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

A double near miss this morning, lady about 10 meters in front of me was alongside a van when the van slowed to allow an oncoming car cut across him without even realizing she was there, car flies across she was literally an inch from disaster... then I come up alongside the still moving van when suddenly he veers in to park on the left, cutting me off and I'm at his passenger window and scream in at him, he stops suddenly, all is ok, I proceed with much angry gesticulating etc etc and proceed... Several hundred meters later the same van pulls in alongside me at a traffic light, nice man actually, apologies etc etc shook my hand, said the wing mirror had been pushed in overnight, couldn't see a thing, no excuse, why I asked him he thought he should be driving without fixing it first, he'll kill someone... much more apoloigies... another daily commute in Dublin city....

monkeyslayer wrote: »

A double near miss this morning, lady about 10 meters in front of me was alongside a van when the van slowed to allow an oncoming car cut across him without even realizing she was there, car flies across she was literally an inch from disaster... then I come up alongside the still moving van when suddenly he veers in to park on the left, cutting me off and I'm at his passenger window and scream in at him, he stops suddenly, all is ok, I proceed with much angry gesticulating etc etc and proceed... Several hundred meters later the same van pulls in alongside me at a traffic light, nice man actually, apologies etc etc shook my hand, said the wing mirror had been pushed in overnight, couldn't see a thing, no excuse, why I asked him he thought he should be driving without fixing it first, he'll kill someone... much more apoloigies... another daily commute in Dublin city....

Bet that van driver also cycles a bike!

Driving at the weekend and just after getting over a crest in the road and see a car coming the opposite direction - he's well over on my side and going very fast to overtake a group of cyclists, I slow down from the 80kph speed limit and he squeezes in past the group of cyclists.

Ridiculous driving - overtaking when he wasn't able to see past the crest in the road and also he was obviously going a serious speed when he came across the group of cyclists and didn't fancy slowing down so kept the foot down.

A pedestrian stepped out in front of me this morning. Just full on stepped out into traffic without checking if it was clear. I had to swerve to avoid her, and in the process of trying to stop the bike without mounting the path/falling into traffic and causing more harm, I twisted my ankle trying to clip out. Pedestrian (tourist) and her friends toddle off like nothing has happened.

Then I crossed over the river onto City Quay and a car just pulled out across me like I wasn't there. Yes there is a cycle lane, but I go up Lombard Street so I have to use the traffic lane.

Cycling in the city is frustrating.

This morning reaffirmed to me that there's an IQ and / or some sort of psychological test required before people are allowed drive a car.

Coming onto the quays at Park gate street having passed the luas tracks, I was aware of a car to my right - the quays were unusually quiet. Guy in mondeo seems to be speed checking me - I'm going a high 30's at a guess, he's drawn up along side me. This continued all the way down the quays, past the croppy acre.

Eventually, the urge to overtake got the better of him and, without warning, he sped up to my right, cutting in front of me left and across the cycle lane and drew up to the red lights to turn left up Blackhall Place. We nearly came in contact here https://goo.gl/maps/f7ePcdKhA342

He drew up to a red light. I decided to have a word.

Me - "Nice driving back there, you nearly had me off the bike. Are you in a rush to get to this red light?"

Him "It's up to you to look after your own safety!"

Me - "Ok, so does that include clowns like you who overtake and cut in front of me to get to a red light? I'd feel a lot safer if clowns like you weren't driving."

Window rolled up. Expletives mouthed. You've to to wonder. Cars take an awful toll on some peoples minds.

Stoped at the traffic lights at Lambs Cross. Land Cruiser beside me start to inch forward and try to squeeze past before lights turn green.
Lights turn green, he accelerates like mad. After almost hitting me, he is still not able to overtake. Took the lane to avoid a close pass.
Road widens after the school, I go to the cycle lane, he stops at the next traffic light, some compliments are exchanged he goes his way, I turn left to Aikens Village.
WTF is wrong with people? Are cyclist just seen as inconvenient "things" on the road? To save 10s is worth the risk of killing someone?

Continuing straight along North Circular Road yesterday at 8pm, just at the junction at the top of the Mater I have green light, SUV coming from opposite direction decides to turn right across me at speed as I go through the junction. Wanted to go straight to Phibsboro station to report it, but my Go-Pro card filled up 1 minute before the near miss.

bikedude wrote: »

Stoped at the traffic lights at Lambs Cross. Land Cruiser beside me start to inch forward and try to squeeze past before lights turn green.
Lights turn green, he accelerates like mad. After almost hitting me, he is still not able to overtake. Took the lane to avoid a close pass.
Road widens after the school, I go to the cycle lane, he stops at the next traffic light, some compliments are exchanged he goes his way, I turn left to Aikens Village.
WTF is wrong with people? Are cyclist just seen as inconvenient "things" on the road? To save 10s is worth the risk of killing someone?

I find it really bad along there. In the mornings with the school it's chaos. Vehicles pulling into and out of everywhere. Mounting the pavement to past a vehicle turning right (both stopped at the lights) or driving up on pavement to cut through past the shop to avoid the red heading to Lambs/Marley.
The other way at all times towards Stepaside (where you had your encounter) cars doing that and more than half of them have to stop for red at Aikens (if they stop). I have had them overtake me on the blind bend or force me into the kerb, just as you say for a gain of a few seconds.

cython wrote: »

Funny you mention Blanch, I was cycling home westbound over the M50 between Castleknock and Blanchardstown yesterday evening and a car behind me goes to overtake on the linked section. Somehow missing the key constraint that there was a tailback of traffic less than 30 metres in front of me, so the space into which he could overtake was dwindling rapidly! Only when I looked back and made eye contact with an exasperated WTF gesture did he back off slightly. Geuninely have no idea what was going through his head, barring maybe a tumbleweed. Or maybe he's one of these drivers with an irrational complex that they need to get ahead of all cyclists on the road, no matter the cost, as they do seem to exist!

The "must get ahead at any cost" impulse can be strong in some drivers. That's on my commute as well, centre lane all the way from the roundabout before the M50 and across the bridge is the only way. Too many squeeze bys there, only for them to join the queue at Laurel Lodge.

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

I have had them overtake me on the blind bend or force me into the kerb, just as you say for a gain of a few seconds.

This is happens so often that I almost removed from my "what's a close pass" list. And it is literally just around this corner the road widens. With all the new houses been build it will only get worst overtime.

Danbo! wrote: »

Got a very close pass from a van on Monday evening, on a nice big wide road. He was closer to the kerb than the white line. Tutted to myself and continued on, it's so frequent these days I dont even bother getting annoyed. At the next junction though, I looked over at him, we were separated by a traffic island, and he's staring over with a big grin on his face as if he knew what he had done. Sent the footage to his company, but no reply yet.

That's demented behaviour.

Another dumb pass attempt last night. I'm doing about 30-35 in a longish line of traffic about 5-6m back from the car in front. The car behind me goes to overtake and then realises there really isn't that much room to the car in front of me (how he couldn't see that already is beyond me). He stays sitting a meter to my right for about five seconds. I was dead centre in the lane (and closer to the car in front than I would particularly like) in an effort to prevent this precise form of stupidity, so he's basically driving down the wrong side of the road. He finally realises what his doing - perhaps prompted by me shouting "What are you doing?" - and backs off a bit. I accelerated a little and sat even further out, staying in the line of traffic for the next few hundred meters. He didn't pass me when the traffic picked up speed and I sat back to the left so he must have turned off somewhere.

I was annoyed on several fronts

(I) that he even tried to pass when I was clearly keeping up with the traffic
(ii) that he just sat there beside me on the wrong side of the road, possibly expected me to brake and leave him go
(iii) that I didn't just slow a bit and let him go. I was simply not having someone skip the queue like that but bike vs car considerations probably meant I should have from a strict safety perspective.

There seems to be an increasingly amount of this kind of low level stupidity on the roads.

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Can this thread spare a bit of space of a Friday for a not-unrelated good news story of sorts? Hope so.



https://twitter.com/JamesMarkHayden/status/867751491523706880

On that note, was struck by how patient and safe a Panda Waste driver was last week. Gave him a fat thumbs up when he passed a good 200m further on. Need more of their ilk.