I understand now....

Rada_Rada

I really enjoy watching the helmet cam videos, I also think that I have learned a lot from them too.

I always thought when people got angry about careless driving that I would be really calm in their situation, I usually feel really laid back about most things until my journey home today....

I was at some crossroads today going from east to west and as the lights turned to green I started to cycle through, this silly mare in her van was stuck in the middle of the road, she had decided to go through when her lights had gone red she was going in the north to south direction.

She decided that she would reverse all the way back to the lights and as she reversed she went into the side of me, I saw her and shouted for her to stop but she carried on!!! I managed to punch the back window to get her attention to stop.

I have a bruise on my forearm from where she banged into me. I tried talking to her but it was if it was my fault, not even a sorry (and that would have made it better for me). After commuting for well over a year, this is the first bit of trouble I've had.

I've decided I'm getting a helmet cam tonight, so any suggestions please (thinking about spending up to £100).

redvee

Have a look at this thread for the beginners in the world of helmet cams, for around £25, £12 for the camera and the rest on a memory card and mount, you can have a camera that gives decent quality footage with a timestamp too.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... 0#16161650

xio

Whilst I fully understand your anger - we've all had plenty of shouty moments and close shaves, I'm really not sure what use a helmet cam is. I mean, we have CCTV everywhere in London and it solves virtually nothing.

Sure, you'd get to post vids here and share your rage, but I'm not sure it really moves us forward. People like this woman will drive like a moron and have no respect for cyclists. Deal with it. Making a video of her isn't going to change anything, and I seriously doubt that the police are going to be interested in what will probably be a judiciously edited video clip of any incident.

zrazzle

I was thinking about this on the way in actually. I also love the helmet cam footage, on you tube and stuff, and it is REALLY informative. Tfl should employ some of these people to make videos for new commuters or something.

Anyway, i've been commuting for about 4 months now and aside from the odd van try and cut me up, I really haven't encountered that much bad driving? Unless i'm just totally oblivious. Obviously if I got home and studied the helmet cam i'd probably notice stuff? But does it make you look for trouble, in a way, as in you're projecting a confrontational vibe like some sort of road trouble magnet? I dunno!

hoolio

I only wish I'd been wearing a helmet cam twice. Once was a hit and run that left me unconcious (but otherwise okay luckily enough), but I couldn't remember the full registration, and the other was when a taxi cut me up really atrociously, but again I didn't memorise the reg, or taxi licence number. You can report taxis to the governing body and it will get followed up. Too many reports and they can lose their taxi licence.

For the rest of the time, setting up the helmet cam, looking at footage and so on I just can't really be bothered. Watching some of the youtube stuff is pretty interesting though.

bails87

We were in the pub the other day and I was talking about a stupid driver I'd seen (while driving). One of my mates said, only half jokingly "well you would say that, now that you're a militant cyclist". None of them are cyclists, but I also drive an awful lot more than any of them. In fact, the majority of them can't/don't drive at all!

So I showed them a video of 2 roundabout based near misses that happened within 2 or 3 minutes of each other: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6nW2G1Uw-A

Their faces dropped and one said "Oh my god, I had no idea, is it always that bad?"

So they can be good for something.