Darwin Awards

Dropzone-dog__

Out of several candidates a true winner emerges.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-lZPeAWye4 :shock:

_Brun_

Some people really don't have the slightest bit of common sense.

Imagine if there'd been a railing there too :shock:

Feltup

She'd probably all right in that instance, her bikes rear wheel might not have been so lucky but if there had been a railing there she would be toast. Just dumb trying to slot a gap like that. :roll:

always_tyred

That's chilling. I found it quite hard to watch, actually - not sure I could have stoped myself rushing over and waving frantically at the bus driver or something like that.

Rockbuddy

Not that I would have filtered here but to be fair to the lass there were a couple of cyclists infront of her that seemed to go through without slowing much. She may not have been able to see that the gap wasn't that big until it was too late, as her view may well have been blocked by the cyclists infront. It just looked quite embarassing for her...

always_tyred

It was insane for those other cyclists to go through as well. It might actually have been worse for them had the bus moved forward as they were flying past.

Bassjunkieuk

At least the first few berks used the pavement! I'd be willing to bet tho that the ones that made it through where probably messengers with 6" wide handlebars!
Bl00dy stupid IMHO the lot of them, it took just over 1 minute for that bus to moved any earlier we could have ended up watching a snuff movie.........

always_tyred

What gets me is that she's pretty well kitted up. How on earth can you NOT know that you are doing something dangerous? Is she one of those club cyclists who normally only go on club runs and weekend rides and so haven't got a clue in traffic?

il_principe

Mentalists. I was seriously expecting that bus to move off. Amazing how stupid people can be.

kyoukoku

What a bunch of utter numpties!! :roll:

artaxerxes

That video was taken on the A200 Where Evelyn St turns into Bestwood Road.
Google Map Link

I go through there every morning on my commute and the traffic is usually bad, and yes I see this kind of numptiism every morning!

There is a McDonald's Drive-thru on the corner just before that crossing, you can cycle through the drive-thru's car park to avoid that crossing.

Jay dubbleU

Wonder how many of them will survive the summer ?

Dropzone-dog__

A little bit of background information.

Her pedal got caught on a broken kerbstone.

Even though she did not have the clearance to get through in the first place the fact her pedal encountered a broken kerbstone compounded the issue.

Am I wrong in stating that should the first cyclist through have encountered the broken kerbstone we could very well have 3 bikes + assorted bits of riders being dragged down the road?

For the first time in my life I have emailed my MP & asked the question in polite terms,

When the fcuk is an advertising campaign going to be aimed at cyclists along the lines of

DO NOT UNDERTAKE OTHER VEHICLES ON THE ROAD WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES DICTATE OTHERWISE.

snooks

Dropzone-dog__ wrote:

When the fcuk is an advertising campaign going to be aimed at cyclists along the lines of

DO NOT UNDERTAKE OTHER VEHICLES ON THE ROAD WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES DICTATE OTHERWISE.

Well I started a facebook group :?
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28903548493

Not nationwide press coverage I know, but it's a start, and something that I can work on. I'm doing summut to try and raise a bit more awareness, might not be a grand ad campaign, but if it makes one person think, it's done it's job.

always_tyred

snooks wrote:

Dropzone-dog__ wrote:

When the fcuk is an advertising campaign going to be aimed at cyclists along the lines of

DO NOT UNDERTAKE OTHER VEHICLES ON THE ROAD WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES DICTATE OTHERWISE.

Well I started a facebook group :?
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28903548493

Not nationwide press coverage I know, but it's a start, and something that I can work on. I'm doing summut to try and raise a bit more awareness, might not be a grand ad campaign, but if it makes one person think, it's done it's job.

There has been a lot of publicity recently about HGV's and undertaking. I'm not sure about the blanket don't do it ever to any vehicle - you have to be in a part of the road that drivers to expect you to be in. In some instances, it would be odd to go to the trouble of overtaking and as such, the safer option can be filtering.

Its really hard to imagine such a scenario with HGV's though.

Rockbuddy

Cars might expect you to filter but doesn't mean they are going to be looking for you or even see you. It's still dangerous isn't it? I've had cars overtake me quite a few times that were surprised to see me filtering up the left at the next set of lights / junction. I'm not against filtering on the left, surely it's up to your judgement to negociate the situation.

always_tyred

Rockbuddy wrote:

Cars might expect you to filter but doesn't mean they are going to be looking for you or even see you. It's still dangerous isn't it? I've had cars overtake me quite a few times that were surprised to see me filtering up the left at the next set of lights / junction. I'm not against filtering on the left, surely it's up to your judgement to negociate the situation.

Yes, potentially everything is dangerous. Overtaking can be dangerous, filtering can be dangerous, cycling in a straight line in freely flowing traffic can be dangeous. You just have to pick the option that appears to be least dangerous under the circumstances. Sometimes that option is to neither undertake nor overtake.

Mike Healey

Not quite on-topic, but there was a recent case in the US of a 19yr-old who held up a man in a hotel toilet and stole his mobile and wallet.

Unfortunately the man was a retired police inspector attending a conference in the hotel. The conference attendees were some 300 police officers.

For some strange reason the thief did not get away.

Rockbuddy

Always Tyred wrote:

Rockbuddy wrote:

Cars might expect you to filter but doesn't mean they are going to be looking for you or even see you. It's still dangerous isn't it? I've had cars overtake me quite a few times that were surprised to see me filtering up the left at the next set of lights / junction. I'm not against filtering on the left, surely it's up to your judgement to negociate the situation.

Yes, potentially everything is dangerous. Overtaking can be dangerous, filtering can be dangerous, cycling in a straight line in freely flowing traffic can be dangeous. You just have to pick the option that appears to be least dangerous under the circumstances. Sometimes that option is to neither undertake nor overtake.

Thanks, I was under the miss-apprehension that cycling was really safe and that I could just plough on regardless :roll:

robmanic1

Mike Healey wrote:

Not quite on-topic, but there was a recent case in the US of a 19yr-old who held up a man in a hotel toilet and stole his mobile and wallet.

Unfortunately the man was a retired police inspector attending a conference in the hotel. The conference attendees were some 300 police officers.

For some strange reason the thief did not get away.

Random????

always_tyred

Rockbuddy wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

Rockbuddy wrote:

Cars might expect you to filter but doesn't mean they are going to be looking for you or even see you. It's still dangerous isn't it? I've had cars overtake me quite a few times that were surprised to see me filtering up the left at the next set of lights / junction. I'm not against filtering on the left, surely it's up to your judgement to negociate the situation.

Yes, potentially everything is dangerous. Overtaking can be dangerous, filtering can be dangerous, cycling in a straight line in freely flowing traffic can be dangeous. You just have to pick the option that appears to be least dangerous under the circumstances. Sometimes that option is to neither undertake nor overtake.

Thanks, I was under the miss-apprehension that cycling was really safe and that I could just plough on regardless :roll:

I read your post as "Kid's don't filter, its not cool", but I take it that I just posted essentially the same thing as you. Um.... keeps the thread alive at least.

Rockbuddy

Always Tyred wrote:

I read your post as "Kid's don't filter, its not cool", but I take it that I just posted essentially the same thing as you. Um.... keeps the thread alive at least.

Well I was a bit sarcastic but that was what I was trying to say
I think we generally all know what we are doing and when we should filter etc. guess we still want to share though

AndyOgy

I am in no way defending the actions of those cyclists but the bus driver also seems to be a bit of a prat.

For one thing, shouldn't he/she be indicating?

Also, I thought that zebra crossings were like yellow box junctions in that you shouldn't start to cross them unless the exit is clear. ie not end up stuck in traffic and partially or totally blocking the crossing.

Bassjunkieuk

AndyOgy wrote:

I am in no way defending the actions of those cyclists but the bus driver also seems to be a bit of a prat.

For one thing, shouldn't he/she be indicating?

Also, I thought that zebra crossings were like yellow box junctions in that you shouldn't start to cross them unless the exit is clear. ie not end up stuck in traffic and partially or totally blocking the crossing.

Your expecting drivers to pay that much attention? I was sat at some lights in Camberwell today looking at 5 cars/vans that had blocked the yellow box at the junction with Camberwell New Road and Denmark Hill (I was headed northbound). No chance of them moving as the traffic was solid but like little lemmings they just follow 6" from the car in front regardless of traffic regulations.

Queue lots of horn blowing when our lights went green as the cars, buses other 4 wheeled vehicles waiting to cross the junction are now stuck!

I however tried not to look too smug and I snaked my way through the gaps :-D

AndyOgy

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

AndyOgy wrote:

I am in no way defending the actions of those cyclists but the bus driver also seems to be a bit of a prat.

For one thing, shouldn't he/she be indicating?

Also, I thought that zebra crossings were like yellow box junctions in that you shouldn't start to cross them unless the exit is clear. ie not end up stuck in traffic and partially or totally blocking the crossing.

Your expecting drivers to pay that much attention? I was sat at some lights in Camberwell today looking at 5 cars/vans that had blocked the yellow box at the junction with Camberwell New Road and Denmark Hill (I was headed northbound). No chance of them moving as the traffic was solid but like little lemmings they just follow 6" from the car in front regardless of traffic regulations.

Queue lots of horn blowing when our lights went green as the cars, buses other 4 wheeled vehicles waiting to cross the junction are now stuck!

I however tried not to look too smug and I snaked my way through the gaps :-D

Tell me about it!

It seems that they'll give a driving licence to just about anybody these days.

I wish that the police would do more in terms of educating drivers. Ok, so if you speed, jump traffic lights, get drunk or talk on your mobile phone then they will sure issue a big heavy fine. But there are thousands of other stupid things that drivers do which are much more dangerous.

I used to drive for a living and I was continually doing things to refresh and improve my driving skills. Like advanced driving lessons, re-reading the highway code etc.

If the police were able to simply punish stupidity - and make it about awareness rather than revenue, then I'm sure I'd have a lot more respect for them.

benborp

AndyOgy wrote:

Ok, so if you speed, jump traffic lights, get drunk or talk on your mobile phone then they will sure issue a big heavy fine.

That doesn't seem to happen round here. In fact you can get out of your untaxed, unregistered, uninsured car, beat the crap out of a cyclist in front of seven witnesses then run the cyclist down and even though you're 'known to the police' walk away from it all - including your car which was written off when the cyclist went over the bonnet.

lost_in_thought

Aaaaaahehehheheheeeeeee!

I've watched this one maybe 4 times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyeJU6U0 ... re=related

AndyOgy

benborp wrote:

AndyOgy wrote:

Ok, so if you speed, jump traffic lights, get drunk or talk on your mobile phone then they will sure issue a big heavy fine.

That doesn't seem to happen round here. In fact you can get out of your untaxed, unregistered, uninsured car, beat the crap out of a cyclist in front of seven witnesses then run the cyclist down and even though you're 'known to the police' walk away from it all - including your car which was written off when the cyclist went over the bonnet.

Your example didn't sound like it was hyperthetical.

AndyOgy

lost_in_thought wrote:

Aaaaaahehehheheheeeeeee!

I've watched this one maybe 4 times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyeJU6U0 ... re=related

Ouch! I bet he wanted to run away and hide.

I nearly did that myself this week. Kinda woulda served me right though because I was looking at a pretty girl when I should have been looking where I was going.

benborp

AndyOgy wrote:

Your example didn't sound like it was hyperthetical.

Unfortunately you're right. I now make it a rule to try to avoid Mitcham at all costs.

kyoukoku

lost_in_thought wrote:

Aaaaaahehehheheheeeeeee!

I've watched this one maybe 4 times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyeJU6U0 ... re=related

I think that bus was under siege from cyclists . It slammed the brakes on due to one cyclist smacking into the side from the left and then the dude behind does the same. Cue two bikes with buckled front wheels. Doh!