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Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

magicbastarder

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breezy1985

Deleted User wrote: »

If what I heard is true then there isn't any blame to be apportioned here and was indeed a very tragic accident.

This is why many papers need to be ambiguous until the facts are sorted

Thelonious Monk

Funny how two journal commenters witnessed the crash on such a narrow road. I wouldn't be surprised if they're making it up so they can blame the cyclist, that's how f*cked up they are.

magicbastarder

folks, please keep any speculation as to the cause to a minimum, we can't have unsubstantiated claims about what may or may not have happened. the cyclist, and indeed the driver, could well be known to someone who posts here so we do have to take a fairly solid line on this

magicbastarder

‘Vigilantes’ on a mission to reunite owners with their stolen bikes

It’s the buzz he gets from reuniting the cyclists of Cambridge with their stolen bikes that has turned Omar Terywall into a self-proclaimed “vigilante”. He said: “You get really hooked on it when you start seeing major progress – and, well, it’s just nice helping people really, isn’t it?”

Like others across the country, from Portsmouth to Glasgow, Terywall runs a local Facebook group where Cambridge cyclists share details of their stolen bikes in the hope they will be spotted. Well-regarded by local police, Terywall happily spends hours each day hunting down stolen bikes via online advertisements and local tip-offs.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/19/vigilantes-on-a-mission-to-reunite-owners-with-their-stolen-bikes

magicbastarder

‘He died doing what he loved’: Cyclist’s wife pays tribute to him after road traffic accident

A cyclist who was killed in a collision with a car in Dublin last weekend was remembered by his wife as she said he was ‘the love of my life’.
Tributes were paid to David Steele, who has been named locally as the man who died in the collision which happened on the R108 Road in St Margaret’s at approximately 11.45am on Saturday.

https://extra.ie/2020/09/21/news/irish-news/cyclist-killed-car-dublin

Seth Brundle

^^^ relating to the above...

Seth Brundle

Motorists Break Law To Save Time, Cyclists Break Law To Save Lives, Finds Study

Researchers have found that almost all road users break the law, but the reasons for the infractions differ between modes. Motorists break road rules to save time while cyclists do so to save their necks.

Reported on JSTOR Daily on August 28, a study initially carried in the Journal of Transport and Land Use stated that “nearly everyone has ... rolled through a stop sign or driven a few miles per hour over the speed limit” but that these infractions are considered “normal and even rational.”

However, bicyclists breaking the law attracts a “higher level of scorn and scrutiny,” says the U.S study by university researchers Wesley E. Marshall, Daniel Piatkowski, and Aaron Johnson.

“The popular press portrays bicyclists as reckless and a pervasive problem with potentially dire consequences,” said the trio, noting that other studies have shown that the “red-light running bicyclist angers drivers more than any other road user behavior.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/09/18/motorists-break-law-to-save-time-cyclists-break-law-to-save-lives-finds-study/

Stark

Cyclists who also drive are better able to recognize road risk, found earlier Australian research, published in Accident Analysis & Prevention. This 2017 study found that motorists who self-identified as cyclists were better able to spot potential road hazards.

Study author Vanessa Beanland of Australian National University noted that the “demands of cycling” appears to hone awareness skills. Beanland and her associates found that, in a lab setting, cyclist-drivers responded to new information more quickly than motorists who did not cycle.

Would seem to correlate with insurance companies' data that says customers who also cycle make far less claims.

Duckjob

Not sure how relatively good or bad I am at spotting hazards, but in general nearly everytime I go out on the bike or in the car I'm struck by just how myopic peoples driving appears to have become.

For example, just yesterday after dropping the kids to school, on the short ride back home I was overtaken on the narrow road right outside the school.

There was a car in front of me who I was deliberately holding back from, and that car in turn was holding back because there was a mother with her young boy in front of them on bikes. It wasn't any superhuman act on my part that I noticed all this - I just looked down the road. Still I had this 'ould lad charging past me in his avensis only to have to slam on his brakes and nearly rear end the car in front.

I filtered past him again immediately and just shook my head at him. I don't think he even noticed that...

Type 17

Duckjob wrote: »

...I had this 'ould lad charging past me in his avensis only to have to slam on his brakes and nearly rear end the car in front.

I filtered past him again immediately and just shook my head at him. I don't think he even noticed that...

MGIF - Must Get In Front: A person whose entire driving plan consists of Getting In Front, treating all other road users, traffic lights, corners, roundabouts, etc as irritations to be overcome/dispensed with as quickly as possible, with no thought for planning ahead, space-sharing, safety of other road users or traffic laws. Most common in male drivers of German cars, but occurs to varying degrees in all ages, genders and vehicle-types (including bicycles).

Once you've been introduced to this concept, you start seeing it everywhere on the roads - I honestly think it should be defined in an RSA ad showing typical examples, because I do think that many people don't realise that they are doing it.

CramCycle

Duckjob wrote: »

I filtered past him again immediately and just shook my head at him. I don't think he even noticed that...

He didn't and even if he did, he probably won't fathom while. Had a car overtake me coming upto the turn into a school today. Thankfully seen it coming and dropped anchor and let a roar as I had to turn in. The look of confusion on the drivers face was interesting as I don't think they realised what had happened, just that someone shouted, their mind had not caught up yet.

Today on the school pick up, hit the lights and just as the light went red the car approaching floored it. Got air over the speed bump. Straight ahead stare, don't look left or right, god forbid you might see you're potential victim. Interestingly the reg and the car don't match. One of these days I am going to lose it and give chase. There was a young girl just stepping out on the other side, national school age, it is f*cking disgraceful, they have no shame.

tomasrojo

Yeah, I had a guy try to overtake me down Marlborough Road in D4, me on the cargo bike, cars parked on both sides, and a car coming the other way: no room at all, so he'd have pulled alongside me and then would have had to brake hard to not hit the oncoming car, or, I imagine more probably, swung hard left on top of me. So I just turned and said "no" loudly, and gave sort of a finger wag.

Of course, he pulled up alongside me once he had the opportunity (I'd pulled over as far as I could to let him pass, once there was room for him), rolled down the window and told me snootily that I had to obey the traffic laws too. I wasn't breaking any laws.

A lot of people are terrible at thinking one move ahead, but cyclists do seem to be a bit better on average.

Seth Brundle

I can recall an occurrence in Leixlip main st some months back where a driver tried to overtake me (and I wasn't going slow).
The oncoming lane was full of queueing traffic so there was absolutely no room to pass. Not too far ahead of me was a set of red traffic lights.
It was an utterly pointless attempt but the driver was serious until I shouted back at them.
I believe that some people just see an obstacle and must get past it regardless of anything else. It's like they're sleep-driving. Thought or logic doesn't come into it.

Duckjob

CramCycle wrote: »

He didn't and even if he did, he probably won't fathom while. Had a car overtake me coming upto the turn into a school today. Thankfully seen it coming and dropped anchor and let a roar as I had to turn in. The look of confusion on the drivers face was interesting as I don't think they realised what had happened, just that someone shouted, their mind had not caught up yet.

Today on the school pick up, hit the lights and just as the light went red the car approaching floored it. Got air over the speed bump. Straight ahead stare, don't look left or right, god forbid you might see you're potential victim. Interestingly the reg and the car don't match. One of these days I am going to lose it and give chase. There was a young girl just stepping out on the other side, national school age, it is f*cking disgraceful, they have no shame.

I had another one today when I went on the bike to pick up kids from school. I arrived at the main gate which opens up at 2.15 to allow cars in for collection.

There's a crossing marked across this main gate which kids walk across at drop off and collection time. Only this morning there was an email from the principal asking parents exiting the gates to slow down and watch for kids crossing the entrance, because people don't seem to care once their own little darlings are safely despatched.

Anyway, I rock up today to the gate which was still closed as it was a bit early, and there's a woman in a tank pulled up in front of the gate with the arse of the car sitting right on the crossing. I couldn't stay quiet about this so I pointed out to her that she was blocking the safe passage and creating a danger for kids who had to walk nearly out on the road to get past. She did try to edge up closer to the gate and asked me "am I ok now ?", to which I said "well, you're still blocking the way, but you can't reverse now as you'll be creating even more danger than you are now". I have to say I wanted her to squirm a bit so maybe she'll think ahead next time.

On my way back out, the teacher that was greeting kids at the gate said thanks to me for saying something. I'm sure they're fed up to their back teeth of seeing this sort of inconsiderate s**te day in and day out.

[Deleted User]

Twice so far since they've been back I've had the old classic from other parents "is it not very dangerous to have her on the bike with you on the road" Stock response issued both times , point at the sh1t show parking at the school and say "yes when I get to here" It was the same last year and the year before ..... I know I've posted that here before. Probably annually at this stage.

Completely oblivious to the problem they are a part of. Emails home seem to work for a day and then back to normal.

Worse is that a few of them I see parked up live maybe 3 km by road from the school but you could halve that on foot with short cuts through estates and paths through green areas.

[Deleted User]

tomasrojo wrote: »

Yeah, I had a guy try to overtake me down Marlborough Road in D4, me on the cargo bike, cars parked on both sides, and a car coming the other way: no room at all, so he'd have pulled alongside me and then would have had to brake hard to not hit the oncoming car, or, I imagine more probably, swung hard left on top of me. So I just turned and said "no" loudly, and gave sort of a finger wag.

Of course, he pulled up alongside me once he had the opportunity (I'd pulled over as far as I could to let him pass, once there was room for him), rolled down the window and told me snootily that I had to obey the traffic laws too. I wasn't breaking any laws.

A lot of people are terrible at thinking one move ahead, but cyclists do seem to be a bit better on average.

I've had a few on Marlborough coming against me from the opposite direction, with them passing the parked cars on their side. They seem to expect me to ride in the gutter to let them through, and are quite surprised when I hold my position, basically forcing them to stop.

I had one lady who stopped, as did I, then she inched forward hitting my handlebars, then she accused me of hitting her. When I pointed out that I was stopped and she was moving, she called me a wanchor and drove off. Charming people.

redlead

From a motorists point of view I can never get my head around other motorists who think that overtaking cyclists gives them some sort of special powers that enables them to drive through oncoming traffic. As soon as they see cyclists on the road they instantly decide to overtake despite the fact that they will either hit you driving the other way , or worse still, clip the cyclist unless you jam on your brakes.

You lads cycling through Dublin must have balls of steel because there is some load of idiots driving around the place.

buffalo

redlead wrote: »

From a motorists point of view I can never get my head around other motorists who think that overtaking cyclists gives them some sort of special powers that enables them to drive through oncoming traffic. As soon as they see cyclists on the road they instantly decide to overtake despite the fact that they will either hit you driving the other way , or worse still, clip the cyclist unless you jam on your brakes.

You lads cycling through Dublin must have balls of steel because there is some load of idiots driving around the place.

It's not limited to cyclists. I was driving past the local school at collection time yesterday. A line of cars parked up on the other side of the road along a bend despite the solid white line in the middle of the road. Oncoming drivers didn't really care, just moved out over the solid white line into my path for a nice game of chicken.

In fairness, the parked cars appeared to at least not be on the footpath.

tomasrojo

redlead wrote: »

You lads cycling through Dublin must have balls of steel because there is some load of idiots driving around the place.

I find it calm enough, mostly, on my regular routes. I've done a sort of iterative development cycle where I keep tweaking them until most of the slip lanes and close-pass streets are ironed out.

Marlborough Road is ok, in that cars can't seem to get up to any speed, but it's bad in that cars keep trying stupid passes, because the passing space is so narrow. It's definitely preferable to approaching my destination via the R138 through Donnybrook.

Breezer

tomasrojo wrote: »

I find it calm enough, mostly, on my regular routes. I've done a sort of iterative development cycle where I keep tweaking them until most of the slip lanes and close-pass streets are ironed out.

Marlborough Road is ok, in that cars can't seem to get up to any speed, but it's bad in that cars keep trying stupid passes, because the passing space is so narrow. It's definitely preferable to approaching my destination via the R138 through Donnybrook.

Off topic, sorry, but when did the N11 become the R138??

Peregrine

Breezer wrote: »

Off topic, sorry, but when did the N11 become the R138??

Most national roads inside the M50 reverted to local authority control a few years ago. It's still the N11 from Mount Merrion as it forms part of a national route to Dún Laoghaire Harbour through Mount Merrion Avenue (N31). Only those two are still national roads.

In practice, TII don't care much about them and would happily give it to the council. The DLR Coastal Mobility Route is on the N31 to DL Harbour and TII let them make it one way. That's how much TII care about them.

Stark

Duckjob wrote: »

Not sure how relatively good or bad I am at spotting hazards, but in general nearly everytime I go out on the bike or in the car I'm struck by just how myopic peoples driving appears to have become.

Cycling home this evening along North circular road, some eejit pulled out without looking and forced a clearly marked Garda van to slam on the brakes and give a huge blast of the horn. Unfortunately they didn't get pulled over.

nomdeboardie

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I've had a few on Marlborough coming against me from the opposite direction, with them passing the parked cars on their side. They seem to expect me to ride in the gutter to let them through, and are quite surprised when I hold my position, basically forcing them to stop.

I had one lady who stopped, as did I, then she inched forward hitting my handlebars, then she accused me of hitting her. When I pointed out that I was stopped and she was moving, she called me a wanchor and drove off. Charming people.

Anyone get this cycling north up Coliemore Road (Dalkey) after the harbour?:
There are usually cars/vans parked (legally, if unhelpfully) on the coast-side of the road. I'm near the top of the small hill, taking (what's left of) the lane, just about to come into unobstructed road. Car arrives at the top, with plenty of opportunity to see me, and decides to proceed to pass the parked vehicles anyway, having to stop after a few metres as there's clearly no room to pass me even if I were to move over as far as possible and cower against the kerb. I think I demanded they reverse once (right at the top), but otherwise there's no alternative but to get off onto the footpad:P and walk by or stand until they pass. I dunno - maybe next time I'll throw my hands in the air (as always) but instead of vague enquiries as to what they are thinking etc., ask pointedly if they plan to drive through me. Maybe take a photo/video as an exhibit for asking the county council to put up a sign warning not to initiate a pass if there is traffic, including bicycles, in the constricted region.

[Apologies for continuing to derail the thread, which I do realise is supposed to be about cycling issues in the media

]

Thelonious Monk

Just home after cycling up the Malahide road. A guy in one of those new minis was struggling a bit to get past me, in the bus lane where he shouldn't have been around Maypark, and screamed "where's your f*cking helmet" as he speeded up the bus lane when he got past me eventually. Bizarre.

Another thing - Once again a teenager dies in a horror crash last night, 3 comments on the Journal. No one cares, and it's likely they could have been speeding or drunk, who knows. Why aren't the road safety enthusiasts that appear on cycling articles all over these deaths? It's a dead teenager ffs.

breezy1985

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Anyone get this cycling north up Coliemore Road (Dalkey) after the harbour?:
There are usually cars/vans parked (legally, if unhelpfully) on the coast-side of the road. I'm near the top of the small hill, taking (what's left of) the lane, just about to come into unobstructed road. Car arrives at the top, with plenty of opportunity to see me, and decides to proceed to pass the parked vehicles anyway, having to stop after a few metres as there's clearly no room to pass me even if I were to move over as far as possible and cower against the kerb. I think I demanded they reverse once (right at the top), but otherwise there's no alternative but to get off onto the footpad:P and walk by or stand until they pass. I dunno - maybe next time I'll throw my hands in the air (as always) but instead of vague enquiries as to what they are thinking etc., ask pointedly if they plan to drive through me. Maybe take a photo/video as an exhibit for asking the county council to put up a sign warning not to initiate a pass if there is traffic, including bicycles, in the constricted region.

[Apologies for continuing to derail the thread, which I do realise is supposed to be about cycling issues in the media ]

Happened me every night outside my flat in London. It was always assumed that I would have to give way to the cars and if I didn't cycle down the middle of my lane they would always try fly past and throw me onto the path so I always took the middle of the lane after a while.
It was only about 3 cars long too late at night so it's not like I was asking them to wait forever for me to pass

Grassey

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

. Why aren't the road safety enthusiasts that appear on cycling articles all over these deaths? It's a dead teenager ffs.

Because pedestrian and motorist deaths have been normalised as tragic accidents. Unavoidable, and accepted as a very minor outcome/risk of the benefits that driving mobility brings us....

Whereas cyclists are willfully endangering everyone by bringing their hobby toys onto a road and putting themselves recklessly into danger, by not being in their place. They should be wrapped in PPE and only allowed do loops of Corcagh Park having driven there.

nomdeboardie

breezy1985 wrote: »

Happened me every night outside my flat in London. It was always assumed that I would have to give way to the cars and if I didn't cycle down the middle of my lane they would always try fly past and throw me onto the path so I always took the middle of the lane after a while.
It was only about 3 cars long too late at night so it's not like I was asking them to wait forever for me to pass

Yeah, I'm in the middle of the lane too, but they just drive up to me, bumper to front wheel, waiting expectantly for me to relinquish the road to their majestic motors

breezy1985

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Yeah, I'm in the middle of the lane too, but they just drive up to me, bumper to front wheel, waiting expectantly for me to relinquish the road to their majestic motors

I'm stubborn

CramCycle

Type 17 wrote: »

MGIF - Must Get In Front: A person whose entire driving plan consists of Getting In Front, treating all other road users, traffic lights, corners, roundabouts, etc as irritations to be overcome/dispensed with as quickly as possible, with no thought for planning ahead, space-sharing, safety of other road users or traffic laws. Most common in male drivers of German cars, but occurs to varying degrees in all ages, genders and vehicle-types (including bicycles).

Once you've been introduced to this concept, you start seeing it everywhere on the roads - I honestly think it should be defined in an RSA ad showing typical examples, because I do think that many people don't realise that they are doing it.

I find the bike one more rude than dangerous but in other ways hilarious. You sit into a queue at the lights and a cyclist of a certain age, sex and demeanour will inevitably just ride to the front, on either side and then you spend the next few minutes waiting for everyone to filter past them again. And everyone does, you must have to wonder the type of ego can take overtaking everyone as if they are faster and then have every single person from the unicycle to the commuter racer to the Penny Farthing overtake them in the next 200m. It is bizarre.

shootermacg

CramCycle wrote: »

I find the bike one more rude than dangerous but in other ways hilarious. You sit into a queue at the lights and a cyclist of a certain age, sex and demeanour will inevitably just ride to the front, on either side and then you spend the next few minutes waiting for everyone to filter past them again. And everyone does, you must have to wonder the type of ego can take overtaking everyone as if they are faster and then have every single person from the unicycle to the commuter racer to the Penny Farthing overtake them in the next 200m. It is bizarre.

It's wrecked my head for years. Some slow poke pushing up to the front, then getting in everyone's way. I really can't understand why they do it, and the same people do it every time.