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

Grand, just a bit annoyed tbh and very glad now it wasn't a rock or something heavier he threw. I've Gardai in the family I mentioned it to but tbh I wouldn't waste my time reporting it officially.

http://advancedscaffoldingservices.com. Not hard to find, send Anthony on the link!

From what I heard, she took a case against the driver of the car because he was 18 and therefore of responsible age where as the individual who threw the egg was under age. The driver simply denied any responsibility in throwing the egg. That's what I heard 3rd hand at least.

Assault resulting in visible injuries is a criminal matter, not a civil matter.

Not quite a near miss, but...

Cycling with wife and son, stopped in the Advanced Stopping Zone. In Rathgar cross roads, for those who know it, having come from Terenure. The intention was to proceed thru the junction and take a right down Highfield Road. So we had to be in the right hand lane, taking the lane in the ASZ.

As we're waiting is noticed the Taxi behind, revving his engine. I turned around and gave him my sternest look.

As the lights go green, we move off. Before we've gone 10 metres, ie haven't yet reached the right turn 20 metres from the ASZ, this taxi driving d1ck starts beeping. A kid and a lady, me out front.

There was no oncoming traffic. So I kind of circled back, and let roar at him. I hate to think what I would have done to him had he stopped and argued the toss. He roared back.

As is so often the case, the professional driver is convinced he's in the right. Someone's in his way and he's going to bully them out of the way.

Regardless of people's opinions on that bike lane there was no other traffic in front or behind the bus in lane 1 stopping the driver moving out and back in safely to pass. He's purposely being a prick. Whatever about a car doing it, a bus isn't something you want to mess around with. Looks like traffic is also fairly light.

The bike lane has a lot of harsh bumps once you've dropped down from the slip plus it has a lot of debris as there's a high volume of trucks coming from Grange Castle getting onto the N4. It's also prone to being overgrown in places so half the lane is taken up by sharp bushes. Where the bridge is you have to come to a crawl to go around the sign post and then you have to stop and wait to cross at Woodies and again on the other side as it's a busy section. Add the odd pedestrian traveling in the same direction as you also. I've had to drop into the bus lane and back up on occasion, this particular stretch is bike only as far as I remember.

This is the reason I can somewhat understand the frustration of drivers (but I just need to be clear that I don't agree with anger towards cyclists or dangerous manoeuvres!). The majority don't know there's anything wrong with the path. I cycle, but not along that road, but I am very well aware that many lanes with problems. Even still, I don't think you'd get a clear picture of what the issues are until you actually use it.

Unfortunately it leaves a lot of drivers with a dislike of cyclists for not using dedicated paths, even though they are perfectly entitled not to use them.

Not so much a near miss, as sheer ignorance. I gave them an earful and got the usual brain dead "I had my indicator on, you were going slow, etc."

Also, some bonus footage of the Washboard Launderette van parked inside the cycle lane bollards.

Bloody hell that's pure ignorance. I'd rather get left hooked at the junction then someone full on park up to a stop right in front of me!

Cycling back from the school drop-off just there and a car tries and fails to pass me due to oncoming traffic. They attempt again this time blind as we're approaching a 90 degree left-hand bend in the road. Sure enough a car is coming in the opposite direction meaning they need to be in my space so dive to the curb as both of us are on the apex completely cutting me off. No acknowledgment as they floor it to get away. Less than 30 seconds later they've pulled into a parking spot on their phone. So I pull in to explain what they'd done but probably not as calmly as I should have as they'd almost knocked me down. The excuses ranged from didn't see me, to you'd plenty of room to they had right of way as they'd gotten in front. She had no idea how close she had gotten or why it might be an issue and in her mind I was over reacting!

When safe to do so, I sometimes put my hand out when being close passed, and if the wing mirror or body of the vehicle hits my hand, that is very hard evidence that they were too close.

Yeah it's a bit concerning when people can't see you directly in front of them!

That's it exactly. Today I had a Dublin Bus wait for me to take off from the lights first as he knew there was a bus stop in a couple of hundred metres and passing me just to pull in would be more than a bit ignorant. Then I had a private coach wait to take off at a green light left turn filter (Fosters Ave.) because he saw me approaching on the left side ('segregated') cycle lane. I've taken to gesturing thanks to drivers like that for two reasons - 1) it's nice to know that when you do something decent it's appreciated, but more selfishly, 2) I find that physically acknowledging decent people has a mellowing effect on the brain, probably in the converse way that getting worked up by ignorant f**s has a detrimental and stress-inducing effect. I enjoy my commutes a lot more know. That's not to say that dangerous drivers don't get a roar, but that's another kettle of fish.

There are plenty - probably a majority - of decent people out there. It's just human nature, unfortunately, that we tend to focus on the asshats (like the BMW who sat in the bus lane from RTE through to Donnybrook because he was too important to wait in traffic like the rest of the cars).