Hit a ped

hamboman

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

el_presidente

hamboman wrote:

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. She I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

she will now!

cupofteacp

Darwin at work

spen666

hamboman wrote:

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

not being there, i cannot say if you were or were not to blame, but : -

should you not have been riding in such a manner as to be able to stop incase of an obstruction in front of you?

Should you not have been observant to the possibility of a pedestrian stepping out in front of you?

To knock her 6 feet, you were presumably travelling at a fair speed, was it too fast for the situation?

you were the only person from this board ( I presume) who was present at the scene of the accident and are the only person who can answer those questions.

dondare

What Spen said.

misterben

Presumably, given that a bicycle is a vehicle, and was travelling on the road, he could be going the full speed limit if he liked, without it necessarily being regarded as "dangerous driving".

secretsam

These things happen, especially on my route in London which is mainly cycle lanes - peds seem to forget we can be doing a fair old lick and also don't stop that quickly - especially in the wet

Think the 6 foot leap may have been an exaggeration?

Most important thing: no-one hurt.

Random Vince

10 points then

at the end of the day, they should look before crossing a road. no one was injured / killed thus i'm making light of the situation

dondare

Pedestrians should look before stepping into the road, but as we all know a lot of them don't. The ones that really annoy me are the ones that look, see me, then step out anyway.
But I know that it's going to happen, so I only ride very slowly and carefully when I'm filtering.

daniel_b

Most pedestrians seem to not bother looking at all these days, it's someone else's responsibility to stop for them seems to be the attitude.

I say this as a cyclist, car driver and pedestrian.

And it amazes me that they can't be btohered to look, as when I cross roads, I always double check it's safe to cross, and as I cross, as I don't want to be acquainted with a motorbike/car/bike etc!

Dan

iainment

spen666 wrote:

hamboman wrote:

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

not being there, i cannot say if you were or were not to blame, but : -

should you not have been riding in such a manner as to be able to stop incase of an obstruction in front of you?

Should you not have been observant to the possibility of a pedestrian stepping out in front of you?

To knock her 6 feet, you were presumably travelling at a fair speed, was it too fast for the situation?

you were the only person from this board ( I presume) who was present at the scene of the accident and are the only person who can answer those questions.

Pompous ass.

:twisted:

TheFoolio888

Some I learnt a very early is ALWAYS look and be very careful crossing the road.

The amount of people I see crossing roads, zebra crossing or at traffic lights without looking is rediculous.

They seem to think that it is your job to stop for them. Do that not realise that sometimes it isn't possible to avoid some cretin who steps into the road? Oh and don't get me started on the sorts of people who purposely walk slowly across the road just to be a pain...usually accompanied with some form of gansta limp... :evil:

Porgy

I saw a ped hit at Victoria recently - the cyclist was right in front of me. It would have been me but for a couple of seconds. The woman seemed to come from absolutely nowhere - i didn;t see her, and neither did the cyclist who hit her. He wasn;t even going very fast - maybe about 15 - not as fast as most cars along there. He hit the woman and his front wheel got entirley bent out of shape. she got up and walked away. The cyclist was stuck with an unridable bike.

I do feel there is responsiblity both ways here. Pedestrians don;t seem to realise the damge they can cause to a cyclist or the bike if they walk out on to the road as carelessly as this.

As cyclists though - we always seem to want to take the blame ourselves. Are we trying to compensate for motorists who NEVER want to take the blame for anything?

kieranb

I suspose it all depends on how far in front of you she stepped, I once hit a ped simply because they stepped out directly into me as if I wasn't there, zero room to react, but normally if filtering I go slowly and always keep careful watch on both sides.

Underscore

misterben wrote:

Presumably, given that a bicycle is a vehicle, and was travelling on the road, he could be going the full speed limit if he liked, without it necessarily being regarded as "dangerous driving".

I disagree. He could be going the full speed limit if he liked, without it necessarily being regarded as "speeding". Dangerous driving is, IFAIK, to do with your driving with respect to the environment through which you are travelling. However, all this seems a little arbitrary since it involves the law, which is an ass.

The key issue (and I am in no way criticising the OP here - the mere fact that he posted here suggsets that he is analysing his actions without our help) is one of responsible driving (or riding). We should always ride in such a manner as to minimise the danger to ourselves and to others, even if it is someone else's fault. Yesterday, I was entering a roundabout when I noticed a Transit van approaching the next entrance faster than I would have expected. He did notice me but was not able to stop until almost entirely across my lane. As I had slowed down and was in the primary position (as I'm sure anyone here would have been in the circs), I was able to avoid a collision. Just because we are less vulnerable in a collision with a ped, doesn't mean that we should not attempt to compensate for their mistakes. When filtering, as I'm sure we all do, peds are likely to see simply a road with stationary traffic. We should be aware of this as we approach them and ride accordingly.

Just to reiterate, none of this is specifically aimed at the OP, whom I admire for have the bottle to post here, as we don't have the details to form a judgement.

_

spen666

iainment wrote:

spen666 wrote:

hamboman wrote:

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

not being there, i cannot say if you were or were not to blame, but : -

should you not have been riding in such a manner as to be able to stop incase of an obstruction in front of you?

Should you not have been observant to the possibility of a pedestrian stepping out in front of you?

To knock her 6 feet, you were presumably travelling at a fair speed, was it too fast for the situation?

you were the only person from this board ( I presume) who was present at the scene of the accident and are the only person who can answer those questions.

Pompous ass.

:twisted:

I think there is only one person being pompous enough to make judgements here

spen666

kieranb wrote:

I suspose it all depends on how far in front of you she stepped, I once hit a ped simply because they stepped out directly into me as if I wasn't there, zero room to react, but normally if filtering I go slowly and always keep careful watch on both sides.

Hence the questions I raised

jedster

I agree with Underscore - well put.

If you filter between traffic and the kerb then there is a real risk that
a) peds will step out and you will have no room to manouvre
b) passengers will open car doors on you without looking
c) drivers will pull in without checking their nearside mirror or indicating.

Of course they should not do any of those things but as a cyclist you need to be alert to the chance that they will. To me this means filtering outside the traffic not inside. On the rare occasions that I do filter on the inside, I take it very slow and cover my brakes.

J

PrettyBoyTim

I'm with underscore here. If you're filtering through stationary traffic then you don't really have any form of priority. You're not occupying a lane position and therefore don't have any greater right to be squeezing through the traffic than a pedestrian does who is trying to cross the road. Therefore if someone steps into the road ahead of you in stationary traffic, you should give them prioriy, as they were there first!

Also, pedestrians when crossing through stationary traffic often have to look 'forward' along the lane of traffic to see if the traffic is going to start moving again soon, so they can't always look back. That's not to say that they shouldn't look back, but it's not as simple as it is when crossing a road with moving traffic.

mea00csf

As a pedestrian i got hit by a bike. I was a little drunk and in a rush, looked towards where the traffic should have been coming from in a one way street but didn't look for the bike coming the wrong way up the one way street which i rushed out directly in front of. I went flying into the middle of the road and had a huge bruise for weeks.

6 of one, half a dozen of the other, i should have looked, he shouldn't have been going wrong way up a one way street :roll: , but itwas damn painful

spen666

Underscore wrote:

...

We should always ride in such a manner as to minimise the danger to ourselves and to others, even if it is someone else's fault. ..._

couldn't agree more- it also applies when alking driving, riding a horse etc

dondare

iainment wrote:

spen666 wrote:

hamboman wrote:

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

not being there, i cannot say if you were or were not to blame, but : -

should you not have been riding in such a manner as to be able to stop incase of an obstruction in front of you?

Should you not have been observant to the possibility of a pedestrian stepping out in front of you?

To knock her 6 feet, you were presumably travelling at a fair speed, was it too fast for the situation?

you were the only person from this board ( I presume) who was present at the scene of the accident and are the only person who can answer those questions.

Pompous ass.

:twisted:

He's right, tho'.

graeme_s-2

TheFoolio888 wrote:

Some I learnt a very early is ALWAYS look and be very careful crossing the road.

The amount of people I see crossing roads, zebra crossing or at traffic lights without looking is rediculous.

They seem to think that it is your job to stop for them.

On zebra crossings and at lights it is your job to stop for them. They should still look, as there's no point being right and dead, but on a zebra crossing or at traffic lights the responsibility to stop is entirely with you.

TheFoolio888

Graeme_S wrote:

TheFoolio888 wrote:

Some I learnt a very early is ALWAYS look and be very careful crossing the road.

The amount of people I see crossing roads, zebra crossing or at traffic lights without looking is rediculous.

They seem to think that it is your job to stop for them.

On zebra crossings and at lights it is your job to stop for them. They should still look, as there's no point being right and dead, but on a zebra crossing or at traffic lights the responsibility to stop is entirely with you.

OK..fair point. I should have phrased it slightly differently. Thefore, I change my post to...


"anyone who steps into the road, be it on a crossing, or not, and doesn't double to check to make sure that nothing is coming, is a *%$&ing idiot who deserves to get knocked down."

It's one of the few facts in life...if you keep stepping into the road without paying due care and attention you WILL get hit at some point.

This also goes for:

1. People stepping into a cycle lane without looking
2. People texting on their phone
3. People too preoccupied with whatever they are doing take care for their own safety

It's calling mitigating risk and taking full responsiblity for your actions and safety.

whome

I agree with spen666, it is the responsibility of vehicles (including bikes) to anticipate and avoid pedestrians. Yes, OK you get annoyed at someone stepping out without looking. But it is your responsibility to avoid them.

Gavin Weeks

Best keep an eye out!

cee

Graeme_S wrote:

On zebra crossings and at lights it is your job to stop for them. They should still look, as there's no point being right and dead, but on a zebra crossing or at traffic lights the responsibility to stop is entirely with you.

Unless obviously it is unsafe to do so, just like at an amber light.

By this, I mean that a car driven by a sensible driver, encounters a zebra crossing and slows a little to ensure no peds before continuing through. 2 feet before they get to the zebra, a ped from nowhere puts foot on zebra crossing. Slamming on the anchors in a situation like this could be more dangerous than accelerating to clear the crossing before the pedestrian gets enoughj onto it to be in the line of fire.

My point really is that although in the majority of cases, it is the vehicles responsibility to stop, but it is not always as straightforward as this.

Again, this point back to the earlier post about cars/bikes/peds all going about their business with the safety of both themselves and others in mind.

Clever Pun

When filtering you have to be really careful... it's not just ped walking out, you're also in a world of doorzones and loads of poeple don't look before opening them

both you and the ped are probably to blame in a way

Least no one was hurt

I hit a ped a while back I was overtaking a bus in a queue of traffic and a woman stepped out from behind it so it was a total surprise she was looking the other way towards oncoming traffic (so she thought) I shouted a warning and managed to slow enough only to crumple he shopping bags enough. If I'd have been gunning it I'd have ploughed right through her

secretsam

Am v. careful when nipping up the inside (oo-err), as have had the bike v. door thing and it wasn't funny

Have also been hit by a bike (it was going the wrong way up a one way road), similarly not amusing

You've got to be careful - let's be honest, we've all nipped out to cut through stationary traffic - and we're all peds as well

hamboman

I don't think it was my fault, and I don't think it was her fault either, just a simple accident. But she's the one who took the worst of it, whoops all round I think.

iainment

spen666 wrote:

iainment wrote:

spen666 wrote:

hamboman wrote:

I feel really bad, it wasn't my fault but I hit a woman today who stepped off the curb into my path as I was filtering. I stayed on but she was knocked back a good six feet and looked a bit shaken. No damage done to me or her, so left her with her friend. Why won't they look, rather than just using their ears!?!

not being there, i cannot say if you were or were not to blame, but : -

should you not have been riding in such a manner as to be able to stop incase of an obstruction in front of you?

Should you not have been observant to the possibility of a pedestrian stepping out in front of you?

To knock her 6 feet, you were presumably travelling at a fair speed, was it too fast for the situation?

you were the only person from this board ( I presume) who was present at the scene of the accident and are the only person who can answer those questions.

Pompous ass.

:twisted:

I think there is only one person being pompous enough to make judgements here

Pedantic and pompous. A truly awsome combination. Do you collect anything as a hobby?

:twisted: