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

Alek · 22-05-2019 10:58AM

A car overtook me yesterday afternoon, speeding up to get through the amber. I was almost in the middle of the lane, so the mirror hit my hand hard and I barely managed to stay on the bike.

"Sorry I didn't see you" she said.

Funny they give licenses to blind people these days.

Alek · 22-05-2019 03:44PM

Interesting, because there was physical contact, Traffic Watch will not take my report. They refer me to the local Garda station, I've called them and they told me they cannot take it over the phone, I have to do it in person.

Don't bother today, she added, we're really busy.

D'oh.

ganmo · 22-05-2019 03:49PM

Translation - wait till I'm off shift

tnegun · 22-05-2019 11:55PM

Almost had a head on with a scrambler on the Grand Canal today I was crossing the red bridge near Adamstown and had slowed to a stop when I heard it coming. They came round the bend on the bridge and would of flattened me if I hadn't stopped. They almost came off themselves when they saw me I gave up reporting these guys as the guards aren't interested and want you to do all the work.

site_owner · 23-05-2019 12:24AM

tnegun wrote: »

Almost had a head on with a scrambler on the Grand Canal today I was crossing the red bridge near Adamstown and had slowed to a stop when I heard it coming. They came round the bend on the bridge and would of flattened me if I hadn't stopped. They almost came off themselves when they saw me I gave up reporting these guys as the guards aren't interested and want you to do all the work.

(Not excusing this crap)

Gardai don't have the resources to provide decent response times to catch scramblers, and even if they can get someone there quick, kissing gates mean they are wasting their time. I learned that from AGS responses to scramblers in my local, kissing gate "protected" park.

All they want to know, is a possible address for the bike, so they can try track it down

Mickiemcfist · 23-05-2019 09:57AM

I thought the other issue was that they weren't allowed to chase them due to health & safety of said scrambler rider?

magicbastarder · 23-05-2019 10:10AM

i think that's general issues of danger, not just to the rider, but also to anyone the rider might collide with while being chased (or that said, anyone the gardai might collide with)

Hurrache · 23-05-2019 10:10AM

site_owner wrote: »

(Not excusing this crap)

Gardai don't have the resources to provide decent response times to catch scramblers, and even if they can get someone there quick, kissing gates mean they are wasting their time. I learned that from AGS responses to scramblers in my local, kissing gate "protected" park.

All they want to know, is a possible address for the bike, so they can try track it down

All they need to do is set up a team and do a week of stings. It's not that difficult a concept for someone in the gardai to organise. In the UK they permanently have such teams with police on unmarked bikes and scramblers themselves.

Rechuchote · 23-05-2019 01:34PM

Hurrache wrote: »

All they need to do is set up a team and do a week of stings. It's not that difficult a concept for someone in the gardai to organise. In the UK they permanently have such teams with police on unmarked bikes and scramblers themselves.

Plainclothes team on bikes, with the power to confiscate and dispose of the scrambler, as they can with cars driven by unaccompanied L drivers. That would stop it in its tracks. And get them off the tracks.

CramCycle · 23-05-2019 02:17PM

Weepsie wrote: »

Last garda I dealt with was great. But he was new, young and probably very eager to get on with work. Other times I've had miserable ones who couldn't have cared less.

A few years of the paperwork will sort that out, I think it is typically about 18 months before most new recruits break and start thinking, every one of these I do is more time I cannot be on the street doing my actual job. Gardai really need to update their ticketing and processing, or go back to the knocking on doors and giving a b*llicking, otherwise I fully understand why they don't follow up on such things.

check_six · 23-05-2019 03:10PM

CramCycle wrote: »

A few years of the paperwork will sort that out, I think it is typically about 18 months before most new recruits break and start thinking, every one of these I do is more time I cannot be on the street doing my actual job. Gardai really need to update their ticketing and processing, or go back to the knocking on doors and giving a b*llicking, otherwise I fully understand why they don't follow up on such things.

I wonder if there is a resistance to updating the systems. The pulse system seems to have been around nearly 20 years, and I don't believe they have changed it in that time. Is it just the cost of a new system? Or is there something else?

mr spuckler · 23-05-2019 03:13PM

CramCycle wrote: »

A few years of the paperwork will sort that out, I think it is typically about 18 months before most new recruits break and start thinking, every one of these I do is more time I cannot be on the street doing my actual job. Gardai really need to update their ticketing and processing, or go back to the knocking on doors and giving a b*llicking, otherwise I fully understand why they don't follow up on such things.

From having reported a collision and seen how much of the Garda's time it took, including 1 1/2 hours to take a statement to reflect what was in the video from my bike camera, to then see the amount of time he'd to spend in court to finally see an admitted careless driving charge result in no penalty points, fine or endorsement - I can very much understand why they'd lose heart.

Ray Palmer · 23-05-2019 04:03PM

check_six wrote: »

CramCycle wrote: »

A few years of the paperwork will sort that out, I think it is typically about 18 months before most new recruits break and start thinking, every one of these I do is more time I cannot be on the street doing my actual job. Gardai really need to update their ticketing and processing, or go back to the knocking on doors and giving a b*llicking, otherwise I fully understand why they don't follow up on such things.

I wonder if there is a resistance to updating the systems. The pulse system seems to have been around nearly 20 years, and I don't believe they have changed it in that time. Is it just the cost of a new system? Or is there something else?

Have you any idea of the cost and time to replace a system? They don't just keep the system with no changes being made. There is constant maintenance and upgrades to such systems.
The system cost over €60 million to develop, so maybe that is why they don't just replace it. It probably has another 10 years of use easy assuming they did very little to it but after that there is no reason it doesn't remain indefinitely once kept up to date.

check_six · 23-05-2019 04:32PM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Have you any idea of the cost and time to replace a system? They don't just keep the system with no changes being made. There is constant maintenance and upgrades to such systems.
The system cost over €60 million to develop, so maybe that is why they don't just replace it. It probably has another 10 years of use easy assuming they did very little to it but after that there is no reason it doesn't remain indefinitely once kept up to date.

That's good that it's been getting updates. I'd somehow got the impression the system was archaic and not up to the job any more. Don't know where I got that idea from now to be honest.

Ray Palmer · 23-05-2019 04:38PM

Oh don't get me wrong all signs point to it being a terrible development project and handled badly. Given it was Accenture working with people who never worked on such a huge development project meant it would be a mess. One reason why you need to pay for consultants and should hire independent contractors to do governance.
Way more expensive to start from scratch now.

tnegun · 23-05-2019 06:48PM

The scrotes in actions

Breezer · 23-05-2019 10:00PM

Not a near miss for me, but for a driver in front of me this morning. I'm turning down Bridge St from High St (beside Christchurch) and a Range Rover roars past me, giving me room in fairness. Up ahead there's a woman in a rented i10 who clearly doesn't know where she's going and is driving a bit slowly trying to figure it out. Range Rover tries to undertake her, can't fit, tries to overtake her on the right. The poor woman is clearly terrified and slows right down at this stage and swings from side to side a bit. Range Rover leans on the horn.

Eventually he flies past her and I watch him fly over the Liffey bridge, and then up the cycle lane to overtake the queue of cars, before getting stuck trying to merge with the traffic again. He continues this type of thing the whole way up the road.

We spent the next 15 minutes swapping places on the road until he finally managed to drive on at the Circle K on the Ballymun Road.

I was expecting it was either a red faced middle aged businessman in a suit, or some young fella in daddy's jeep. I had a gawk at a set of lights. It was a man in his late 30s, sporting hipster glasses and beard, cool as you like, with a freshly groomed Yorkshire terrier in his lap!

AndrewJRenko · 23-05-2019 10:15PM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Oh don't get me wrong all signs point to it being a terrible development project and handled badly. Given it was Accenture working with people who never worked on such a huge development project meant it would be a mess. One reason why you need to pay for consultants and should hire independent contractors to do governance.
Way more expensive to start from scratch now.

There are some very interesting developments with use of technology in the Gardai;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twY2Jqpdpog

Breezer · 23-05-2019 10:19PM

Oh and a pedestrian with massive headphones on decided to walk out in front of me going up Constitution Hill, oblivious to me white knuckling the brakes. Thankfully Range Rover had gone on ahead at this point or she might have been in trouble.

And then coming home in the evening there's a queue of traffic in the right lane on Church St before the North King St junction. I'm in the left lane, taking the lane because it's one of those ones where they've painted on a cycle lane that takes up half the width of the driving lane. There's also a crater of a manhole in middle of the road, and then a left filter arrow where I'd rather not be left hooked. Anyway, one of the lads heretofore queuing happy in his car suddenly decides he doesn't want to queue anymore and pulls into the left lane as I'm passing by, indicating as he starts the manoeuvre. I had enough speed to make it past without any issue but he clearly hadn't a clue I was there.

I haven't had a near miss in ages, there must've been something in the water today.

AndrewJRenko · 23-05-2019 11:05PM

Two cyclists in a slight near miss at Leeson St bridge, with the guy coming over the bridge against the red light nearly being t-boned by the lady taking off with the green;

https://streamable.com/qpvxj

And taxi doing illegal left turn nearly left hooks cyclist going straight on;

https://streamable.com/36fuh

buffalo · 24-05-2019 07:51AM

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

And taxi doing illegal left turn nearly left hooks cyclist going straight on;

There's a small fortune to be made standing on that bridge pulling in drivers taking that left turn.

What Username Guidelines · 24-05-2019 08:39AM

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

And taxi doing illegal left turn nearly left hooks cyclist going straight on;

https://streamable.com/36fuh

If only there were some Gardai nearby at the time. :rolleyes:

queldy · 24-05-2019 09:43AM

Have been overtaken yesterday night from the left with few cm to spare at speed by a (professional) taxi driver on Wellington Quay who decided to use the left lane to gain those 2/3 seconds that allowed him to arrive earlier than me at the red traffic light.
Gave him a look, he did not have a clue.

Not sure how that piece of road should be approached: left lane is for coaches (it lasts a few hundred metres, then you get the pavement -- it looks to me it is just a temporary parking for buses?), centre lane is for bus and cycles, then there is right lane. If I approach it on the left, I usually get a dangerous situation because everyone is speeding from one light to the next one, and do not care if you are moving from left to centre (regardless of how many lights and safety jackets you have on, or if you wear a helmet or not). [not to forget it is an awful piece of paved road]
If I approach it on the centre, I get cars revving and tailgaiting me which is not very comfortable (not that thy care if the next light is red, they have to tailgate you anyway) - and apparentely, I get taxi drivers punishing me from the left (hopefully it was just a uncommon behaviour and won't happen ever again).

p15574 · 24-05-2019 09:59AM

What Username Guidelines wrote: »

If only there were some Gardai nearby at the time. :rolleyes:

There was the other morning when I was at those lights, only for a cyclist, not a motorist. An oncoming cyclist ignored the red lights and sailed through when the lights were green for Fitzwilliam Place. She hadn't seen the Garda van waiting at the lights.

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

A bit difficult to see the cyclist in the video due to cars blocking the view (downside of camera fixed to handlebars), but you can see her approaching the traffic lights ahead, and then the blue lights of the Garda van as it took off after her.

We're all cyclists here, but sometimes (a lot of the times?) RLJs annoy me too.

Seth Brundle · 24-05-2019 10:01AM

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

And taxi doing illegal left turn nearly left hooks cyclist going straight on;

https://streamable.com/36fuh

Do not post videos like that online.
That vehicle is entitled to their good name!

CramCycle · 24-05-2019 10:17AM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Have you any idea of the cost and time to replace a system? They don't just keep the system with no changes being made. There is constant maintenance and upgrades to such systems.
The system cost over €60 million to develop, so maybe that is why they don't just replace it. It probably has another 10 years of use easy assuming they did very little to it but after that there is no reason it doesn't remain indefinitely once kept up to date.

check_six wrote: »

That's good that it's been getting updates. I'd somehow got the impression the system was archaic and not up to the job any more. Don't know where I got that idea from now to be honest.

I should be clear, PULSE is not the problem by any way shape or means. It is the unnecessary bureaucracy tied to almost every infraction, no matter how minor, which has to a large degree being placed there by bureaucrats and outside legal influences. Rather than shore up laws and simplifying processes when they were challenged e.g. various tickets etc. They then went about adding piles of paperwork to the AGS so it would be more difficult to argue against in court, the downside to this is there are more points for the system to break down and good solicitors to exploit. Go to the US or the UK (though the US seems to have nailed it very well), get a speeding fine, they pull you over, ask for drivers license, add in your details, tell you what speed you were doing, hand you the ticket and you have 28 days to pay or it goes straight to court. There is no post for it to get lost in, you receive it on the spot, there is no mitigating circumstances, there is no confusion on the date/time/place or any other hang up. If the police officer does not go to court, you still get the fine.

papu · 24-05-2019 11:17AM

I was cycling up Townsend street in the right hand lane of two lanes. Just before the junction with Shaw Street, Dublin bus 757 in the left hand lane tries to accelerate and overtake me, as the road narrows to a single lane (on the right) due to road works. He accelerates, sounds his horn, then proceeds to move in ontop of me, forcing me to take evasive action and move out of the centre of the right lane to the very side of the road or be struck by the side of the bus.

Caught up to the driver not much further down the road, he was very unapologetic, and said I should be wearing a High viz and helmet.

I've lodged a complaint with DB and sent a GDPR request to get footage, sadly both my front and read cameras were out of battery.... typical

Recreation of the event, he could have easily slowed down and pulled in behind me, I was planning on turning right onto shaw st anyway..

CramCycle · 24-05-2019 12:18PM

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

And taxi doing illegal left turn nearly left hooks cyclist going straight on;

https://streamable.com/36fuh

It is the fact that he keeps rolling forward as the cyclist comes round him, absolute muppetry.

Breezer · 24-05-2019 01:56PM

A Deliveroo cyclist comes off the path from the Royal Canal onto the road just after Cross Guns Bridge outbound this morning, against a red man/toucan light. Sort of does a circle in the left lane a bit ahead of me and then drifts casually into the right lane to cross the road - right in front of a van doing 50km/h (legitimately). Screech of the brakes and smoke coming from the tyres. If the van driver hadn't been paying attention he was a goner, I was a bit shaken up seeing it.

Breezer · 24-05-2019 04:12PM

Breezer wrote: »

And then coming home in the evening there's a queue of traffic in the right lane on Church St before the North King St junction. I'm in the left lane, taking the lane because it's one of those ones where they've painted on a cycle lane that takes up half the width of the driving lane. There's also a crater of a manhole in middle of the road, and then a left filter arrow where I'd rather not be left hooked. Anyway, one of the lads heretofore queuing happy in his car suddenly decides he doesn't want to queue anymore and pulls into the left lane as I'm passing by, indicating as he starts the manoeuvre. I had enough speed to make it past without any issue but he clearly hadn't a clue I was there.

I had a repeat of this today a few yards further on heading past Bridewell Garda Station. Mirrors, people!

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

Comments