cyclists pay for motorists' mistakes

Porgy

Coming round Hyde Park corner this morning, correctly placed, in the correct lane so I can arrive at the start of the cycle lane through Hyde Park.

A white minibus full of kids passes me on the left. He's going just a bit faster than me. I'm going more or less same speed as van in front. The white mini bus reaches the traffic island and signals to go right into my lane. He lets the van in front of me go. Now bear in mind that there's one vehicle behind me, then nothing. Mini bus driver obviously perceives a space between two vehicles - ie where I am - and starts to push in. Now, I'm being pushed out of the lane towards the right, just as I wanted to turn left. I start hitting the bus. Driver looks at me, annoyed, but continues to push in. I'm now being physically pushed out of the lane, bashing the side of the bus all the time. All the kids on board have seen me.

I have to stop as he has now pulled completely into the lane and I'm left stuck in the middle of the Hyde Park Corner roundabout facing the wrong way. The car behind me was good enough to stop and let me get back to where I orginally wanted to be.

I notice mini-bus has pulled over now and person in passenger seat is making hand gestures at me. I'm not sure what I did wrong.

Unfortunately I never managed to get the license plate.

snakehips

Porgy wrote:

I'm not sure what I did wrong.

quote]

Not hit the bus hard enough , I'd say

Snake

ChrisLS

...you did nothing wrong...stay calm and stay safe

Hairy Jock

Not wearing a one of those helmet cams to collect evidence to hand to the police, your crime was to be a cyclist :evil:

Flycatcher

Not carrying a bottle of brake fluid seems the obvious thing to me! :twisted:

Go off ChrisLS's advice.

fossyant

Get off and drag his silly ass out of the bus...... no report it as he has a responsibility to the children on board. - Even if you don't have the reg, the operator (bus company) will probably know who, when etc has been driving the vehicle. - Most are tracked these days !

LoveMyPaddyWagon

This sort of shat really gets me angry!! Glad you weren't hurt Porgy.

Similar thing happened to me on way to work last week.

There's a section of road leading down to a busy-ish roundabout, and as you get say, 200 - 300 metres from it, you have to make your intentions clear to drivers behind, as there are three lanes; to go left, the narrow cycle lane in the middle and the right hand lane.

It's slightly downhill and the exit is clear to see, so it's easy to carry on across said roundabout doing 25mph, if safe to.

Sorry, I'll get to the point.... :oops:

I signal right to get into the cyle lane (so cagers don't side swipe me from the right if they are going left, which has almost happened a few times). I know there's a bus behind me and he should be slowing down, to let me carry on straight across. But no, the numpty squeezes by on my right, turning gradually left to follow the roundabout around, and as he did so, the side of the bus nudged me across the road!!! I had to brake very hard to avoid getting knocked off and possibly going under his wheels. It scared the crap out of me. And why is it at the time these things happen to us, we always forget to get the reg. plate or to report the incident!?

Did the guy even see me? Was he thick as pig shit? He's driving a long vehicle FFS! I tried to chase him afterwards, as I knew the bus stopped at a stop further up most mornings, but didn't that day!

Just about every day I get some idiot who is blind or just does not give a stuff about cyclists. It makes me rant so much. And every day I say to myself, 'thank f**k I am switched on', because if I wasn't, I think I'd be dead by now.

I just think that now, it's only a matter of time before I'm knocked off and seriously injured, but I will not be forced off the road by the occasional dickhead (in both senses of the phrase).

Ride safe all.

Elt

BentMikey

I had some knob jockey in a London Touring car do a stupid lane change scenario on Hyde Park Corner today. He went from the middle lane going ahead past QE Gate, then cut across me and about three other lanes of traffic to go down Constitution hill. Let me see if the video is worth posting...

LoveMyPaddyWagon

Ypu deffo post the video

Jeremy Parker

Porgy wrote:

Coming round Hyde Park corner this morning, correctly placed, in the correct lane so I can arrive at the start of the cycle lane through Hyde Park.

A white minibus full of kids passes me on the left. He's going just a bit faster than me. I'm going more or less same speed as van in front. The white mini bus reaches the traffic island and signals to go right into my lane. He lets the van in front of me go. Now bear in mind that there's one vehicle behind me, then nothing. Mini bus driver obviously perceives a space between two vehicles - ie where I am - and starts to push in. Now, I'm being pushed out of the lane towards the right, just as I wanted to turn left. I start hitting the bus. Driver looks at me, annoyed, but continues to push in. I'm now being physically pushed out of the lane, bashing the side of the bus all the time. All the kids on board have seen me.

I have to stop as he has now pulled completely into the lane and I'm left stuck in the middle of the Hyde Park Corner roundabout facing the wrong way. The car behind me was good enough to stop and let me get back to where I orginally wanted to be.

I notice mini-bus has pulled over now and person in passenger seat is making hand gestures at me. I'm not sure what I did wrong.

Unfortunately I never managed to get the license plate.

Well, if you weren't able to push back, you should have dropped behind him. The best position for psychologically pushing back is to be half in front, but that works better for a car with a proper bonnet than a van without.

Jeremy Parker