Harmonise the Roads campaign

haygirlmk3

Hey guys,

Last Friday when cycling home from work, a black cab taxi drove into me
intentionally at at junction, gave me some abuse and as he pulled away
pushed me out of the way with this vehicle.

I'm thankful that it wasn't anything serious, but also angry that my
lack of injuries (apart from being REALLY upset!) means that the report
I filled in about him (after I clocked his number plate and licence
number) won't go far with the police. I also reported him on the TFL
website and it'll take around 3 weeks for them to get back to me, so
they say.

Anyway, I'm not sure what else I can do about it, but I really feel that
someone like TFL, or the Met Police need to start some sort of poster
campaign to tackle the hostility on the roads towards cyclists - it's
one thing making ourselves visible to drivers, but if they feel hostile
towards us, no amount of high-vis will keep us safe.

I've been shouted at by taxi drivers many times (even though I feel like
I'm a pretty good cyclist and keep to the rules), but this was the first
time a taxi driver has made contact with me and intimidated me so
severely - it's bullying really.

So, I have a couple of suggestions (whilst not being very confident at
spearheading these things, I thought some of you may feel pationate
enough about it to consider them):

1) Create a petition to be sent to the Mayor, TFL, Police and local
councils to call for a poster campain to promote more harmony on the
roads.
2) Write a monologue from a cyclist's perspective about the dangers that
we perceive on the road and reminding drivers that we're actually quite
vulnerable people, not just another obstacle in the road. I spoke to a
police man in my local area last night, and he said this could be sent
to local radio stations, or I thought someone could record it and post
it on Youtube.

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas. I'll also keep you
up-to-date if I hear anything else or have any other ideas.

Porgy

One thing you can do is write to Jenny Jones of the GLA. She brought my similar incident a couple of years ago to the attention of the assembly and questioned the mayor on unaccountabilty of London Taxis.

kurako

Get a helmet camera. Intimidation is not on and video evidence will back up your accusations.

I've got a doozy from this morning which I'll post when I get home ( bus drivers permitting).

teagar

He's right.

A camera phone has often halted torrents of abuse heading my way.

OldSkoolKona

I had a car purposefully cross onto the the wrong side of the road last night, drive at me then swerve away at the last minute. Completely unprovoked. Report it? No point, police don't care unless you're killed or seriously injured. Fortunately I was paying attention and was able to react accordingly but you have to wonder some times :?

haygirlmk3

Surely you can get him for dangerous driving if you have proof, witnesses and/or police friends in high places...

kurako

You'd have to get the legal eagles in on this (paging Spen666!)

I think you need two independent witnesses. That generally excludes people travelling with you and could be interpreted as excluding other cyclists too.

Video is better. You can say 'Here's what happened and here's a video showing it'. No argument.

Also in the case of companies, public transport, etc they tend to be very sensitive to public perception. They can be quite quick to act when embarassing video is doing the rounds ( just look at the case with the mouthy 'jedi' tube worker ).

amnezia

haygirlmk3 wrote:

Surely you can get him for dangerous driving if you have proof, witnesses and/or police friends in high places...

do you have two independant witnesses?

OldSkoolKona

Of course I don't have witnesses, and (other than obviously posting about it) I just let it slide. These things happen, you move on. Only thing you can do on the road is take responsibility for your own safety and ride accordingly. Letting these things upset you is just a distraction and takes your concentration off the road.

kurako

OldSkoolKona wrote:

Of course I don't have witnesses, and (other than obviously posting about it) I just let it slide. These things happen, you move on. Only thing you can do on the road is take responsibility for your own safety and ride accordingly. Letting these things upset you is just a distraction and takes your concentration off the road.

I disagree about letting it ride. Does depend on the circumstances though. I've had 3 instances in the past week where I've been the victim of bad driving.

1. A bloke in a works van making a dodgy overtake between me and another car ( at speed on 2 lane road on Clapham Common ). Got it on video, complained to the company and got assurance from the MD that the driver had been traced and he'd deal with it personally. He was very keen to help and was (naturally) quite eager to have the video taken down as it was damaging to the reputation of the firm. I agreed and did as he asked. I did suggest the bloke may benefit from an advanced driving course.

2. Bloke in a private car decided to undertake me and squeeze through a non-existent gap as I was about to pass a bus ( multiple lanes at Aldgate East ). He got an earful! Not much comeback there although he was rather close to getting cleat marks down the side of his car.

3. This morning (Aldgate East again, never had problems there before), I did a shoulder check to move to the right for the Commercial Road turn-off to find a bus race by ( in a lane clearly marked as a filter ) and cut me up. Totally needless act as a few seconds I'd have been out of his way. I caught him up and asked if that was a safe manouvre and he blamed me for not being in the left hand lane. No admission of responsibility in spite of being informed I had a camera and would complain to TFL. If he'd said sorry, that was dumb, my mistake I'd have let it ride but I'm putting in a complaint cos he was such a tit.

We all make mistakes but I really hate aggressive driving which is designed to intimidate. That's the sort of stuff that needs to be stamped out.