Author Topic: On the commute today  (Read 2462699 times)

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21200 on: 28 October, 2021, 01:27:42 pm »
Today I rode my Moulton to work, my first cycle-commute since  Monday. Moulton because my fixed wheel needs an insurance quote and some mechanical love. I might take the opportunity to get it powdercoated while it is out of action. This morning, I nearly got knocked off by a car driver at the same roundabout where I got knocked off my fixed on Monday.

Yelling resulted from my side and an apology from the driver but I am starting to feel targeted.
https://www.depop.com/products/frediculous-vintage-the-far-side-comic/
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21201 on: 28 October, 2021, 04:01:56 pm »
Ouch, take care of yourself. Also is there something about the junction, time of day, angle of the sun etc. that could be the issue or is it just an outbreak of dozy drivers?

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21202 on: 28 October, 2021, 04:22:19 pm »
I come out of a little-used road and the other three roads are busy. Drivers look for a gap in traffic coming from the other roads and ignore that I am the gap.

I have been commuting through this roundabout for years and almost never had an issue but I am wondering about “third time lucky”!
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21203 on: 28 October, 2021, 05:49:14 pm »
Got to be a T-shirt "I am The Gap" - but please take care so you can wear it!

Peter

handcyclist

  • watch for my signal
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21204 on: 28 October, 2021, 10:46:56 pm »
Bugger, twice in a row LWaB is enough to make you more than a little wary.

Similar on my commute home this evening. Big fast roundabout that has no cycle friendly alternative save shared use narrow pavements with several give way points. I'm in lane two of three on the r'bout turning right. Lane one is to go straight and ends after that exit. I have to get past the next entrance that is a classic three lane fast approach. Van exits it to go straight - late but quite normal and no real consequence. Car behind is turning left, kind of slows but doesn't stop at the give way. Gets very close to my path, so I have to prepare for a radical change in direction to avoid, which of course involves slowing, so they get closer still as I take the next exit.
They tuck in very close behind - I'm on an e-bike doing 15mph or so  - before eventually passing when lane 2 of the exit road becomes clear. No malice it seems, I guess the driver is just very unaware of how intimidating it is to have the front of a 1 tonne vehicle in motion roughly three feet away from flesh and blood and on a collision course.

All part of the low level bullying that slowly takes its toll .... :-[
Doubt is is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21205 on: 28 October, 2021, 10:52:42 pm »


Drivers look for a gap in traffic [...] and ignore that I am the gap.

I've had a few of those recently (mostly from drivers turning right at T-junctions) .  It's not malicious, they're just not paying attention.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21206 on: 29 October, 2021, 06:28:33 pm »
I come out of a little-used road and the other three roads are busy. Drivers look for a gap in traffic coming from the other roads and ignore that I am the gap.

I have been commuting through this roundabout for years and almost never had an issue but I am wondering about “third time lucky”!
They'll see you in this:
http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/quest-xs-for-sale_topic7309.html
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21207 on: 29 October, 2021, 07:18:24 pm »
Indeed but it might have problems fitting past the gate at Osterley House and would bottom out on some of the potholes. Filtering past the queued traffic of west London wouldn’t be fun either.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21208 on: 29 October, 2021, 08:27:39 pm »
I come out of a little-used road and the other three roads are busy. Drivers look for a gap in traffic coming from the other roads and ignore that I am the gap.

I have been commuting through this roundabout for years and almost never had an issue but I am wondering about “third time lucky”!
They'll see you in this:
http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/quest-xs-for-sale_topic7309.html

I'm not convinced LWaB would fit in an XS without surgery…
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21209 on: 03 November, 2021, 09:43:38 am »
Not as exciting as LWaB, but cycling in this morning close to a village school, where it becomes one way due to all the parents parking on the right (so my lane was unblocked, except for cars trying to negotiate through).

One woman had parked in a tiny side road on the left, and walked into the road in front of me without looking my way. She was looking left and behind her to her kid rather then right where oncoming traffic would come from. She turned around to her left (back to me and the direction of the lane) to call her kid (5 year old lad, at a guess), who had also stopped and was looking at me.

I'd been going marginally above walking pace so stopped without drama, but she looked genuinely shocked that I was there, two feet away from her in the middle of the single available lane. Luckily her 5 year old had more road sense. She did mutter an apology.

Paul

  • L'enfer, c'est les autos.
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21210 on: 03 November, 2021, 12:04:44 pm »
Not as exciting as LWaB, but cycling in this morning close to a village school, where it becomes one way due to all the parents parking on the right (so my lane was unblocked, except for cars trying to negotiate through).

One woman had parked in a tiny side road on the left, and walked into the road in front of me without looking my way. She was looking left and behind her to her kid rather then right where oncoming traffic would come from. She turned around to her left (back to me and the direction of the lane) to call her kid (5 year old lad, at a guess), who had also stopped and was looking at me.

I'd been going marginally above walking pace so stopped without drama, but she looked genuinely shocked that I was there, two feet away from her in the middle of the single available lane. Luckily her 5 year old had more road sense. She did mutter an apology.
Nice one.
It's the sensible thing to do around schools at drop off/pick up time. Whether you should have to is irrelevant: if you don't want a crash, it's the safest way to behave.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21211 on: 03 November, 2021, 12:54:14 pm »
Nice one.
It's the sensible thing to do around schools at drop off/pick up time. Whether you should have to is irrelevant: if you don't want a crash, it's the safest way to behave.

It's not even a case of  being sensible/safe, or having to, it's just being a reasonable human being. Busy area with lots of peds (especially distracted and/or kids), you wind it back and keep an eagle eye on people coming between cars etc.

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21212 on: 03 November, 2021, 01:19:44 pm »
I need to get to the office earlier. School run drivers were just a nightmare today. I don’t remember it being so bad in the before times.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

CrazyEnglishTriathlete

  • Miles eaten don't satisfy hunger
  • Chartered accountant in 5 different decades
    • CET Ride Reports and Blogs
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21213 on: 04 November, 2021, 02:23:06 pm »
I need to get to the office earlier. School run drivers were just a nightmare today. I don’t remember it being so bad in the before times.

I noticed that on my commute on Monday.  Not school run drivers, but at least 3 cars overtaking me and forcing an oncoming car to brake angrily enough to use horns in a 10 mile section between Chertsey and Lightwater.  I do wonder if there is a correlation with the clocks going back and people being miserable because all-of-a-sudden it is dark when they set out for home after work.

Did also fulminate that there's Buckley's chance of persuading more people to take up cycling on the roads and ditch their motor vehicles whilst there is that proportion of motorists that treat cyclists as third class citizens.
Eddington Numbers 130 (imperial), 182 (metric) 571 (furlongs)  114 (nautical miles)

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21214 on: 12 November, 2021, 06:38:39 pm »
I do wonder if there is a correlation with the clocks going back and people being miserable because all-of-a-sudden it is dark when they set out for home after work.

I’ve been wondering this. I go in early to get an earlier finish if poss - and that can sometimes mean catching part of the end of school rush hour. So the schools are still sort of finishing when it starts to get dark. Some terrible driving occurs - presumably due to lower visibility, more distractions, and the general foul view of the world that afflicts those who have to transport offspring in SW London. I think I unfortunately ride home just when the after-school mess merges with the work rush hour.

Noticeably more kids going to school by bike. But the number is still tiny. And there is most definitely more child-transport traffic than Before, most of which involves unfeasibly large 4x4 vehicles.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21215 on: 13 November, 2021, 06:57:40 pm »
Another encounter with the road this week when a girl of about 11 ran across the road in front of me. She saw me and my light and hiviz and it wasn't dark, she just ran across and blew through my front wheel. She ran straight on and onto the pavement, I was on the road and it bloody hurt again! Last time was a couple of weeks ago when a van driver undertook a car in front by using the cycle lane when I was in it.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21216 on: 16 November, 2021, 10:12:35 pm »
Just looking.  839 pages over 11 years to 2020. 10 pages in the two years since.

That tells a story.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21217 on: 18 November, 2021, 03:29:06 pm »
Back on the ebike this week after fixing the broken gear cable.

I'm going to need some brighter lights, the combination of shitty road surface on leckhampton road, and arsehole drivers means I'm not happy now it's getting dark earlier again.

Some hope mountain bike lights look good in a "fuck you audi driver" kinda way.
Somewhat of a professional tea drinker.


Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21218 on: 18 November, 2021, 09:54:26 pm »
Back on the ebike this week after fixing the broken gear cable.

I'm going to need some brighter lights, the combination of shitty road surface on leckhampton road, and arsehole drivers means I'm not happy now it's getting dark earlier again.

Some hope mountain bike lights look good in a "fuck you audi driver" kinda way.

And run off the road on the way home in Bisley by an RAC van.  Police report going in and Hope R8 and District+ Lights ordered.
Somewhat of a professional tea drinker.


Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21219 on: 19 November, 2021, 04:38:52 pm »
Well, fuck!
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21220 on: 22 November, 2021, 12:02:09 pm »
Back on the ebike this week after fixing the broken gear cable.

I'm going to need some brighter lights, the combination of shitty road surface on leckhampton road, and arsehole drivers means I'm not happy now it's getting dark earlier again.

Some hope mountain bike lights look good in a "fuck you audi driver" kinda way.

And run off the road on the way home in Bisley by an RAC van.  Police report going in and Hope R8 and District+ Lights ordered.

No action being taken because it was dark, FFS.
Somewhat of a professional tea drinker.


Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21221 on: 23 November, 2021, 07:50:20 pm »
WTAF?
Hope you weren't hurt Dave. When I was last knocked off, thankfully some years ago, the bit that really riled me was the No Further Action from the rozzers. Presumably clattering someone off at a roundabout doesn't fall "below the standard expected of a competent driver"
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21222 on: 23 November, 2021, 09:12:53 pm »
Unless we have presumed guilt of motorists it’s impossible for the cops to get a conviction.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21223 on: 23 November, 2021, 09:36:34 pm »
But the time before that (note, these incidents occurred approximately 10 and 18 years ago), the driver was prosecuted for "driving like a twat", got a £120 fine and three points. I suspect it was the presence of an independent witness, who heard the driver say "I didn't see you,my window was misted up" helped somewhat.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #21224 on: 24 November, 2021, 12:04:40 am »
I strongly suspect so, you need a witness or it’s no good.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace