Dangerous driving?

ndru

Infamous CS3, bit where you actually go against the traffic on Horseferry Road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDt3VOZqLf4

Would you report it?

cee

The old addage...never attribute to malice...that which can be attributed to incompetency....

looks to me like they just don't know how wide their car is....

Dangerous...didn't look it to me...

Undue care and Attention? perhaps.

Report it? I probably wouldn't (unles of couse the driver was shaking their fist and telling you to get off the road...in which case they meant it and were being dangerous!)

spen666

Dangerous Driving = "standard of driving falls FAR below that of a reasonably competent driver

Careless Driving = "standard of driving falls below that of a reasonably competent driver"

Dangerous in law is not the same as the dictionary definiton of dangerous

jeepie

So would you report it spen? I wouldn't as I think this problem was actually caused by the double parking van at a junction, rather than the golf driver who had nowhere to go. Please answer the question asked as well as making useful points about the law.

dondare

Stupid, idiotic, unjustifiable, unforgivable and downright dangerous cycle-lane design.

Totally 5hit driving also.

cee

spen666 wrote:

Dangerous Driving = "standard of driving falls FAR below that of a reasonably competent driver

Careless Driving = "standard of driving falls below that of a reasonably competent driver"

Dangerous in law is not the same as the dictionary definiton of dangerous

which would you class the example as?

spen666

Jeepie wrote:

So would you report it spen? I wouldn't as I think this problem was actually caused by the double parking van at a junction, rather than the golf driver who had nowhere to go. Please answer the question asked as well as making useful points about the law.

Would I report it? No idea as I've not seen the video as can't watch clips on you tube at work. Hence why I don't comment on things I am unable to know fully about.

Would I report it? Would depend on the facts of case AND on whast I hoped to achieve out of it and whether that was a reasonable expectation

spen666

cee wrote:

spen666 wrote:

Dangerous Driving = "standard of driving falls FAR below that of a reasonably competent driver

Careless Driving = "standard of driving falls below that of a reasonably competent driver"

Dangerous in law is not the same as the dictionary definiton of dangerous

which would you class the example as?

See my comment re not having viewed the clip

ndru

I am not very vindictive, so I am not going to report it. However it wasn't nice. The driver could have easily waited for me to pass. Instead he decided to floor it and squeeze past, riding well into the cycling lane.

cooper.michael1

A bus very nearly knocked me off this morning, (finglands in Manchester) the drivers response to me saying show other road users some respect was 'my respect is not killing you'

...he also accused me of putting my finger up at him and jumping red lights, neither of which I did, they just tar everyone with the same brush.

Reported the the bus company, for his attitude more than his driving mistake, hope he gets a talking to at least.

gbsahne001

No, wouldn't bother

Specialized Needs

Jeepie wrote:

So would you report it spen? I wouldn't as I think this problem was actually caused by the double parking van at a junction, rather than the golf driver who had nowhere to go. Please answer the question asked as well as making useful points about the law.

The problem was at least partly caused by a person in the Golf deciding to drive around the obstruction when there was an oncoming cyclist in a mandatory cycle lane.

The double parking did not help, but the Golf should only proceed forwards if the way is safe and clear - they cannot offload responsibility for their actions onto the van driver.

skyd0g

Very poor cycle lane design imho - I would guess that the driver was suprised to see you there heading towards him.

Glad that you got out of it unscathed.

cee

spen666 wrote:

cee wrote:

spen666 wrote:

Dangerous Driving = "standard of driving falls FAR below that of a reasonably competent driver

Careless Driving = "standard of driving falls below that of a reasonably competent driver"

Dangerous in law is not the same as the dictionary definiton of dangerous

which would you class the example as?

See my comment re not having viewed the clip

fair enough.

neiltb

think yourself lucky you were 5 seconds slow, if at the juction, they'd likely have not looked in your direction and driven righ into you.

The Rookie

Bl**dy silly road design, van double parked and a driver not expecting a cyclist heading against the flow of traffic on what is probably signed as a one way street although its not and the cyclists are forced onto the 'wrong side of the road'.

Sure the Golf driver isn't blameless, but at worst it's without due care and attention, certainly no point making a complaint either practically (nothing will happen) or morally (cos you NEVER make a mistake right?).

Simon

kurako

Pretty much what The Beginner said:

We're conditioned to expect traffic to come towards us from the right hand side so the cycle path is ridiculous. If they wanted a contra-flow lane they should have put it on the opposite side of the road (which is where people used to ride when they were ignoring the 1 way system).

MrBlond

That contraflow is awful - I still don't quite understand the logic as it saves what, about 200yds, vs following the one-way round narrow street.

Plus I seem to narrowly avoid a head-on with another cyclist every time I come off branch road since they've made it like this

The Chingford Skinhead

The cycle lane is on the "wrong" side of the road - presumably to allow for more parking bays that would otherwise be lost at the junction. Other than that what is the problem with the design? The van being double parked is not the fault of the highway engineers. There is a clear unbroken cycle lane line, which the driver should not cross unless safe to do so. The rider was not wearing an invisibility cloak. Basically the car driver had a duty to stop and wait - they didn't as endagering the life of the cyclist was less important than saving two seconds on their journey.

itsbruce

The Chingford Skinhead wrote:

The cycle lane is on the "wrong" side of the road - presumably to allow for more parking bays that would otherwise be lost at the junction. Other than that what is the problem with the design?

It's just not what drivers are going to expect to see. At the very least, it should be more distinctively marked (e.g. green paint to fill the lane), but even then I'd reckon that most or many drivers will expect to see cyclists going the same way as them along the path, not coming towards them, and a surprise coming head-on is all the harder to deal with. I hate and avoid contraflow cycle lanes for this reason, even the ones on the right (by which I mean left) side.. Oh, and for the reason that I don't trust my fellow cyclists not to be coming the other way along what is almost always a very narrow strip.

I prefer to be going the same way as the cars in the big people's road.

kurako

There's very little on that stretch to indicate the cycle lane is a contra-flow. The first time I went down there after they added the cycle path was coming out of the junction and heading in the same direction as the car. My thoughts were:

1. Oh look. They've put a cycle lane in how nice.
2. Why are those idiots cycling the wrong way?
3. Holy crap. They're not cycling the wrong way!
4. I'm never coming this way ever again.

There's also the problem of cars turning left at the end of Horseferry. They are now faced with bikes cutting across from the left to get on the cycle path. This is totally stupid since people will be paying the majority of attention to trafiic coming from the right.

dondare

There's a cycle lane in Byng Place that is two-way (although being the right width for one-way) which means that half the cyclists using it are coming from the direction that you're not expecting them. I've seen an accident here and I know of others.
I simply don't use it.

MrBlond

Saw (or rather heard - I was going in the other direction and was past the incident) a cyclist nearly getting taken out by a white van trying to turn onto Horseferry road last night.

Much shouting.

Still an awful bit of cycle lane.