Best way to travel 5 miles to a train station?

If you want to convince people that you are right, you may well have to
learn how instead of demanding that people behave in a manner that you deem
reasonable.

huh?

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It's the magpies you know. They love trying to pick at the shiny metal
bit around where the dormer and tiles meet. Sounds like cats in clogs
up there some mornings. Then they go and fight with the crows - noisy
sods.

 

He's always been as convincing as that.

 

Remarkable. he must be right though

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Ah, so the actual collision speed might well have been 20mph?

You're very lucky the leading edge of the roof didn't slice through
your neck then.

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Not based on how high and far I flew, no.

 

Its CB-1 400. He rides too fast on the road. I saw him jump a red light.

U all ride safely, now ;-)

 

There are roads where pedestrians are not permitted.

John B

 

Simian Simian@in_valid.semi-evolved.org opined the following...

The major improvement in the number of near misses I experience came
about when I stopped deferring to drivers and took over a complete lane
whenever possible so that I could control the surrounding traffic. This
should _not_ be necessary.

And there you have it. As a driver I assume that everyone is
stupendously stupid and that their road positioning, indications etc
have no bearing on their intentions. As a cyclist I adopt a similar
view, but based on the assumption that they are all trying to kill me.

An example: I'm riding up a hill at about 20mph. The hill has two lanes
up and two lanes down with a raised central section with through points
for the roads that connect to it (This is Leith Walk for the
Edinburghians! Apologies to urc regulars, you've probably heard this
before). A car is travelling down the hill indicating to turn right
(Across the lane that I'm in). I watch the driver to ensure that he has
noticed me and get good eye contact. As I get closer he drives across
the road in front of me. I was forced to brake so hard that I locked my
rear wheel. I was in a foul mood after this and decided to chase him
down so I followed him down the side road and after about 20metres he
parked his car. I pulled up behind him and when he got out asked "Can
you see me?"

"I saw you" he said.
"But you just turned across in front of me."
"I saw you when you were further down the hill"
"But not when you began the turn?"
"I saw you when you were further down the hill"
....

I very politely explained why it is a good idea to actually look at
vehicles that you may be about to hit. During the entire exchange he
never made eye contact once.

It may come as a surprise to you, riding as you do in a peaceful,
idyllic part of the countryside (Supposition) but people are capable of
being stupendously crap and demonstrate this ability on a daily basis.
Some do it because they are too dumb to notice anything that goes on
around them, some because of a set of assumptions about cyclists (slow,
can stop easily...), some because they are too pig-ignorant to consider
that anything matters outside the air-conditioned comfort of their cage.
They may be a minority of drivers, but are still too many. When I can
pass a month and not be able to highlight a single piece of
"stupendously crap" driving, I'll back down and calm down, until then...

And again... you are a lucky individual. When I lived out in the country
I had far fewer problems. I live in a (small) city now and get the
aforementioned behaviour so regularly that it forms a part of my life!

Jon

 

Ah, I see. My apologies, I assumed you were trying to present some kind of
case. No distortion was meant.

In this you are mistaken. I have not altered the headers one jot
--
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In which case KNode is preventing you from crossposting by default and
inserting
Followup-To: uk.rec.motorcycles

Perhaps you should consult the help files?

 

knode is happy to crosspost. Whoever inserted the follow up, tweren't me

Interested as to why on earth we'd want to limit the discussion to UKRM
since it is the non-denizens that we are talkign with.

Follow ups removed for the sake of a quiet life
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Does avoiding an accident cease to make the original action dangerous?

You're changing the rules. We weren't talking about the side-effects;
the swerving or braking suddenly. We were talking about dangerous
driving impacting on other road users, in particular those on bikes. I
can see dangerous driving and yet still have reacted so as to mitigate
and minimise any danger.

I've done <mumble> thousand miles in London over the course of the last
12 or so years - enough to be on my second (if not third)
circumnavigation of the globe (which would almost certainly have been
more fun if the idea had occured to me back then). In that time I've had
about a half dozen incidents, all bar 2 were just me coming off
(slippery corners, etc.), the 2 involving others were their fault, yes
stupendously crap - yet *countless* near misses (many of which were
equally where it was only my awareness that did the trick.

 

In practice you're probably right - but you should be wrong. If a cager
cannot adequately assess the speed of oncoming traffic they'd shouldn't
be driver. While you might be able to make assumptions about the average
cyclist, you can make no such assumptions about cars.

But this is symptomatic of a wider issue - most drivers have no real
grasp of the potential for havoc that they are attempting to control.
Despite advertising campaigns and whatnot, most drive with a "it'll
never happen to me" attitude. They sit there in their air-conditioned,
sound-proofed coccoon with their mobile phone, their travel cup of
coffee and their personal soundtrack booming out, generally oblivious to
the real world around them.

The view from through the windscreen seems to engage them as much as a
session on the PlayStation - but without the realisation that other road
users don't have 3 lives.

 

So you've never cycled in London, then?

Somebody else being stupendously crap is this: normal. Only last night I
was nearly t-boned on a roundabout by a numpty in a 4x4 who clearly believed
that red lights apply to Other People, and this while DRIVING something big,
red and noticeable in broad daylight.

--

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That would be 'apology not accepted then?' Oh well, I tried
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Excuse me jumping in at this point Simian, but it seemed ideal - why
don't cyclists have an equivilant of a CBT? They are more vunerable
than motorcyclists and I would have thought compulsory training in
skills such as the above would be welcomed by them and other road
users.

 

They used to do the Cycling Proficiency Test at school when I were
nobbut a lad (I did the training but forgot to turn up for the test).

 

Simian Simian@in_valid.semi-evolved.org opined the following...

But there are limits to where you can exercise control. To practise your
avoidance techniques properly I should simply not cycle anywhere... or
maybe ride on the pavements.

Wrong... he should have looked and assessed my speed before moving. If
he can't manage that... he shouldn't be driving. I would have been far
less wound up by the whole affair if when confronted he'd said sorry.
Not once, during about 2 minutes of contact time did he actually
acknowledge that he'd f*cked up!

See above...

When I'm not being forced to do emergency stops, I never lock either
wheel. If I lock a wheel it's because I'm braking _far_ harder than I
should have to.

Come and join me in Edinburgh. 15 miles a day for a week during
commuting hours and I'd be interested to see whether you kept your cool.
;-)

Jon

 

Simian Simian@in_valid.semi-evolved.org opined the following...

Two things:

1) Removing the risk to yourself does not get rid of the risk. Re-
educating the driver might.
2) To avoid being anywhere near the idiots I frequently encounter would
involve flying or teleportation since every route from my house to work
(And after 2 years I've tried them all!) seems to include them. Leith
Walk is worse than most, but also often easier due to the bus lanes.

It's possible to do this within limits. I can control traffic behind me,
and (to a reasonable degree) approaching traffic, but it's hard to do
anything about numptys who pull out of side lanes without looking.

Constant near misses are an indication that you may need to find a new
route to work, or start waving a gun around! While the number of near
misses that I experience has decreased in proportion with my increased
assertiveness when riding, they still number in the order of 1 per day.
Without arranging to block the roads before riding, it'll be hard to
reduce this further.

Pretty good actually.

I've been brushed twice by buses, and have once had to move my hand
position on the bars (Under-seat steering on a recumbent) to avoid
getting the knuckles brushed by a passing car. A friend has had at least
three "unintentional dismounts" in the last five years due to people
running him over. One of his best involving sliding sideways into the
car that had just overtaken him then turned left. By all accounts you
appear to be lucky in your choice of cycling location.

In about 14 years of cycling I've only actually come off about 4 times.
In about 3 years of cycling in Edinburgh, I've come more frequently
closer to death than any other time in my life.

Jon