Dusk

NWLondoner

Is it me or is riding during dusk the worst time to cycle?

So many drivers and pedestrians taking risks.

Last night I went for a spin after work between 19.00 and 21.00 and have never had so many near misses.

The worst was a stupid woman who walked right out into the road while looking left on the Charring Cross Road :shock: How I missed her I still don't know. Thankfully I decided to swerve and NOT touch the brakes or i would have piled right into her.

redvee

A lot of peds use their ears to cross roads, if they don't hear an engine they assume it is safe to cross :x

The Chingford Skinhead

NWLondoner wrote:

The worst was a stupid woman who walked right out into the road while looking left on the Charring Cross Road :shock: How I missed her I still don't know. Thankfully I decided to swerve and NOT touch the brakes or i would have piled right into her.

redvee wrote:

A lot of peds use their ears to cross roads, if they don't hear an engine they assume it is safe to cross :x

Yep, my current slow and painful recovery from an AC joint separation is a result of just that, except I touched the brakes and clipped the guy. He had run out from in front of the bus in the lay-by, looking left only, decided that he wouldn't make it across the road so stopped and jumped back straight into my path. I wasn't going fast but he was and the bus meant I had no warning. At least with a car the endless daytime tv adverts for injury ambulance chasing blood sucking lawyers dot com may have been tempting! :roll:

SpinningJenny

We were talking about this yesterday - the fact that even in normal daylight, pedestrians don't exepct to see cyclists when they look to cross the road. It must be something subsconscious - your brain is looking for a car or van sized object and if anything smaller appears, your eyes see it, but your brain disregards it.

Or it could be stupidity :twisted:

tarquin_foxglove

The Chingford Skinhead wrote:

At least with a car the endless daytime tv adverts for injury ambulance chasing blood sucking lawyers dot com may have been tempting! :roll:

The guy may have 3rd party liability cover on his home insurance, if you have his details it might be worth checking out.

The Chingford Skinhead

tarquin_foxglove wrote:

The Chingford Skinhead wrote:

At least with a car the endless daytime tv adverts for injury ambulance chasing blood sucking lawyers dot com may have been tempting! :roll:

The guy may have 3rd party liability cover on his home insurance, if you have his details it might be worth checking out.

Hadn't thought of that. Mind you I was too busy getting off the middle of the road and then trying not to think about his increasingly paniced and shrill "it's your shoulder, it's your shoulder" :shock: . I had to send him away as it was freaking me out :roll: :oops: . I was using my male "deny you're hurt or ill and it will go away" method of treatment. It didn't work :twisted: The adrenalin meant I had far more pain ringing Mrs TCS to tell her the news - confirming her belief that cycling to work was mad. The bones have settled so I've avoided surgery. Physio over the next few weeks is going to hurt but again not as bad as the wife's imposed commuting ban.

spen666

redvee wrote:

A lot of peds use their ears to cross roads, if they don't hear an engine they assume it is safe to cross :x

I concur with you, but these also seem to be the same pedestrians listening to ipod type devices or having animated phone conversations :roll: :roll: :roll: