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

magicbastarder wrote: »

my favourite sopt again the other morning; waiting at the lights on east wall road, on the junction with itself; i.e. if i'd gone left i'd be heading for the port tunnel, but i was heading right to pass the point depot. anyway, the lights for crossing traffic go red, i clip in, start to move, and an aircoach went through the red about two seconds late. and a smaller coach obviously decided 'well, if he did it, so can i', and went through a second or two after the aircoach. maybe he was sucked along by the vortex created by the larger vehicle.

I was in Manchester a couple of weeks ago and walking the short walk from Piccadilly Station to The Arndale Centre. Stopped at a set of pedestrian lights with about 20 others and plenty of traffic going through. Lights change for cars and immediately all the other pedestrians started to walk. Paddy here was the only person left standing there like an eejit. Never occurred to me that they actually stop at red lights in the UK so I didn't have to wait for 5 or 6 cars to go through like at home. It's shameful and embarassing really

CramCycle wrote: »

I always wonder how much of it is people being ass hats and how much is stupidity. For example, I come past a T Junction (a right turn on my road) which is traffic controlled. Every day, people get the green light and then stop on the red that relates to the straight through traffic....

This. I'm noticing this more and more. ?!?

sy_flembeck wrote: »

I was in Manchester a couple of weeks ago and walking the short walk from Piccadilly Station to The Arndale Centre. Stopped at a set of pedestrian lights with about 20 others and plenty of traffic going through. Lights change for cars and immediately all the other pedestrians started to walk. Paddy here was the only person left standing there like an eejit. Never occurred to me that they actually stop at red lights in the UK so I didn't have to wait for 5 or 6 cars to go through like at home. It's shameful and embarassing really

Similar happened to me in Copenhagen in 2005 (almost 15yrs ago...ouch)
I was waiting to cross a wide street in the city center with about 20 or so others at a pedestrian crossing.
I saw a good gap in the traffic so started strolling across (as you do in Dublin), got about 2m out and realised no-one else was also crossing, felt real fear as i assumed a bus or something I hadn't seen was about to cream me out of it, because I could think of no other reason the rest wouldn't cross. Nope no bus coming just everyone else actually obeying the rules. Felt bad and kept going with my head down

After cycling into work everyday last week on my hybrid, my road bike was looking a little bit neglected, so yesterday morning I decided to head out for decent spin too Howth.

Going through town heading north on the R137, a lovely taxi man in a Prius decided to invade the cycle lane, getting far too close to me for comfort. I knocked on his window, he looked back at me, sped off and I thought that was the end of it, how wrong was I.

A few hundred meters up the road, waiting at the lights to head onto Winetavern street, he leaned out and asked why I knocked on his window. I told him he was far too close to me and he was driving in the cycling lane. He then aggressively yelled at me that I was lucky "I have a fare, very lucky I have a fare", his 2 passengers were sitting in the back looking very perplexed as to what was going on. Anyway the lights turned green and I made my way on, not knowing what type of potential psychopath I could be dealing with.

So much for a stress free Sunday morning spin.

Utter Consternation wrote: »

Did you get his taxi number? You can report him for abusing you i think. Particularly in front of a fare.

https://www.transportforireland.ie/taxi/taxi-compliments-complaints

I didn't, by the stage he started yelling at me I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Utter Consternation wrote: »

Did you get his taxi number? You can report him for abusing you i think. Particularly in front of a fare.

https://www.transportforireland.ie/taxi/taxi-compliments-complaints

Ray Palmer wrote: »

It specifically mentions they don't want complaints about driving offenses. So it seems pretty useless for that purpose

Correct. Only clientele or those refused passage incorrectly can use the TFI form. Everything else is traffic watch/gardai in Santry if you wanna go straight to the carriage office.

tnegun wrote: »

This guy delibrately blocked me this am, he had only past me 20 secs earlier so was fully aware what he was doing, excuse the language.

Thankfully I don’t get much of that, but I really don’t understand the logic. Presumably these are the same people who would go mental at you for being “in the middle of the road,” so which is it?

tnegun wrote: »

This guy delibrately blocked me this am, he had only past me 20 secs earlier so was fully aware what he was doing, excuse the language.

I doubt he did it deliberately , probably let go of the stearing wheel to text someone. Happened to me a few times.

Castleknock at Myo's pub this morning. Three motorists (2 cars and a van) edged through the red, across a junction that was now a green man. No body beeped (this seems to be a thing now when cyclists do it), nobody cared. Almost acceptable at this stage "Sure the traffic is mental, what else are you meant to do".

tnegun wrote: »

This guy delibrately blocked me this am, he had only past me 20 secs earlier so was fully aware what he was doing, excuse the language.

I don't think he blocked you, its a bend and lights from the opposite way, might of caused him to move in more.

Also when you over took him, he wasn't that far in compare to the other cars.

Chiparus wrote: »

I doubt he did it deliberately , probably let go of the stearing wheel to text someone. Happened to me a few times.

I thought the same but its a slight left bend so if he let go he should of straightened up, I had a quick look for a phone when I passed as I thought the same but didn't see it so was thinking it was deliberate. In fairness typically I get more people giving you room in these situations.

Light jumping is gone to a new level now but a huge amount of it appears to be down to the timing or lack of light synchronization and the councils have a lot to answer for in this regard.

Near miss this morning where I was the culprit. Cycling past the radisson towards the UCD flyover (at a decent pace) & a girl comes down the pedestrian steps in a hood & doesn't look, I'd been braking to slow down but not enough & she steps into the cycle lane towards the bus stop at which point I have to swerve & I miss her by milimetres.

Mea culpa, I'll have to take it slightly easier there when it's wet.

Guys make sure you get a camera on your bike or body camera, I was on my way home from work recently in the left of a bus lane inside a cycle path to the right of me is a normal lane for road trafffic non taxi/bus lane.

There was a 40 foot lorry maybe 100 meters behind me that was in the normal bus lane, I was passing on my left a turn into a garage or delivery depot when the lorry proceeded to move into the bus lane then turn left on top of me effectively giving a left hook.

He then shout out the window at me "out of my way" I had to stop suddenly and pull the bike up from between my legs and hop up onto the path. We got into a heated agrument after that I was not happy I almost ended up under his truck he wasn't happy I was shouting at him, at this point he was outside is truck he grabbed me by the collier and proceeded to make physical threats towards me.

TLDR = get a body cam!

queldy wrote: »

What does a citizen of dublin need to do at this stage to make this stop? It is so clearly ridiculous.

I think that time has come and gone. Every time I see a car just 'nipping' through a red light that's been red a while, I think of this young lad https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/driver-who-killed-child-6-after-breaking-red-light-jailed-for-four-years-1.3735530

Utterly senseless that there isnt a massive drive to counteract this selfish behaviour.

stevek93 wrote: »

Guys make sure you get a camera on your bike or body camera, I was on my way home from work recently in the left of a bus lane inside a cycle path to the right of me is a normal lane for road trafffic non taxi/bus lane.

There was a 40 foot lorry maybe 100 meters behind me that was in the normal bus lane, I was passing on my left a turn into a garage or delivery depot when the lorry proceeded to move into the bus lane then turn left on top of me effectively giving a left hook.

He then shout out the window at me "out of my way" I had to stop suddenly and pull the bike up from between my legs and hop up onto the path. We got into a heated agrument after that I was not happy I almost ended up under his truck he wasn't happy I was shouting at him, at this point he was outside is truck he grabbed me by the collier and proceeded to make physical threats towards me.

TLDR = get a body cam!

Don't mean to rain on your parade, but I have 2 cameras and experienced a similar road rage incident. I luckily backed off enough so he couldnt make physical contact but he was ready to go. Reported to garda immediately, as it happened 200ft from station. Garda said nothing he could do, so I escalated to sergeant. Turned out he was a cyclist and was very motivated to follow through. Turns out, he didnt follow through. No more replies to emails. It's just not seen as important

average_runner wrote: »

I don't think he blocked you, its a bend and lights from the opposite way, might of caused him to move in more.

Also when you over took him, he wasn't that far in compare to the other cars.

It sure felt deliberate he pulled in almost to the kerb driving on the double yellows no other car was that far over. Drivers do cut that corner you can see the point before that where yellow lines worn off at the apex of the bend. He had past the apex and a load of room on his right so had little need to move over he was possibly on a phone and over steered other than that I see no reason for it.

average_runner wrote: »

Its gone really bad, when cyclists started to go through the lights and preached its ok to do when safe, some motorists are going to do the same thing.

We are a very sad little country with no respect for any of the rules.

Do you honestly think that some cyclists breaking red lights are in some way responsible for some motorists breaking lights?

paddydriver wrote: »

Brings a tear to my eye every time I see this story... yet I read it every time and each read has the same effect on me. Having 3 young kids myself and knowing that 2 of them are now at the age where they are using pedestrian crossings on their own.. and knowing that every day we see the same sh1te of idiots going thru red lights..

I do not know what kind of stupidity people have to think it is in anyway acceptable to drive thru a red light and even more so a pedestrian crossing. Personally I think people doing this should be chased down and dragged from their car... best not say what should happen next!

I know I've read that before but I'm properly welling up at my desk after reading it again. The grace of the bereaved family is staggering.
RIP little Cian.

paddydriver wrote: »

I do not know what kind of stupidity people have to think it is in anyway acceptable to drive thru a red light and even more so a pedestrian crossing. Personally I think people doing this should be chased down and dragged from their car... best not say what should happen next!

I could understand it if you arrived at a pedestrian crossing with a red light and there was no-one around but to drive through it when there's a child standing there waiting to cross... The problem isn't so much breaking the red light, it's the total lack of awareness of other road users. Even if he had a green light, he should have been slowing down somewhat in anticipation of a possible situation. Sounds like he didn't do that in this case as if he did, the child might still be alive.

CramCycle wrote: »

100%. it is one of the basic tenants of half decent driving. You see kids at a junction/crossing, whether you have right of way or not, you slow down and be prepared to drop anchor.

I cannot understand why anyone would go through a red light when on the road.

Once the kid puts his foot on the road , they have the right away.

Stark wrote: »

I could understand it if you arrived at a pedestrian crossing with a red light and there was no-one around but to drive through it when there's a child standing there waiting to cross... The problem isn't so much breaking the red light, it's the total lack of awareness of other road users. Even if he had a green light, he should have been slowing down somewhat in anticipation of a possible situation. Sounds like he didn't do that in this case as if he did, the child might still be alive.

I mentioned on another thread that when I was in France recently using a borrowed bike, the difference between driver behaviour there and here was staggering.

In places where the bike path crossed from one side of the road to the other via a pedestrian crossing I didn't even get to the crossing before drivers stopped for me.

The idiots here ploughing through crossings where people have green man to cross really are an embarrassment to the race.

average_runner wrote: »

Its gone really bad, when cyclists started to go through the lights and preached its ok to do when safe, some motorists are going to do the same thing.

'Are going to do the same thing'? Are you really trying to spin law-breaking by motorists as being caused by cyclist responses in these social media debates?


There's a few decades of mayhem on the roads caused by speeding and drinking motorists waiting to contradict you.