

I think you might have contributed to this, vehicles that are indicating and likely to complete their maneuver have right of way over a cyclist and considering the first 2 vehicles had completed theirs I think you should have waited for the third.

homer911

amcalester wrote: »

I think you might have contributed to this, vehicles that are indicating and likely to complete their maneuver have right of way over a cyclist and considering the first 2 vehicles had completed theirs I think you should have waited for the third.

I did!

Ray Bloody Purchase

It can often happen that you might be parallel with a car and then they start indicating left all of a sudden. Very easy for them not to see you if you're in their blind spot and they don't bother looking.

amcalester

homer911 wrote: »

Heading into Dublin on the N11 this morning, in the bike lane approaching Foster Avenue (the section set back from the road). I see three cars with left indicators as I'm approaching. Sensing trouble, I slow down but am parallel with the 3rd car. The first two turn ahead of me, but the third moves ahead of me and begins the left turn, before they spot me and stop. I've seen them start to turn (just a few feet ahead of me) and hit the brakes with the intention of letting them go ahead of me and avoid being hit.
Another cyclist is coming on the bus lane/left turn lane behind the car, far too fast in my opinion and appears to anticipate the motorist taking the left turn (and left hooking me in the process) and getting out of his way. Discovers too late the car is not turning and gives the driver side rear quarter a big whack, before landing on the road. Car driver looks at me like its my fault for not going straight on (when they stopped part-way through the turn). Other cyclist seemed ok but could have had bike damage, and probably car damage..

homer911 wrote: »

I did!

You were there not me so I'll defer to you but the bolded parts implies (to me) that you didn't anticipate the car turning when you maybe should have.

If I saw vehicles ahead indicating to turn across my path I'd be stopping further back than parallel with the last car.

Also, I only driven that section of road, never cycled it, so my imagining of the incident could be all wrong.

Duckjob

amcalester wrote: »

I think you might have contributed to this, vehicles that are indicating and likely to complete their maneuver have right of way over a cyclist and considering the first 2 vehicles had completed theirs I think you should have waited for the third.

Don't agree with that assessment. People stop and give way to others all the time, and misunderstand each other on giving way all the time too (you go... Oh you're letting me go now ... Oh I delayed too long so now you're going etc)

Whether homer911 went ahead or the car turned first, there was busyness going on at the junction and the cyclist behind was going far too fast for the conditions on the road ahead of him. Has only himself to blame tbh

CramCycle

homer911 wrote: »

,./;'#[]

All the issues in your post were caused by the following cyclist, no one else, aside from who had right of way, who should have stopped, who should have continued, is pointless, nothing happened there. What did happen was the guy in the bus lane was travelling to fast to stop in the space ahead of him that was clear.

papu

amcalester wrote: »

If I saw vehicles ahead indicating to turn across my path I'd be stopping further back than parallel with the last car.

Exactly this situation today coming down O'Connell St today, a white SUV indicated to turn left ahead. Being about 3 car lengths behind I started to slow down. The cyclist behind me doesn't anticipate this and crashes into the back me :mad:

Duckjob

Came across this on my FB feed.. WARNING: DISTRESSING VIDEO


http://cycling.today/spanish-movie-star-survives-terrible-crash-as-driver-slams-into-group-of-cyclists-video/

Seriously, what the actual F*CK is wrong with some people ? They are either highly malicious or highly incompetent. Either way they are highly dangerous to those the share a road with and should get a lifetime driving ban at very least.