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

Corca Baiscinn

CramCycle wrote: »

I read the replies on twitter. Social media is where civilisation went to die.

Amen to that! Started reading the comments a while ago on the Independent article re the IBike cycle lane protection demo at St Andrew St this morning, but I gave up! At one level I used to think you have to know what the opposition thinks and where it's coming from if you're to counter the propaganda but then I realise it's pointless

AndrewJRenko

Corca Baiscinn wrote: »

Amen to that! Started reading the comments a while ago on the Independent article re the IBike cycle lane protection demo at St Andrew St this morning, but I gave up! At one level I used to think you have to know what the opposition thinks and where it's coming from if you're to counter the propaganda but then I realise it's pointless

Amazingly, the fast majority of the publicity around IBikeDublin has been very positive, and even a fair amount of the commentary has been positive. Pat Kenny managed to cover the topic this morning without one of his omni-present 'but I saw a cyclist break the lights this morning' smart-ass remarks.

papu

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Amazingly, the fast majority of the publicity around IBikeDublin has been very positive, and even a fair amount of the commentary has been positive. Pat Kenny managed to cover the topic this morning without one of his omni-present 'but I saw a cyclist break the lights this morning' smart-ass remarks.

That's exactly what the truck driver at the beginning of the segment said. The person talking to him dealt with it very well.

ED E

Idiot OAP decided to pull out and drive and then start removing items of clothing (thus weaving all over and entwining her arms) and when I asked her to pay attention to the road while passing she decided to chase me down.

If only common sense was actually common.

AndrewJRenko

ED E wrote: »

Idiot OAP decided to pull out and drive and then start removing items of clothing (thus weaving all over and entwining her arms) and when I asked her to pay attention to the road while passing she decided to chase me down.

Some kind of granny strippergram running late for a performance?

Danjamin1

Well, for all my talk of not having had a near miss in a while I had a bad one on the cycle home today.

Cycling outbound on Wainsfort Road in Terenure, I was cycling the last stretch of road before coming to the roundabout when a van on the right hand side of the road pulled out to join the traffic. The only problem was they weren't turning sharp enough to get in to the lane of traffic, they drove perpendicular to the lane directly at me. I nearly came off the bike slamming on the brakes but managed to stop & unclip in time. When i went to the passenger side window the passenger at the very least was laughing. I didn't look to see if the driver or middle passenger were as well, but i did notice the middle passenger was drinking a beer. I called Trafficwatch to report it but i must've taken the reg down wrong, think I may have transposed a digit. The Garda was helpful but without a reg that returns a result there's nothing much they can do.

I called the company and spoke to someone there. They spoke to the driver and the reason the driver gave was that a car gave them space to pull out and so they pulled in to the lane of traffic. They've blamed me for cycling too fast of course. I guess that means they saw me & pulled out anyway. Not sure why they drove in to the cycle lane at the angle they did but this is the excuse they've given. The guy I spoke to said they'll be working there again tomorrow if I want to go by for an apology, think I might just do that, at the very least to get the reg. What can the Gardai do with a company registered car come to think of it? Who can be held responsible in that case?

CramCycle

Danjamin1 wrote: »

What can the Gardai do with a company registered car come to think of it? Who can be held responsible in that case?

If they are behaving responsibly they will have a log of what driver had the car at the time of the incident. My partners old company would make sure a photocopy of their license was on record and if any penalties were handed in they would track down the log and pass it on

I suspect smaller companies might not be so diligent though,unsure of who would be responsible but I imagine the registered owner would have some explaining to do.

Kaisr Sose

Close one with a Mortons Double Decker today. Driver was a total dick. Acted like he did not care that he did a close pass at speed, for no major reason, and then ducks into the kerb shortly afterwards so that I have to slam on with no road left ahead of me. 200m later he is stuck at a red light. He could not care less, like I am a fly that can be swatted away without a thought. Such selfish and dangerous stupidity really pisses me off.

John_Rambo

CramCycle wrote: »

If they are behaving responsibly they will have a log of what driver had the car at the time of the incident. My partners old company would make sure a photocopy of their license was on record and if any penalties were handed in they would track down the log and pass it on

I suspect smaller companies might not be so diligent though,unsure of who would be responsible but I imagine the registered owner would have some explaining to do.

Instead of calling the Gardai I called the company (of the van that was aggressive and dangerous) a few years ago. The fleet manager called me back and before I finished explaining he said "I know who it is, this isn't the first time, but it will be the last".

The driver was a dick. The fleet manager knew it. Not sure what happened, but the manager was not one bit happy. I reckon he was in more trouble with his employer than he would have been if it was the Gardai.

Hrududu

This evening I was in a lane for a right hand turn. Another cyclist was over on the left in the straight ahead lane. A driver went to overtake that cyclist and drove into my lane without looking. Luckily I had taken that lane but any closer to the left and I would have been clipped before he'd even spotted me

papu

Two near misses, considering reporting the second to traffic watch.

The camera has a 170* wide angle lens so it doesn't look as close.

mr spuckler

in the second one it looks like you even got a bonus tight squeeze from the avensis driver that sees indicators as superfluous :mad:

papu

Weepsie wrote: »

I like that the second car in the second clip is basically in the lane before they indicate.

There was no use of indicators by the second car at all.

beans

So today, I had to take evasives to avoid being flattened by an artic, the driver of which "Didn't see you mate, sorry".

Artic was entering the lane from a side-road, I was the only traffic on the main road. He only noticed me when he heard me call out to him. Just on auto-pilot...

I need a go-pro

Lemming

Nearly ended up doing my finest impression of a very sweary Garfield teddybear with window suction cups on the back windscreen of a doddery old woman's car this morning on my way to work about 9.45am

Just after I leave my estate, there's a long, not-quite-straight run downhill for 1km at upwards of 7% gradient. So you can get reasonable speeds coming down it. Even more if you like hitting the pedestrian crossing & speed bumps about half-way down for some air time, but anyway, I digress ...

She decides to pull out from right-hand side of the road, and bimble across to the left-hand side of the road to park up at about ... walking pace. No urgency whatsoever. No thinking that there might actually be other traffic coming downhill when she pulls out, with no effort to accelerate either. I had to seriously weigh-on the brakes, and because it was also a bit wet, the bike started to skid. I was practically hanging off the back of the saddle to shift my weight backwards to let the front disc do its thing given the back had locked up. Had I been maybe 5/10 seconds earlier, it would have ended painfully.

As I cycled past, she wasn't even using her mirrors or looking around her. I gestured backwards up the hill to her as if to say "what was that about? Thanks for nearly wiping me out" but she just stared vacantly at me. Nobody home to talk to or give awareness to ... so I just continued on.

In the streetview below, she was parked up on the right maybe just in front of the white car parked up, then just pulled across and moved down the hill about 15 feet to the left.

Google Maps

Disc brakes are your friend.

ED E

Seeing a lot of OAPs that need to give up their licences of late.

Lemming

ED E wrote: »

Seeing a lot of OAPs that need to give up their licences of late.

I'd have understood had she thought she could beat me (or a car or whatever) to the chase and just pulled out and sped up down the street or something, but she just .... I've never quite seen anything like it before. It looked like she just thought that because there must have been no traffic when she climbed into her car, that the world stood still for a few minutes ... She just pulled out in front of me and that was that. It's not even a particularly quiet road.

Kaisr Sose

ED E wrote: »

Seeing a lot of OAPs that need to give up their licences of late.

Not as many as the young people that should not have a licence!

ED E

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

Not as many as the young people that should not have a licence!

Suppose I'm biased as I live in an area with a very high median age.

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Suppose I'm biased as I live in an area with a very high median age.

Ha I used to live in your neck of the woods i think D14?, remember a day heading home from work a man of some serious vintage jumping out of his car to verbally abuse me and call me back having nearly clipped my back wheel as I was turning right and signallying in loads of time for nutgrove as opposed to up the hill to barton road east at that junction at the bottle tower pub .

Not sure what way it's laid out these days but at the time I had another shout abuse at me and wave a stick for cycling on the foot path from the luas bridge there in dundrum up braemore road, I used to hit the ped lights and cross from the dundrum road right rather than cross the messy junction right. there was actually a cycle lane there which I was in but it was integrated with the path there up hill for a bit as you passed Joe's up hill. The auld lad was furious as I passed calling me all sorts and threatening use of the stick. I hadn't passed him this was as I was approaching him so in no danger of not seeing him and he wasn't even in the cycle lane. They're a crazy vintage round there

EDIT: Google maps shows that cycle lane is completely different and actually on the road now near the bridge but still the same at the houses further up.

Lambay island

This was a bizarre incident I witnessed yesterday evening rush hour. Not quite a normal style near miss but it did nearly involve 4 cyclists going into the back of a car.

I was cycling down Clanbrassil St going southbound just before the junction for south circular road. No surprise I was thinking but I clocked a van parked in cycle lane from bout 100 yards out. It wasn't until I got closer, I noticed it was a city council van pulled in behind 2 cars that were parked in cycle lane. To my satisfaction and surprise, the 2 council workers were in the process of clamping the 2nd vehicle with the first car already clamped. I moved out right to pass and was actually bout to say fair play to council guys when the car in front jammed on brakes in middle of road and the driver lept out like he was on fire.

I managed just to brake in time as did the few cyclists beside/behind me. Anyway, this "gentleman" what i could only describe as an aggressive thug starting roaring at the council workers saying you cant put that clamp on them. One of the drivers of parked cars seemed now to be present too and this thug was saying to him do not let him put that on. Basically then he started to put his hands on council worker and tried to stop him from putting clamp on saying "these lads cant afford to pay for this, this is a disgrace, I'm going to go to Joe Duffy and put this on facebook etc" I wish he would and I'm gutted i didn't have a camera to catch this unfolding. I was debating getting involved but he seemed to have a screw loose and was getting more aggressive as this went on, so didn't fancy fighting this battle at the time. Fun times..

cython

Two near misses in the space of a few hundred metres this morning. First was heading up to the N4 from Islandbridge, and some clown in a land cruiser obviously underestimated my speed uphill (or just didn't care) as he just had to get in front of me only to slam on and start to turn left into the slip (I was going straight). As to how little space he had, by the time he was "leaning" left, I was well past the opening of the slip road. Not sure if he twigged me himself or if it was my shout of "Do you f*cking mind?!" that stopped him, but suffice to say had he turned I had no way of stopping in time, even uphill, it was that close.

Then I get up here and am filtering to the red light in the cycle track, and the lights turn. No bother usually, I've passed the last car indicating left already. But then the car at the head of the queue seems a bit slow off the mark. Sure enough the silly woman was going left, but hadn't bothered her backside to indicate. Had a near Mexican standoff between me afraid of going up her LHS, and her paranoid that there was a cyclist (or perhaps saw me) until I actually waved at her to go. Had she only indicated I'd have gone to her right (as by the letter of the law if she's indicating and likely to turn, I've no business going straight on her left) and there'd have been no issue.

tomasrojo

Deleted User wrote: »

Ha I used to live in your neck of the woods i think D14?

My daughter just finished up at a pre-school in Dundrum, and one of the mothers, who drives over from the northside, mentioned to me last month how the driving style of the surrounding drivers changes abruptly when she reaches Churchtown, which she clearly attributed to something along the lines of a high median age in that area.

No idea whether it's true. Just thought it was notable that she mentioned it and now it's mentioned here.

Leroy42

I had a near miss yesterday, but it involved a pedestrian rather than a car.

Was on the cycle path heading towards Sutton after Bull Island. So there is two cycle lanes and a pedestrian part. There's a small wall to show the edge of the water. Saw a guy on his phone with a small boy close by at the wall (so on my right) and two women were sitting on a bench on the left of the cycle lane. I kept my eye on the kid, I assumed if anything was going to happen it would be the small boy and just as I reaching them the bot decides to make a run for it.

Slammed the brakes and dived to the left, up the small kerb and into the grass. Luckily the trees are pretty sparse and I avoided everything. But it was real close to taking out the kid. He didn't look once, just head down and ran across both lanes.

When I had survived I looked back and there the man still on the phone walking across to the bench. Shouted back that he should pay more attention to what his son was doing. No acknowledgement at all!

That part of the track can be pretty fast, I was going 30k, so I would have done some serious damage to that little boy. Not the young lads fault, but parents needs to take some responsibility for ensuring their childrens safety & that of others.

julio_iglayzis

It seems to me that the number of people using the bus lanes on the rock road has increased enormously over the last few months, the number of close passes I've had there seems to be of a far greater frequency than previous years.

Last Wednesday, this happened -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FamQJM4qdQg

I have him on video weaving in and out of the bus lane from Saint Vincents, clearly too important and entitled to stay in the proper lane like some kind of peasant.

I've reported it to Trafficwatch and, it's one week later and so far....nothing. It's no wonder the problem is getting worse if there's zero enforcement or follow up on reported incidents. I appreciate that the gardai are busy and under-resourced, but this is as close a pass as it gets - and at speed too, it's all on video, but there is no interest.

Tenzor07

julio_iglayzis wrote: »

I've reported it to Trafficwatch and, it's one week later and so far....nothing. It's no wonder the problem is getting worse if there's zero enforcement or follow up on reported incidents. I appreciate that the gardai are busy and under-resourced, but this is as close a pass as it gets - and at speed too, it's all on video, but there is no interest.

I would have went to Blackrock Garda station and reported it directly..

Leroy42

julio_iglayzis wrote: »

It seems to me that the number of people using the bus lanes on the rock road has increased enormously over the last few months, the number of close passes I've had there seems to be of a far greater frequency than previous years.

Last Wednesday, this happened -


I've reported it to Trafficwatch and, it's one week later and so far....nothing. It's no wonder the problem is getting worse if there's zero enforcement or follow up on reported incidents. I appreciate that the gardai are busy and under-resourced, but this is as close a pass as it gets - and at speed too, it's all on video, but there is no interest.

I assume at the very least they should be getting a ticket for driving in the bus lane!

julio_iglayzis

Tenzor07 wrote: »

I would have went to Blackrock Garda station and reported it directly..

The trafficwatch person said that the protocol is that they will contact me first. However, you're absolutely right and I will be dropping in to report it soon.

Effects

Leroy42 wrote: »

I had a near miss yesterday, but it involved a pedestrian rather than a car.

Was on the cycle path heading towards Sutton after Bull Island. So there is two cycle lanes and a pedestrian part. There's a small wall to show the edge of the water.

This is the section where people have been complaining about the speed of "professional" cyclists on the bike path.

Tombo2001

Effects wrote: »

This is the section where people have been complaining about the speed of "professional" cyclists on the bike path.

I think this is a fair comment. A lot of cyclists coming back onto this path from Howth Head on road bikes. They are sharing a bike lane with pedestrians, and with families with young kids on bikes.

Also, the cycle lanes are too way, and they are narrow.

Cyclists on road bikes need to slow down on this stretch if its crowded. Its irresponsible to do otherwise.