Cycle lanes

dusty bin wrote: »

i presume it was an off-road one as it is between the path and road and in parts is raised above the road, although it becomes on-road at each junction.
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Then in that case I have no idea who would be at fault (or most at fault).

Driver has a stop sign so in the wrong. The cyclist is also on the wrong side of the road, doesn't absolve the motorist though. Always look both ways.

I just had a situation where a cyclist going at high speed down the pavement crossed a junction as I was turning right across a busy road. He almost hit me side on! Then started hurling abuse at me.

There was no cycle lane and he was doing a high enough speed on the pavement to be unable to stop at a junction and was no where near the junction as I was turning.

Not only that but he was going contrary to the flow of traffic - cycling at high speed on pavement in the right (continental traffic direction).

I had to slam on while turning across busy traffic. it could have been VERY nasty.

According to him - I'm 100% in the wrong and should have seen him coming somehow ?!?!

I'm beginning to think cycling lessons are essential! How the hell can you be cycling at full whack down the pavement on the wrong side of the road, not looking at junctions and then claiming you're in the right!?!

Basically an urban road with a 60km limit.
Turning right into a non traffic light junction. You have to turn across short gaps in traffic.

When I reached the other side and entered the junction this guy came out of nowhere from the pavement at speed and side on into the car, but did not crash or make contact.

He continued cycling from the pavement at high speed while the car was already in front of him.

He was cycling at high speed on the pavement, in the opposite direction to road traffic and did not look, yeild or stop when crossing the road. Just cycled straight at the car.

He didn't look or yield or pay any attention to the road that he was crossing from the pavement.

The issue was I had to stop hard in a very awkward junction.

It's a bad road design and there should be a traffic light junction, but cycling the wrong way on a road, at speed and on the pavement is insane.

If he were cycling on the correct side of the road it wouldn't have happened and if he were cycling on the pavement observing normal pedestrian behaviour it also wouldn't have happened.

You can't see someone cycling at high speed in the wrong direction in a turn like that and you certainly do not expect a cyclist to just shoot out from the pavement like that.

The only reason I know the guy was going high speed is he shot out of nowhere. I had absolutely no way of seeing him as he was obscured by parked cars and traffic on the other side of the road (I was crossing traffic from the left to the right) he crossed the intersecting road blind)

I don't have x-ray mirrors that can see through two rows of cars.

I'm not saying all cyclists are like this but some people just have absolutely no cop on whatsoever and give everyone else a bad name.

A bit of road traffic training for everyone in school would be very useful!

Actually, if it were a small child nothing would have happened as they wouldn't have been travelling at 25 to 50kmh and I was only moving at about 10km/h max.

I had stopped, indicated, waited for a gap in traffic, turned right and wasn't exactly going fast as I had just started to move into the junction.

He literally cycled at me while I was in the junction. I didn't cross his path as he wasn't on the road at all. He left the pavement and entered the junction and basically almost into the side of a car.

So he was cycling along the pavement at speed without stopping at junctions with roads. Just cycling straight across them at relatively much higher speed than a pedestrian.

I turned into the junction. He shot off the pavement and stopped just short of the side of my car and started yelling at me.

He was cycling on flat pavement which runs for several km so was going a fair speed based on how fast he entered the junction and his inability to stop.

He was not cycling on the road, but on the footpath. However, in the footpath in opposite direction to traffic on that side of the road.

So basically he crossed one arm of a junction at speed from right to left coming from the pavement but in the opposite direction to where you'd expect bikes or cars to be coming from.

Obviously if a bike came down the road in the correct direction, I would have had tons of visibility.

If it were a pedestrian, I would have had loads of time and so would they because they simply don't move quickly. Even a jogger would have.

He clearly saw my car enter the junction and didn't stop but just cycled at the side of it then noticed or was going so fast towards the road that he was unable to stop in time, in which case he was cycling far far too fast to approach a road at all.

There's no way you can see someone who shoots out at speed from behind parked cars.

There is also no cycle path there. There is only a narrow, but flat footpath. Again, I don't actually have a major issue with someone cycling on the pavement, provided they cycle sanely.

A) He shouldn't be been cycling at speed on a footpath
You don't blindly cycle across roads at speed.
C) You don't cycle in the opposite direction to traffic if you're going to be interacting with it at junctions.
D) You should be aware of the fact that you're not going to be very visible if you shoot our from behind parked cars into a junction.

I actually cycle myself and I don't even object to people using footpaths for cycling, if they do it sanely and observe what's going on around them.

There is such a thing as reckless use of the road by all forms of road users.

This guy was hurtling along not paying any attention to traffic or anything else by the looks of it.

All I'm saying is that there needs to be proper cycle training and road use training in school and in public information campaigns. Road users have to be able to interact in predictable, visible ways.

Cars are bigger and more dangerous but reckless use of any vehicle or even just running out into traffic as a pedestrian is incredibly dangerous.

It's fairly clear though that there's absolutely no point in arguing as you're just going to retort with "driver always wrong".

As a cyclist, a driver and a pedestrian I am not angry but concerned. It would reduce cyclist fatalities if people observed the rules of the road more consistently.

Safety on the roads is about predictably, consistency and awareness of what other people can and can't see.

Unless we get to the stage where we've proper cycle lanes absolutely everywhere (and that's unlikely to be anytime soon) cyclists, cars and pedestrians have to interact. Even with lanes they have to interact at junctions and crossings.

Bolting across a road without looking is idiotic and nobody with any common sense does that.

Proper road use education in school should be about how to interact safely with other road users and why the rules are there. Not just about arbitrary learning rules.

I don't really see the point of defending totally reckless cycling anymore than defending someone doing tip and run. It's needlessly endangering their own life and safety.