Oh peds...

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  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    More stu-peds out today. It seems that they can't even avoid each other, let alone bikes: bumping into one other outside train stations. :roll:
    FCN 2-4.

    "What happens when the hammer goes down, kids?"
    "It stays down, Daddy."
    "Exactly."
  • Landlocked
    Landlocked Posts: 37
    Maybe we should kit our bikes out like the Roman Chariots?

    They'll soon learn to look before even going near the road!! :lol:
  • bomberesque
    bomberesque Posts: 1,701
    cjcp wrote:
    More stu-peds out today. It seems that they can't even avoid each other, let alone bikes: bumping into one other outside train stations. :roll:

    we have loads of them here, we call them drunks :wink:

    they're recognisable by the white plastic bag with a 6 pack of Jupiler (local Heineken analog) or Cara Pils (local Tescos Value Lager analog)

    I used to commute into central Beijing back when I worked there (97-00) and had several near misses, mostly due to the fact that I would push myself on my commute (and had a fast bike) where as most chinese ride gaspipe conversions (coz they're poor) at 5mph (to avoid any sweating).

    Peds would look then cross in front of me because they just didn't appreciate how fast I'd be on them, cabs would pull in in front of me to pick up a fare because any normal cyclist would be well able to stop in time. I had several near misses, some of them intentional (got out of the ped's way, but skimmed past them closer than I needed to in a vain attempt to demonstrate how close they had come to getting mown down by the guailo). After about a year of this I came to the eventual conclusion that I was the one in the wrong as I was the one acting differently (you start to go a bit native after a while, how can 1.3 billion people all be wrong?) and I was going to get into a serious accident before long .... and cabs were cheap so I stopped and just rode weekends out in the country instead.

    Soon after that I fell of my MTB and fractured my wrist :roll:
    Everything in moderation ... except beer
    Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer

    If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
    then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
    ... or being punched by it, depending on the day
  • Soul Boy
    Soul Boy Posts: 359
    Yeah, came up Fenchurch St, wanting to turn left on a green light onto Gracechurch St. As I came round the corner, peds just started crossing from both sides. I shout "TURNING LEFT", get a City boy respond "W***KER". What is it with that junction???

    Agreed the old follow my leader across the road is a real pain. One goes with just enough time, then they all follow, using the first as their eyes and ears.

    I-pods/blackberry's, tsk. I was walking down Lombard St. the other day, had to get the tube :cry: A woman was just stood in the middle of the road finishing an email. I mean just stood there, totally oblivious to the world around her.

    I can't count the times a ped has looked directly at me, then stepped out.

    Experience will tell you that we've just got to anticipate all this, and always expect someone to do something stupid, cos it's not only them that'll get hurt. Keep em peeled!
  • edhornby
    edhornby Posts: 1,780
    Cheetham Hill - ped and taxi nightmare

    my personal favourite is the one where they stand and wait in the bus lane looking the wrong way up the road, or the one where they look and see you and walk anyway, realy slowly

    my current choice of wording is 'Move !' or 'Stop !'very loudly, sometimes followed by t0ss3r
    "I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
    --Jens Voight
  • tardington
    tardington Posts: 1,379
    Some bloke looked directly at me today and stepped out into the road. I grinned at him and stood up on the pedals... He jumped back onto the pavement again. :twisted:

    I did feel a bit bad afterwards. :shock:
  • Aidy
    Aidy Posts: 2,015
    Another thing that gets me: people who arrive at a pelican crossing just as you're coming up to it, expect you to stop at that instant, then say things like 'you're supposed to stop'. Well, you're supposed to have common sense.

    I had one of those the other day who, upon seeing me approach at speed, literally ran from about five feet away from the start of the crossing onto it, just to tell me that I should stop for her.
  • Stuey01
    Stuey01 Posts: 1,273
    Aidy wrote:
    Another thing that gets me: people who arrive at a pelican crossing just as you're coming up to it, expect you to stop at that instant, then say things like 'you're supposed to stop'. Well, you're supposed to have common sense.

    I had one of those the other day who, upon seeing me approach at speed, literally ran from about five feet away from the start of the crossing onto it, just to tell me that I should stop for her.

    You should have punched her in the face and said "you're supposed to duck"
    Not climber, not sprinter, not rouleur
  • The Chingford Skinhead
    The Chingford Skinhead Posts: 718
    londonbairn wrote:
    Has anyone else had something similiar happen to them?

    :shock: Don't get me started. I'm missing a London to Paris week of fun next week, which I was a leading light in organising thanks to a ped. He ran out from in front of a bus in a lay-by right into my path. Slow speed but a bad landing means a separated Acromio-Clavicular joint with associated ruptured ligaments. Still healing and the recovery is slow, painful and very frustrating. Not least because Mrs TCS and work keep saying Told You So and Cyclings Dangerous blah blah blah.

    To be fair to the ped, he was very apologetic and helped me off the road, offered to phone someone and stay with me but frankly I had to send him away as he was going white while repeatedly pointing and saying "it's your shoulder, it's your shoulder". He was freaking me out as he could clearly see something I couldn't (that my knuckles were hitting the floor while my colar bone was up by my ear!)., I got a bus to hospital (having chained up the bike - it's a dodgy area :D ) with one hand. Unfortunately in my pained and confused state I missed the stop by the hospital and had to walk back about half a mile :roll:

    I've usually been good at predicting peds who are about to walk out but hiding behind a bus was technically cheating in my book.,
    Pain is only weakness leaving the body
  • The Chingford Skinhead
    The Chingford Skinhead Posts: 718
    Ah yes - the worse thing is that in every blog or opinion piece on the web that covers a cycling fatality or near miss you'll get loads of "well when arrogant / smug / etc cyclists can respect pedestrians". I now make it a point to respond and set out the figures on the real risks to pedestrians. Toward bottom of page http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090126/text/90126w0003.htm#column_14W
    Pain is only weakness leaving the body
  • prj45
    prj45 Posts: 2,208
    Soul Boy wrote:
    Yeah, came up Fenchurch St, wanting to turn left on a green light onto Gracechurch St. As I came round the corner, peds just started crossing from both sides. I shout "TURNING LEFT", get a City boy respond "W***KER". What is it with that junction???

    You're supposed to give way to peds already crossing a road you're turning into.
    Photos - Blog - Bike
  • Aidy
    Aidy Posts: 2,015
    The Chingford Skinhead wrote:
    Ah yes - the worse thing is that in every blog or opinion piece on the web that covers a cycling fatality or near miss you'll get loads of "well when arrogant / smug / etc cyclists can respect pedestrians". I now make it a point to respond and set out the figures on the real risks to pedestrians. Toward bottom of page http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090126/text/90126w0003.htm#column_14W

    To be completely fair, you need the quantity of cyclists and cars on the road for those numbers to have real bearing on the risk each presents.
  • Totalnewbie
    Totalnewbie Posts: 932
    I'm normally very nice to peds and often give way to them if they are wandering around in the road.

    But going along Albert Embankment on the way to work last week, there were some little school-uniformed brats on the pavement, and one suddenly jumped into the road and started running in front of me.

    I had an idea that they were going to do something of that ilk, so had already moved right out in the bus lane, but he still came close so I shouted to him to watch out.

    He and all his friends didn't like that and all shouted words to the effect of 'Fuck off man!' :roll: I am very clearly not a man. :lol: Poor souls must be going blind. I prayed that the lights wouldn't go red so that the little sods couldn't surround me and kill me, and the gods smiled on me as I was able to make good my escape...
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/ ... 400572.jpg
  • benborp
    benborp Posts: 100
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPyVUDML1CI

    Fairly typical moment from my commute. I tend to have problems when they gang up.
  • Soul Boy
    Soul Boy Posts: 359
    Soul Boy wrote:
    Yeah, came up Fenchurch St, wanting to turn left on a green light onto Gracechurch St. As I came round the corner, peds just started crossing from both sides. I shout "TURNING LEFT", get a City boy respond "W***KER". What is it with that junction???



    You're supposed to give way to peds already crossing a road you're turning into.

    Just stumbled upon this response. Sorry, the crossing is controlled by lights. Red man on the ped crossing, just one ped trying to sneak across between phases of the lights, followed by numerous drones behind, oblivious to the FACT they shouldn't be crossing. Now if its just a side road, you'd be correct, but it isn't and you're not, nah.
  • Chewy Cheeks
    Chewy Cheeks Posts: 234
    The scariest part of my commute is between Balham Tube Station and St Georges Hospital.

    The migration across the A24 between Tooting Broadway and St Georges always gets the pulse rate right up !!

    - I think, like most folk on here, that pedestrians cause me most stress and try and trust my instincts about who is going to do summat daft
    No Babbit No, Look what Birdy doing
  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    Chewy Cheeks wrote:
    The scariest part of my commute is between Balham Tube Station and St Georges Hospital.

    The migration across the A24 between Tooting Broadway and St Georges always gets the pulse rate right up !!

    - I think, like most folk on here, that pedestrians cause me most stress and try and trust my instincts about who is going to do summat daft

    Used to do that stretch when I lived down there. Yup, not good.
    FCN 2-4.

    "What happens when the hammer goes down, kids?"
    "It stays down, Daddy."
    "Exactly."

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