Do pedestrians ever get hit by cyclists

prj45

PBo wrote:

Why don't we have a man with a red flag walking in front of the bike? Why don't we just walk, pushing our bikes along?

Who's asking you to cycle like that?

I regularly reach 25mph on my bike on my trips to and from work, I just don't do it when there are peds around that could step into my path (which would be very bad for them and very bad for me).

It's not hard!

jeremyrundle

_Brun_ wrote:

jeremyrundle wrote:

The MORON who stepped in front of me said he would report me, that was until I pointed out the miniture vidcam on my cycle helmet and I said "fine we will show them this then.

Funny how he stomped off.

Can we see the video?

I will keep the next one (the video takes micro sd cards, and one hour uses 4gb) so the videos deleted every time I go out.

If someone can tell me how to upload a video I would be happy to do so.

jeremyrundle

asquithea wrote:

_Brun_ wrote:

jeremyrundle wrote:

The MORON who stepped in front of me said he would report me, that was until I pointed out the miniture vidcam on my cycle helmet and I said "fine we will show them this then.

Funny how he stomped off.

Can we see the video?

I'd like to see that too, jr. Just had a quick flick back through your recent posts, and I'm wondering if you have some anger issues that might be causing confrontations. I hope you didn't really buy that airzound to use against pedestrians :?

! what an amazing comment!!!!!

I may have anger issues because I am annoyed about almost being knocked off my bike, and had you bothered to read all the comments my fifteen year old disabled son with learning difficulties WAS.


I bought an airzound for dangerous drivers and dangerous PEDESTRIANS.

Are you telling me no one here has ever ever used their car horn on or at a pedestrian.

jeremyrundle

fortunately, i'm managed to keep my cool in all occasions.[/quote]
Avoid car doors being opened into you by not riding less than about 1m from parked cars.[/quote]

You obviousl;y don't live in the country, if I rode a yard from parked card I would be in a field, hello.

kurako

jeremyrundle wrote:

I bought an airzound for dangerous drivers and dangerous PEDESTRIANS.

Are you telling me no one here has ever ever used their car horn on or at a pedestrian.

I would say that the use of an Airzound on a pedestrian is pretty excessive.

Granted it's pretty stupid to go wandering around seemingly oblivious to your own safety but plenty of people do it. No matter how much you get angry, start ranty threads, blast air horns or ride into people to 'teach them a lesson' somone somewhere will do something stupid at some point. If you were a better cyclist you'd be able to anticipate and react and not hit things.

I don't pretend to be perfect. As I write this I'm sitting with a rather sore head having ridden into the back of a transit van. I glanced behind as I was about to turn right. The van stopped and as I looked forward again I got a face full of the rear door. Did it stop suddenly? Yes. Was it unexpected? Not really, it's rush hour in central London. Could I have done more to avoid the collision? Yes.

Try to be a grown up. Recognise that you're not perfect (nor am I) and try to take steps to improve your riding.

wgwarburton

jeremyrundle wrote:

...I may have anger issues because I am annoyed about almost being knocked off my bike, and had you bothered to read all the comments my fifteen year old disabled son with learning difficulties WAS.
I bought an airzound for dangerous drivers and dangerous PEDESTRIANS.
Are you telling me no one here has ever ever used their car horn on or at a pedestrian.

I don't recall ever doing so, TBH... but my memory isn't what it used to be (at least, I don't think it is, I don't really remember...) so I may have done years ago when I was young & foolish.

I have to admit that I've lost track of some of the circumstances, here, as DesWeller pointed out..! It seems to me that there are two likely scenarios:

1) Bike path, shared or dedicated, away from road.

In this case I think we need to be aware that bikes are effectively there on sufference. Riding fast is almost never appropriate (see 30Km/h comment above) and we need to accomodate dozy pedestrians, dogs, ducks squirrels and any other creature that is naturally at home there. Even the most considerate and polite cyclist will sometimes be considered or assumed to be behaving badly and confrontation will not help.

I've found a traditional bell to be useful- when pedestrians do hear it they associate it with a bicycle and know what to expect. An airhorn can confuse & alarm.
In my experience most people respond a lot more positively (and quickly) to a ring and a smile than they do to a shout or a honk...

2) Bike lane on road

Using these carries the risk that you won't be noticed or will be assumed to be riding slowly. If you're travelling at speed it can be better (as noted above) to integrate with the other traffic. If you're filtering faster than other traffic, you need to be aware of the potential risks- just as you would if you were overtaking instead of undertaking, though the risks themselves are different.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
W.


PS I don't think your tone is helping to make your case.

Clever Pun

PBo wrote:

Fireblade96 wrote:

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

I'd advocate making "careless walking" and "dangerous pedestrianism" criminal offences, but the pigs aren't interested in cars/vans/lorries/buses knocking cyclists over so there's not much hope of it getting enforced.

I got stopped by the police once for "walking in a suspicious manner" !

Is your name "winston codogo"?

(Bet I'm the only one old enough to rmember NTNON?)

That's what I thought too
Wearing a loud shirt in a built up area were you?

Clever Pun

jeremyrundle wrote:

You obviousl;y don't live in the country, if I rode a yard from parked card I would be in a field, hello.

not really a road then is it?... you should be edging past parked cars like that if they were to open a door it would be like applying the brakes

sound like your talking about someones drive or just trying to backpedal

Gazzaputt

_Brun_ wrote:

Kurako wrote:

Gazzaputt wrote:

I've hit several.

When I rode into the City that was the worst. People walk across the roads there without looking at all. Knocked a woman flying last year in Moorgate. Just decided to walk straight out into the cycle lane. Hit her at about 25mph.

Think I must have hit about 3 or 4 in King William Walk.

Luckily I only ever came off once.

What? :shock:

Do you think there's anything you could do differently to avoid hitting your 5th (or is that 6th)?

We can only hope the next one knocks some sense into him.

25mph in a cycle lane, presumably about 2 feet from the kerb and obviously no time to react to potential hazards? I'm amazed you have so little concern for your own safety, let alone anyone else's.

Last time I looked smart arse there wasn't a speed limit in a cycle lane.

Clear road around me at the time she just turned of the pavement straight into the cycle lane without looking. Sorry but you can't predict every numptey you come across.

Oh and double standards here isn't there? Look at the SCR posting. I've seen plenty on Embankment bombing along the cycle lane well over 20mph in traffic.

notsoblue

Unfortunately as a rider in London, you're almost invisible to most other road users. Frequently in blind spots for cars and larger vehicles, coming from directions that they don't always expect you to come from. Pedestrians often don't hear or see you approaching and will misjudge your speed. They'll step out into the road without looking properly if they can't hear engine noise. A lot of this is just carelessness.

One could get angry about this, and be constantly on edge, cursing other road users... Or you could just accept that it happens and adjust your riding accordingly.

I've had one serious collision with a pedestrian, and a couple minor ones. None of them were as a result of doing anything other than riding on the road, though at a relatively fast pace. No traffic laws were broken. But still legal action was taken in the more serious incident and I came off worse. The fact is that pedestrians will always be given the benefit of the doubt if the police get involved. If you cycle over 15mph through the city, you're seen by the police as a danger to yourself and others.

I'm very cautious around pedestrians, and ride down Oxford Street and other busy areas as if it were full of skittish cattle.

t0pc4t

WGWarburton wrote:

I've found a traditional bell to be useful- when pedestrians do hear it they associate it with a bicycle and know what to expect. An airhorn can confuse & alarm.
In my experience most people respond a lot more positively (and quickly) to a ring and a smile than they do to a shout or a honk...

This is my experience as well

rhext

Clever Pun wrote:

PBo wrote:

Fireblade96 wrote:

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

I'd advocate making "careless walking" and "dangerous pedestrianism" criminal offences, but the pigs aren't interested in cars/vans/lorries/buses knocking cyclists over so there's not much hope of it getting enforced.

I got stopped by the police once for "walking in a suspicious manner" !

Is your name "winston codogo"?

(Bet I'm the only one old enough to rmember NTNON?)

That's what I thought too
Wearing a loud shirt in a built up area were you?

Or perhaps "possession of an offensive wife"?

wgwarburton

Gazzaputt wrote:

...Last time I looked smart ars* there wasn't a speed limit in a cycle lane.

Clear road around me at the time she just turned of the pavement straight into the cycle lane without looking.

If the road was clear, and you were riding at 25mph, perhaps the cycle lane wasn't the safest place to ride?

Sorry but you can't predict every numptey you come across.

No, you can't, but it does sound like you could reduce your exposure to this risk by adapting your cycling.

Oh and double standards here isn't there? Look at the SCR posting. I've seen plenty on Embankment bombing along the cycle lane well over 20mph in traffic.

Perhaps there's a difference between people's perception of the traffic on the Embankment and wherever you were riding? From what I recall the embankment carries quite heavy traffic, moving at a fair pace between lights, when allowed to do so, and with a large number of cyclists. It's perhaps less likely that someone would step out from the pavement there than onto a road that was clear but for a cyclist, riding in a bike lane?

We're probably jumping to conclusions from the way you've worded your post. It could well be that there was nowt you could do to avoid the incident, but your attitude and the wording of your posts suggests that you might be safer if you took a different tack.

Cheers,
W.

_Brun_

Gazzaputt wrote:

_Brun_ wrote:

Kurako wrote:

Gazzaputt wrote:

I've hit several.

When I rode into the City that was the worst. People walk across the roads there without looking at all. Knocked a woman flying last year in Moorgate. Just decided to walk straight out into the cycle lane. Hit her at about 25mph.

Think I must have hit about 3 or 4 in King William Walk.

Luckily I only ever came off once.

What? :shock:

Do you think there's anything you could do differently to avoid hitting your 5th (or is that 6th)?

We can only hope the next one knocks some sense into him.

25mph in a cycle lane, presumably about 2 feet from the kerb and obviously no time to react to potential hazards? I'm amazed you have so little concern for your own safety, let alone anyone else's.

Last time I looked smart ars* there wasn't a speed limit in a cycle lane.

Clear road around me at the time she just turned of the pavement straight into the cycle lane without looking. Sorry but you can't predict every numptey you come across.

Oh and double standards here isn't there? Look at the SCR posting. I've seen plenty on Embankment bombing along the cycle lane well over 20mph in traffic.

There's no speed limit for bicycles, full stop. Does this mean it's safe to ride around as fast as humanly possible absolutely all the time? Of course it doesn't. Where exactly was this woman walking when you approached her at 25mph? Presumably within a foot or two of the kerb, as were you. Doesn't leave much room for contingency if she doesn't something a bit daft does it?

I'll accept that some accidents are inevitable, but there does seem to be a discrepancy between people on here that manage to get around relatively incident free and others who appear to be some sort of disaster magnet.

Radioactiveman

If you were driving your car in a 30 limit you wouldnt slow down to 10 miles per hour everytime a ped was walking along the pavement so why do you expect cyclists to do the same? ( basing this on a road not a cyclepath)

Seems that the pootlers seem to think going fast is some sort of crime. My commute is 12 miles and I like to get there as fast as possible. And they need to realise that there are pavement s outside of london which some seem to be basing all there judgements on.

Clever Pun

Radioactiveman wrote:

If you were driving your car in a 30 limit you wouldnt slow down to 10 miles per hour everytime a ped was walking along the pavement so why do you expect cyclists to do the same? ( basing this on a road not a cyclepath)

Seems that the pootlers seem to think going fast is some sort of crime. My commute is 12 miles and I like to get there as fast as possible. And they need to realise that there are pavement s outside of london which some seem to be basing all there judgements on.

Brakes on a car are much more effective and as a rule peds are much more wary of a car whereas they'll have little respect for a bike or SMIDSY

I rag myself daily on the bike but there are places you just can't go fast.. either change your route or deal with it

For example I'll avoid the cable street cycle paths as there's peds everywhere whereas the A13 is much busier and peds only tend to get in the way where they're supposed to.

_Brun_

I got called a pootler!

This topic reaches new levels of absurdity.

kurako

Radioactiveman wrote:

If you were driving your car in a 30 limit you wouldnt slow down to 10 miles per hour everytime a ped was walking along the pavement so why do you expect cyclists to do the same? ( basing this on a road not a cyclepath)

Failure to anticipate potential dangers such as peds suddenly ending up in front of your car can result in a driving test failure. It happened to me when I failed to slow down while passing an old bloke (drunk, infirm, who knows) who was staggering round near the edge of the pavement. I was well p'd off at the time.

jeremyrundle

PS I don't think your tone is helping to make your case.[/quote]

Can someone please explain SIMPLY how I place a picture here.

notsoblue

jeremyrundle wrote:

some guy wrote:

PS I don't think your tone is helping to make your case.

Can someone please explain SIMPLY how I place a picture here.

[img]Insert image URL here[/img]

greg66_tri_v2.0

jeremyrundle wrote:

PS I don't think your tone is helping to make your case.

Can someone please explain SIMPLY how I place a picture here.[/quote]

Click on the Img button above the message box (top right)

Paste the url of the picture into the message.

Click on the Img button again.

If in doubt, find a post with an image in it, go to Quote it, and study the text.

warthog562

I have been riding about london for a couple of years now and seen some riders who ride slow and are a danger to themselves and all those around them ( rlj, poor positioning and generally not looking), and have seen riders who are very quick yet obey all rules and don't seem to have any problems.

they are also the other way round, commonsense and a bit of experiance seem to be the best cure.

I am sure in my case since I started riding in london i am sure i am safer and probably faster because I read trafic better and spot the signs of danger (me or someone else). some occasions such as riding past a pedestrian crowded set of lights require you to slow down and a yell out of coming through doesn't hurt either. also I have found situations like riding past a bus require you to expect a moron passenger to step out from front of it ( been caught to many times rsulting in one collision with the blokes shopping bag but more through luck than skill missed him)

the other major incedent I had was along tower bridge (northbound) and some twit with a young girl in toe stepped out on the road right in front of me, all i could do was hit the brakes and dump the bike on to the pavement myself included. missed the girl and didn't even get so much as a thankyou from the moronic father as I grazed myself up to miss his daughter.

P.S I was only doing about 13 mph a few seconds back when I looked at my computer.

jeremyrundle

jeremyrundle

ps. I don't think your tone is helping to make your case.[/quote]

In reply to WGWarburton.

http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad12 ... 1284737879

Sorry but I am having trouble uploading a pic.

How DARE you say I have a "tone".

The above is my DISABLED son who was knocked off his bike by a moron woman with a dog on a 30' lead, she didn't evan stay to see if he w3as ok. Never found her.

50 yards earlier he would have gone down 10' onto rocks instead of a pedestrian/cycle path.

Yes I have a "tone" WGWarburton, and I hope you never receive a similar call about a family member.

Pedestriand have responsibilities TOO.

jeremyrundle

Oh and I forgot, no doubt in your pedestriand defence you will say a youngster with learning difficulties travelling at 8-10 mph should not be allowed to ride a bike. Perhaps pedestriand should THINK BIKE.

hmbadger

I don;t think anyone is saying that.

But, going right back to your 1st post, I do think your tone is a bit off.

e.g. "Yesterday in the park whilst cycling along the foot/cycle path a teenage idiot father watched at his five year old walked right in front of me, I said he should teach responsibility and act with it, well you can guess what I got, is it me"

I'd expect telling the parent to teach responsibility is likely to get a similar response to banging on the side of a white van when you think they've driven less then perfectly.

_Brun_

Jeremy, is it beyond the realms of possibility that your son might at some point inadvertently step into the path of a cyclist? If that were the case would you prefer that:

a) Through riding appropriately they saw him in plenty of time, and either avoided him or had time to stop.

b) Gave him a massive blast from an airzound, froze him to the spot, and ploughed straight into him.

jeremyrundle

hmbadger wrote:

e.g. "Yesterday in the park whilst cycling along the foot/cycle path a teenage idiot father watched at his five year old walked right in front of me, I said he should teach responsibility and act with it, well you can guess what I got, is it me"

I have brought up three sons all disabled as a single father, always aware of what was going on around me, and no I never allowed any to run in front of a cyclist, in fact all of my sons had wrist straps until they were old enough to walk alone safely.

And no, none of my sons ever walked in front of a cyclist, and to this day are fully aware of joggers, cyclists, and others around them. Upbringing I suppose, or just common sense.

wgwarburton

Hi,

jeremyrundle wrote:

I have brought up three sons all disabled as a single father, always aware of what was going on around me, and no I never allowed any to run in front of a cyclist, in fact all of my sons had wrist straps until they were old enough to walk alone safely....

You are justly proud of this achievement. I don't think it's reasonable to expect everyone to meet your standards, however.

How DARE you say I have a "tone".

I've been trying quite hard to be reasonable and measured in my responses to your posts but I'm clearly causing offence.
My apologies, I'll back off.

Cheers,
W.

lost_in_thought

jeremyrundle wrote:

buns wrote:

ps. I don't think your tone is helping to make your case.

In reply to WGWarburton.


Sorry but I am having trouble uploading a pic.

How DARE you say I have a "tone".

The above is my DISABLED son who was knocked off his bike by a moron woman with a dog on a 30' lead, she didn't evan stay to see if he w3as ok. Never found her.

50 yards earlier he would have gone down 10' onto rocks instead of a pedestrian/cycle path.

Yes I have a "tone" WGWarburton, and I hope you never receive a similar call about a family member.

Pedestriand have responsibilities TOO.

FTFY.

And you definitely have a 'tone'. No doubt about that.