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

07Lapierre wrote: »

That’s also a good point. IMO Our roads are not THAT dangerous. But then again, how do you judge a safe road? I cycle along roads which I feel are safe, but others who are not as experienced/confident on a bike as I am think the roads I cycle on are lethal!

If you take the footage that started this discussion, would everyone be happy to send a 12yearold child cycling on that road?

Edit: I had a discussion online about a certain road and how safe it was and I was told it’s perfectly safe as “there’s no record of any fatalities on that road”
This is true, but is that the best way to determine if a road is safe?

I know the road in question extremely well. It’s not particularly dangerous. It depends on the 12 year old and their level of road craft.
That particular merge point would be seen the length and breadth of the country

I’ve looked at it several times there now again to see if my view has changed. The rearward view gives a better perspective I think. His arm doesn’t go out until the car has passed and he almost immediately is crossing the dotted line. From when his arm goes out to when the van draws level with him is about 2-3 secs.

I’m done arguing. The Gardai found fault with both road users. It’s easy to spin the argument that the cyclist is being victimised but the video won’t support his appeal in my opinion in this instance. But you never know how these things will play out

They were driving the wrong way down a one way street beside the Grand Canal cycle track in Portobello earlier. Here.

No blue lights, sirens, or anything else. They were going slowly, but if someone had swung in it could have been messy.

Driver was a tosser who was deliberately blocking an overtake on the right the whole way up, and moved to block the cyclist in after he overtook on the left. However, it was all very low speed and the cyclist was in no danger. The best thing to do would have been to let the left turning car go left. At that point, the eejit driver would either have been stopped in traffic and there’d be space to go ahead again, or he’ll be moving and the cyclist could filter in behind him.

The cyclist was hysterical. Hitting the car was totally unwarranted in those circumstances. I suppose the driver could have been on the phone and therefore likely to continue to push him off the road, though it’s more likely he would have hit the car in front first. The cyclist had a split second to make up his mind, but I still think I’d have adjusted my course and shouted, at most.

Obviously that all changed when the driver got out of the car and assaulted him. No excuses there, and the police not prosecuting is inexcusable.

On the wider issue, when I first started cycling daily 3 years ago, I read this thread a lot. I learned a lot about road position and how to anticipate stupid things drivers are likely to do. As a result, I’ve had, I think, two incidents that could be called dangerous. I’ve had a lot of annoying incidents, and some of those could have been dangerous had I not reacted (as in braking, not having a row). My view is that these incidents happen on the roads, no matter what mode of transport you’re using, and it’s better for my enjoyment of my day not to engage.

I still haven’t gotten a camera. Maybe I should have one. I did have an incident in a car once, where a dash cam would almost certainly have resulted in an insurance pay out in my favour, and instead I had to pay for a repair. But I think they also lead certain people to become more confrontational. I should caveat that my commute is mostly bus and cycle lane, and there are some videos of truly dangerous driving on here, that I’ve learned a lot from. And I’d probably feel differently if I were out with kids, or whatever.