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how many times per month do you avoid a potentially serious accident with a car?

24

Comments

  • #32
    rp
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 1,227 ✭✭✭rp


    tomasrojo wrote: »
    "Mandatory" cycle lanes are exclusivey for the use of cyclists. "Non-mandatory" can be driven in by motorised vehicles.
    I couldn't find any place in the ROTR where that is stated - page #?


  • #33
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    rp wrote: »
    I couldn't find any place in the ROTR where that is stated - page #?
    http://www.drivingschoolireland.com/pedal-cyclist.html
    A mandatory cycle track is bordered by a continuous white line on the righthand side. It is only for bicycles and motorised wheelchairs, so no other drivers may use it or park in it.

    The definition is in a statutory instrument rather than the rules of the road. I'll see whether I can find it.

    Regardless of all this, you can't pull alongside someone and then turn left on top of them. So the bus driver, if he did this, was in the wrong. If the cyclist were behind the bus, saw the bus indicate left and still tried to undertake, the cyclist would be in the wrong.


  • #34
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1998/en/si/0274.html
    5) A prohibition on the parking of a vehicle imposed by article 36 (2) (m) shall not apply to a vehicle parked in a cycle track, on the right hand edge of which traffic sign number RRM 023 has been provided, while goods are being loaded in or on to it or unloaded from it for a period not exceeding thirty minutes from the commencement of such parking.


  • #35
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    (6) A restriction on the parking of a vehicle imposed by article 37 shall not apply to -


    (a) a vehicle to which sub-article (3) applies;


    (b) a vehicle parked at the edge of a roadway while a passenger is entering or leaving it; or


    (c) a vehicle parked while goods are being loaded in or on to it or unloaded from it, for a period not exceeding thirty minutes from the commencement of the parking.".

    RRM023 is the cycle track with the broken white line.


  • #36
    poochiem
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 690 ✭✭✭poochiem


    i'm not voting as I can't say how many inicidents I avoid nor how serious they are. However, looking back at a normal week of commuting

    ...had a young woman try to beat me from the Rte red light on the N11 to the first gateway, she didnt beat me but decided to try to pull left anyway and force me to come to a standstill or collide with her passenger window. very bizarre situation.

    The following morning a middle-aged woman in a large black 4x4 thought better of letting me use the cycle lane coming towards donnybrook church, she kept pressing me until I was going to be crushed so I punched her door, she stopped...and waved at me! seems she was aware I was there just thought better of giving me space.

    Car driver on kevin st shaved my right handlebar with his wing mirror (that's too close in my book).

    A JCB with its front bucket down has raced the bikes off the red lights on the canal twice this week, in the wet, really really dangerous. I had my front tyre blow out on the canal yesterday, if it had happened in front of the JCB I dread to think what would have happened.

    99% of the bad driving/cycling is in the city centre but you kind of switch on to it and expect things to go wrong. Taxi ranks means they will open their doors in front of you in the 'mandatory cycle lane'; if there's a left junction expect oncoming cars to come blindly through the gap in the traffic across your lane; pedestrians will step off the path at junctions and where the footpath is busy to get around spanish students; dogs are always on leads long enough to jump under your wheel; a parked bread van or lorry never sees you coming behind and that door swings open at head level.


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  • #37
    funkyjebus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,547 ✭✭✭funkyjebus


    Way too many tbh. Just last night a taxi van passed me out on pearse st but was way too close and started pushing me into the construction wall there before trinity going towards town, so i gave him a non aggressive knock on the side of this MPV and he pulled over (and stopped as there was traffic ahead). I was then in front of him and stayed middle road as i would be going right across the lanes soon. He beeped and told me to move over, I wagged my finger saying no.

    Next i know he is trying to over take me in half a lanes worth with a car parrell to me on my right (pavement on my left), but there is no room and he is nearly touching my tyre, so i turn around and shout f**k off as im freaked out and taken by supprise by this maneuver. But he smiles (wtf:mad:) and tips my wheel, so i end up punching his bonnet about 15 times while still trying to control by bike turned around at him in order to make him back off. I then stay in front of him till i turn he slow down and call me a d**khead, i stop (safely beside the path)and tell him Ill be reporting him to the Guards and the taxi reg, he laughs and says 'oh what will they do a slap on the wrist' and off he goes into the rain.

    I never come across someone who so intentionally tryed to knock me down.:(

    Have yet to report it am gonna see if there is some cctv looking at the location on monday.


  • #38
    wersal gummage
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭wersal gummage


    commuting since feb this year - dublin city centre to suburbs (6 milesx2 per day) plus 100km+ spins on sats.

    have not had ONE near miss yet (i've jinxed myself now for sure!). i put this down to being a qualified advanced motorcyclist if anyone is interested. it is all about anticipation. expect everyone to do the stupid things they DO, and you will not be surprised WHEN they DO.

    its not about having the right of way - its about staying alive! if you think someone may pull out in front of you - make sure you are travelling at a speed that allows you to stop if they do pull out etc - rather than being nearly run over and cursing them - you should have anticipated there was a possibility it would happen......

    this way of cycling/driving actually makes life a whole lot less stressful on the roads too:)

    the 'system' is set out in this book - which is for motorcyclists - but i apply the very same principles on the bicycle and it works for me:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorcycle-Roadcraft-Police-Handbook-Motorcycling/dp/011341143X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289061105&sr=8-1


  • #39
    poochiem
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 690 ✭✭✭poochiem


    wersal gummage wrote: »
    it is all about anticipation. expect everyone to do the stupid things they DO, and you will not be surprised WHEN they DO.

    ^ all good advice except you've been lucky in one respect, there are people out there deliberately targetting cyclists - read the message prior to yours - I had to report someone who threatened to run me over in a van simply for being in front of him at a junction. you can't expect that.


  • #40
    techieelectric
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭techieelectric


    rp wrote: »
    My understanding was the dotted line makes the cycle track non-mandatory for the cyclist, but for motorists does not (legally) change the status of the track in any way: they may not drive on it, even if their left indication *is* on...
    Do you have the guard's name/station? It would be worth dropping by with a copy of the ROTR and asking for clarification, as the his/her interpretation seems incorrect.

    No I don't have the name or station, was just impatient to get away and frankly doubting whether I was right at all by the time the guard was finished talking, only when I thought about it later did I realise what nonsense he'd been talking. His other point was that the roads were there first and the cycle lanes only arrived after so cyclists were therefore obliged to defer to other road users.


  • #41
    wersal gummage
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭wersal gummage


    poochiem wrote: »
    ^ all good advice except you've been lucky in one respect, there are people out there deliberately targetting cyclists - read the message prior to yours - I had to report someone who threatened to run me over in a van simply for being in front of him at a junction. you can't expect that.

    for sure. however that thread, in my reading, has some road rage elements to it and i would like to hear the taxi mans version before passing judgement to be honest - banging cars and shouting F off at drivers, even if their driving is less than ideal, is not the way forward.


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  • #42
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,595 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    ide say i narrowly avoid 3 or 4 crashes with cars a week mostly from cars pulling out of or into parking lanes.Left turners would be 2nd and oveertaking at inappropriate times 3rd.

    The only actual crash i had was when a van turned left into me and i hit his side door and it drove me into a lamp post.I walked away but the bike was written off.A*****e didnt even stop would he have been as discourtious if i was a car or pedestrian i wonder.

    I also have 3 or 4 near collisions with illegially crossing pedestrians every month


  • #43
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,275 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    breezy1985 wrote: »
    I also have 3 or 4 near collisions with illegially crossing pedestrians every month

    As as I understand it there isn't really anything illegal about crossing the road when you feel like it.

    If you're cycling in a built up area you need to be going slow enough to stop when someone steps out.


  • #44
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    poochiem wrote: »
    ^ all good advice except you've been lucky in one respect, there are people out there deliberately targetting cyclists - read the message prior to yours - I had to report someone who threatened to run me over in a van simply for being in front of him at a junction. you can't expect that.
    There are some, for sure. But most of it is just mouthing off. Very, very few motorists will run you over deliberately. To do so, they would have to have lost all self-control. It may happen, but it may happen to anyone on the road (witness that poor Englishman bludgeoned to death).

    Best not to escalate any conflicts. Pulling into the side of the road and letting boors and gougers continue on their way is often the best thing to do, I find.

    But intimidation is an increasing problem, and I find it more offputting than incompetent driving. Incompetent driving is, by and large, something you learn to anticipate. But the two worst incidents I've had on the road were both simple (and amazingly disporportionate) intimidation. But that's two incidents in about twenty-five years of commute cycling. Hardly once a month.

    Cyclecraft by John Franklin is probably close in content to the advanced motorcycle course mentioned above. The public library system has older copies.

    I also have a PDF of an old cycling safety leaflet the Galway Cycling Campaign did. It's a round-up of some of the key points in Cyclecraft. If anyone wants a copy, PM me.


  • #45
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    techieelectric wrote: »
    No I don't have the name or station, was just impatient to get away and frankly doubting whether I was right at all by the time the guard was finished talking, only when I thought about it later did I realise what nonsense he'd been talking. His other point was that the roads were there first and the cycle lanes only arrived after so cyclists were therefore obliged to defer to other road users.
    The Garda is wrong on all salient points.

    And even if the bus had right of way, right of way does not confer the right to muscle other road users out of the way. Nor does it exempt anyone from paying due attention to other road users when performing manoeuvres.

    As I said, the only scenario I can think of where the cyclist would have been in the wrong would be if the bus were already signalling left and the cyclist decided to pass on the inside anyway.

    Incidentally, regardless of rights and wrongs, if a bus is close beside you and you're approaching a bus stop, slow right down or go a lot faster. Preferably the first, usually. You have to anticipate that the bus will pull in and that the driver may not have seen you.


  • #46
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,987 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    funkyjebus wrote: »
    i stop (safely beside the path)and tell him Ill be reporting him to the Guards and the taxi reg, he laughs and says 'oh what will they do a slap on the wrist' and off he goes into the rain.

    I never come across someone who so intentionally tryed to knock me down.:(

    Have yet to report it am gonna see if there is some cctv looking at the location on monday.

    As soon as you report it to the Gardai, report it to the carriage office and see how happy he'll be when they try to take his plate of him.


  • #47
    sleepyholland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 343 ✭✭sleepyholland


    I find a sharp blast of my referee's whistle keeps pedestrians out of my way.


  • #48
    ThisRegard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,833 ✭✭✭✭ThisRegard


    Lumen wrote: »
    It's a bit of an odd question, since whatever your mode of transport you are constantly "avoiding potentially serious accidents". The issue is perhaps whether that process is particularly more challenging on a bike compared to, say, a car. It is, but that's to be expected since you're slower and less visible than other vehicles, and the idiocy of others is more irritating when you aren't protected by a metal cage.


    Agree with this. Anyway, I don't want to answer the question as I'm afraid I'll jinx myself but when I drive I seem to have more incidents than I do on a bike.

    Someone mentioned getting boxed in by buses, I find that when I hear one come behind me and there's a bus stop ahead, a glance over the shoulder and you can see if the indicator is on, moving out into the road usually stops the driver trying to go around you.


  • #49
    manwithaplan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,200 ✭✭✭manwithaplan


    It's a rarity for me. I cycle from Killester to the north city centre every working day and I can't remember the last time I came close to having a serious accident. I see drivers, cyclists and pedestrians doing stupid things all the time (and I occasionally have done them myself) but nothing that has put me in any real danger. I'm not particularly cautious but I have been commuting to and from the city for a long time and I think my spidey senses are probably fairly well developed by now.


  • #50
    Oldlegs
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 570 ✭✭✭Oldlegs


    alentejo wrote: »
    If cycling you need to assume that every driver is an idiot and expect that they will do exactly what you dont want them to do!

    I drive the car with the same mindset. "Assume other drivers are idiots and likely to do the stupid thing" Unfortunately I am rarely proven wrong". Difference on a bike, of course, are that the results are potentially worse.

    Where possible, I keep an eye INTO the car where possible. If the driver is on the phone, has kids jumping all around the backseat or is turning and talking to passenger I shall assume they are going to do something stupid. This applies just as much when I am driving or when I am cycling.

    So back on topic - how many times do I avoid ... (either cycling or driving) - Frequently (a few times each week). Think of the amount of times another driver does something stupid that would have resulted in an accident if you did not respond quick enough.


  • #51
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,908 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    The results are potentially worse for cyclists but you also are far better able to avoid collisions. Much more manoeuvrable, much narrower and you can get off the road at any time. You can walk through tricky junctions.

    I think the problem with the discussion here is the wording of the question:
    How many times per month do you avoid a potentially serious accident with a car?

    Is anticipating the bus pulling in avoiding a potentially serious accident? I do this most weeks, so in that sense I should answer 4+ per month in the poll. Similarly for left-hook drivers, careless pulling out at junctions, etc.

    But if you think of the question more in the sense of "How often do you think I was lucky to avoid serious injury or death today", the answer, for me at least, is decidedly seldom. I don't even have mild feelings of anxiety during my journey the vast majority of days.


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  • #52
    neris
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,108 ✭✭✭✭neris


    dont have too many. Probably on 2 since I started cycling in April. The last one only happened on Saturday evening though cycling down a cycle lane and pizza delivery guy decides to cross over the road head on to me to find the house hes looking for so i had to swerve out into the road.


  • #53
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,595 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Lumen wrote: »
    As as I understand it there isn't really anything illegal about crossing the road when you feel like it.

    If you're cycling in a built up area you need to be going slow enough to stop when someone steps out.

    is it not illegal to cross at a red man but your right i should have said stupidly not illegally


  • #54
    Haleakala
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 49 ✭Haleakala


    Seldom - but again depends on how you class it.

    Worst in past year was a 4x4 accelerating from opposite direction, through a used-to-be-yellow-now-red-light to turn right across my lane (I was doing about 30kmh). First situation ever where I felt helpless in trying to avoid a collision.

    Driver completely in wrong - managed to brake/swerve and come to a stop. A little wave and off again at a ridiculous speed. People constantly underestimate the speed of cyclists.

    Other than that, as Lumen says, it's generally a stimulating level of mental activity to avoid potential banjaxing.


  • #55
    mickmcl09
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 304 ✭✭mickmcl09


    Have you seen all the near misses this guy in glasgow has?
    magnatom has 141 videos on youtube - most of them are traffic related.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2nwJ1g9Dn4&feature=related


  • #56
    ThisRegard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,833 ✭✭✭✭ThisRegard


    I don't know about that guy, seems to be that he looks for a lot of these incidents, he's almost out looking for a fight.


  • #57
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 78,458 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    magnatom did post on boards a few time back in May, in this thread about some of the videos he has made


  • #58
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,987 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    mickmcl09 wrote: »
    Have you seen all the near misses this guy in glasgow has?
    magnatom has 141 videos on youtube - most of them are traffic related.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2nwJ1g9Dn4&feature=related

    I didn't think the overtake was that close, not compared to Dublin anyway.

    As for the undertake, the guy was in the wrong but if MagnaTom had taken a correct road position I don't think it would have happened, he appears to be in the middle, slightly to the right. By acting stupid he is inviting others to act stupid around him.


  • #59
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,595 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    got run up onto a path today by an idiot overtaking me on a left turn

    And the worst thing was she was a driving instructor


  • #60
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,987 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    Decided to count them yesterday, 5 in total, but they were avoided, one was completely my fault (I think), 2 were the faults of cyclists running through red lights without even looking out for oncoming traffic and the other two were just really terrible drivers. As has being pointed out before though, reasonably good road awareness meant that while they could have killed me, they were easily avoided, except the one that was my fault but that would have only killed me and I was still able to avoid it, that was just stupid on my part :eek::pac::eek:


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  • #61
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,275 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    CramCycle wrote: »
    except the one that was my fault but that would have only killed me

    Only killed you? As opposed to something much worse? ;)


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