Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

CramCycle

As a matter of interest, would the HSA be an appropriate body to report dangerous driving by a professional driver if the gardai or company seem disinterested?

magicbastarder

i suspect you'd get a fantastic game of institutional ping pong.

AndrewJRenko

CramCycle wrote: »

As a matter of interest, would the HSA be an appropriate body to report dangerous driving by a professional driver if the gardai or company seem disinterested?

I've failed on several attempts to get HSA interested. Anything related to site traffic or parking and you'll be told it is a matter for the Gardai. Or when you do report a matter, they tell you that they can't tell you anything about the outcome for confidentiality reasons. I did an FOI last year which indicated that they did not investigate several deaths involving commercial trucks (which ARE workplace deaths in law). When they did investigate, they tended to rely mostly on the Garda investigation with little independent thinking.

Dr_Colossus

CramCycle wrote: »

As a matter of interest, would the HSA be an appropriate body to report dangerous driving by a professional driver if the gardai or company seem disinterested?

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I've failed on several attempts to get HSA interested. Anything related to site traffic or parking and you'll be told it is a matter for the Gardai. Or when you do report a matter, they tell you that they can't tell you anything about the outcome for confidentiality reasons. I did an FOI last year which indicated that they did not investigate several deaths involving commercial trucks (which ARE workplace deaths in law). When they did investigate, they tended to rely mostly on the Garda investigation with little independent thinking.

8 wheeler grab lorry (those that lift/deliver blocks) this morning on the north quays at 06:45. Have the reg but never noted the company name.

We're both stopped at the lights before Grattan Bridge, me in the designated cycle lane which is actually good. Green cycle advance light so I proceed but so does the lorry, there's a right turn there so thought he was going to turn in on top of me despite no prior indicator but he stopped mid way before proceeding straight on when the normal lights turned green. Guess just an error of judgement.

Short while later I'm slowing and actually stopped at the next set of red lights at Millennium Bridge, lights gone red a few seconds at this stage and pedestrian starting to cross and same lorry sails through the red light. No way was/could he stop if pedestrian was a little quicker, seriously bad infringement.

Noted the reg at the next set of red lights and thereafter lorry pulled up behind in left lane for O'Connell St. Can only presume driver wasn't looking as drove straight through the red with no attempt to slow which could have been very serious.

Couldn't be bothered reporting, guards only interested in speed and national slow down days where fines can be easily posted.

Duzzie

Had my first close call / scary incident on the bike this morning. Was cycling solo along an old national road which has been reclassified as a regional. It has a mix of hard shoulder and hard strips. Where I was, there is a 1m wide hard strip which contained mud and other detritus. It was also a cold morning so there was a risk of ice in untrafficked areas. I was therefore cycling on the traffic side of the yellow line. As I was cycling, a pick-up pulled up behind me and started hooting at me, presumably to get out of his way. I ignored him and carried on my way. He hooted at me at least 5 times. He then pulled along side me, close enough for me to touch his vehicle and started berating me for not cycling in the hard strip. I ignored him but he carried on shouting at me. After a while, I'd had enough and told him to f off. He carried on shouting so I told him to f off again. He then pulled away in front of me, pulled into the hard strip and skidded to a stop. He then swung his door open and I had to swerve to avoid it but carried on cycling. He then drove past me at a close distance and stopped in the hard strip 2 more times, although he didn't open his door on these two occasions. To me, he was clearly trying to intimidate me by passing me in close proximity and then stopping. He then drove off.

As soon as I got to my destination, I went to the garda station to report what had happened. The gard was very helpful and was a cyclist too. He took a very dim view of the drivers actions. I had tried to remember the registration of the vehicle but only remembered part of it. Fortunately the vehicle was branded with a company name so the gard called the company and was able to determine who the driver was based on the partial reg and vehicle type that I gave him. He didn't get to talk to the driver but spoke to the company boss, telling him that he wanted the driver to phone him back. I've not heard any more from the gard but he said that he would call me with an update.

Be careful out there folks. It may be the season to be jolly but it is also the season for idiots on the road.

Seth Brundle

I'd recommend either a front or rear camera (or preferably both) to back you up in these situations.

Duzzie

Seth Brundle wrote: »

I'd recommend either a front or rear camera (or preferably both) to back you up in these situations.

Definitely something that I will be looking into after this morning. A side facing / helmet cam would also have be useful to show the driver shouting at me to get into the hard strip.

Seth Brundle

nah, keep it simple.
I've a Cycliq Fly12 on the front bars and it picks up sound just fine (my rear Fly6 picks up too much road & wheel noise). If you need to get a look at the driver, then just turn the handlebars when stopped.

micar

Duzzie wrote: »

Had my first close call / scary incident on the bike this morning. Was cycling solo along an old national road which has been reclassified as a regional. It has a mix of hard shoulder and hard strips. Where I was, there is a 1m wide hard strip which contained mud and other detritus. It was also a cold morning so there was a risk of ice in untrafficked areas. I was therefore cycling on the traffic side of the yellow line. As I was cycling, a pick-up pulled up behind me and started hooting at me, presumably to get out of his way. I ignored him and carried on my way. He hooted at me at least 5 times. He then pulled along side me, close enough for me to touch his vehicle and started berating me for not cycling in the hard strip. I ignored him but he carried on shouting at me. After a while, I'd had enough and told him to f off. He carried on shouting so I told him to f off again. He then pulled away in front of me, pulled into the hard strip and skidded to a stop. He then swung his door open and I had to swerve to avoid it but carried on cycling. He then drove past me at a close distance and stopped in the hard strip 2 more times, although he didn't open his door on these two occasions. To me, he was clearly trying to intimidate me by passing me in close proximity and then stopping. He then drove off.

As soon as I got to my destination, I went to the garda station to report what had happened. The gard was very helpful and was a cyclist too. He took a very dim view of the drivers actions. I had tried to remember the registration of the vehicle but only remembered part of it. Fortunately the vehicle was branded with a company name so the gard called the company and was able to determine who the driver was based on the partial reg and vehicle type that I gave him. He didn't get to talk to the driver but spoke to the company boss, telling him that he wanted the driver to phone him back. I've not heard any more from the gard but he said that he would call me with an update.

Be careful out there folks. It may be the season to be jolly but it is also the season for idiots on the road.

Sorry to hear this.

Had an incidence not as bad as this but with company van

I had a search for the director and found him on FB. Photos of him doing races on his bike.

I emailed him and explained the incident.

He came back to advise he was a cyclists (which I already knew) and said he would speak to his employee.

sy_flembeck

Seth Brundle wrote: »

nah, keep it simple.
I've a Cycliq Fly12 on the front bars and it picks up sound just fine (my rear Fly6 picks up too much road & wheel noise). If you need to get a look at the driver, then just turn the handlebars when stopped.

And you get to half blind him as a bonus

wheelo01

Seth Brundle wrote: »

nah, keep it simple.
I've a Cycliq Fly12 on the front bars and it picks up sound just fine (my rear Fly6 picks up too much road & wheel noise). If you need to get a look at the driver, then just turn the handlebars when stopped.

Never seems to miss your swearing mate :D

Thargor

https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1344334762333368327

Eamonnator

Former Mountain Bike Olympian,(he was also 4th in the Rás, the year the Russians were 1st, 2nd and 3rd) Alastair Martin, competed in a 10 mile Time Trial at Christmas. It was in Newtownards. He finished in 9th place.
He competed on a Penny Farthing. He has previous in this regard.

Picturing him in full skinsuit, aero helmet and tri bars mounted on the penny farthing

CramCycle

Higher up you go the less dense the atmosphere, probably taking marginal gains to the extreme.

Eamonnator

https://belgianproject.cc/2019/12/26/ian-inglis-wins-ards-ccs-traditional-christmas-tt-10-miles-for-the-6th-time-in-a-row-at-the-ards-peninsula/

If you scroll down, you'll see Alastair in 2019 on his P.F.

Eamonnator

Eamonnator wrote: »

https://belgianproject.cc/2019/12/26/ian-inglis-wins-ards-ccs-traditional-christmas-tt-10-miles-for-the-6th-time-in-a-row-at-the-ards-peninsula/

If you scroll down, you'll see Alastair in 2019 on his P.F.

That's a brilliant shot of him !!!!

micar

Thargor wrote: »

https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1344334762333368327

Had a look on Google street view. The road the van went up is two way.

Appalling piece of driving.....skimmed the kerb for cars coming into the main road.

CramCycle

Eamonnator wrote: »

https://belgianproject.cc/2019/12/26/ian-inglis-wins-ards-ccs-traditional-christmas-tt-10-miles-for-the-6th-time-in-a-row-at-the-ards-peninsula/

If you scroll down, you'll see Alastair in 2019 on his P.F.

The winner was on a track bike, fantastic, I want to enter this next year.

MangleBadger

I was out for my lockdown hamster wheel spin yesterday. The road had a shared/dotted line cycle lane which I was in. BMW slightly ahead of me was in and out of the cycle lane so I hung back. They indicated to turn right but decided they needed more room to turn right and decided to swerve left into the cycle lane to initiate the turn. I was close to passing them out in the cycle lane when this happened so had to break and then swerve towards the kerb.
Looked in the window to have a word with the driver but it was a little old lady who was immediately apologetic so I just cycled on.

Thinking about it later was I in the right in this scenario? What are the rules around shared cycle lanes and cars entering them?

CramCycle

MangleBadger wrote: »

I was out for my lockdown hamster wheel spin yesterday. The road had a shared/dotted line cycle lane which I was in. BMW slightly ahead of me was in and out of the cycle lane so I hung back. They indicated to turn right but decided they needed more room to turn right and decided to swerve left into the cycle lane to initiate the turn. I was close to passing them out in the cycle lane when this happened so had to break and then swerve towards the kerb.
Looked in the window to have a word with the driver but it was a little old lady who was immediately apologetic so I just cycled on.

Thinking about it later was I in the right in this scenario? What are the rules around shared cycle lanes and cars entering them?

It's a tough one but truth of the matter is, if she is swerving all over the place, the cycle lane isn't the biggest concern, it is whether she should be on the road at ll. I probably would have done the same but shouldn't have. As for where you were, once you held back, unless they stop to make the turn, I keep holding back as a shocking amount of cars seem to go left before they go right as if they were on a bicycle or were trying to roll the car in slow motion. I always expect it for larger vehicles as they are altering their turning circle so as not to cut in to oncoming traffic as they go around the corner but a regular car shouldn't need to do this.

MojoMaker

You typically see it for sudden u-turns alright. Good visual clue....usually.

CramCycle

MojoMaker wrote: »

You typically see it for sudden u-turns alright. Good visual clue....usually.

I always wonder what visual queues we pick up on without realising. My partner thinks its funny when I drive that I talk out loud about what cars are going to do without, to me, any obvious indication. I know some of it is looking at the front wheel orientation, looking through the rear window for head and hand movements, looking at minor changes to speed and so on but I am pretty good most of the time at knowing what's coming and part of me wonders, is it just lowest common denominator is a safe gamble or what is my brain taking in.

beauf

CramCycle wrote: »

I always wonder what visual queues we pick up on without realising. ....

Apart from the usual car modifications, or type of car or van. Often it's driving style and road position. For example if someone does something dangerous, they are very likely to repeat a few times as you follow. Because it's habitual. I know someone who is a late braker. Drives too close, doesn't read the road ahead and is constantly braking hard and last minute.

John_Rambo

CramCycle wrote: »

I always wonder what visual queues we pick up on without realising.

Broken or turned in wing mirrors, padre pio stickers, ANYONE wearing a hat, stickers or emblems to do with country and western music, pink cars, Dire Straits music playing, cars with "amusing bumper stickers", cuddly toys carefully placed on the parcel shelf, cuddly toys carefully placed on the dashboard, little yellow minions placed anywhere, Nurburgring stickers on a diesel Audi, driver with hoody up, pro life stickers, construction hat on show on the parcel shelf, serifed font reg plates, audible fake dump valves noises, most VW Passats, "cancer protecting" pads on seatbelts, beaded seat covers, weird tinted windscreens, small dog on drivers lap, religious paraphernalia hanging from rear mirror.

cletus

That post should get all the thanks

CramCycle

I also find N plates a warning sign.

magicbastarder

nurburgring stickers, too.

Stark

John_Rambo wrote: »

"cancer protecting" pads on seatbelts

This is a thing!?

magicbastarder

magicbastarder wrote: »

nurburgring stickers, too.

Actually there is a Ford Focus I pass parked up on my travels done up in full Hoonigan livery that looks like it belongs in the Forza Horizon games. Met it the road a few times and has given me a mile of space when passing.

That said the amount of work I'd say he put into the car he likely didn't want blood or scratches on it