Author Topic: DOTD  (Read 210858 times)

Re: DOTD
« Reply #500 on: 28 September, 2016, 12:46:41 pm »
Properly laughed out loud there!

Re: DOTD
« Reply #501 on: 03 October, 2016, 09:45:05 am »
A nomination for the Doris Bike rider westbound at Aldgate, in the left hand cycle lane.

He stopped, which I thought was odd - he didn't look the type if you know what I mean (No, I wasn't judging on appearances, he had previous) The thing you need to know about that bit there is that (a) the bike lane is a little tedious if you are going straight ahead, as it is red through the complete motorised green to protect you against left turning vehicles, but it does that well (b) there is a right turn filter as part of the motorised green sequence Streetview if that sounds too complicated. I turn left,  but I'm happy to exchange a few seconds for safety at one of the junctions I thought could never be made safe.

Anyhow, the right motorised traffic  filter turns green, and this bloke sets off from the red cycle lane light across the traffic to turn right! ...... :facepalm:

The thing that made it so memorable for me? That he had a paper bag dangling from the handlebars. That had printed on it "Le Coq Spoprtif"  ;D

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: DOTD
« Reply #502 on: 03 October, 2016, 10:38:15 am »
It's that time of the year again. On my way to the pub at just after 7 last night. The sun hadn't been gone long enough for it to be anywhere close to dark, just a bit gloomy under the trees. AAARGHH!!! MY EYES! MY EYES!!1!! MTB-er comes the other way with a searingly-bright eyeball-DETH-inflicting head torch. No other lights front or rear, just this thing he'd stolen from Anti-Aircraft Command strapped to his head.
Amen to that.

I can deal with cycling in the dark and cold of winter - it's less fun than summer, but I can deal with it.

It's the other f****** cyclists that make it such a ball-ache.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #503 on: 03 October, 2016, 10:51:00 am »
A nomination for the Doris Bike rider westbound at Aldgate, in the left hand cycle lane.

He stopped, which I thought was odd - he didn't look the type if you know what I mean (No, I wasn't judging on appearances, he had previous) The thing you need to know about that bit there is that (a) the bike lane is a little tedious if you are going straight ahead, as it is red through the complete motorised green to protect you against left turning vehicles, but it does that well (b) there is a right turn filter as part of the motorised green sequence Streetview if that sounds too complicated. I turn left,  but I'm happy to exchange a few seconds for safety at one of the junctions I thought could never be made safe.

Anyhow, the right motorised traffic  filter turns green, and this bloke sets off from the red cycle lane light across the traffic to turn right! ...... :facepalm:
So how are you supposed to turn right there? I presume from a combination of Streetview and your description that after the right motorised traffic filter green, or at some point, there is an all-directions cycling green. It's not exactly clear though, nor is it clear if you've never encountered such a thing that the cycling green will not require you to give way to/coincide with someone else's green as well.
Quote
The thing that made it so memorable for me? That he had a paper bag dangling from the handlebars. That had printed on it "Le Coq Spoprtif"  ;D
:D
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ian

Re: DOTD
« Reply #504 on: 03 October, 2016, 10:51:50 am »
I got my first retinal searing of the season on Friday. By Waterloo at about 5.45pm. Still fucking daylight and he's lit up like bloody airliner. I dunno, maybe he was trying to confuse any laser-guided munitions aimed at him. I can see why someone would want to.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #505 on: 03 October, 2016, 04:25:17 pm »
A nomination for the Doris Bike rider westbound at Aldgate, in the left hand cycle lane.

He stopped, which I thought was odd - he didn't look the type if you know what I mean (No, I wasn't judging on appearances, he had previous) The thing you need to know about that bit there is that (a) the bike lane is a little tedious if you are going straight ahead, as it is red through the complete motorised green to protect you against left turning vehicles, but it does that well (b) there is a right turn filter as part of the motorised green sequence Streetview if that sounds too complicated. I turn left,  but I'm happy to exchange a few seconds for safety at one of the junctions I thought could never be made safe.

Anyhow, the right motorised traffic  filter turns green, and this bloke sets off from the red cycle lane light across the traffic to turn right! ...... :facepalm:
So how are you supposed to turn right there? I presume from a combination of Streetview and your description that after the right motorised traffic filter green, or at some point, there is an all-directions cycling green. It's not exactly clear though, nor is it clear if you've never encountered such a thing that the cycling green will not require you to give way to/coincide with someone else's green as well.
Quote
The thing that made it so memorable for me? That he had a paper bag dangling from the handlebars. That had printed on it "Le Coq Spoprtif"  ;D
:D

There is a right hand filter lane, the traffic signs are quite clear but you do have to look at them.

And yes, I can believe it is confusing, but the appropriate method of coping is not likely to be be riding across a line of traffic not expecting you to do the same.

That whole segment was that bad I seriously couldn't believe it could be made safe for cycling, there have been many accidents in the past, some fatal. To do it, the whole one way motor centric traffic flow was ripped up and thrown away, a lane was taken away from the  motorised and converted, this junction put in place to protect against left turn lorries, and other stuff. Fucking amazing. Ten years ago it would have been an impossible dream. Still remains that you can't protect against TEH STOOPID, this area appears to bring it out in the cyclist.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #506 on: 03 October, 2016, 05:05:16 pm »
I think the right-hand filter lane is for cars (etc) though. I was simply wondering about the correct procedure for turning right on a bike, not suggesting it should be done by jumping the light. Anyway, I've just had another look at the Streetview from a different position and seen the blue paint leading off at a curve to the right, so clearly it is allowed on the green bike.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #507 on: 03 October, 2016, 07:37:54 pm »
Yes, indeed. There is also an ASL in the right turn lane which is what 99% of people turning right use, positioning into it is easy (relatively speaking) ETA - I Thought there was an ASL - must remember to look properly, there may not be

Re: DOTD
« Reply #508 on: 04 October, 2016, 09:21:36 am »
Yesterdays adrenalin-generating experience was at the top of Drury Lane when a big-minibus-sized german tourist bus pulled up beside me at some red lights (me in the middle of the left lane, him in the right lane) and *then* he started indicating left. 

I was ready for it, so when the lights went green and he pulled across in front of me I'd already stopped, and I gave the side of his bus an almighty slap.  He slammed to a halt, saw me in the mirror and **then moved off again** seemingly determined to ignore me.  I slapped the window this time, getting a scream out of the elderly tourist behind the glass.  He stopped again, I rode round to the front of the bus, stopped to gave him a friendly wave, then rode off.


Re: DOTD
« Reply #509 on: 04 October, 2016, 11:58:38 am »
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mother-of-two-fell-off-bike-and-died-moments-after-taking-this-selfie-a3360441.html

I have a serious problem with this. Why is it up to the government ? Surely the lady has to have some self-restraint and keep her bloody hands on the handlebars. Especially at nights! I am sad to hear that she was also not wearing a helmet but it shouldn't take a law to have some common sense.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #510 on: 04 October, 2016, 12:01:29 pm »
All those plonkers viewing broken white lines at roundabouts as 'accelerate now' instructions.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Guy

  • Retired
Re: DOTD
« Reply #511 on: 04 October, 2016, 12:08:17 pm »
The Greenway. 9:45 pee em. The junction with the underpass, where there would be a streetlight had the caahncil actually bothered to cut back the tree that has grown around it, preventing any light at all from reaching the ground

SQUEAL
of brakes*

Me (to darkly-clad peds in the inky blackness): Do you usually wander into the road without looking?
Darkly-clad ped 1 (male): We didn't hear any cars :facepalm:
Me: I'm not driving a car, am I.
Darkly-clad ped 2 (female): Oh...Er. Oh... Sorry
Me (moving off): It's just as well one of us is awake. Isn't it.
 ::-)

I don't want to crash into pedestrians. It might damage my front wheel.


*My front brake makes horrendously squealy noises at low speed. It's dead good :thumbsup:
"The Opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject"  Marcus Aurelius

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #512 on: 04 October, 2016, 01:13:11 pm »
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mother-of-two-fell-off-bike-and-died-moments-after-taking-this-selfie-a3360441.html

I have a serious problem with this. Why is it up to the government ? Surely the lady has to have some self-restraint and keep her bloody hands on the handlebars. Especially at nights! I am sad to hear that she was also not wearing a helmet but it shouldn't take a law to have some common sense.
Urging the government to compel cyclists to wear helmets is a lot easier than urging them to make cyclists (or drivers) use common sense and a lot easier than urging them to keep the roads smooth.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #513 on: 04 October, 2016, 01:17:49 pm »
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mother-of-two-fell-off-bike-and-died-moments-after-taking-this-selfie-a3360441.html

I have a serious problem with this. Why is it up to the government ? Surely the lady has to have some self-restraint and keep her bloody hands on the handlebars. Especially at nights! I am sad to hear that she was also not wearing a helmet but it shouldn't take a law to have some common sense.
Urging the government to compel cyclists to wear helmets is a lot easier than urging them to make cyclists (or drivers) use common sense and a lot easier than urging them to keep the roads smooth.

Sadly true but also I have come off my bike on unbelievably smooth roads in Mallorca so that's not entirely true and I was glad to have a helmet on. Despite what roads we are riding on, helmets should be the first thought on a cyclist mind and not because we're told to by the law.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #514 on: 04 October, 2016, 01:43:26 pm »
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mother-of-two-fell-off-bike-and-died-moments-after-taking-this-selfie-a3360441.html

I have a serious problem with this. Why is it up to the government ? Surely the lady has to have some self-restraint and keep her bloody hands on the handlebars. Especially at nights! I am sad to hear that she was also not wearing a helmet but it shouldn't take a law to have some common sense.
Urging the government to compel cyclists to wear helmets is a lot easier than urging them to make cyclists (or drivers) use common sense and a lot easier than urging them to keep the roads smooth.

Sadly true but also I have come off my bike on unbelievably smooth roads in Mallorca so that's not entirely true and I was glad to have a helmet on. Despite what roads we are riding on, helmets should be the first thought on a cyclist mind and not because we're told to by the law.

Hmm, there's a reason why we have a helmet forum, isn't there?  Despite the fact I usually wear one, I can't agree that they should be the first thought at all.  I've ridden back from the pub enough times to confirm it is substantially more hazardous, per mile, than my normal commute.  Come to think of it, I think walking from the pub might be more hazardous too.  Maybe alcohol is the ...  no, no, that can't be it.  Selfie, cyclist, helmet, those are the buzzwords.  Not alcohol.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #515 on: 04 October, 2016, 01:47:00 pm »
Are we automatically assuming that everyone that goes to a pub has ingested some alcohol It hasn't said anything in the article. Granted newsies usually leave a key piece of information out but until proven otherwise, I'll give the group the benefit of the doubt. Yes, drinking and riding not to be encouraged.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #516 on: 24 October, 2016, 02:00:11 pm »
It's half-term.  This may explain the cyclist that I encountered who came at me head on with her eyes on the front wheel.  She was putting a lot of welly into overtaking other cyclists who were overtaking pedestrians and using my side of the road to do it.

The odd thing was her look of of indignation that I'd rung my bell to avoid a nasty collision.  Even if I'd just stopped she'd have had to run into someone.  I'd preferred it not to be me.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: DOTD
« Reply #517 on: 24 October, 2016, 03:11:34 pm »
It's the TdF effect.  Causes a sudden fixation with one's stem.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: DOTD
« Reply #518 on: 24 October, 2016, 04:40:32 pm »
can I nominate the pedestrian who stepped out in front of my landrover on Ely high street without looking.  Not that you can't hear a landrover on the high street from where I fire it up three miles away.

he looked very surprised at the sharp blast of the hooter  ;D

And yes, I had spotted him and was already prepared to brake.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: DOTD
« Reply #519 on: 24 October, 2016, 05:17:35 pm »
Well yesterday that would be me  :-[

As is normal when I am going to Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church I come out of Waterloo station, ride over the bridge, up Drury Lane, left onto High Holborn and then a highly irregular right onto Shaftsbury Avenue. Well I got two things wrong.

  • On approaching waterloo roundabout I started filtering past a bus just before the lights changed and instead of backing off and out of a narrowing gap powered through it, I am glad the bus driver was slow to react to the lights.
  • Normally my highly irregular right turn is no issue the pedestrians haven't got / responded to their green man. Yesterday though I waited at the lights to let the police car on blues and twos through it's red light before I moved off which meant that my turn was through the crossing pedestrians. This got me told off by one of them.

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: DOTD
« Reply #520 on: 30 October, 2016, 08:57:04 pm »
More a sillycyclist. A lady pulls out from a side road, without setting her pedal, so is scooting along, 4-5 times, trying to get up and over a hill/bridge I'm approaching. When she started to set off I was about 150 yards away and the road was clear for her to do her manoeuvre. But I catch her up on top of the hill/bridge, when she is then wobbling trying to put her hand out and look over her shoulder to signal that she is doing the same turn as me. I had pulled out to take the lane, and to stop numpties trying to overtake on the hill/bridge. I know one day someone is going to do it but as of yet nobody has, as it is in town and a blind bridge and locals know that there is a turn just past the peak.

If she only had set her pedal, she would have cleared the bridge and done the turn before I would have arrived to the peak of the hill/bridge.

Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: DOTD
« Reply #521 on: 31 October, 2016, 08:31:08 am »
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mother-of-two-fell-off-bike-and-died-moments-after-taking-this-selfie-a3360441.html

I have a serious problem with this. Why is it up to the government ? Surely the lady has to have some self-restraint and keep her bloody hands on the handlebars. Especially at nights! I am sad to hear that she was also not wearing a helmet but it shouldn't take a law to have some common sense.
Urging the government to compel cyclists to wear helmets is a lot easier than urging them to make cyclists (or drivers) use common sense and a lot easier than urging them to keep the roads smooth.

Had she been wearing a helmet she's unlikely to have wanted to take a picture  of herself. 

But maybe they should ban selfies in dangerous circumstances just as we have an effective ban on motorists using mobiles.  Doing organised rides I have seen people taking selfies on fast descents.  I don't like them doing it riding in front of me, that's for sure. 
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: DOTD
« Reply #522 on: 01 November, 2016, 09:32:49 am »
I nominate the Person with a bike who was getting on the train last night (I forget which station). I'd boarded at Edinburgh with my son's bike.

DOTD got on train with bike, east coast mainline train, and just left bike in coast vestibule. They had booked bike space. They abandoned bike in coach vestibule. They then didn't respond to messages (multiple, multiple message) over tannoy for the next 3 minutes, asking them to return to the platform outside coach B, so their bike could be put in the bike storage.

Train delayed by 15 minutes because of DOTD.

<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: DOTD
« Reply #523 on: 04 November, 2016, 06:13:38 am »
From yesterday morning.

Single speed? Check. Trendy canvas backpack? Check. Beard? No. Helmet? Bern, so that will protect against anything.

In the cycle lane westbound at aldgate. Motorised traffic has green for straight ahead and left turn. A very large dump truck is in the left/ahead lane to our right but stationary as there is traffic blocking. This Darwin Award Chaser decides waiting in the cycle lane isn't for him, shuffles the dividing kerb and rides up the inside of the truck as he wants to go straight ahead. Traffic did clear in front of the truck during this operation, but - unlike a second truck a little later - this driver chose to stay where he was. Just as well as he really would have known nothing about this bike. 50-50 call for 10 seconds, great move  :facepalm:

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #524 on: 04 November, 2016, 08:34:58 am »
Streetview shows some impressive skid marks on the blue paint there.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.