Random road stuff

[Jurek]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so it is going in here:

Last Christmas I was coming home, when I noticed a Vauxhall something-or-other about six doors away from mine had every one of its windows smashed in.

It reminded me of when I lived in Balham in the 80s and someone had taken a pick to a Ford Capri around the corner from me, and put holes in the bonnet, roof, boot lid, both doors and both wings. They finished the job by daubing 'Stay away from my wife' using white paint on the bonnet.
Oi!Oi! I thought - Someone has been caught playing away from home.....

Back to my Vauxhall......
I noticed in The New Year that all of the busted glass had been replaced.
Fast forward to last Thursday  and I'm walking to Sainos, when I see this:




Same Vauxhall. In case you cannot make it out, the graffiti on the bonnet in the first image says 'Pay me' - so I was off-target with my assumption of someone playing away from home.

One of my neighbours a couple of doors up from this car earns his crust by fixing people's cars on the street outside his house. He's out there all day, every day.
I got chatting with him and according to him this isn't the second time this has happened but the third.
And the perpetrator is a woman.

And the moral of this story is.....
Pay your dues and, no matter where you get your appetite, always dine at home.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Reminds me of years ago standing at the window of a friend’s house I saw this guy wielding a cricket bat. He then proceeded to smash the windows of a car parked across the street. Then he left. I never found out any more, but was relieved I had arrived by bicycle.

[grams]

I found a similarly decorated car on February 15th a few years back.

[ian]

Our once-up-a-time bike thieving, DVLA clamp grinding (other nefarious activities undoubtedly to order) neighbour used to periodically have all his dodgy van windows smashed up and doors and sides given a good kicking. I assume his illegal activities weren't appreciated by all*.

*given the Met couldn't detect that having a back garden full of bicycles and cut-through clamps that said 'property on the DVLA' on them might indicate some kind of illegal activity, more so as they clearly visible to anyone and everyone who either had a step-ladder or from the trains to and from Beckenham, four times an hour, you can see why people might take things into their own hands. To be fair to Britain's finest enforcers of law and order, they did attempt to raid his house, but knocking at 8.30 am and leaving when no one answered, because criminals are known for their early starts. Eventually, order was restored when our six-foot-six, gold-toothed neighbour had a chat with him, one that involved holding him upside off the large embankment wall. He thereafter decided to seek his fortune elsewhere and the rest of his family joined him shortly afterwards – with some irony, his mother was a prison officer. The police turned up for a proper door-kicking-in about two weeks after they left, something of a surprise to the new tenants who had just moved in.

[Cudzoziemiec]

VRUs.

Technology abounds that can help keep vulnerable road users (VRUs) safer. VRUs include pedestrians, wheelchair users, cyclists, motorcyclists and scooter riders. Together they are the majority of people killed by cars globally.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66912123

The article goes on to use the term VRUs throughout, discussing various technologies supposed to reduce the impact of cars on people they hit. What a horrible, ugly term. It would be better and more honest to say "people".

[Flâneur]

What a horrible, ugly term. It would be better and more honest to say "people".

It's a horrible, ugly, credulous article. Bought and paid-for pie-in-the-sky "safety-washing" by the car industry.

I mean FFS, exploding bonnets, "pedestrian airbags", "smoothing out areas of the bonnet where struck pedestrians are likely to hit their heads". Pretty much zero acknowledgement that the main problem is the %age of de-facto homicidal maniacs behind the wheel.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Well, drivers are people too. Vanishingly few people are homicidal maniacs. But there are obviously conditions in which most people can be persuaded to kill (war, obvs). And there are lots of other situations in which people don't set out to kill but there is a factor that makes it far more likely (gun possession being an obvious one). Cars are more like the second than the first. They're a technology with lethal consequences so technological answers can be appropriate. But technology is never the entire answer – technology exists in society, which creates the conditions for its use. To that extent, technological answers without addressing societal aspects are inappropriate and will only deepen our reliance on the technology in question. So, yes, it is tech-based (tech-glorifying, even) safety-washing.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Ultimately, Ms Hart points out, preventable tragedies from traffic violence don't just affect non-drivers. "Everyone gets out of their car, no matter where they live."

Clearly the solution is never to exit your car.  Wherever you live.

[Mr Larrington]

Ultimately, Ms Hart points out, preventable tragedies from traffic violence don't just affect non-drivers. "Everyone gets out of their car, no matter where they live."

Clearly the solution is never to exit your car.  Wherever you live.

My chum Nik lives in his van.  In Florida.  Make of that what you will

[Afasoas]

I don't know where to put this, so here goes.

At 6pm I ventured out with the bike lit up experimentally like a proverbial Christmas tree and cycled from suburbia to town and back. I even cycled through one of the more notorious estates which is also used as a rat run.

Seemee 100 and a Smart 0.5W Superflash on the seat post. Cateye Reflex on the rack. Two cheap small rechargeable 12 LED lights, one attached to each rear pannier. AdditionalIy I wore an LED flourescent vest strap thing with four red LEDs on the back and the same in white on the front. This is a lot more blinkies on the back of the bike than in my usual setup, which is usually just two - one steady and one flashing.

I was fully expecting that I'd be a target for some abuse. I also thought I'm just asking for a punishment pass or two. I also thought I'd get closer passes in general with the risk compensation from drivers.
What happened was the total opposite ... and it sounds almost like I'm trolling. ( - I'm not!)

In all, I had just two or three passes that were borderline close. One was a moton in a clearly illegally modified vehicle that raced up to the back of a stationary bus. And that was it. No close passes at all. Lots of very wide passes. Lots of places where I was allowed to take the lane with ease. And oddly, the number of drivers signalling to pull back in ahead of me after they had passed was insane. This is not something I tend to see very often but on this trip, it happened a lot.

I was fully convinced I was going to regret the blinky fest and wind up putting all additional lights in the useless tat drawer.
I was actually a bit speechless when I arrived home at the end of the ride.
I am going to repeat the experiment.

[arabella]

:
:
I am going to repeat the experiment.

question: what do you usually dress as/light up as?

I ask because I usually look, afaik, like a middle aged mum; I don't dress or light up particularly brightly (civvies up to, say, 100km) and have zero binky lights; generally my experience is similar to the one you describe*.  My commute is the same road as is used by numerous drivers on a similar commute, can't call it a rat run as it's the main option.  I'm on the road and not on the alongside but uneven and pocked surface with giveway signs at every minor road and the occasional parked car cyclepath (with separate pavement).

---

Also random road stuff.  I was overtaken this morning by an e-moped, who pulled in asap after passing me.  Meaning that had it been more rainy I'd have been well spattered by their joke-mudguarded-only (it was spattering said e-moped rider) back wheel.  Grumble.  Traffic light separated us so I was unable to provide any education, sigh.


*this doesn't mean it is the same, we quite likely have different tolerances.  Plus being a cyclist in a car-oriented world isn't the only time I'm not in the majority. 

[Afasoas]

With no device for measuring the distance of passing vehciles, I appreciate it is all very subjective. More scientific measurements would be useful.

Usual experience: There's usually a number of uncomfortably close passes on each trip out*; Kia faux by faux and Land/Range Rover drivers usually being the worst offenders. Usually some difficulty taking the lane, for example trying to get into position to turn right on approach to a roundabout. There's usually a number of very good passes too - overtaking drivers allowing as much space as they would a car - but these are only just slightly more common than the close passes.

Usual lighting: 1x Smart 0.5W Ultraflash LED (constant) and SeeMee 100 (slow flashing)
Usual attire: Cycle helmet, bib tights, jersey (which was the same for this trip)
Usual bike: Flat bar hybrid bike with mudguards and rear panniers (again, same for this trip)

I live in an area where it's unusual to see another cyclist on the road unless you are out on sunny Sunday morning.

The biggest confirmation of affect on driver behaviour was the number of drivers indicating as they pulled in after overtaking. It could be inferred from that the drivers were more conscious of what they were doing than usual.
The number of wide passes (same space as to overtake a car) was phenominal. I wasn't doing anything consciously different in terms of positioning.

*I define these generally as either being able to touch the vehicle by extending my right arm out on 30 mph roads or the overtaking vehicles slipstream substantially inteferes on NSL roads.

[Afasoas]

Also random road stuff.  I was overtaken this morning by an e-moped, who pulled in asap after passing me.  Meaning that had it been more rainy I'd have been well spattered by their joke-mudguarded-only (it was spattering said e-moped rider) back wheel.  Grumble.  Traffic light separated us so I was unable to provide any education, sigh.

Surprised they don't have better mudguards. I don't think I've encountered one of these outside that London yet.